Today’s Thoughts: As we have often heard, “You cannot judge a book by its cover!” We might say that this saying reflects what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel (Luke 11: 37-41) today. Jesus speaks about the outside of the Pharisees verses the inside. What they appear to be, what people see verses what they really do and think.
Jesus is speaking to the challenge of finding balance in life. Our life is not just about appearance it is about what we believe and how we live that belief each day. Living a life of faith begins in our hearts and our actions need to reflect what is in our hearts. The Pharisees were not bad people however at times they let their power, their position, their influence and their authority get the best of them. They forgot who and what was at the center of their life. They forgot the purpose and meaning of their life. They put themselves first. They got out of balance. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to us. Being in balance is important. We need to always remember that everything, outside and inside comes from God. As Pope Emeritus Benedict put it, “Every form of gift is, in a word, a sign of the presence of God, because it leads to the fundamental discovery that, at the origin, everything is given.” Have a blessed and holy Tuesday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: Sometime the signs God gives us come from people and experiences we least expect. This little sentence might best sum up the Gospel (Luke 11: 29-32) today. Often, we are looking for the great or the grand or the unusual when it comes to God. We want unbelievable miracles. Yet all around us God is speaking and often God can be found in unexpected places and heard through unexpected people.
Jonah himself did not think the people of Nineveh would get it but they did. The queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Africa did not believe in Solomon’s God, but she came and could see and hear God’s wisdom in Solomon. It often has been said that God works in mysterious ways and throughout scripture we are reminded of God’s mysterious ways! The challenge for us is to not box God in, to not predict God’s intentions. We need to listen, to look around us and be ready to see, hear and experiences the presence of God in our lives. We cannot write-off people or experience because we never know when we will find God through them. The signs of Jonah and the queen of the south are all around us. We need to be ready, willing and open to see and hear them! Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” (Meister Eckhart) This saying by the great Dominican mystic seems to sum up our readings today. In the first reading from the Second Book of Kings and our Gospel from Luke reveal to us two story of thankfulness and gratitude.
Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, is thankful to the God of Israel for his healing and the Samaritan leper is thankful to Jesus. They both recognize the gift that they have been given and return to express their thankfulness and gratitude. Thankfulness, gratitude is an essential part of discipleship, an essential part of our friendship with God. Like Naaman and the Samaritan leper we are challenged to recognize that all that we have is a gift and we are entitled to none of it. Our life itself is a gift, a blessing and to be true disciples, to be true friends of God our stance in life needs to be one of thankfulness and gratitude. Perhaps we have an opportunity today to pause in the midst of our Sunday and just look around at life, our life and recognize God’s presence, and God’s gifts and like Naaman and the Samaritan say “Thanks!” Sunday blessings and peace to all today, and don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: Today we have a very brief, two-line Gospel. One in which we hear a woman call to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” But Jesus’ responds, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
I think in our Gospel today Jesus is suggesting that we change our focus. That we look at life through a different lens. He is not discounting his own mother and their close relationship, for Jesus family is more than biology, more than DNA, family is hearing the Word of God and living it. Jesus is telling us that our own relationship with God can be blessed if we use God’s word as a lens through which we look at and then live life. In today’s Gospel we are invited to be family with others beyond our immediate family relationships. We are to include others because we have been included by Jesus. As we have encounters over the last six plus years with Pope Francis, he is a person who has heard the word of God and who lives it. He finds Jesus in the faces and lives of the poor and struggling in our world. And by his words and actions Pope Francis asks us to open our hearts to the hungry, the poor and the marginalized. He asks us to open our hearts to those struggling in the world because they are family. We are called be the Word of God to reach out to others who are in need as a way to really be united to Jesus and his mission. What does Jesus want from us? Jesus wants a family. Jesus wants a friendship. Jesus isn’t looking for us to read more about him or discuss the theology of his ministry. Jesus longs for a close and personal friendship with us as we speak to him about our lives and lean on him for support in times of need. Blessed by his love, we hear the call to keep his word by loving as he has loved us, by being family to all. Jesus invites us today to reach out to those who need us. Pope Francis calls us repeatedly to be a society, a church, a family of inclusion, dialog and service for all. Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always struggled with this passage in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11:15-26). If Jesus is taking the time to case out demons, why are people upset? Why are they casting a negative light on Jesus and his ministry? You would think that they would be pleased. You would think that they would be open to all the help they can get!
Perhaps the reason for their negativity is that they have become accustom, even comfortable with these demons. How does the old saying go, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know!” Sometimes we become comfortable with the devils that make a home in us. We look at them and begin to rationalize our encounters with the devils of our life. “They are just small problems, personal things, they really don’t hurt anyone. – Everybody does it. Everybody is doing it.” Looking at it another way we might say that Beelzebul is the strong man who guards his palace. His possessions are hatred, anger, prejudice, greed, and injustice. Through them he tries to control the world. By ourselves, we are helpless against his power. But this parable is one of hope. It proclaims the gospel message. There is one stronger than Beelzebul who can overpower him and cast him out of our lives if we let him. Christ is our strength, who by his resurrection has defeated the power of evil. We are called to live each day in the faith that Christ can help us overcome our demons. If we do our heart becomes a place where no demons dwell only Christ. O Lord create in us a clean heart and a faithful spirit! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel (Luke 11:5-13) encourages us to be persistent, to persevere, to pray, to stay connect with God because God is so eager to help us. As Jesus says if a reluctant friend can be persuaded to help, how much more will God be willing to help!
As Kathleen Norris puts it, “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.” Or as St. Teresa of Calcutta puts it, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” Today we are asked to put ourselves in God’s hands and let God change us in ways that we cannot imagine. This does not mean that God will always give us whatever we ask but it does mean that God always hears our prayer! Have a blessed and holy Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today provide us with much food for thought. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, we encounter the early struggles of the Church. Paul confronts Peter because he says one thing and does another. the early Church leadership acknowledges Paul’s vocation as Apostle to the Gentiles but when it comes time to be among that community the leadership, especially Peter, fears what other might think.
Sometimes in our lives we come to an understanding of God’s Word, we embrace the challenges of the Gospel but then we give in to others. We fear disapproval of our actions, the living out of our faith. You might say we give into peer pressure often in our life. St. Paul give us an example today of sticking with what we value especially when we have discerned that this is what God really wants of us. Living by faith is not easy and it will often leave us open to criticism and ridicule, but like St. Paul we must trust that God is walking with us on this journey. How do we come to this trust? Our Gospel today reminds us that it is through prayer. Simple prayer not complex prayer. Jesus did not create a profound, theologically complex prayer. His teaching of prayer to his disciples was a simple six-line prayer. Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test. (Luke 11:2-4) Nothing fancy, complex, or formal just a simple conversation, a simple asking for God’s presence in our life. A praise of God, a desire for God’s Kingdom, a need for God’s daily presence and bread, a forgiveness for our sins, because we are willing to forgive too, and a desire to not face the final test. In a way I like Luke’s version of the Our Father a little better than Matthew’s. It is simpler and more to the point of what I want to say to God each day. Often, we load up our days, our life, with all kinds of prayer yet whether it is Luke’s version or Matthew’s version all Jesus asks is one simple prayer to Our Father! Have a blessed and holy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Here we are once again beating up poor Martha. Is really what today Gospel is about? (Luke 10: 38-42) Is Martha really doing the wrong thing? I think not! In essence the Gospel today reminds us that we all have Martha and Mary within us. The challenge is to utilize each gift when necessary for our journey of faith!
I have often felt that Martha has gotten a bad rap because of the way we have looked at this Gospel over the centuries. We seem to think that a person who is hardworking, hospitable and concerned about her guest is somehow less faithful, less holy than a person of formal prayer and that is just not true. Martha is a good and faithful person, her mistake in the Gospel today is that she focuses on someone else; she is concerned about what someone else is doing rather than focusing on what she is doing. If Martha had just done her work with joy, enthusiasm and unselfishness this story in Luke’s Gospel would have never taken place. Let us for a moment reverse the roles. Suppose Mary had come to Jesus to complain about Martha. “You know Jesus she is always working, always running around being hospitable. She should stop when you come into the house and sit and listen to you!” What would Jesus have said? My guess is that he says, “Mary, Mary, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Martha has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” You see each woman in the story chooses her journey. Choose what she does best and that becomes her better part. Martha is a worker, she does it well. Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, she listens, and she does it well. There will always be tension between action and contemplation, between ministry and prayer, between work and quiet time. But the challenge is to pick what is best for us at that moment. What is our better part at each moment or stage of our life? What will help us to recognize God? Martha and Mary remind us that there are many gifts and that each gift is important. We just need to recognize what is important for us and not be worried about what is important for others! Have a blessed and holy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Who is our Neighbor? “The Samaritan lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.” (Luke 10: 34) The scholar in our Gospel story today thought he was being clever. He asked questions to enhance his self-regard. Jesus told the Good Samaritan story so that the scholar could recognize the right answer himself. No country or religion or border defines our neighbor. When we look up from our daily struggle or busyness and take the time to stop, look and listen, the lives of others come into focus and compassion stirs. When we hurry to the other side of the road, indifference wins.
The Jesuit teacher and author John Kavanaugh, S.J., wrote in his book, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, that we all inhabit a gospel that reveals who we are. In our society of capitalism, the reigning gospel measures worth by what we produce, consume, and possess. People without money, jobs, health, home, education, or status do not count for much. St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians today, warns us that a false gospel is a curse. To measure life solely this way can smother us in emptiness. The Good Samaritan was an outsider. He was familiar with insults: people moving away to avoid contact. No surprise that a person at home on the margins would notice a stranger sprawled in a ditch. Privilege, wealth, power, importance, anger, and fear had not compromised his vision. He was willing to stop, to look, and to listen. He was willing to act. Transformation often begins when we allow others into our life, when we are willing to allow the world around us to touch our life in real was. No wonder that the poor often open their doors to those in trouble, they are not afraid to let the world in. Up close, suffering and injustice become real. As our moral vision grows, the situation of those at a distance become visible. When children fleeing violence show up at our border, we must find ways to help. God says: you will find me in the poor. That road will lead us home. Perhaps a question we might ask ourselves today is, “If Jesus told this parable today, instead of the Samaritan, whom do you think he might describe as acting mercifully? Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Perhaps the most important line in all of our readings today comes from St. Paul Second Letter to Timothy. As the reading begins Paul tells Timothy, “stir into flame the gift of God that you have…” (2Tim. 1:6) This is the key to living a life of faith.
The Prophet Habakkuk expresses a frustration with God today in our first reading. Things are not going well for Israel and Habakkuk wants to know where God is. Haven’t we all been there? We find ourselves struggling in life. We encounter sadness, plain, difficulty, problems, issues, bad things happening to good people, to us and we wonder were God is. You might say Habakkuk is speaking out loud what we all think. In the Gospel Jesus reminds the disciples once again that discipleship is difficult, that faith is difficult. This is not an easy journey that we are on. At times it can seem like a thankless journey. So, we go back to Paul’s words, “stir into flame God’s gift.” This will keep us going. This will get us through the difficult times. This will help us to know that God is always with us even when it seems like he is not! Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone! |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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