Today’s Thoughts: Our Gospel today retells a familiar parable told by Jesus of the wedding guest who makes his way up to a seat of honor and then must go through the embarrassment of finding a lower seat because there is someone more important than he at the party. The obvious message is that a little humility is a good thing. It is far better to underestimate one's station in life and be called forward as opposed to being displaced and must take a lower place.
Perhaps a more important aspect of the story is what it says about Jesus as a person. A a modern analogy to this dinner might be one of us being invited to a private dinner with someone of power and stature — let's say the mayor of a city or the cardinal archbishop of the dioceses. If I were invited to such a dinner and saw various people clamoring for the mayor's or the cardinal’s attention, that I might remark on it to a friend later, but I doubt that I would call them on it at the dinner. But that's exactly what Jesus did. He called out those rushing for the places of honor. Why? I think the answer is that Jesus' message was, and still is, radical. We still possess an instinct that importance in this world automatically equals a special place with God. To be sure, many well-known and powerful people have done a great deal of good and have surely earned a special place with God. But Jesus was saying then, and says to us now, that there are many ragged people — of Jesus' time the beggars and the prostitutes — who have earned a special place with God as well. If we cast them aside, either literally or figuratively, we miss Jesus' message. Have a great Saturday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: As I ponder today’s Gospel (Luke 14: 1-6) I cannot help but think about all the articles, comments, reflections and commentaries that I have heard and read over the last four years concerning the Synod of the Family and Pope Francis’ “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love” even recent ones. Many of the comments concerned the doctrine and laws of the Church and people’s concerns as to whether things would change or not. There are fights over words and translations. There are comments, articles and reflections from the proverbial right and left, conservative and liberal, traditionalists and progressives. There is talk about remaining true to dogma, doctrine and law. There is talk about mercy, forgiveness and compassion.
If we listen to the Gospel today Jesus is confronted in his day with perhaps the same issues that Pope Francis is confronted with today. The religious leadership of Jesus’ time is concerned about the law. You do not eat with tax collectors and sinners and you do not heal on the Sabbath! Jesus meanwhile is concerned about the person in front of him, a man struggling and while the law says, “no healing today,” Jesus responds with mercy and compassion. I don’t know what will happen with “Amoris Laetitia.” I don’t know what will happen with the rest of Pope Francis’ journey as pope but what I take way from today’s Gospel is the hope that God will bless Pope Francis with the strength and courage to always see the person, the people, in need and respond to them out of mercy, compassion, forgiveness and love and help and teach us to do the same. Yes, I know that laws, doctrines and dogmas are important but if I read the Gospel right today, when needed mercy, compassion, forgiveness and love always trumps law, doctrine and dogma! (Sorry for using the word trumps!) Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 3:1-9) especially this particular line, “But they are at peace.” This reading is often used at funerals, moments when people are remembering a loved one, a friend, someone who has been important in their life, who has passed on. In the midst of grief, it can often be helpful to think of the person finally being at peace even if because of their passing we are not.
The Feast of All Souls is a day of remembrance. It gives us an opportunity to pause and remember the important people in our lives who have passed on. People who have left us physically, people whom we now hope are at peace now with God. It is a day when we remember them in a formal way at Eucharist and informally through stories and moments of prayer thankful for their presence in our lives. I have always felt that the Feast of All Souls is really just the second half of the Feast of All Saints. Yesterday we celebrated the people formally named saints by the Church because of their faith filled lives, people who during their lives stepped out of the ordinary into the extraordinary and became examples, inspirations and role models within the Universal Church. Today we remember, we celebrate, all those ordinary people who perhaps did not step into the extraordinary except in our lives, people who gave us life, who taught us, nurtured us, protected us, and guided us. We remember, we celebrate, today people who were with us from the beginning or who stepped into our lives for a brief moment that made a difference. These are people who are not honored by the Church as saints in a formal way but whom we perhaps honor in our own special way, as saints with a little “s” because we are thankful for their presence, inspiration and love. We remember and we pray today for all who journeyed through this life with the sure and certain hope that God has found them worthy because he is the Good Shepherd with an overflowing cup that has brought them to peace! Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have a few disjoined thoughts for you today…
“To become saints, only one thing is necessary: to accept the grace which the Father gives us in Jesus Christ.” (Pope Francis) Today, we remember, we honor, and we say thank you to all the women and men whom the Church calls saints, but also whom we call saints. People who have touched our lives down through the centuries. People who shared their faith and perhaps more importantly lived their faith so that we might encounter the presence of God, so that we might grow into the people God created us to be, so that we might believe. They were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, friends, teachers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, strangers, companions on the journey, ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives of faith. Pope Francis talks about the saints in our lives this way; “I see the holiness in the patience of the people of God: a woman who is raising children, a man who works to bring home the bread, the sick, the elderly priests who have so many wounds but have a smile on their faces because they served the Lord, the sisters who work hard and live a hidden sanctity. This is for me the common sanctity. I often associate sanctity with patience: not only patience as hypomoné [See note], taking charge of the events and circumstances of life, but also as a constancy in going forward, day by day. This is the sanctity of the militant church also mentioned by St. Ignatius. This was the sanctity of my parents: my dad, my mom, my grandmother Rosa who loved me so much. In my breviary I have the last will of my grandmother Rosa, and I read it often. For me it is like a prayer. She is a saint who has suffered so much, also spiritually, and yet always went forward with courage.” Note: (Hypomoné is a New Testament Greek word meaning – the capacity to endure under difficult circumstances; bearing everyday tasks, contradictions, tribulations.) Pope Francis also says that – “We need saints without cassocks, without veils - we need saints with jeans and tennis shoes. We need saints that go to the movies that listen to music that hang out with their friends.... We need saints that drink Coca-Cola, that eat hot dogs, that surf the internet and that listen to their iPods. We need saints that love the Eucharist, that are not afraid or embarrassed to eat a pizza or drink a beer with their friends. We need saints who love the movies, dance, sports, and theatre. We need saints that are open, sociable, normal, happy companions. We need saints who are in this world and who know how to enjoy the best in this world without being callous or mundane. We need saints.” One last thought from Pope Francis on this All Saints Day. Today’s Gospel is the passage of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. During his homily at an All Saints Mass in Sweden Pope Francis proposed six new beatitudes for the modern era: "Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others, and forgive them from their heart; "Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized, and show them their closeness; "Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others also discover him; "Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home; "Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others; "Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians." So, to all those who lived these beatitudes and touched us with sanctity and helped us to be the people we are today…we say thank you! Have a great Wednesday everyone! Remember today is a Holy Day so find a little time for God. |
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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