Jeremiah 18:18-20
Psalm 31:5-6, 14-16
Matthew 20:17-28
Jesus always knew what was going on. He was not caught up in events beyond his control. Even before he went to Jerusalem, he not only prophesied his death and resurrection, but even described how it would all take place. When we hear the story of his passion in a few weeks, we must keep today’s Gospel in mind. Jesus did what he did on purpose. Nothing could have been done to him if he had not allowed it to happen. There is nothing he suffered that he did not choose to suffer. This does not take away the guilt of those who betrayed him and condemned him and scourged him and mocked him and crucified him; they also chose to do what they were doing. Jesus, however, must be seen throughout all this as one who came “to give his life”, not someone who had it taken from him.
What does it mean for Jesus “to give his life as a ransom for many”? A ransom is the price paid to a captor for the freedom of the captives. Who is our captor? Satan. Sin. Death. We sold ourselves into captivity for a fruit. We were meant to be free. We were supposed to be kings and queens of this earth. Instead, we have spent the majority of human history in captivity. Satan demanded the life of an innocent man for ransom, and Jesus paid it with his own life. Only he could pay it, because he was the only innocent man. His life could not be taken from him, but he could lay it down. What Satan did not know was that, having laid it down, he could take it up again.
The ransom has been paid, so Satan is forced to release us, if we will be free. Jesus unlocked the door of the dungeon that is sin, but we have to choose to walk out. This should not be difficult, the choice to leave sin behind, but we are enamored with the little comforts that we have found in this filthy prison cell. We must somehow work up the courage to leave! How foolish we look, choosing to stay in the dark, dirty prison, rather than go out into the light. We hear voices, whispering, enticing us to stay. We are frightened of what “going out” means. So we stay, in sin, ransomed prisoners who will not leave their prison.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Christology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christology. Show all posts
June 27, 2014 - Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Deuteronomy 7.6-11
Psalm 103.1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10 Resp. 17
1 John 4.7-16
Matthew 11.25-30
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
Psalm 103.1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10 Resp. 17
1 John 4.7-16
Matthew 11.25-30
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
February 27, 2013 - Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Jeremiah 18:18-20
Psalm 31:5-6, 14-16
Matthew 20:17-28
Jesus always knew what was going on. He was not caught up in events beyond his control. Even before he went to Jerusalem, he not only prophesied his death and resurrection, but even described how it would all take place. When we hear the story of his passion in a few weeks, we must keep today’s Gospel in mind. Jesus did what he did on purpose. Nothing could have been done to him if he had not allowed it to happen. There is nothing he suffered that he did not choose to suffer. This does not take away the guilt of those who betrayed him and condemned him and scourged him and mocked him and crucified him; they also chose to do what they were doing. Jesus, however, must be seen throughout all this as one who came “to give his life”, not someone who had it taken from him.
What does it mean for Jesus “to give his life as a ransom for many”? A ransom is the price paid to a captor for the freedom of the captives. Who is our captor? Satan. Sin. Death. We sold ourselves into captivity for a fruit. We were meant to be free. We were supposed to be kings and queens of this earth. Instead, we have spent the majority of human history in captivity. Satan demanded the life of an innocent man for ransom, and Jesus paid it with his own life. Only he could pay it, because he was the only innocent man. His life could not be taken from him, but he could lay it down. What Satan did not know was that, having laid it down, he could take it up again.
The ransom has been paid, so Satan is forced to release us, if we will be free. Jesus unlocked the door of the dungeon that is sin, but we have to choose to walk out. This should not be difficult, the choice to leave sin behind, but we are enamored with the little comforts that we have found in this filthy prison cell. We must somehow work up the courage to leave! How foolish we look, choosing to stay in the dark, dirty prison, rather than go out into the light. We hear voices, whispering, enticing us to stay. We are frightened of what “going out” means. So we stay, in sin, ransomed prisoners who will not leave.
Psalm 31:5-6, 14-16
Matthew 20:17-28
Jesus always knew what was going on. He was not caught up in events beyond his control. Even before he went to Jerusalem, he not only prophesied his death and resurrection, but even described how it would all take place. When we hear the story of his passion in a few weeks, we must keep today’s Gospel in mind. Jesus did what he did on purpose. Nothing could have been done to him if he had not allowed it to happen. There is nothing he suffered that he did not choose to suffer. This does not take away the guilt of those who betrayed him and condemned him and scourged him and mocked him and crucified him; they also chose to do what they were doing. Jesus, however, must be seen throughout all this as one who came “to give his life”, not someone who had it taken from him.
What does it mean for Jesus “to give his life as a ransom for many”? A ransom is the price paid to a captor for the freedom of the captives. Who is our captor? Satan. Sin. Death. We sold ourselves into captivity for a fruit. We were meant to be free. We were supposed to be kings and queens of this earth. Instead, we have spent the majority of human history in captivity. Satan demanded the life of an innocent man for ransom, and Jesus paid it with his own life. Only he could pay it, because he was the only innocent man. His life could not be taken from him, but he could lay it down. What Satan did not know was that, having laid it down, he could take it up again.
The ransom has been paid, so Satan is forced to release us, if we will be free. Jesus unlocked the door of the dungeon that is sin, but we have to choose to walk out. This should not be difficult, the choice to leave sin behind, but we are enamored with the little comforts that we have found in this filthy prison cell. We must somehow work up the courage to leave! How foolish we look, choosing to stay in the dark, dirty prison, rather than go out into the light. We hear voices, whispering, enticing us to stay. We are frightened of what “going out” means. So we stay, in sin, ransomed prisoners who will not leave.
January 28, 2013 - Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 9:15, 24-28
Psalm 98:1-6
Mark 3:22-30
When Jesus and the Pharisees have their conversations, it is amazing, almost fun, to see how Jesus can give an answer that silences them. They are the know-it-alls who get taken down at their own game. Sometimes though, as in today’s Gospel, it is necessary to better understand Jesus’ answer in order to truly appreciate his wisdom.
At first it seems like Jesus does not understand their accusation. The Pharisees claim that Satan is being sneaky the way that Satan is sneaky. We can imagine a false prophet who can cast out demons with an evil power. It would convince people to follow him, like a cunning general who retreats in one place so as to lead his enemy into a trap. Jesus is not contradicting this possibility.
We must be aware that not everyone who heals people or tells the future or even seems to cast out demons is from God. Until the end of this world, when Satan’s power is destroyed, there will always be two sources of supernatural power in this world. To the extent that any supernatural power in this world is real, we must judge the source, whether it is from God or the evil one.
Jesus, however, was no magician. He did not go around working a few tricks for money or out of pride. How many miracles are written down for us! And still St. John tells us there could never be enough books in all the world to record everything that Jesus did. To accuse Jesus of using a few magic tricks to win power in the end for Satan is ridiculous. If the Pharisees did not know that their accusation was ludicrous, then they are guilty of greatly underestimating the work of Jesus. The Bible does not give us an exact number of people whom Jesus healed during the three years before the Cross, but any number measured in less than tens of thousands would not be faithful to the descriptions we have.
I sometimes wonder, what if I were a Pharisee when Jesus came? Would I have thought about him as the Pharisees did, as we do about cult leaders today? Jesus gives us a convincing defense: he simply did too much. How many prostitutes and tax collectors turned their backs on sin? Too many for Satan to be pleased. How much suffering was removed from the world? Too much for it to have been Satan’s work.
Psalm 98:1-6
Mark 3:22-30
When Jesus and the Pharisees have their conversations, it is amazing, almost fun, to see how Jesus can give an answer that silences them. They are the know-it-alls who get taken down at their own game. Sometimes though, as in today’s Gospel, it is necessary to better understand Jesus’ answer in order to truly appreciate his wisdom.
At first it seems like Jesus does not understand their accusation. The Pharisees claim that Satan is being sneaky the way that Satan is sneaky. We can imagine a false prophet who can cast out demons with an evil power. It would convince people to follow him, like a cunning general who retreats in one place so as to lead his enemy into a trap. Jesus is not contradicting this possibility.
We must be aware that not everyone who heals people or tells the future or even seems to cast out demons is from God. Until the end of this world, when Satan’s power is destroyed, there will always be two sources of supernatural power in this world. To the extent that any supernatural power in this world is real, we must judge the source, whether it is from God or the evil one.
Jesus, however, was no magician. He did not go around working a few tricks for money or out of pride. How many miracles are written down for us! And still St. John tells us there could never be enough books in all the world to record everything that Jesus did. To accuse Jesus of using a few magic tricks to win power in the end for Satan is ridiculous. If the Pharisees did not know that their accusation was ludicrous, then they are guilty of greatly underestimating the work of Jesus. The Bible does not give us an exact number of people whom Jesus healed during the three years before the Cross, but any number measured in less than tens of thousands would not be faithful to the descriptions we have.
I sometimes wonder, what if I were a Pharisee when Jesus came? Would I have thought about him as the Pharisees did, as we do about cult leaders today? Jesus gives us a convincing defense: he simply did too much. How many prostitutes and tax collectors turned their backs on sin? Too many for Satan to be pleased. How much suffering was removed from the world? Too much for it to have been Satan’s work.
January 24, 2013 - Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 7:25 -- 8:6
Psalm 40:7-10, 17
Mark 3:7-12
“Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” In other words, we have a friend in Jesus; we have someone on our side. We have a high priest who is constantly interceding for us before the Father in heaven, and our high priest is the Son of God himself. Sometimes, though, it seems like we are on our own down here. It does not matter whether we have been disappointed because God did not have us win the lottery or because someone died even though we prayed for their life. Either way, we have come to realize that we do not hold a sort of magic power over God. Sometimes we ask something in Jesus’ name, even something good and unselfish, and it is refused.
The reason for the refusal is easier to understand than to accept. Our relationship with God is not that he is a servant to do our will, but that he is our Father. We are like small children who depend on him completely, but he will only give us what is actually good rather than what merely seems good in the moment. A mature faith does not see our Father as a genie in a magic lamp. A mature faith has trust in the Father to provide the very thing we need, when we need it.
The Gospel today provides an example of how people were blinded to their true good by self-concern. Jesus has to teach from a boat off-shore so that the crowds do not crush him. Among these people there are surely many whose stories would touch our hearts, yet Jesus is not a sort of good-luck charm. We know that these people did not understand him. Where were they at the Cross?
Every one of us has a story. We all have disappointed expectations and tragedy in our lives. We could ask why God has not made our life easier, better, richer, or, worse, we could try to explain his will as if we could understand it. But there is something better out there for each of us: faith. We can simply trust that God does love us, that Jesus is eternally interceding for us. This does not make our life easier or more comprehensible. It does, however, free us from all fear. It does give us confidence in the plan of God for the world.
Psalm 40:7-10, 17
Mark 3:7-12
“Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” In other words, we have a friend in Jesus; we have someone on our side. We have a high priest who is constantly interceding for us before the Father in heaven, and our high priest is the Son of God himself. Sometimes, though, it seems like we are on our own down here. It does not matter whether we have been disappointed because God did not have us win the lottery or because someone died even though we prayed for their life. Either way, we have come to realize that we do not hold a sort of magic power over God. Sometimes we ask something in Jesus’ name, even something good and unselfish, and it is refused.
The reason for the refusal is easier to understand than to accept. Our relationship with God is not that he is a servant to do our will, but that he is our Father. We are like small children who depend on him completely, but he will only give us what is actually good rather than what merely seems good in the moment. A mature faith does not see our Father as a genie in a magic lamp. A mature faith has trust in the Father to provide the very thing we need, when we need it.
The Gospel today provides an example of how people were blinded to their true good by self-concern. Jesus has to teach from a boat off-shore so that the crowds do not crush him. Among these people there are surely many whose stories would touch our hearts, yet Jesus is not a sort of good-luck charm. We know that these people did not understand him. Where were they at the Cross?
Every one of us has a story. We all have disappointed expectations and tragedy in our lives. We could ask why God has not made our life easier, better, richer, or, worse, we could try to explain his will as if we could understand it. But there is something better out there for each of us: faith. We can simply trust that God does love us, that Jesus is eternally interceding for us. This does not make our life easier or more comprehensible. It does, however, free us from all fear. It does give us confidence in the plan of God for the world.
January 22, 2013 - Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 6:10-20
Psalm 111:1-2, 4-5, 9-10
Mark 2:23-28
Jesus tells us that the “Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” We are all sons and daughters of humans. In this case the example of David and the Apostles means that religious laws are important, but some can be broken for good reasons. If God had not told us “Thou shall not kill”, murder would still be wrong, but if he had not told us to rest on the Sabbath or which bread was special, there would be no reason not to work on the Sabbath or eat the bread. So, since these laws are not intrinsically necessary, it seems that each person, using their conscience needs to decide when to follow them and when to break them.
There is a problem with this interpretation. There is no reason to suggest that the disciples of Jesus were particularly hungry. Were they just so rural that they had no idea that picking heads of grain on the Sabbath would be frowned upon? This seems unlikely. Did Jesus tell them that it was okay? Did he command them to do it? He is the Son of Man. Has he come to change a law? But he says that he will not change any laws.
The real difference is Jesus. His presence changes how to understand the Law. David and his companions did not follow the letter of the Law because they were starving. The disciples do not follow the Law because the point of the Law was fulfilled in their midst. As Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God did not create us so that someone would be resting once a week. God created the once-a-week rest for us.
Work is a punishment that came after Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. The Sabbath is a little Eden at the end of the week, but Jesus is our Eden. The Pharisees could only remember paradise because the punishment of work was taken away for one day. We can experience paradise in Our Lord. Jesus was not just a teacher with some good ideas. He is God. We are not supposed to hear his teaching as more work for us to do. We are supposed to take up our Cross and follow him, and come rest in his arms. The taking up the Cross and the resting are one and the same.
Psalm 111:1-2, 4-5, 9-10
Mark 2:23-28
Jesus tells us that the “Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” We are all sons and daughters of humans. In this case the example of David and the Apostles means that religious laws are important, but some can be broken for good reasons. If God had not told us “Thou shall not kill”, murder would still be wrong, but if he had not told us to rest on the Sabbath or which bread was special, there would be no reason not to work on the Sabbath or eat the bread. So, since these laws are not intrinsically necessary, it seems that each person, using their conscience needs to decide when to follow them and when to break them.
There is a problem with this interpretation. There is no reason to suggest that the disciples of Jesus were particularly hungry. Were they just so rural that they had no idea that picking heads of grain on the Sabbath would be frowned upon? This seems unlikely. Did Jesus tell them that it was okay? Did he command them to do it? He is the Son of Man. Has he come to change a law? But he says that he will not change any laws.
The real difference is Jesus. His presence changes how to understand the Law. David and his companions did not follow the letter of the Law because they were starving. The disciples do not follow the Law because the point of the Law was fulfilled in their midst. As Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God did not create us so that someone would be resting once a week. God created the once-a-week rest for us.
Work is a punishment that came after Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. The Sabbath is a little Eden at the end of the week, but Jesus is our Eden. The Pharisees could only remember paradise because the punishment of work was taken away for one day. We can experience paradise in Our Lord. Jesus was not just a teacher with some good ideas. He is God. We are not supposed to hear his teaching as more work for us to do. We are supposed to take up our Cross and follow him, and come rest in his arms. The taking up the Cross and the resting are one and the same.
January 16, 2013 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 2:14-18
Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9
Mark 1:29-39
“Since he himself was tested by suffering, he is able to help those who are tested.” This is one of the most powerful lines of the book of Hebrews. Jesus Christ knows what we are going through because he went through it himself. Obviously, he did not suffer in every imaginable way that humans have suffered, but all suffering has a certain resemblance. He may not have had cancer, but anyone with cancer ought to be able to look at the Cross and see something of what they are going through. He was betrayed by one friend, and those who stayed with him did not really stay with him. Only his mother and a few others were there at the end, of all those whom he had helped. As we see in the Gospel today, thousands were healed by him each day. Where were they when he needed help? Of course, it had to be that way. It was always his intention to die for us. If he had chosen, he could have inspired his followers to defend him. Nevertheless, he did die nearly alone, in great suffering. At the end, he even expressed his feeling of being abandoned by God. God himself came down to earth so that in the end God would know what it is to feel abandoned by God.
So we cannot say to him, “You do not know what it is like.” No matter what our experiences or our suffering, this is not a fair accusation. You might say to anyone else, “You do not know what it is like”, but God does know. He knows because he experienced it. Even unto death. And if our suffering is from temptation, he suffered from greater temptations. We might spit at the world in anger, but he knew that he could destroy it by simply choosing to.
Who would have guessed, without knowing beforehand, that the Gospel which starts with Jesus proving that he God by his powerful works would end with his refusing to use that power to prevent his own suffering? The entire purpose of his life was suffering. He showed that he had the power to take away suffering, and then he suffered anyway, proving that suffering has value, that it is not worthless or meaningless. When God allows us to suffer, sometimes the greatest help is remembering that suffering must have meaning since he did it though he did not have to.
Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9
Mark 1:29-39
“Since he himself was tested by suffering, he is able to help those who are tested.” This is one of the most powerful lines of the book of Hebrews. Jesus Christ knows what we are going through because he went through it himself. Obviously, he did not suffer in every imaginable way that humans have suffered, but all suffering has a certain resemblance. He may not have had cancer, but anyone with cancer ought to be able to look at the Cross and see something of what they are going through. He was betrayed by one friend, and those who stayed with him did not really stay with him. Only his mother and a few others were there at the end, of all those whom he had helped. As we see in the Gospel today, thousands were healed by him each day. Where were they when he needed help? Of course, it had to be that way. It was always his intention to die for us. If he had chosen, he could have inspired his followers to defend him. Nevertheless, he did die nearly alone, in great suffering. At the end, he even expressed his feeling of being abandoned by God. God himself came down to earth so that in the end God would know what it is to feel abandoned by God.
So we cannot say to him, “You do not know what it is like.” No matter what our experiences or our suffering, this is not a fair accusation. You might say to anyone else, “You do not know what it is like”, but God does know. He knows because he experienced it. Even unto death. And if our suffering is from temptation, he suffered from greater temptations. We might spit at the world in anger, but he knew that he could destroy it by simply choosing to.
Who would have guessed, without knowing beforehand, that the Gospel which starts with Jesus proving that he God by his powerful works would end with his refusing to use that power to prevent his own suffering? The entire purpose of his life was suffering. He showed that he had the power to take away suffering, and then he suffered anyway, proving that suffering has value, that it is not worthless or meaningless. When God allows us to suffer, sometimes the greatest help is remembering that suffering must have meaning since he did it though he did not have to.
October 8, 2012 - Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Galatians 1:6-12
Psalm 111:1-2, 7-10
Luke 10:25-37
St. Paul is declaring his allegiance to the Gospel of Christ. He considers the Gospel more important than any wisdom that a philosopher could provide. He considers the Gospel more important than any prophecy that an angel could send. He considers the Gospel more important than his own opinions. The Gospel comes from Jesus Christ. This is why the Gospel is greater than any other religious teaching. Instead of wisdom or prophecy, the Gospel is about facts. The Gospel is simply the facts about Jesus. Here is what happened. Even, as today, when the Gospel contains a teaching, it is given simply as a fact that Jesus gave this teaching, told this story. Indeed, as great as the story is, and this parable has been very important to people through history, it is more impressive to watch Jesus do what he did in this conversation.
Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan to a scholar of the law who had stood up to test Jesus. This scholar had surely studied the law and the various interpretations of the law. He could have, without a doubt, quoted any verse of the law to Jesus. So he asks Jesus a question, not to find out information, but to test Jesus. Well, what does the test reveal? Jesus knows what he is doing. He reverses the test back to the scholar who proves that he has learned the law because he is aware of what the two greatest laws are.
Then he asks a question, but this time it is not to test Jesus but to justify himself. In this short conversation the scholar has gone from testing to sincerely asking. He trusts Jesus enough at this point to ask a sincere question, which has surely been bothering him: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers the question in the end by reversing the scholar’s question. Instead of considering who was the victim’s neighbor and then determining who needed to be loved, he says that the neighbor is the one who loved. This is the remarkable truth about Christianity. Instead of deciding whom we are obligated to love and respect, we begin with the love and respect and discover in each person whom we love a child of God, one of our neighbors. The scholar came with a test about laws, Jesus turned it into one of the most memorable teachings about mercy.
Psalm 111:1-2, 7-10
Luke 10:25-37
St. Paul is declaring his allegiance to the Gospel of Christ. He considers the Gospel more important than any wisdom that a philosopher could provide. He considers the Gospel more important than any prophecy that an angel could send. He considers the Gospel more important than his own opinions. The Gospel comes from Jesus Christ. This is why the Gospel is greater than any other religious teaching. Instead of wisdom or prophecy, the Gospel is about facts. The Gospel is simply the facts about Jesus. Here is what happened. Even, as today, when the Gospel contains a teaching, it is given simply as a fact that Jesus gave this teaching, told this story. Indeed, as great as the story is, and this parable has been very important to people through history, it is more impressive to watch Jesus do what he did in this conversation.
Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan to a scholar of the law who had stood up to test Jesus. This scholar had surely studied the law and the various interpretations of the law. He could have, without a doubt, quoted any verse of the law to Jesus. So he asks Jesus a question, not to find out information, but to test Jesus. Well, what does the test reveal? Jesus knows what he is doing. He reverses the test back to the scholar who proves that he has learned the law because he is aware of what the two greatest laws are.
Then he asks a question, but this time it is not to test Jesus but to justify himself. In this short conversation the scholar has gone from testing to sincerely asking. He trusts Jesus enough at this point to ask a sincere question, which has surely been bothering him: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers the question in the end by reversing the scholar’s question. Instead of considering who was the victim’s neighbor and then determining who needed to be loved, he says that the neighbor is the one who loved. This is the remarkable truth about Christianity. Instead of deciding whom we are obligated to love and respect, we begin with the love and respect and discover in each person whom we love a child of God, one of our neighbors. The scholar came with a test about laws, Jesus turned it into one of the most memorable teachings about mercy.
October 1, 2012 - Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Job 1:6-22
Psalm 17:1-3, 6-7
Luke 9:46-50
The least among us is the greatest. Which leads to the questions: the least what? and the greatest what? The least wealthy among us are the greatest in need of our help. The least selfish among us are the greatest givers. The least powerful among us is in the greatest danger. This phrase cannot be absolutely true, since the least powerful among us are not always the greatest intellects and the least wealthy are not necessarily the greatest doers of good.
If we were to simply read it as, the least according to this world are the greatest according to the Kingdom of Heaven, we still have difficulties. How many saints have been kings like St. Louis or popes like Blessed John Paul II? Even someone like St. Therese of Lisieux, who tried to be a little as possible, was still not the least important person in the world. She was the novice master of her community, a position of some importance.
If we follow the logic of the gospel, we can discover something. Who is the greatest? God is the greatest. Who is the greatest man? Jesus Christ is the greatest man. He just said that whoever receives a child in his name receives him. In a certain sense, that child, who is among the least important of all, is the greatest, because, in a certain way of considering things, that child is Jesus Christ, just as you are Jesus Christ, and I am Jesus Christ. So we could translate the phrase: everyone, even the one who is least is (in a certain manner of speaking) the one who is the greatest: Jesus Christ.
When we see someone, whether on their throne in their castle or on the street corner in the city, it is possible to see Jesus Christ, if we know how to look. We do not look with our eyes but with love. To look with love at anyone created in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, is to see Jesus Christ. Even if we cannot see it, whether because our eyesight is so dim or because the image is so obscured, we can, thanks to Jesus, know it. We can know that our waiter is Jesus Christ. We can know that the person driving next to us is Jesus Christ. We will begin to see Jesus, and opportunities to love Jesus, everywhere we look.
Psalm 17:1-3, 6-7
Luke 9:46-50
The least among us is the greatest. Which leads to the questions: the least what? and the greatest what? The least wealthy among us are the greatest in need of our help. The least selfish among us are the greatest givers. The least powerful among us is in the greatest danger. This phrase cannot be absolutely true, since the least powerful among us are not always the greatest intellects and the least wealthy are not necessarily the greatest doers of good.
If we were to simply read it as, the least according to this world are the greatest according to the Kingdom of Heaven, we still have difficulties. How many saints have been kings like St. Louis or popes like Blessed John Paul II? Even someone like St. Therese of Lisieux, who tried to be a little as possible, was still not the least important person in the world. She was the novice master of her community, a position of some importance.
If we follow the logic of the gospel, we can discover something. Who is the greatest? God is the greatest. Who is the greatest man? Jesus Christ is the greatest man. He just said that whoever receives a child in his name receives him. In a certain sense, that child, who is among the least important of all, is the greatest, because, in a certain way of considering things, that child is Jesus Christ, just as you are Jesus Christ, and I am Jesus Christ. So we could translate the phrase: everyone, even the one who is least is (in a certain manner of speaking) the one who is the greatest: Jesus Christ.
When we see someone, whether on their throne in their castle or on the street corner in the city, it is possible to see Jesus Christ, if we know how to look. We do not look with our eyes but with love. To look with love at anyone created in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, is to see Jesus Christ. Even if we cannot see it, whether because our eyesight is so dim or because the image is so obscured, we can, thanks to Jesus, know it. We can know that our waiter is Jesus Christ. We can know that the person driving next to us is Jesus Christ. We will begin to see Jesus, and opportunities to love Jesus, everywhere we look.
September 17, 2012 - Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 11.17-26, 33
Psalm 40.7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17 Resp. 1 Corinthians 11:26b
Luke 7.1-10
Tradition has the ability to endow anything with power. If someone had just come up with trick-or-treating on Halloween, everyone would agree that it is probably not a good idea, but it is a tradition, so we are obligated. It has been done, so we keep on doing it. For some people, religion is just a matter of tradition. On one level this is good. A baby is born, and without really knowing why, the parents who have not been to church in years start planning the baptism. Traditions have power for good. But we cannot stop there. Traditions are fun, but some are good and some are bad and some are just useless. Why would I believe whatever stories and practices my parents handed on to me just because they were handed on? We might think of Christianity as an old religion, steeped in tradition, but it is merely 2000 years old. Eighty generations ago, it was brand new. The fact that we are Christians means that someone, probably not even 80 generations ago, abandoned their ancient traditions in favor of what they thought was the truth. I would rather believe in Jesus like one of those ancient converts, abandoning all traditions because they had found something real, than simply because my father and mother believed in him.
When we speak of tradition in Christianity, we do not mean solemn old practices handed down for generations. A Christian tradition is something else. We believe that there was a man who was also God. He walked on earth and spoke to people. In Jesus Christ, the divine entered the world. If Jesus were walking on earth today, I would go and listen to every word he had to say, but I cannot go to Jesus now. My only connection to Jesus is through tradition. We receive Communion because this is what he told us to do. We read the Gospel because these are the words that were handed on. It is the closest we can come to sitting at his feet. Christian tradition is our link to Jesus. The only way I can know what he said is if someone who heard him will tell me, and if this information has to come to me secondhand or 80th-hand, I will take it, however I can get it. Christian traditions, unlike human traditions, do not gain their power from generations of practice, but from their source, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 40.7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17 Resp. 1 Corinthians 11:26b
Luke 7.1-10
Tradition has the ability to endow anything with power. If someone had just come up with trick-or-treating on Halloween, everyone would agree that it is probably not a good idea, but it is a tradition, so we are obligated. It has been done, so we keep on doing it. For some people, religion is just a matter of tradition. On one level this is good. A baby is born, and without really knowing why, the parents who have not been to church in years start planning the baptism. Traditions have power for good. But we cannot stop there. Traditions are fun, but some are good and some are bad and some are just useless. Why would I believe whatever stories and practices my parents handed on to me just because they were handed on? We might think of Christianity as an old religion, steeped in tradition, but it is merely 2000 years old. Eighty generations ago, it was brand new. The fact that we are Christians means that someone, probably not even 80 generations ago, abandoned their ancient traditions in favor of what they thought was the truth. I would rather believe in Jesus like one of those ancient converts, abandoning all traditions because they had found something real, than simply because my father and mother believed in him.
When we speak of tradition in Christianity, we do not mean solemn old practices handed down for generations. A Christian tradition is something else. We believe that there was a man who was also God. He walked on earth and spoke to people. In Jesus Christ, the divine entered the world. If Jesus were walking on earth today, I would go and listen to every word he had to say, but I cannot go to Jesus now. My only connection to Jesus is through tradition. We receive Communion because this is what he told us to do. We read the Gospel because these are the words that were handed on. It is the closest we can come to sitting at his feet. Christian tradition is our link to Jesus. The only way I can know what he said is if someone who heard him will tell me, and if this information has to come to me secondhand or 80th-hand, I will take it, however I can get it. Christian traditions, unlike human traditions, do not gain their power from generations of practice, but from their source, Jesus Christ.
September 14, 2012 - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The people looked upon the serpent and they were healed. We look upon Christ and we are healed. What were the people healed of? Snake bites. They looked at an image of the very thing that was killing them. So it is also with us: when we see Christ crucified we are looking at an example of the very illness we want healed. When we look at a crucifix, we are looking at sin and death. What greater symbol of sin exists? Violence and pride and every evil are contained in the act of crucifying the one who loves us. More than this, our enemy is death and when we see Jesus dead on the Cross we see death itself.
Is this just magic? No, the bronze serpent did not heal the Israelites; God did. We are saved by faith. As Jesus tells us, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus was crucified so that, believing in him, we would have eternal life. We look upon him whom we have killed and, believing that he is God, we enter into his death, and by dying with him we will also rise with him.
Jesus was obedient, even to death on the Cross. We see this and enter into that obedience, even to the particular death destined for each of us. Remember that you are going to die. Death is not optional! Every moment of life is preparation for your death, preparation to die together with Jesus. Your death will probably come sooner than you expect. Be ready to die; be ready to die today.
Today we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, how two simple pieces of wood became glorious beyond measure because of how they helped save the world by participating in the death of Jesus Christ. Consider how the beams were once part of a living tree. They died and, in death, became united forever with the death of Jesus Christ. We are these beams of wood. We must be as closely united to Christ as he was to that Cross, no room in between for anything else. We must die with Christ and then be exalted.
Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The people looked upon the serpent and they were healed. We look upon Christ and we are healed. What were the people healed of? Snake bites. They looked at an image of the very thing that was killing them. So it is also with us: when we see Christ crucified we are looking at an example of the very illness we want healed. When we look at a crucifix, we are looking at sin and death. What greater symbol of sin exists? Violence and pride and every evil are contained in the act of crucifying the one who loves us. More than this, our enemy is death and when we see Jesus dead on the Cross we see death itself.
Is this just magic? No, the bronze serpent did not heal the Israelites; God did. We are saved by faith. As Jesus tells us, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus was crucified so that, believing in him, we would have eternal life. We look upon him whom we have killed and, believing that he is God, we enter into his death, and by dying with him we will also rise with him.
Jesus was obedient, even to death on the Cross. We see this and enter into that obedience, even to the particular death destined for each of us. Remember that you are going to die. Death is not optional! Every moment of life is preparation for your death, preparation to die together with Jesus. Your death will probably come sooner than you expect. Be ready to die; be ready to die today.
Today we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, how two simple pieces of wood became glorious beyond measure because of how they helped save the world by participating in the death of Jesus Christ. Consider how the beams were once part of a living tree. They died and, in death, became united forever with the death of Jesus Christ. We are these beams of wood. We must be as closely united to Christ as he was to that Cross, no room in between for anything else. We must die with Christ and then be exalted.
September 7, 2012 - Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Psalm 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40
Luke 5:33-39
St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he and the other Apostles should be regarded not as leaders in their own right but as stewards of the mysteries of God. God has entrusted the Apostles with the task of carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth. They did not own the Gospel; they held it in trust for the sake of the whole world. It was their sacred duty to bring this most precious gift to all those whom God had known ahead of time would believe and become Christians.
Jesus spent three years working publicly before dying on the Cross. This was not primarily to make disciples. Most of his followers abandoned him by the end. He preached to the crowds, but they misunderstood and returned home. He healed the sick and cast out demons, but not even this ministry was the true purpose of those years. Those years were, as he explains to the Pharisees today, to prepare the Apostles. He had new wine, and he had to prepare the Apostles to be new wineskins, capable of holding the wine. It was always the plan of Jesus to save the world through the Apostles.
We might ask why God chose to save the world through sinful humans. Christ appeared to St. Paul on the way to Damascus. Why did he not simply appear to everyone who would become Christian? Why does God trust the Church to be the steward of his mysteries? Over and over again the leaders of the Church have been found untrustworthy. Even the best have made mistakes. Nevertheless, God insists on saving humanity through the work of human beings.
This was the fulfillment of the Incarnation. Jesus became human in order to suffer and die for us, in order to be the first human to rise from the dead. If this message were distributed only in a spiritual way, it would not be incarnate; the Gospel would not really be part of this world. So God chose to deliver it to each person in the normal human way. The Bible is a book like every other book. Our parents and other people teach us the faith just like they teach us history and science and every other subject. In this way, the supernatural has become an integral part of the natural world, and our faith is not something external or foreign to us.
Psalm 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40
Luke 5:33-39
St. Paul tells the Corinthians that he and the other Apostles should be regarded not as leaders in their own right but as stewards of the mysteries of God. God has entrusted the Apostles with the task of carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth. They did not own the Gospel; they held it in trust for the sake of the whole world. It was their sacred duty to bring this most precious gift to all those whom God had known ahead of time would believe and become Christians.
Jesus spent three years working publicly before dying on the Cross. This was not primarily to make disciples. Most of his followers abandoned him by the end. He preached to the crowds, but they misunderstood and returned home. He healed the sick and cast out demons, but not even this ministry was the true purpose of those years. Those years were, as he explains to the Pharisees today, to prepare the Apostles. He had new wine, and he had to prepare the Apostles to be new wineskins, capable of holding the wine. It was always the plan of Jesus to save the world through the Apostles.
We might ask why God chose to save the world through sinful humans. Christ appeared to St. Paul on the way to Damascus. Why did he not simply appear to everyone who would become Christian? Why does God trust the Church to be the steward of his mysteries? Over and over again the leaders of the Church have been found untrustworthy. Even the best have made mistakes. Nevertheless, God insists on saving humanity through the work of human beings.
This was the fulfillment of the Incarnation. Jesus became human in order to suffer and die for us, in order to be the first human to rise from the dead. If this message were distributed only in a spiritual way, it would not be incarnate; the Gospel would not really be part of this world. So God chose to deliver it to each person in the normal human way. The Bible is a book like every other book. Our parents and other people teach us the faith just like they teach us history and science and every other subject. In this way, the supernatural has become an integral part of the natural world, and our faith is not something external or foreign to us.
August 13, 2012 - Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Ezekiel 1:2-5, 24-28
Psalm 148:1-2, 11-14
Matthew 17:22-27
Ezekiel is so careful. He is a theologically trained prophet. He sees something with the form of a human sitting on a throne, white gold from the waist up, like fire from the waist down, the throne supported by four living creatures that looked like human beings but had wings. A less careful theologian might have said “I saw the Lord on a throne held up by four angels”, but Ezekiel is too careful for that. All of his theological training comes together in this last line where he finally sums up what he saw: “Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
It cannot have been the Lord, because God is not visible. He has no body, so he cannot be seen. This must have been a likeness of the glory, a sort of self-portrait that God put together for Ezekiel’s benefit. Still, Ezekiel is not willing to be nailed down even there. What he described was merely his vision of that likeness, lest anyone suppose that Ezekiel meant this to be a definitive description. This realization of the transcendence of God was the result of 1500 years of formation from Abraham down to Ezekiel. The Lord is an eternal God who cannot be represented by any idol. He is “I am who am”, the God who simply exists before any universe or time or any other creation. Ezekiel may have seen white gold and fire, but he would laugh at you if you thought that this meant that God was made out of white gold and fire. Laugh or be very angry.
So God prepared this culture to be the very last that would think of God as merely a powerful human being. Then a man appears who knows all about a fish that swallowed a coin and will conveniently be near shore soon, and he says that he will be killed but that death will be unable to hold him down, and he claims to be God. If Jesus had appeared in any other culture, they would have readily believed in him, but they would have missed the point. The Greeks would have had no trouble with a god walking among them, but they would not have understood. It was because the Jews could not imagine that the transcendent God would become human that, when they believed that he had, they understood the incredible earth-changing significance of this fact.
Psalm 148:1-2, 11-14
Matthew 17:22-27
Ezekiel is so careful. He is a theologically trained prophet. He sees something with the form of a human sitting on a throne, white gold from the waist up, like fire from the waist down, the throne supported by four living creatures that looked like human beings but had wings. A less careful theologian might have said “I saw the Lord on a throne held up by four angels”, but Ezekiel is too careful for that. All of his theological training comes together in this last line where he finally sums up what he saw: “Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
It cannot have been the Lord, because God is not visible. He has no body, so he cannot be seen. This must have been a likeness of the glory, a sort of self-portrait that God put together for Ezekiel’s benefit. Still, Ezekiel is not willing to be nailed down even there. What he described was merely his vision of that likeness, lest anyone suppose that Ezekiel meant this to be a definitive description. This realization of the transcendence of God was the result of 1500 years of formation from Abraham down to Ezekiel. The Lord is an eternal God who cannot be represented by any idol. He is “I am who am”, the God who simply exists before any universe or time or any other creation. Ezekiel may have seen white gold and fire, but he would laugh at you if you thought that this meant that God was made out of white gold and fire. Laugh or be very angry.
So God prepared this culture to be the very last that would think of God as merely a powerful human being. Then a man appears who knows all about a fish that swallowed a coin and will conveniently be near shore soon, and he says that he will be killed but that death will be unable to hold him down, and he claims to be God. If Jesus had appeared in any other culture, they would have readily believed in him, but they would have missed the point. The Greeks would have had no trouble with a god walking among them, but they would not have understood. It was because the Jews could not imagine that the transcendent God would become human that, when they believed that he had, they understood the incredible earth-changing significance of this fact.
August 6, 2012 - Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
2 Peter 1:16-19
Mark 9:2-10
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. There are two central lessons for us to learn from the Transfiguration. The first is perhaps the more obvious: Jesus is God. He looked just like a normal man walking up the mountain, but, when they reach the top, his clothes become brilliant white and he shines as if the light in him is greater than the sun. He speaks to Moses and Elijah, who have not been around earth for a thousand years. A voice speaks from a cloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is the first lesson of the Transfiguration.
But just as Jesus has two natures, so there is another lesson. Nothing happened to Jesus that day that we do not hope for ourselves someday. Someday, we will speak with Moses and Elijah and all the Saints. Someday, we will be wearing spotless garments and a light from within us will shine brighter than the sun. Someday, we hope, God will say to us, “You are my beloved son (You are my beloved daughter) in whom I am well pleased.”
Just look around. Those are some very ordinary people. Look in a mirror, and you will see a very ordinary person. Someday all of us will be so beautiful that if we were to see now what we will be then we might fall down in worship. Either that or we will be so hideous that we would run away in fear. None of us, no person on earth, is going to remain ordinary. God has plans for us to be extraordinary, and we will fulfill those plans or fail miserably. No one will remain in this current middling state. Someday, we hope we will be just like Jesus standing on top of that mountain, as far as his human nature is concerned.
This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus became like us so that we could someday become like him. Everyone you meet today, the checkout girl at the grocery store, the man who cuts you off in traffic, the homeless woman you walk by on the street, every one of them has the potential to be transfigured. When you speak to your mother or father or husband or wife, you are speaking to someone who will someday, we hope, be like one of the gods of the old myths. You could not help but love them, and you cannot help but love them now if you could just see the potential that God sees when he looks at us.
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
2 Peter 1:16-19
Mark 9:2-10
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. There are two central lessons for us to learn from the Transfiguration. The first is perhaps the more obvious: Jesus is God. He looked just like a normal man walking up the mountain, but, when they reach the top, his clothes become brilliant white and he shines as if the light in him is greater than the sun. He speaks to Moses and Elijah, who have not been around earth for a thousand years. A voice speaks from a cloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is the first lesson of the Transfiguration.
But just as Jesus has two natures, so there is another lesson. Nothing happened to Jesus that day that we do not hope for ourselves someday. Someday, we will speak with Moses and Elijah and all the Saints. Someday, we will be wearing spotless garments and a light from within us will shine brighter than the sun. Someday, we hope, God will say to us, “You are my beloved son (You are my beloved daughter) in whom I am well pleased.”
Just look around. Those are some very ordinary people. Look in a mirror, and you will see a very ordinary person. Someday all of us will be so beautiful that if we were to see now what we will be then we might fall down in worship. Either that or we will be so hideous that we would run away in fear. None of us, no person on earth, is going to remain ordinary. God has plans for us to be extraordinary, and we will fulfill those plans or fail miserably. No one will remain in this current middling state. Someday, we hope we will be just like Jesus standing on top of that mountain, as far as his human nature is concerned.
This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus became like us so that we could someday become like him. Everyone you meet today, the checkout girl at the grocery store, the man who cuts you off in traffic, the homeless woman you walk by on the street, every one of them has the potential to be transfigured. When you speak to your mother or father or husband or wife, you are speaking to someone who will someday, we hope, be like one of the gods of the old myths. You could not help but love them, and you cannot help but love them now if you could just see the potential that God sees when he looks at us.
June 15, 2012 - Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9
Isaiah 12:2-6
Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19
John 19:31-37
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
Isaiah 12:2-6
Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19
John 19:31-37
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
June 13, 2012 - Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church
1 Kings 18.20-39
Psalm 16.1b-2ab, 4, 5ab+8, 11
Matthew 5.17-19
This saying of Jesus today is a difficult saying. He tells us that until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or part of a letter will pass away from the law. Yet we believe that many letters of the law do not apply anymore. We do not keep the ritual cleanness demanded by the law. We do not rest on the Sabbath. We eat many forbidden things. How is this possible?
Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law. He fulfilled the requirements of ritual cleanness by the grace of baptism which cleans a person once and for all. We do not rest on the Sabbath because we have entered into the rest that is found in Jesus. We eat pork and lobster and other things because God declared such things were clean, so they no longer are unclean. The laws did not change, but the world that they apply to is changed in Christ Jesus.
Which makes us wonder, why not all of the law? If I can eat shrimp and wear 50%-50% wool/cotton mix pants, why is it still wrong to worship other gods or for a man to treat another man as a woman? Because in Christ Jesus, the truth was made more visible, not less. In truth, shrimp is good food. That it was ever forbidden must have been because of particular circumstances. In truth, there is nothing wrong with mixing fabrics or eating cheeseburgers.
But in truth, God is the only god. To worship someone else is a lie. In truth, marriage is a relationship based in gender-difference. To pretend otherwise is a lie. Every law that revealed the truth must remain and indeed the obligation is stronger than before inasmuch as the truth is now more fully revealed. Every law which was arbitrary no longer applies, for Jesus has fulfilled the meaning behind those laws perfectly.
The arbitrary laws, which could have gone either way logically speaking, carried the principles of obedience, purity, and community. Because everyone lived under such laws, the Israelites were bound together into a community that obeyed God and was pure of defilement. It took over a thousand years, but these laws worked their effect. But when Jesus came, our obedience is in following him, our purity is in choosing him and no one else, our community is sacramental, bound together by love. The point of these laws has been fulfilled and the truth more fully revealed.
Psalm 16.1b-2ab, 4, 5ab+8, 11
Matthew 5.17-19
This saying of Jesus today is a difficult saying. He tells us that until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or part of a letter will pass away from the law. Yet we believe that many letters of the law do not apply anymore. We do not keep the ritual cleanness demanded by the law. We do not rest on the Sabbath. We eat many forbidden things. How is this possible?
Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law. He fulfilled the requirements of ritual cleanness by the grace of baptism which cleans a person once and for all. We do not rest on the Sabbath because we have entered into the rest that is found in Jesus. We eat pork and lobster and other things because God declared such things were clean, so they no longer are unclean. The laws did not change, but the world that they apply to is changed in Christ Jesus.
Which makes us wonder, why not all of the law? If I can eat shrimp and wear 50%-50% wool/cotton mix pants, why is it still wrong to worship other gods or for a man to treat another man as a woman? Because in Christ Jesus, the truth was made more visible, not less. In truth, shrimp is good food. That it was ever forbidden must have been because of particular circumstances. In truth, there is nothing wrong with mixing fabrics or eating cheeseburgers.
But in truth, God is the only god. To worship someone else is a lie. In truth, marriage is a relationship based in gender-difference. To pretend otherwise is a lie. Every law that revealed the truth must remain and indeed the obligation is stronger than before inasmuch as the truth is now more fully revealed. Every law which was arbitrary no longer applies, for Jesus has fulfilled the meaning behind those laws perfectly.
The arbitrary laws, which could have gone either way logically speaking, carried the principles of obedience, purity, and community. Because everyone lived under such laws, the Israelites were bound together into a community that obeyed God and was pure of defilement. It took over a thousand years, but these laws worked their effect. But when Jesus came, our obedience is in following him, our purity is in choosing him and no one else, our community is sacramental, bound together by love. The point of these laws has been fulfilled and the truth more fully revealed.
May 3, 2012 - Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles.
1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Psalm 19:2-5
John 14:6-14
Some people try to read the Gospels as if Jesus were merely an intelligent person who taught interesting things. Such people consider the Gospels as a source of wisdom, but reject the idea that Jesus is God. Our reading from the Gospel today shows that this is impossible. If the Gospels are not reliable, we will not be able to find more wisdom there than we already have, since it will then be up to us to pick and choose what is wise and what is foolish. If the Gospels are reliable, we cannot cast aside the reading today.
Everything we know suggests that the Gospels are reliable. They have been a source of wisdom for two-thousand years. The Gospels are responsible for every idea of freedom and justice which have developed in the western world. This is not to say that everything that Europeans and Americans have done is good, but that everything good we have done can be traced back to the Gospels. The Gospels have been responsible for more good in the world than any philosophy or theology every invented by human beings.
The words of Jesus today, however, go beyond the words of a wise man. As has often been noted, if Jesus is not God, he must be either a fool or a liar. He must not be a fool, since he is the source of so much wisdom. Is it possible that he is a liar? He himself said, "I am the truth." He said that Satan is the father of lies. He said that our "yes" should be "yes" and our "no" should be "no". He seems particularly opposed to lying. Of course, liars usually are opposed to being lied to. It does seem wrong to accuse him of lying though when there is no evidence that he ever did.
Is it certain that Jesus is claiming to be God today? Well, he claims that anyone who has seen him has seen the Father. He makes this an absolute claim. We might say that we see God in a holy person, but the holy person would tell us that God is so much greater. Jesus claims that it is not possible to reveal God more than he has done. He makes this an exclusive claim. He claims that no one comes to the Father except through him. A wise person would say that anyone can see God by following the same way that they have followed. Jesus claims to be the way itself.
Psalm 19:2-5
John 14:6-14
Some people try to read the Gospels as if Jesus were merely an intelligent person who taught interesting things. Such people consider the Gospels as a source of wisdom, but reject the idea that Jesus is God. Our reading from the Gospel today shows that this is impossible. If the Gospels are not reliable, we will not be able to find more wisdom there than we already have, since it will then be up to us to pick and choose what is wise and what is foolish. If the Gospels are reliable, we cannot cast aside the reading today.
Everything we know suggests that the Gospels are reliable. They have been a source of wisdom for two-thousand years. The Gospels are responsible for every idea of freedom and justice which have developed in the western world. This is not to say that everything that Europeans and Americans have done is good, but that everything good we have done can be traced back to the Gospels. The Gospels have been responsible for more good in the world than any philosophy or theology every invented by human beings.
The words of Jesus today, however, go beyond the words of a wise man. As has often been noted, if Jesus is not God, he must be either a fool or a liar. He must not be a fool, since he is the source of so much wisdom. Is it possible that he is a liar? He himself said, "I am the truth." He said that Satan is the father of lies. He said that our "yes" should be "yes" and our "no" should be "no". He seems particularly opposed to lying. Of course, liars usually are opposed to being lied to. It does seem wrong to accuse him of lying though when there is no evidence that he ever did.
Is it certain that Jesus is claiming to be God today? Well, he claims that anyone who has seen him has seen the Father. He makes this an absolute claim. We might say that we see God in a holy person, but the holy person would tell us that God is so much greater. Jesus claims that it is not possible to reveal God more than he has done. He makes this an exclusive claim. He claims that no one comes to the Father except through him. A wise person would say that anyone can see God by following the same way that they have followed. Jesus claims to be the way itself.
May 1, 2012 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Today's Readings
We live in the time of fulfillment. That which is prophesied in the psalm today has been fulfilled in our sight. All the nations praise the Lord. In every nation on earth, there are people who turn to Jerusalem as the holy city. God’s salvation has spread throughout the world. Jesus Christ poured out his Blood, as he told the Apostles, “For you and for many.”
Who were the “many” whom he was speaking about? It is us. We form just a small part of that many. Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are not among my sheep”, but we are among his sheep. We are gladly numbered among the innumerable sheep who follow the good shepherd. Innumerable to us who are incapable of counting so many, but to God it is numerable. God not only knows the number of his sheep, he knows each one of the many individually.
Jesus assures us that no one can take us out of his hand because no one can take us out of the Father’s hand because no one is greater than the Father. He says that he and the Father are one. This is the clearest declaration of the truth behind the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. Perhaps without this statement, a case could be made that Jesus is somehow less than the Father, that he is the greatest creature but not actually God, but with this statement, Jesus makes himself equal to God, which is why the next verse after our Gospel today is “The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.”
So, if Jesus truly is God, as he said, and he has poured out his Blood for the many, as he said, and we, forming part of that many, part of his flock, cannot be taken out of his hand, as he said, the world begins to look different. There are still troubles, but who ever rejected a gold mine because of all the dirt mixed in? Life is hard, but so long as the gold is there, it is worth it.
Without Jesus our lives are meaningless as a sheep without a shepherd. Without Jesus, we wander around this life without any idea of why we keep going. What is the point? What is the purpose? But when we hear Jesus call our name, and we turn and follow him, joining his flock, we have a reason greater than ourselves, we have a treasure that Jesus calls eternal life.
We live in the time of fulfillment. That which is prophesied in the psalm today has been fulfilled in our sight. All the nations praise the Lord. In every nation on earth, there are people who turn to Jerusalem as the holy city. God’s salvation has spread throughout the world. Jesus Christ poured out his Blood, as he told the Apostles, “For you and for many.”
Who were the “many” whom he was speaking about? It is us. We form just a small part of that many. Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are not among my sheep”, but we are among his sheep. We are gladly numbered among the innumerable sheep who follow the good shepherd. Innumerable to us who are incapable of counting so many, but to God it is numerable. God not only knows the number of his sheep, he knows each one of the many individually.
Jesus assures us that no one can take us out of his hand because no one can take us out of the Father’s hand because no one is greater than the Father. He says that he and the Father are one. This is the clearest declaration of the truth behind the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. Perhaps without this statement, a case could be made that Jesus is somehow less than the Father, that he is the greatest creature but not actually God, but with this statement, Jesus makes himself equal to God, which is why the next verse after our Gospel today is “The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.”
So, if Jesus truly is God, as he said, and he has poured out his Blood for the many, as he said, and we, forming part of that many, part of his flock, cannot be taken out of his hand, as he said, the world begins to look different. There are still troubles, but who ever rejected a gold mine because of all the dirt mixed in? Life is hard, but so long as the gold is there, it is worth it.
Without Jesus our lives are meaningless as a sheep without a shepherd. Without Jesus, we wander around this life without any idea of why we keep going. What is the point? What is the purpose? But when we hear Jesus call our name, and we turn and follow him, joining his flock, we have a reason greater than ourselves, we have a treasure that Jesus calls eternal life.
March 26, 2012 - Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Today's Readings
We could not have been saved by an alien. If God has simply created Jesus the way that he created Adam, then Jesus would have been an alien. Even if he looked like us and talked like us and seemed like us in every way, he would not have been human, he would be human 2.0. This is why Eve could not be made out of dirt like Adam, but had to be made out of Adam’s body. So she could be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Some people imagine that Jesus was placed inside of Mary, but this is incorrect. Jesus took his humanity from Mary, he was conceived in her, his DNA was her DNA, his body was made out of her body. Thus Jesus could save us, because his death and resurrection would only save us if a human, one of us, died and rose.
But God would not simply use a person. He respects the dignity of the nature he created. Though he created us and everything we have is his, he will not take our human nature without permission. In that moment, after Gabriel had asked, before Mary had answered, the whole world stopped, held its breath, and waited anxiously. What would she say? Everything depended on this moment. We are under the heavy burden of sin, and nothing can save us now except God, but God will not act without the permission of a girl. The salvation of the world depended in that moment on the generosity of one person. Anyone else would have said “no” or at least, “let me think about it for awhile” but Mary did not. She was courageous. She was generous. She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary is the mother of Jesus, and therefore the mother of God. As the mother of our Savior, she would deserve our deepest respect. She is also the mother of the Church, since Jesus, from the Cross, gave her to his beloved disciple. As our mother, she deserves our devoted love. She is the first and best disciple, the prototype of the whole Church. Our relationship with Mary should be one of respect, devotion, admiration, emulation, veneration. Jesus is our Savior, and he is Mary’s Savior too, all because she said yes.
We could not have been saved by an alien. If God has simply created Jesus the way that he created Adam, then Jesus would have been an alien. Even if he looked like us and talked like us and seemed like us in every way, he would not have been human, he would be human 2.0. This is why Eve could not be made out of dirt like Adam, but had to be made out of Adam’s body. So she could be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Some people imagine that Jesus was placed inside of Mary, but this is incorrect. Jesus took his humanity from Mary, he was conceived in her, his DNA was her DNA, his body was made out of her body. Thus Jesus could save us, because his death and resurrection would only save us if a human, one of us, died and rose.
But God would not simply use a person. He respects the dignity of the nature he created. Though he created us and everything we have is his, he will not take our human nature without permission. In that moment, after Gabriel had asked, before Mary had answered, the whole world stopped, held its breath, and waited anxiously. What would she say? Everything depended on this moment. We are under the heavy burden of sin, and nothing can save us now except God, but God will not act without the permission of a girl. The salvation of the world depended in that moment on the generosity of one person. Anyone else would have said “no” or at least, “let me think about it for awhile” but Mary did not. She was courageous. She was generous. She said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary is the mother of Jesus, and therefore the mother of God. As the mother of our Savior, she would deserve our deepest respect. She is also the mother of the Church, since Jesus, from the Cross, gave her to his beloved disciple. As our mother, she deserves our devoted love. She is the first and best disciple, the prototype of the whole Church. Our relationship with Mary should be one of respect, devotion, admiration, emulation, veneration. Jesus is our Savior, and he is Mary’s Savior too, all because she said yes.
March 21, 2012 - Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Today's Readings
Jesus explains to the Pharisees why they should believe in him. He begins by saying “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.” This cannot of course be taken in the sense that Jesus would lie about himself. Jesus does not ever say, “I am the Christ”, because he does not need to. Peter says it, and then Jesus confirms it. When he is asked whether he is the Christ at his trial, he says, “You say that I am.” In other words, only the Christ would be accused of being the Christ without ever having said it. Where did the idea come from? Jesus was not raising an army. He never fought a battle. He never called himself the Christ.
Jesus says that John the Baptist witnessed to him. The Pharisees thought that John the Baptist was an impressive prophet, since he fit the idea in their minds better. He fasted and lived in the desert and was killed by the king. It must have seemed very strange to the Pharisees that this great and holy man testified that Jesus was the Christ. Jesus is reminding them of this contradiction: they all thought that John was a prophet, but they did not believe his greatest prophecy.
Also, the Pharisees could see that Jesus never sinned; they could see the healing and other miracles; they could see the sinners repenting and following Jesus. If I told you that I was the Messiah, you would all laugh, since I am not that impressive, and if I did not tell you, it would never enter your mind that I was. When Jesus says that his works are one of the witnesses, he does not just mean his miracles, but everything he ever did. People could see that he was not like them. Today we see the works of Jesus in his saints; we see sinners live extraordinary lives. We know that someone greater must be at work.
The third witness is the Father. St. Peter did not know Jesus was the Christ because he figured it out, but because the Father revealed it to him. Faith is strongest when there are no reasons behind it, when we simply believe. There are times when we are so filled with the love of God that, without being able to explain why, we just laugh at the idea that there is no God.
Jesus explains to the Pharisees why they should believe in him. He begins by saying “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.” This cannot of course be taken in the sense that Jesus would lie about himself. Jesus does not ever say, “I am the Christ”, because he does not need to. Peter says it, and then Jesus confirms it. When he is asked whether he is the Christ at his trial, he says, “You say that I am.” In other words, only the Christ would be accused of being the Christ without ever having said it. Where did the idea come from? Jesus was not raising an army. He never fought a battle. He never called himself the Christ.
Jesus says that John the Baptist witnessed to him. The Pharisees thought that John the Baptist was an impressive prophet, since he fit the idea in their minds better. He fasted and lived in the desert and was killed by the king. It must have seemed very strange to the Pharisees that this great and holy man testified that Jesus was the Christ. Jesus is reminding them of this contradiction: they all thought that John was a prophet, but they did not believe his greatest prophecy.
Also, the Pharisees could see that Jesus never sinned; they could see the healing and other miracles; they could see the sinners repenting and following Jesus. If I told you that I was the Messiah, you would all laugh, since I am not that impressive, and if I did not tell you, it would never enter your mind that I was. When Jesus says that his works are one of the witnesses, he does not just mean his miracles, but everything he ever did. People could see that he was not like them. Today we see the works of Jesus in his saints; we see sinners live extraordinary lives. We know that someone greater must be at work.
The third witness is the Father. St. Peter did not know Jesus was the Christ because he figured it out, but because the Father revealed it to him. Faith is strongest when there are no reasons behind it, when we simply believe. There are times when we are so filled with the love of God that, without being able to explain why, we just laugh at the idea that there is no God.
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