“Who do you say I am?” ………. Jesus’ question to the apostles can just as easily be meant for us today.  Each one of us has to ask themselves, “Who is Jesus to us?”  

I guess the most important thing to keep in mind when we name who Jesus is His statement, “whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.”

God is everywhere.  In Him, we live and move and have our being. Think of it as if we were fish. Water surrounds us. In water, we live and move and have our being. God dwells with us; all around us and in us. Or, perhaps, in air, we live and move and have our being; air all around us and in us. Take away the fish’s water, our air? our God? We die. That image and likeness we speak of, the soul?  God dwelling within us. 

So go back to whatsoever you do….

When we hurt the least of us, we hurt Jesus. When we help each other, we help Jesus. When we celebrate anyone, we celebrate Jesus. The homeless, the shut-in, the sick, the rich, the happy, the miserable, our enemies…. all the people we come in contact with are the same as coming in contact with Jesus.  Even when we hurt ourselves, we hurt Jesus; help ourselves, we help Jesus.  I am one of the least.  Then, how can we ever hurt another person?  Whether it be by hitting or by words. How can I hurt myself?  How can we hurt anyone without hurting Jesus?

This takes the notion of “what would Jesus do?” to an entirely different level of not just what he would do, but “how would we treat Jesus” in our dealings with each other.  

If each one of us is made in the image and likeness of God, can we not see the dignity each person carries within themselves? “Who do you say I am?” You, Jesus are my family member, the person setting next to me in the church pew, my neighbor, my friend, and yes, even my enemy.  The homeless, the forgotten, the stranger, the prisoner.  You Jesus, are all of us and all of us are You.  All of us are the Mystical Body of Christ and Jesus is the Head. 

Remember the words… “Lord, when did we see you hungry? Lord, when did we see you naked?  Lord, when did we see you thirsty?”  That’s Jesus. That’s who we say He is.  The person right in front of us and also, the person we see when we look in the mirror. 

August 23 XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time

We might call this Sunday “Power Sunday,” because the main theme is the handing over of the “Keys” which open and shut, representing authority in the Church and in the Kingdom. In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to know him personally and to serve him and love him as Lord, and he wants from each one of us our total, whole-hearted response.

The first reading, taken from Isaiah, gives a detailed description of the investiture of a royal court official. The robe, the sash, and the keys are insignia of this office. The Lord God, through Isaiah, tells Shebna that the keys of authority will be taken away from him, the unfaithful, proud “master of the royal palace.” In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 138), David thanks God for having raised him from lowly origins and given him authority as King over the people of Israel.  In the second reading, St. Paul points out that God is the Source of all authority on earth and in Heaven. 

Today’s Gospel passage, giving the Petrine promise of Mt. 16:16-20, defines Catholicism. Here, Jesus reveals his plan to build his Church on the strong bedrock foundation of Peter, to whom he will then give the Keys of teaching and governing authority in the Church. Thus, Simon Bar-Jona receives a new mission symbolized by a change of name, Cephas (Peter), is the rock (petros), on which Jesus will build his Church which the power of evil cannot overcome. Peter and his successors, will be given the Keys of the Kingdom and the power to bind and to loose (make laws; exercise authority) on earth, decisions which Heaven will ratify. Thus, Jesus commissions Peter, giving him authority and leadership in the Church.

The Catholic Church teaches that by giving Peter the “keys” along with the promise that all his decisions would be ratified in Heaven, Christ gave Peter the power of freedom from error when he was officially teaching the universal Church. In other words, Peter received primacy in the Church and the gift of infallibility in his official teaching on matters of Faith and morals. The first Vatican Council defined this Dogma, and the second Vatican Council reconfirmed it. As the Church was to continue long after Peter had died, it was rightly understood from the beginning that those privileges given to Peter which were necessary for the successful mission of the Church, were given to his lawful successors –  the Popes – as well.

1) We need to accept Jesus as our Lord and personal Savior:  Jesus is not merely the founder of a new religion, or a revolutionary Jewish reformer, or one of the great teachers. For Christians, he is the Son of God and our personal Savior.  This means that we have to see Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the Savior, and the Redeemer.  He is our beloved Friend, closer to us than our dear ones, and a living experience, who walks with us, loves us, forges us, helps us, and transforms our lives and outlook. We have to give all areas of our lives to him.  He must have a say in our daily lives, and we must radiate all around us his sacrificial agápe love, unconditional forgiveness, overflowing mercy, and committed service.  The joy, the love, and the peace that we find in Jesus should be reflected in the way we live our lives.

2) We need to experience Jesus as our Lord and Savior and surrender our lives to him. The knowledge of Jesus as Lord and personal Savior should become a living, personal experience for each Christian. This is made possible by our listening to Jesus through the daily, meditative reading of the Bible, by our talking to Jesus through daily, personal and communal prayers, by our offering our lives on the altar with Jesus whenever we attend Holy Mass, and by our leading a Sacramental life. The next step is the surrender of our lives to Jesus by rendering humble, loving service to Him in Himself and in all others, with the strong conviction that Jesus is present in every person. The step after that is to praise and thank God in all the events of our lives, both pleasant and painful, realizing that God’s loving hands are behind everything.

In Jesus’ day, the Jews had no dealings with the Gentile peoples. They did not marry, do business with or associate with them. The unspoken mantra was: “I don’t smoke, I don’t chew and I don’t go with folks who do!”! The disciple’s inability to show compassion to a mother’s desperation, over her daughter being tormented by demons, was born of this mindset.

How was that a compassionate Jesus would use the word dog, in addressing the woman? Rather than using the term as a racial slur, Jesus was simply mimicking the popular Jewish practice of his day, where the word dog was used to distinguish Jews from gentiles. In the way this word was used, it implied a pet, like puppies around a table.

The gentile woman is representative of everyone who does not look like, act like or think like you and me. Until we step out of our religious box and accept people for who they are, they will never relate to us or want what we have. 

Over and over again in the gospels, we see the “Master Bridge Builder” working to bring outsiders in. No where do we hear that Jesus asked someone to convert before he met their need. Because he met their needs, they converted.

If there’s any outsider group that we need to build bridges with today, it’s the 39% of Americans, under 30, who identify as “nones”. Here’s what they say when asked why they have no religious affiliation: 

“I’ve done things like going to church and youth group with my family, but I haven’t felt any religious connection to that. I have not had any moments with God. I've not felt any faith in a divine being.”

How sad to think they looked at church but did not see Jesus! They’ve heard dogma, without hearing practical life application.

All of this cannot be laid at the church’s door. We are living in a culture of syncretism, which is the blending of different religious beliefs, cultures or philosophies, into a new, unified system, where traditions meet and practices are combined. There is a spiritual consumerism, clicking on the Amazon of ideologies, until a person finds the one that fits their lifestyle. For many it becomes a feel good religion, which includes no cross or self-denial!

What can I, as an individual, do that will make any real difference against this huge, cultural shift? Fall back on the simplicity of the gospel! Jesus said: “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me”. He did not say: “If doctrine is lifted up, all men will be drawn to me.”!

Love people enough to listen to their story without judgement or interrupting. As soon as I criticize someone’s beliefs, I’m calling their baby ugly! Defenses come up and communication shuts down. The opportunity for learning is lost! People are not stupid! They know if you love them or if you don’t. Doctrine can be argued, love cannot be.

Never forget, the most powerful tool you have in your bag is your testimony. If I tell you: “When I pray, I have peace of mind.”, what are you going to say? “No you don’t.”?  If I say: “It’s because our marriage has a spiritual base, that it stays together.”, what are you going to say? “No it isn’t.”?

What a difference we can make, if starting today and every day after, we go out of here seeing every encounter that we have with others as a divine appointment, prearranged by the Holy Spirit! How carefully we’d listen! How sensitive we’d become to the expression of the need beneath the conversation! How easily we’d become the kind of healing presence that casts out darkness!

In today’s gospel from Matthew, Jesus is traveling outside of Galilee with some of his disciples. Along the way, they encounter a Canaanite woman. She trails after them shouting and pleading for a cure for her daughter. Jesus doesn’t say anything at first, but as she pleads, he rebukes her, saying that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Then, as she keeps shouting, Jesus calls her a dog. The woman doesn’t stop, and finally Jesus cures her daughter. But neither Jesus nor his disciples appear very kind.

But appearances, as the saying goes, can be deceiving. This is a Canaanite woman. The Old Testament has nothing good to say about them. Deuteronomy is concerned that they might corrupt the Israelites. So she is not just a gentile but a member of an ancient enemy group symbolizing everything opposed to the Jews. Yet this person, a member of an excluded group, sees something in Jesus. This something is what she depends on. The cure is not hers by right,

only by the grace and mercy of Jesus. The surrounding context highlights the  significance of this. Encounters with the Pharisees in Matthew’s Gospel bracket this encounter. In an encounter right before today’s gospel, they are hostile to him and are sure of their right to God’s favor by their

ancestry as God’s chosen people. So two encounters, two races, two different attitudes. Speaking of attitudes, Jesus first ignores her and then seems to reject her plea. Jesus is, as always, right; the age of the Church and ministry to the Gentiles has not yet come. He must first call the Jews before the age of the Gentiles. But this woman’s faith moves him to grant her request. Her faith grows in the passage amid his seeming indifference. She first addresses Jesus

as “Son of David,” an ambiguous term that could be political. In the end, she calls him “Lord,” acknowledging much more. So in the passage there are two cures: the woman’s daughter is cured, and the woman herself is cured of her paganism.

Jesus seemed at first to ignore the woman, but he wasn’t; he was strengthening her spirit and deepening her faith. How about us? Don’t we sometimes encounter God’s silence, which can feel like indifference to our troubles? I have; I think most of us have, even great saints. There is a famous story about the great 16th-century mystic Saint Teresa of Avila. As St. Teresa made her

way to her convent during a fierce rainstorm, she slipped down an embankment and fell squarely into the mud. The irrepressible nun looked up to heaven and admonished her Maker; If this is how You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few of them! And yet Saint Theresa also said, “What will He not give us who is both all-powerful and has

such joy in giving?”

There is so much in this Gospel passage; this is only a summary. So I have homework for you. One way to pray over a passage is to imagine yourself as one of the characters in the scene and then try to imagine what that person is thinking. Then apply that to your life. So this week, try to decide which person you might be in this episode of the Gospel.

Are you one of Jesus’ disciples? Annoyed that this woman, a pagan, is bothering Jesus? Are there people in the Church who are just too loud and bothersome? Or are they like this woman, an outsider, that you really wish would go away? Have I treated others suffering as a bother?

Are you the Canaanite woman? The Lord seems to be ignoring your prayer? Can you allow God to increase your faith by continuing to pray, continuing to trust that God is merciful, that God is Love? Is there someone in your life calling for help, asking you to be their advocate? How persistent are we in praying for loved ones?

Are you the sick daughter, unable to help yourself because of physical and/or spiritual illness?

Can you have the humility to accept that we sometimes have to depend on the intercession of others? That is a big part of the communion of the saints in the Church. You can pray for an advocate as assiduous as the Canaanite woman.

Can you identify with the Pharisees who clashed with Jesus immediately before this passage? Do you trust in your own worthiness? Can you instead accept that all of us are sinners, relying on the

mercy of God, and be content with the breadcrumbs from heaven, the bread of angels? Then there is Jesus. We can imagine ourselves as Jesus. He wants us to imitate Him so we can grow in His image. Can we have the wisdom to help others in the way they need? Can we extend grace to those who annoy us, even to our enemies? This passage shows Jesus helping a Canaanite, a traditional enemy of the Jews. What happens when an enemy approaches us? Jesus;

kingdom will expand to include all people, regardless of race or status. As Isaiah, prophecy in today’s first reading says, “For my house will be called the house of prayer for all peoples.”

Water symbolizes many things: life, cleansing, and chaos. In Genesis, the Spirit hovers over the waters expressing God's confident power over chaos. Later, the water washes away all sin, Noah and his family sail on the waters to restart mankind. The Israelites pass through the Red Sea they are surrounded by water which prefigures Baptism. When Israel enters into the promised land, the waters of the Jordan river are stopped by God to allow an easy entrance. A sign of Baptism which leads to the new promised land, the New Jerusalem.

In today's Gospel, the Apostles are on the open sea and Jesus walks out to them. Matthew tells us they are several miles out, so Jesus is not on some sand bar or on the shoreline covered with fog. It is the fourth watch; 3:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. It is always darkest before the dawn so it is the darkest part of the night. Frightened by the unexpected view, the followers assume it is a ghost. But Jesus says "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." The translation says, "it is I", but the original has Jesus saying. "Ego eimi "; I AM. Jesus is declaring He is the Eternal God.

Impetuous Peter needs proof. "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." And Jesus says, "Come" and Peter begins to walk on the water toward Jesus. His faith brings him to Jesus, but when he focuses on the surroundings, he sinks. In our faith, we are given a participation in the Divine life so can we have our lordship over evil if we keep God as the focus of our lives, rather than the culture around us.

When we look away to what frightens us, we lose God. Through Christ, we conquer everything. Graft yourself onto Him and you will make it. Peter, "you of little faith, why do you doubt?" There it is, little faith looks away from the source of power. "Let go; let God" and "all to Jesus, I surrender" take on a profound meaning. Lord, increase my faith!

After [Jesus and Peter] got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage. Homage here means they feel down and worshiped Jesus. And they say, "You are the Son of God." Jesus doesn't' stop them but accepts the praise.

Whenever we see the Apostles with Jesus connected with a boat in the Gospels, it represents the Church. In fact, and I've said this before, the place where you are sitting is called the nave, from the Lt. Navis meaning boat. The Church is the boat in which if we stay, and in that "boat" we will be safe from the world around us. Stay in the boat; stay in the Church and believe the great I AM Who tells you to not be afraid.

August 09 IXX Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings for this week speak of God’s saving presence among His people, our need for trusting Faith in our loving and providing God Who always keeps us company, and our need for prayer in storms of life.

The first reading shows us how Elijah the prophet who had defeated the 450 false priests of Baal with the help of just such a trusting Faith in the power of Yahweh, fled to the Lord God for help and strength on Mt Horeb, and encountered Him there in His mercy. 

In the second reading, Paul, addressing, the Romans laments and mourns over the Jews who, having lost their Faith in Yahweh and His prophets, had rejected their promised Messiah, Jesus. Paul tells us later (11:7-24), that God’s plan allowed the Jews to reject Jesus so that a few believers, like Paul, would be free to carry the Good News outside Judaism, evangelizing the Gentiles. 

The Gospel episode occurred during an unexpected storm on the Sea of Galilee in the early morning hours. As Jesus approached the apostles, miraculously walking on water, he allayed their fears by telling them, “It is I.” The Gospel episode also explains how Peter lost his trusting Faith in Jesus for a few seconds, and failed his attempt to walk on water, but was rescued when he called on Jesus for help.

1) We need to call Jesus in the storms facing the Church and our lives. Let us approach Jesus with strong Faith in his ability and willing availability to calm the storms in the life of the Church and in our lives. Church history shows us how Jesus saved his Church from the storms of persecution in the first three centuries, from the storms of heresies in the 5th and 6th centuries, from the storms of moral degradation and the Protestant reformation movement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and from the storms of sex abuse scandals of the clergy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is the presence of Jesus which gives us peace even in the wildest storms of life: the storms of anxiety and worry about the future we suffered during the Corona Virus Pandemic (Covid-19), storms of sorrow, storms of doubt, tension and uncertainty, storms of anger and despair, storms of temptations. Storms reveal to us our inability to save ourselves and point us to the Infinite ability and eagerness of God to save us. When Jesus shows up in our life’s storms, we find that we gain strength to do the seemingly impossible. When Jesus shows up, he invigorates, restores, and empowers us to reach the unreachable, to cross the un-crossable. Storms let us know that without him we can do nothing, without him we are doomed to fail. Yet, when Jesus shows up, we gain the strength to join Paul, saying, “In Christ I can do all things.” But this demands a personal relationship with God, with Jesus, enhanced through prayer, meditative study of Scripture and an active Sacramental life. Experiencing Jesus’ presence in our lives, let us confess our Faith in him and call out for his help and protection always.

2) We need to imitate the short prayer of sinking Peter: We are expected to pray to God every day with trusting Faith for the strengthening of our personal relationship with Him and for the courage and humility to acknowledge our complete dependence on Him for everything.  But when we have no time or mental energy for formal prayers, let us use the short prayers in the Gospels, like Peter’s prayer: “Lord, save me!” or the prayer of the mother of the possessed girl: “Lord, help me!” or the blind man’s prayer: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” or the sinner’s prayer: “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!” We get plenty of time during our travels to say the short prayers like the “Our Father”, “Hail Mary” and “Glory be….” We may begin every day offering all our day’s activities to God and asking for His grace to do His will and we may conclude every day before we go to sleep, by asking God’s pardon and forgiveness for our sins. Keeping a Bible on our table will encourage us to read at least a few words of the Bible and thus listen to what God is saying to us.

3) We should not limit God’s saving presence: There are those who would limit God’s presence for their own comfort or security or to keep themselves in power. In years past there were those who would deny God’s presence in slaves. There have been those who would ignore God’s presence in their enemies. There are those who would refuse to believe that God is present in the murderer sitting on death row, in those who are marginalized by our society: the gay person, the addict, the person living with AIDS, the gambler, the prostitute, the illegal alien, the handicapped, to name but a few. It is in situations like these that we have to get out of the boat, surprise others, and show them the reflection of God in such people. Let us always look for ways to be surprised by our God and opportunities to wake one another up to the beauty, the power and the nearness of our loving, providing and protecting God. Let us also pray for a deepening of God’s gift of Faith within us, that we may be able to recognize Him in the ordinary situations of our lives, and humbly pray to Him saying, “Lord, let us see Your kindness, and grant us Your salvation.” 

Jesus has moved to a deserted place.  The Greek used here is Eremos which means a desert. Go back to the Book of Exodus.  Remember the Israelites are in an Eremos, a desert. There, God provides manna; bread from heaven to feed the Jews on their journey to the Promised land.  The Manna is a limitless source, abundant. No one goes hungry and there is no charge; freely given; freely received. Today’s Gospel has Jesus in a desert and the multitudes are fed. No one goes hungry.  Freely given; freely received. 

Jesus is demonstrating parallels to the Old Testament.  Moses is rejected and faces many hardships. He is driven into the wilderness and God provides for sustenance. Jesus is also rejected, in the wilderness, and now He Himself; God, provides food; sustenance along the way. In both Exodus and our Gospel account, food is abundant. Jesus provides enough for everyone to eat and there is an abundance left over. At the Last Supper, we are given the Eucharist; the new food given to us in our wilderness and it is abundant; overflowing; freely given; freely accepted. 

Jesus has the people set down in groups of 50. It would be very difficult and timely to divide 5000 into groups of 50.  As a teacher, it was sometimes difficult to quiet down and organize a class of 30. This is an intentional move on Jesus’ part. Exodus 18:25 describes Moses choosing able men out of all Israel to rule over groups of a 1000, 100, and 50. These leaders, 12 in all, were from the 12 tribes of Israel demonstrating an image governance. Today’s Gospel show another 12, the Apostles, arranging groups.  The symbolism is the same: 12 judges ruling over groups of people who are now the new Israel.  Jesus is proclaiming himself as the Messiah; the new Moses leading his people to a new promised land, the Kingdom of God, setting up a hierarchy of the Church. In Revelation, the New Jerusalem is built on a foundation of 12 precious gemstones. 

Before all this starts, Jesus’ followers tell Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that they can go and fend for themselves.  Disperse the crowd; everyone for themselves; the language of sin. Sin is a division of us from God.  The Greek: diaskorpisi meaning to scatter from which we get the word diabolos; another name for Satan. Satan divides us. We are weaker, running away from God.  Jesus says, “no.” Keep together, even in the most difficult situation.

Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “give them some food yourselves.” How are they supposed to feed the multitudes?  They ask around and find what they do have: 5 loaves and 2 fish.  Jesus takes the little. He blesses and gives it to the hungry and there is more than enough. 12 baskets of food are left over; 12 representing governmental foundation. 

What does this mean to us today?  Do you see something that needs to be done?  What do I do about it? This needs to be corrected. That needs to be corrected. That’s wrong; this is wrong. What do I do about it? Jesus told the Apostles, “you give them something to eat”. But what can I do? Why doesn’t the Church, the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests do something?  NO, you feed them. Vatican II calls for not only the ordained, but the entire lay apostolate to work for and spread the love of Christ. Spend your life for what satisfies God.

Every major movement in the Church begins small before it grows big. St. Francis divests his wealth and goes it alone. Mother Teresa, a high school teacher, goes it alone. St. Francis Xavier

The common theme of today’s readings is the provident care of a loving and merciful God who generously shares His riches with us and invites us to practice His sharing love in our lives. 

After announcing the return of God’s chosen people to their homeland from Babylonian captivity, the prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, concludes his prophecies with God’s invitation to the eschatological banquet. The grace of God is compared to freely given food and drink.  Yahweh’s gracious invitation in the first reading is echoed in the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145), which reminds us, “The eyes of all look hopefully to You, and You give them their food in due season; You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”  In the second reading, Paul argues that, since God loves us, “nothing can come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus demonstrates the provident care of God the Father by miraculously feeding a multitude of listeners near a remote, desolate village called Bethsaida Julius, where the River Jordan still flows into the north end of the Sea of Galilee. In Matthew’s account, Jesus acts out of his great compassion for the crowds. First, he challenges the disciples to give what they have — five loaves and two fish. Then he performs the four-fold action that prefigures the Eucharist:  He takes, raising His eyes to Heaven blesses, breaks and gives the bread and fish to the assembled multitude, making of them a community of the Lord’s banquet. Just as God supplies the needs of all living beings, so Jesus, His Son, heals the sick and feeds the hungry.  This event indicates God’s power in Christ as well as His mercy.

1) “You give them something to eat.” Today’s readings tell us that God really cares about His people, and that there is enough and more than enough for everybody. Studies show that the world today produces enough food in grain alone to provide every human being on the planet with 3,600 calories a day. Over the past twenty-five years, food production has exceeded world population growth by about 16%.   This means that there is no good reason for any human being in today’s world to go hungry. 

It is too easy to blame God, too easy to blame governments, too easy to see these things as other people’s problems. They are also our problems. That is the meaning of the Eucharist we celebrate here today. In other words, as Christians we have to commit ourselves to share and to work with God in communicating His compassion to all. God is a caring Father, but He wants our co-operation. That’s what the early Christians did, generously sharing what they had with the needy.  They were convinced that everything they needed to experience a fulfilling life was already there, in the gifts and talents of the people around them. People of our time have to be encouraged to share, even when they think they have nothing to offer. Whatever we offer through Jesus will have a life-giving effect in those who receive it. We are shown two attitudes in John’s account (John 6:7-9) of the   Gospel story:  that of Philip and that of Andrew. Philip said, in effect: “The situation is hopeless; nothing can be done.”  But Andrew’s attitude was: “I’ll see what I can do, and I will trust Jesus to do the rest.”  Let us have Andrew’s attitude.

2) God blesses those who share their talents with loving commitment. This is illustrated by Mother Teresa who went to serve the slum-dwellers of Calcutta with just twenty cents in her pocket.  When she died forty-nine years later, God had turned her original twenty cents into eighty schools, three hundred mobile dispensaries, seventy leprosy clinics, thirty homes for the dying, thirty homes for abandoned children and forty thousand volunteers from all over the world to help her.  We can begin our own humble efforts at “sharing” right here in our parish by participating in the works of charity done by different organizations and volunteer groups. We may say, “I do not have enough money or talent to make any difference.”   But we need to remember that the desciples had only five loaves of bread and two fish.  The Bible guarantees that every believer has at least one gift from the Holy Spirit. This is our one “tiny fish.” Perhaps our “fish” is not money, but a talent or an ability that God has given us. We all have something. Let us offer everything to God saying, “Here is what I am and what I have Lord, and You have given me all of it, so I am yours: use me as You will, please” And He will, blessing and amplifying everything beyond our expectations.  As we begin to give, we will discover that the Lord “moves in” where we are not adequate, and He abundantly supplies what is needed. When we give all we have, to God, and we ask Him to bless it, it is then the miracle happens.

3) We need to nourish our souls with Jesus in Word and Sacrament. We nourish our souls with the Word of God (by listening to God through reading the Bible) and with the Bread of Life (by receiving Jesus in Holy Communion). We need to find time to be with Christ both in personal and family prayer, and in Adoration of the Eucharist whenever this is available. One way of listening to God is to read a passage in the Bible until it speaks to the heart, then stop to reflect on the message God is conveying to our hearts. The next step is to respond to God by prayer, which is talking to Him, as to a friend in conversation, telling Him everything and asking Him for whatever we need.

Jesus always speaks of elements of life in his time: sheep, shepherds, kings, authorities. In this parable, buried treasure would catch the interest of the listener because buried treasures were real.  Invading armies, packs of marauding thieves; when you heard they were coming, the obvious thing to do to protect your wealth was to bury it. Difficult to find. Difficult for the enemy to take your money. However, often, people could not return to the treasure. Their land was taken over and controlled by the invader. People died; treasures were forgotten, until someone in the future bought the property and perhaps started tilling the ground. A treasure was found.  Immediately follows the parable of the precious pearl. Pearls were very expensive at the time of Jesus, everyone knew this. They were difficult to obtain. 

Parables describe concepts and they always have a twist. The twist here is what would a practical outcome of finding a treasure be. So what would you do if you found a treasure? I’d keep it to sell and advance my wealth. I wouldn’t sell everything I had to buy one other single item. So you see a man on the street with tattered clothes and apparently homeless; you ask how he’s doing, and says,” I’m fine; I’ve got my pearl.” But that’s really what Jesus is saying, Jesus, “be foolish in the eyes of the world. Nothing matters but the one thing: The Kingdom of Heaven.”; the relationship with Jesus.’ That’s the treasure. That’s the pearl. 

Jesus is telling us that we can’t just take the Kingdom; you can’t steal the Kingdom or just buy the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is offered to us, never imposed, but offered. And it’s often presented in a surprising way; like a treasure you stumble onto. Sometimes, God’s great “Treasure” comes to us in some unexpected way: God breaks into our lives and experiences when perhaps, we don’t expect, or perhaps when we most are in need. Maybe a great tragedy pulls us to the love of God or we’re smacked in the face with God’s plan for us that we never saw coming. The most striking example may be Saul on the way to Tarsus. Struck off his horse and wrenched into the Kingdom of God. We may find God on the way; some at the moment of death. But when we have that treasure, nothing should take it away from us. Wealth, power, pleasure. Nothing keeps us from the treasure or relinquishing the precious pearl. We should give up everything to hold on to the great “Treasure”. What would it profit us to gain the world and loose our soul?

Now, after all I’ve said, there is another way to see that great treasure/the precious pearl. Think about this: we are the pearl/the treasure; you are that treasure. Jesus is always searching for us, seeking us, inviting us and calling us to himself. We are hidden in the dirt; our sin. Jesus finds us and what price does he pay for us?  He gave everything for us, even his life. 

All of us are precious in the eyes of God. Made in his image and likeness, we are each a great treasure. If we see the treasure as something we find, don’t let it go. If we see ourselves as the great treasure, remember that we deposit our true wealth into the hands of God. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus concludes a long series of parables about the Kingdom, or Reign of God by praising those wise men and women who have listened carefully, understood and responded to his message. 

The first reading tells us how the young King Solomon opted for the great treasure of accepting God to rule his life and then doing God’s will. That is why he asked of God “an understanding heart” “to distinguish right from wrong,” so that he might govern God’s people properly. Yahweh was pleased with his request and granted him “a wise and discerning heart” which enabled him to surpass everyone in wisdom. In today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 119), the psalmist says of the commands of God, “For I love Your commands more than gold however fine. For in all Your precepts, I go forward; every false way I hate,” thus showing real Wisdom.  

In the second reading, Paul teaches that the wisdom to perceive God’s grace is essential for those who want to follow Him and to do His will, thus remaining in His kingdom. He assures the Christian community of Rome, that “all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). 

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us that God’s Kingdom (the rule of God in us, established by accepting Jesus as our God and Savior, putting our Faith in God and doing His will), is something of extraordinary value, like a hidden treasure or costly pearl. Possessing that treasure demands from us a total commitment if we are to preserve it. The Kingdom of God is God’s reign in our hearts, in our lives, in our homes, in our society, and in our world. Only those who develop searching minds and are willing to give up everything for the great treasure of God’s Kingdom will be rewarded. Through the first and second parables, of the treasure and the pearl, Jesus teaches us that identifying God’s will and living according to the Gospel, both with His help, are the most precious and worthwhile things in life.  Through Jesus and his Gospel, we come to know and understand the real meaning of life and the most important things we must do to secure our eternal salvation.

1) We should live every moment in view of our precious goal. Most of the time, we are chasing false treasures such as money, status or pleasure.  Often, we are locked into regrets over the past, or focused too much on the future.  As a result, the enriching present passes us by, and the treasure is never discovered.  Thus, the really valuable pearl of sharing in God’s life through Jesus here on earth and later in Heaven is never found. Let us always remember that Heaven is within the reach of all of us who try to do the will of God, following the ordinary vocations of life and enjoying this world’s joys and pleasures within the framework of God’s Commandments. Right now, it is for us to use the time given to us to go in search of the pearl of great price and to help others in their search. We are challenged to search and discern where the Lord is calling us so that we may know what path to take.  Let us remember that whenever we fight against discrimination, whenever we trust completely in God, whenever our selflessness conquers selfishness, whenever our love overcomes sin and our Faith overcomes suffering, whenever we render humble service to others, we are doing the will of God as it is done in Heaven. Hence, we are already living in the Kingdom of Heaven while we are still on earth. The pearl of great price in this life is also found in our human relationships: a happy family, good friends, and people who love and accept us, even if neither we nor they are perfect. We must give all we have to possess this great pearl because, through selfishness and self-worship, we can destroy entirely the bond of love joining us to God and each other, a bond    that otherwise would flourish, surviving in spite of sickness, disease or geographical distance, and growing stronger when death divides us.

2) We need to take all precautions to keep our greatest treasure safe: We will be able to keep safe the treasure of our personal relationship with Jesus by accepting him every day as our God and Savior, by allowing him to have total control over our lives through our loving obedience to his will, and by asking him daily for the strengthening and guidance of his Holy Spirit. We do this by talking to him daily in prayer, by listening to him in our meditative reading of the Bible, by getting reconciled to him and others every day, asking pardon and forgiveness for our sins, by offering Him our lives on the altar during the Holy Mass, and by nourishing our souls frequently, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion and staying with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist in Adoration at other times.

3) We need to learn the lesson of the dragnet: This parable offers us a lesson in patience and compassionate understanding. In this, it resembles the parable of the weeds growing up with the wheat, for both parables teach us that the kingdom is a mixed body of saints and sinners (wheat and weeds; good and bad fish).  There will be always a temptation for those who feel they are more “faithful” to separate themselves from the “weeds”/” bad fish.”  But Jesus reminds us that the final judgment resulting in reward or punishment is God’s work.  Thus, we must   learn to be patient, compassionate, non-judgmental, and understanding with those who seem to us to fall far below the requirements of the Gospel and the Kingdom.  Let us humbly admit the fact that only Jesus, Who is True God and True Man, and our Blessed Mother, simply human (though Immaculately conceived and remaining sinless throughout her life), are not mixtures of good and evil! For the rest of us, the good we do is the result of God’s work within us, while we are responsible for the evil. Let us gratefully declare as St. Paul did, “I am what I am with the grace of God” (1Cor. 16:10).

July 19 XVI Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings tell us about a very patient and compassionate God Who is hopeful that the so-called “weeds” among us will be converted, and that we should not be in a hurry to eliminate such elements from the Church, or society, or the family, on the basis of unwarranted and/or hasty judgment.  

The first reading gives us a picture of a merciful and patient God rather than the strict, angry, punishing God presented in the book of Genesis. The Refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 85) has us singing, “Lord, you are Good and forgiving!”   The second reading reminds us that the Spirit of God goes on empowering us in our weakness, and, hence, we should be patient with ourselves, as well as with others.  

Today’s Gospel contains three parables, namely the Parable of the mustard seed, Parable of the yeast and the Parable of the wheat and weed. The parables of the mustard seed and yeast tell us how God’s kingdom, or His rule, grows in the human heart and in human lives from a very small beginning to fulness, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The long form of today’s Gospel contains the Parable of the wheat and the weeds, an agricultural parable with allegoric interpretation. Through this parable, Jesus assures us that we are the field of God. We are the ground He works, as well as the plants He nurtures. We are the people He rests His hopes upon, and the people in whom He plants good seed.  We are the congregation He anoints with the Holy Spirit.  In today’s parable, Jesus presents a wise and patient God Who allows the good and the evil to coexist in the world, so that the evil ones may come to conversion before their time ends and God must punish them.  “Let the wheat and the weeds [darnel] grow together till the harvest time.” 

God gives all of us sinners ample time to repent, and, with His grace, change our lives. God calmly recognizes that there is evil in the world, but He sees that evil as no excuse for the good people not to do good with the power of God at their disposal.  Through the Parable of the wheat and the weeds in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to be patient with those who fail, or seem to fail, to meet the high ethical standard expected of a Christian. The parable tries to teach the need for patience, and the acceptance of God’s judgment to the Judeo-Christian community as well as to His Church and to us, His members. The parable also encourages us, when we discover sin and weakness within ourselves, to open ourselves more and more to the unfailing Mercy of God’s forgiving Love.

1) We need to practice patience.  First, we need to be patient with ourselves.  We may not get everything done perfectly this week, but so what?  Then we must be patient with others – those who annoy us by the way they drive their cars, those whose opinions differ from ours, those who make too much noise and disturb us, and those who make our spiritual progress more difficult by their bad example and counter-witnessing.  Let’s practice patience, remembering that, in the end, it is God who controls.  Let us patiently and lovingly treat the “weeds” in our society, not as weeds, but as our brothers and sisters and do all in our power to put them back on the right road to Heaven, especially by our good example and our fervent prayer for their conversion.

2) We need allow God to judge us and others as “weeds” or wheat: This parable was told so that we might not go around judging others as “weeds” or wheat.  Judgment is the prerogative of God alone. Instead, the parable asks us to take a close look at our own life with the understanding that, with God’s grace, one can judge one’s own heart, then repent and bear good fruit.  It is a time to look at our own sins and at the way we conduct our own life, then to make a decision about our own repentance so that, with God’s grace, we can turn around and bear fruit for Jesus.

3) We need to grow up as healthy wheat in God’s field, leaving the “weeds” for Jesus to take care of.  We live in a violent and impassioned culture.  Christians often appear self-righteous, suggesting that those who disagree with them are the “weeds” in the garden of life.  Some they judge as “too radical” and others as too “old-fashioned” and “traditional.”  Some they judge as holding embracing doctrinal errors, others not having any doctrine at all.  Some they condemn for not caring for the poor, others, for caring for them too much.  We often forget that appearances can be deceptive.  The old saying, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck,” may be true in the secular realm, but not in the Kingdom of God.  If one does not talk like a Christian, sing like a Christian, etc. it doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is not a real Christian.  While we do our best to exercise right judgment as to what is or isn’t correct (Jn 13:35; I Jn 2:5, 3:10), the final determination will be made by God.  Evil will coexist with good until the second coming of Jesus.  In the end, it’s enough to know that we are “seeds” who have been planted by the “Son of Man,” and that we’re part of a healthy harvest that will someday be reaped by the angels of God.

If the master in the parable, is the Lord, Satan is our enemy and the weeds are the sons of darkness and the wheat are the sons of light (as depicted by Jesus in the longer form of this gospel), then it reveals the timeless story of how Satan seeks to ruin the master’s crop, not just in Jesus day, but in our time, at Nativity and throughout the global church.

What does it say about the enemy, that he plants his seeds while everyone is sleeping? It is that he is most effective when operating outside of our awareness. Having no desire to provoke us into calling upon the Lord for intervention, Satan prefers imitation over confrontation.

The weeds referred to in the gospel, we know today as a type of rye grass called darnel. It appears identical to wheat until the time of harvest, when the weeds turn black, while the wheat remains a golden brown. Wheat is nutritious but darnel, if consumed, will result in illness and even death. Satan is not going to tempt you by saying: “Why don’t you do something bad today”. He’s going to portray something bad as being something good and only natural.

The greatest threat to the Church has never come from outside of the Church; it has always come from inside the Church. Under the persecution of the Roman emperor Diocletian, the church grew by 40%! 

What we are witnessing today, is the infiltration of the weeds of a toxic theology, on a massive   scale. The theology of moral relativism. If Pew Research is correct, then a shocking 54% of mainline protestants and 53% of Catholics believe that right and wrong depend entirely on the situation rather than clear, absolute standards!

When we hear that whether or not sexual activity, be it same sex or heterosex (outside of a marriage between one man and one woman), is a sin or not a sin, depends upon if the couple are in a committed, loving relationship, this is moral relativism. We hear charismatic personalities, in positions of leadership in the church, using their positions to advance this agenda on YouTube and social media. They tell us that they are not opposing scripture or the teachings of the church. But those who research scripture and the catechism quickly find that what they are telling you is completely disingenuous. They are mouthing words that more closely resemble those of the sons of darkness rather than from the sons of light. Ask them to show you where they are getting all of this and they will respond from the philosophy of the secular fundamentalists, not from scripture or church teaching.

What’s our response to all of this? How do we avoid entangling ourselves with the roots of the weeds? How do we ensure we are promoting the theology of the good wheat? First of all, do not allow someone to guilt you off of your base, by telling you that you are a fundamentalist, judgemental and un-Christ-like, because you stand on the orthodoxy of scripture and Church teaching. Know your faith! Stay under the safety of the three-legged stool of scripture, tradition and the magisterium. Live it out and you will find yourself growing with the wheat, ready to be harvested and carried into the master’s barn, when your time comes.

Today’s gospel compels us to discern the difference between the sons of darkness and the sons of light. Some people will ask: “Aren’t you being judgmental when you say that?”.  They need to ask themselves what it means when Jesus said: “Judge righteous judgment”. There are two kinds of judgment: evaluative and discriminatory. Evaluative is forming a judgement about whether a particular behavior is right or wrong. Discriminatory judgment is about judging a person' s worth, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, which is above our pay grade!

The purpose of the parable is to raise our awareness of the enemy’s strategy, so as to overcome and not be sleepwalking through life.  In the words of the great general, Sun Tzu:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

In today's Gospel, like last week, we talk about plants and farming. This week, we are with a farm estate owner who has a problem. He has had his field planted with wheat, but an unfriendly person has sabotaged it by scattering weed seeds. Now what? There are at least six major weeds that look like wheat. If one of those, it is going to be hard to tell wheat from weed. Also, if the weed is darnel, then it is toxic and could be trouble if milled with the wheat crop. 

I know hardly anything about farming. Also, any plant I take care of has a short lifespan, but to me, quick action is a good plan. Like the servants in the story, I would get rid of the weeds asap. But the field owner has a curious plan: let both grow, since uprooting the weeds might also uproot the wheat. 

Of course, this is a parable, a word picture, and not a farming lesson. Jesus gives everyone's identities a few verses later in the chapter. The farm is the world or the Church. The owner is our Lord. The enemy is the devil, the enemy of all humanity. 

This parable is unique to Matthew, and perhaps we need to let it sit in our minds and germinate like the seeds in the ground in the story. It is annoying to think that bad and hypocritical people exist in the church, and God doesn’t destroy them. Until the very end, the Kingdom of God and the world will contain weedy people, and we must live with them. 

 But consider that God took a risk to plant the Kingdom. Before he made us, there were only angels in the Kingdom, no weedy humans. God counsels us to be patient with the weeds; He has been patient with humanity far longer. Creating the field of the world made Him open to an attack from the evil one, though the demonic corruption of us. Eventually, God made himself vulnerable by becoming a human through the incarnation.  Notice that the Evil One doesn’t have his own field; he must mar the Lord’s field. According to Saint Augustine, this is part of the basic nature of evil. Evil cannot create; only God creates. Evil is parasitic on the good. Evil takes what is good and twists it to evil’s ends.  Evil is, in the end, only destruction and emptiness.

But still, the question is, why doesn't God purge the Church and the world of evil people? Uproot the weeds, right? Perhaps it will cause some damage, but at least the Church would be pure.

It's been tried before and doesn’t work. First, weeds can turn into wheat. Saint Paul was a persecutor of the Church. He wasn’t “Saint” Paul but Saul until the Lord turned him. The first part of Mary Magdalen’s life was bad, until she met Jesus. Zacchaeus, the tax collector for the Romans, cheated and defrauded until he met Jesus. The good thief was a weed until the very last moments on the cross when he talked to Jesus. Blessed Matthew Talbot was an Irishman who lived from 1856 to 1925.  He was an Irish dock worker, an alcoholic, and a thief from the age of twelve. When he was twenty-eight, he pledged never to drink alcohol again, and he kept that pledge for the next forty years, until his death. He spent those forty years practicing self-denial, working hard, paying back his debts, giving everything he had to the poor, sleeping on nothing but a wooden plank, and praying for several hours a day. 

Second, we don’t know the total effect of the weeds. There may be connections we cannot see. For example, their children and /or grandchildren may be great saints. 

Third, those who are wheat at points may become weeds later. Benedict Arnold, before his name became synonymous with treason, was a great American general and patriot. 

Fourth, people we think are wheat may be weeds. Evil is deceptive. Consider Dr. Harold Shipman, an English family physician. He was beloved and trusted by his patients, yet he became one of history’s most prolific serial killers, murdering some of those under his care. Even after he was exposed, some of his patients still believed in him.

So the best plan for us is not to try to classify people, but to make sure, as much as we can, that we are wheat and we help others to be wheat. We pray that in the harvest at the end of the world, we are in the right bundle. 

Isaiah says today that God’s word is efficacious.  Everything was made for the Word, through the Word, for the Word. Whatever God says, it is true; things happen. Let there be light: there is light. When Jesus, says this is my Body; my Blood, it is. What God says comes to be.  God casts the seeds of His word to everyone. He loves everyone. Everyone gets the seeds. 

We all are born with a natural faith, hope and love. But supernatural Faith is a gift from God.  We can’t force ourselves to believe what we can’t see. Our perfect example, the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  And, people have different levels of faith. But we can pray for an increase of faith. Jesus tells us today our faith is cast out and how we let it die on the vine or grow and produce fruit. 

If you were to see a field planted today, you would see a machine making perfect holes, at perfect depths to place one seed. It’s efficient. Every seed has the same opportunity as its neighbor. But Faith is different. At the time of Jesus, the normative planting involved grabbing a hand full of seed and casting it out. Surely a farmer would try to have all seeds on good ground but where it landed could be affected by wind or error. Where the seed landed determined the growth of the plant. Rich, dark soil and proper moisture? Success! Rocky outgrowth and scorching heat? Failure. 

For us, what are the seeds? The word of God. It comes to everyone. The rain falls on the good and the bad; everyone. And so does the love of God; the words of God. Faith comes to us and it is up to us to increase or decrease so as to die on the vine. The open heart with its love? Success! A closed mind wrapped up in the world? Failure!

We can take the seeds of faith and let them flourish in us 100 fold or ignore the faith given us and let it die of atrophy; uncaringness. But we all have the opportunity. God loves us all. Life is His gift to us. What we do with our lives, is our gift to God. When a flower grows from a single seed it blooms and produces many more seeds. Each Zinnia flower can produce hundreds of Zinnia seeds. We can scatter them and grow more Zinnias or tear out the old flowers to produce nothing more. Our faith produces more when we care for what we have received and we can produce many more seeds. Give a seed to someone else. Maybe they’ll care for it and plant a Zinnia or throw it away. Whatever they decide to do is not up to us. But we did give them the seed. 

Maybe part of the happiness of Heaven is to see all those seeds painting a beautiful image of God to make us happy forever. 

We all realize the sad truth that only a few professing Christians are really living productive spiritual lives. Hence, today’s readings invite us to take a positive and optimistic view of the missionary efforts we make, and to continue to bear witness to Christ’s Gospel through our transparent Christian lives, instead of turning cynical and becoming depressed. 

In the first reading, Isaiah, in the midst of a desert, can feel sure of the approach of spring for his people. Like Isaiah, all religious reformers confidently depend on the power of God’s word. In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us that suffering is part of creation (seeds must fall into the earth and die in order to produce a fruitful life) and suffering and death produce redemption. Paul is expectantly waiting for his eternal reward, as he has sowed the word of God diligently and suffered for the Lord. 

Today’s Gospel assures us that, since God is in charge, He will bring the harvest, and it will be abundant. We need not despair if that harvest is not immediately visible. The Church in every century has seen people reject Christ, as illustrated in the Parable of the Sower. — The parable tells us to do our part by preparing fertile soil in our hearts for the word of God to yield 30-, 60- or 100-fold. We are to imitate the farmer who loses no sleep over a few seeds eaten by birds or a few suffocated seedlings. He knows well that the harvest will depend on the quality of the soil and the care and attention the seed receive.

The word “parable” comes from the Greek word parabole, which means putting two things side by side in order to confront or compare them.  And that is exactly how Jesus uses parables:  He places a simile from life or nature against the abstract idea of the reign of God. Jesus’ parable of the seed sown in various soil types was an attempt to boost the morale of his frustrated disciples. They were upset and discouraged because they realized that their master was facing opposition and hostility from the scribes, Pharisees and priests. The synagogues refused to admit him to preach. So, Jesus had to go to beaches and hillsides. Some of the Pharisees were planning to trap him, and the common people were more interested in his ability to heal them than in his preaching.  Using the parable of the sower in today’s Gospel, Jesus assured his confused disciples that the “Good News” he preached would produce the intended effect in spite of opposition and controversy. Matthew may have included this parable in his Gospel, because his own Judeo-Christian community had experienced similar adverse reactions from their fellow-Jews, just as people today are frustrated in their attempt to live the Gospel in our consumerist, hedonist, secularist, materialist, atheistic/agnostic society.

1) The questions we need to ask ourselves are: Am I merely hearing God’s word without understanding it? Does God’s word meet with a hard heart in me?  Am I too anxious about money, security, provision for retirement or old age?  Is God’s word taking root in me? Converting me? Transforming me? Enabling me to sacrifice? And what about the “fruits” that we are being invited to produce:   justice and mercy, hospitality for the immigrant, the dispossessed, the unborn, the single mothers?  By refusing to consider these things, we may be missing the healing that the Word of God can bring into our lives. The parable of the sower challenges us to see how deeply the word of God has taken root in our lives, and how central God is to the very fabric of our day-to-day life.  Jesus also invites his followers to embrace the Faith of the sower: to trust and believe that our simplest acts of kindness and forgiveness, our humblest offers of help to anyone in need, may be the seeds that fall “on good soil” and yield an abundant harvest.

2) What kind of soil are we?  How do we respond to the Word of God and to the various Acts of God in our lives? Do we allow the trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us?  Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers?  Do we decide, because things are not working out the way we think they ought, that God doesn’t care for us, or that He is powerless, weak, and not to be heeded? Do we allow the cares of this world, our ambitions, or our desires for success and happiness, to choke out the messages that God sends us through the various events of our daily lives and through the various people we encounter? Our response to the Word of God is the key to how fruitful the Gospel is going to be in our lives. Unlike the situation in nature, we can, as it were, change the kind of soil that we are. God allows the seed to land on the hard paths, on the rocky ground, and in the thickets of our lives in the hope that in those places it will find a place to mature and bear fruit, that those things which impede growth will be removed, and that the soil may be just a little deeper than it at first appears to be in those rocky places. Jesus challenges us in the parable of the sower to sow seeds of encouragement, joy, and reconciliation regardless of the “soil” on which it is scattered, and to imitate the seed’s total self-giving that becomes the harvest of Gospel justice and mercy.

What is it like to have Christ as a King?   All the readings address this directly or indirectly. 

The Old Testament reading today is from Zechariah. Jesus used this book quite often as a reference to His earthly mission. The prophet is telling us about a return of a Davidic king who would bring peace to the nations. Kingship is a major theme throughout scripture. We can think of Adam as a king; the king of the garden. His fault was bad kingship leading to the Fall. 

Going forward, there is a constant looking for a substitute; a new Adam who would unite the nations and bring peace. David show promise in the unification of the Jews and a time of peace. The Old Testament figure of Nathan tells us that the kingship of David would last forever. But by the time of Zechariah, this seems lost. But hope continued for some type of successor of David to bring peace. 

Zechariah tells us to, “Shout for joy Jerusalem. Your king shall come to you; a just savior will come to you”. 

In your heart do you feel the need for someone to rescue you? To rescue us?    We see the news and a world in chaos, pestilence, famine, war, family dysfunction. In your heart can you see the desire for someone who will be a just savior, a healer who will end the error and rule in peace? 

Zechariah continues, “He will come in peace on a colt, the fold of an ass.”  Humility?  No.   A king at war would be on a horse but a king coming in peace, would be astride an ass, particularly a white one as a symbol of peace.  Here is Jesus with His entry in Jerusalem. This new savior will banish the chariot and the horse and the warrior’s task will be banished or in our language, nuclear bombs will be eliminated, the wars will cease, the need for soldiers will leave. 

In the broken world or the failure of King Adam, it’s always been a violent king overthrowing a violent king. Might makes right, intimidation and threats which mold our world. 

Zechariah is envisioning a new concept.  A peaceful figure.  We see Jesus, the Healer entering on the ass as a peaceful king introducing a new way of ordering things. Then we see, the new way through the cross. He submits to the violence of the world and the whole of human darkness and dysfunction. He swallows it up in divine mercy. His resurrection shows us a new Kingship. He didn’t overcome with violence. He works His way through violence and His resurrection shows us a peaceful road. Peace is the lasting sinew that will hold all together. 

Come to me, all you who are labored and are burdened and I will give you rest. Who?  All of us live in a broken world from the original sin; I hate you, you hate me, family against family, retribution, vengeance. This is our world’s labor and burden. That’s our burden.   Economic injustice, fear of death, illness? Come to Him. His new way of ordering without fighting against but relinquishing ourselves to Jesus. We are seen as an ox, a beast of burden, we serve the purposes of the new King. We go where He wants to go. Do what He wants to do.  The Lord of your house, your professional life, your recreation, every room in your house. Do my friendships belong to him, is my life under His command? 

When we submit ourselves to the discipline of Jesus, His way, we are not held captive to the old order. 

He is the King; He comes in peace. Submit to Him. Conversion to the Kingdom as we enter inter Jerusalem to build a peaceable kingdom. The city of God, not man.  By letting Him lead us yoked to Him, we find our only peace in the world. 

July 05  XIV Sunday in Ordinary Time

During the U. S. Independence Day celebrations yesterday, you probably heard all or part of Emma Lazarus’ poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores! Send these, the homeless tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door!” Today’s readings, especially the Gospel, give the same message in a more powerful way: “Take my yoke . . . and you will find rest.”

In the first reading, the prophet Zechariah consoles the Jews living in Palestine under Greek rule, promising them a “meek” Messianic King of peace riding on a donkey, who will give them rest and liberty. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145) praises and thanks a kind and compassionate God Who “raises up those who are bowed down” under heavy yokes.

In the second reading, Paul tells the first-century Christian community in Rome about two yokes, namely, the “flesh” and the “Spirit,” and he challenges them to reject the heavy, fatal yoke of the flesh and accept the light, life-supporting yoke of the Spirit of Jesus. Christian spirituality, according to Paul, proceeds from the initiative of the Holy Spirit and means living in the realm of the “Spirit” as opposed to the “flesh.”

In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus is condemning intellectual pride.  He knows that ordinary people with large, sensitive hearts can accept the “Good News” he preaches, while proud, intellectuals cannot. Jesus says that such people will inherit Heaven, rather than the learned and the “wise” who pride themselves on their intellectual achievements but do not love.

In the second part, Jesus offers rest to those “who labor and are burdened,” IF they will accept his “easy yoke and light burden.” By declaring that his “yoke is easy,” Jesus means that whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly. Again Jesus claims: “My burden is light” (11:30). Jesus does not mean that the burden is easy to carry, but that it is laid on us in love. This burden is meant to be carried in love, and love makes even the heaviest burden light. When we remember the love of God for us, when we know that our burden is to love God, the God Who has loved us first, and to love our brothers and sisters, then the burden becomes easy. 

Jesus is returning to the simplicity of God’s original Covenant and Law, giving people what they need to guide them easily on their path.  By following Jesus, one will find peace, rest, and refreshment. Although we are not overburdened by the Jewish laws, we are overburdened by business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age and a thousand other worrying things. Jesus’ concern for our burdens is as real as his concern for the law-burdened Jews of his day.   “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest” (11:28). Jesus still gives us rest! Is Jesus calling on those who are carrying heavy loads to come and add a yoke to their burden? Doesn’t that sound like adding affliction to the afflicted? No! Jesus is asking us to cast away our burdens and take on his yoke. This is because, unlike the burdens we bear, his yoke is easy and his burden light. The yoke of Jesus is the love of God — His for us and ours for Him. By telling us: “Take my yoke . . . and you will find rest” (11:29), Christ is asking us to do things the Christian way. When we center in God, when we follow God’s commandments, we have no heavy burdens.

1) We need to unload our burdens on the Lord. This “unloading” is the main purpose of our personal and family prayers and is one of the functions of Divine Worship in the Church. During our daily prayers in the evening, we ask God’s forgiveness for the sins and failures of day and receive the consoling assurance that we are reconciled with God and our fellow human beings. During the Holy Mass in our parish Church, we place our stress-filled lives on the altar and allow Jesus to cool down the overheated radiators of our hectic lives. We also unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them and ourselves to God during the Holy Mass.

2) We need to be freed from unnecessary burdens: Jesus lays the light burden of his Commandment of Love on us and yokes us with himself, giving us his strength through the Holy Spirit to fulfill that Commandment. Jesus is also interested in lifting from our backs the burdens that suck the life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own yoke that brings to us and to others through us, new life, new energy, and new joy. We are called, not only to find peace, refreshment, and rest for ourselves, but also to live the kind of life through which others, too, may find God’s peace, God’s refreshing grace, and the joy of placing their lives in God’s hands.

Today, Jesus is giving us conditions for being a disciple. In Matthew 10:37-42 we heard, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,

and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” You have to hate your parents, wife, brothers, sisters and even yourself to be my disciple. Luke 14:25-33 says the same time. 

It’s written in Greek, do the words mean the same?  Greek: Miseo (hate) means hate to us today. And it is usually the opposite of sacrificial love:  Greek: Agape. However, in Luke 5:32-25, Jesus says if you love only your family, what good is that, even sinners do that. You must love your enemies. Why the contradiction.?  Love your enemies but hate your family? 

Jesus uses the literary device of hyperbole often to make a point. Remember Mark 9:45-47 where Jesus says, if your hand offends you, cut it off?  Then again, in the Matthew 23:8-10, call no man father, teacher or master, you have one teacher in Heaven, God. He does this to make a point and also help us to remember what was said. The shock value helps people remember and then repeat this to others. The commandments say honor your father and mother. Jesus is exaggerating to make a point. 

God is Truth itself. God is the good, itself. God is Justice. God is Being. The one thing God cannot be, since he is God, is secondary to anything else. St. Anselm’s definition of God? “That of which nothing greater can be thought. “He must be central to me, central to everything I am. If I love something more than God, then it is not God; it is an idol. If anything is more important than God, then God is not God. Augustine tells us he loves others more truly, when he loves them for the sake of God. Anselm’s definition of God? “. If I love something more than God, then it is not God; it is an idol. 

If I do not situate love correctly, our personal love relationships can become skewed.  I love because of something I get out of the person or thing I love. I love you for what you can do for me. That sort of secondary love of people and things can become twisted into dominance of the other, selfishness, jealousy.  I want my child to be like me, or I’ll be upset. I want my spouse to behave this way or that way, or it upsets me.  Or, perhaps someone I love disappoints me and I turn away in hurt. There is no room for any of this in the love of God for us and when we love others for his sake. We love deeper, stronger, more fulfilled. I love them so much as to let them go and be free for their call of discipleship. I don’t cling to them.  Love is to set free and not for my selfish purposes. My vocation, my work, whatever that work is, grows in dignity if we work for the sake of God. 

In my daily prayers, several times, I am presented with words telling me to not be discouraged because of lack of results; God is in charge. With that in mind, conversely, I should not rejoice in my results. God is the one in charge. God brings people. Not me. God changes hearts. Not me. I will be a better priest, a better Christian, a better person if I situate my love for everyone and everything else in the context of loving God first; loving God more. 

That’s why we say Love God first, then Love Others and then Make Disciples. 

June 28 XIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

The common theme of today’s readings is the witnessing mission given to Christ’s followers to love God and our brothers and sisters through hospitality, generosity, commitment in humble service, and the practice of corporal and spiritual works (acts) of mercy (charity). The readings also remind us of the sacrifice demanded of Jesus’ disciples and the suffering they will endure for their Faith when they bear witness to Jesus.

In our first reading, we see, in Elisha’s welcome by a childless woman and her husband who lived in Shunem. The woman recognized the holiness of Elisha. She showed him reverence and hospitality by inviting him to dine with her and her husband and by setting aside and furnishing an upper room of her house for the prophet to occupy whenever he should come to town.  In grateful response, Elisha promised her, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” The promise was fulfilled by God Who reminds us in the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 89) “My mercy [kindness] is established forever,” for He always keeps His promises; to this the Psalmist refers as he sings, “The promises of the Lord I will sing forever, / through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.” 

The second reading, taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans, reminds the Roman Christians, and us, that by Baptism we have been baptized into Jesus’ death, buried with him, and now look forward to resurrection with him (Rom 6:5). As Jesus died to sin, we, too, must be dead to sin and “live for God in Christ Jesus.” Because Baptism is our entrée into this new life in which we are made part of the Body of Christ, and Christ is truly present in us, the one who welcomes us welcomes Christ and becomes eligible for a reward. Thus, those who care for the followers of Jesus are caring for Jesus himself, and those who show hospitality to any one of them are eligible for a reward.

Today’s Gospel lesson concludes Jesus’ great “missionary discourse” in which he instructs his twelve disciples on the cost and the reward of the commitment required for being a disciple. In the first half of these sayings, Jesus details the behavior expected of the disciples, while the second half speaks of the behavior expected of others toward the disciples. Even Jesus’ shameful death on the cross is not too high a price to pay if one is to be a true disciple because the reward is so great. Jesus assures his disciples that whoever shows them hospitality will be blessed. Those who receive Jesus receive the One who sent him. So, too, those who help the “little ones” (messengers) will be amply rewarded. Jesus ate with sinners throughout His earthly ministry. He received children gladly. He taught us to invite the lowly to parties and to welcome strangers. He prepared breakfast for His wayward disciples, including Judas who had betrayed Him. Jesus ate with the Emmaus disciples after His resurrection. Before His departure, Jesus said He was going to “prepare a place” for His people. Jesus also instituted the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist, giving new meaning to the Passover meal, and told us that He will drink it again with us when “the kingdom of God comes.”

We need to be hospitable: Christ comes to our door in many disguises. Hospitality means encountering the hidden presence of God in others, usually where we least expect to find Him, and serving Him there by the loving service we give to the person. The virtue of hospitality is the virtue of recognizing and nourishing the presence of God in others.  As a community, we are to look for opportunities to be hospitable — and, of course, there are many ways of offering hospitality.  Maybe we offer hospitality simply by offering a stranger a kind word or a smile. When we live in such a busy and hectic world, we tend to brush off people who need help. A kind smile or a “hello” to someone waiting with us in a grocery line may be the only kindness that person encounters all day.  In a cold and inhospitable world, a caring person becomes an oasis of encouragement and companionship.

Materialism and consumerism dominate our lives and turn our homes into isolated fortresses with iron gates, intruder alarms, and surveillance cameras.   Society believes in competition, power, influence, and success. Jesus’ argument is that when we work hard to ensure that everyone has enough, there will be enough for us, too. Hence, the questions we should ask are, “Am I living my life at the expense of others?”  “Am I trying to live in solidarity with others?” and “Am I aware of people in my area who are in real need?” In the words of Mother Teresa, “The Gospel is written on your fingers.” Holding up her fingers, one at a time, she accented each word: “You-Did-It-To-Me.” Mother Teresa then added: “At the end of your life, your five fingers will either excuse you or accuse you of ‘doing it unto the least of these.’”

We become fully alive as Christians through the generous giving of ourselves. What is more important than the sending of checks for charitable causes is the giving of ourselves to people, primarily in the way we think about them, for from that spring will flow the ways we speak to them and about them, forgive their failings, encourage them, show them respect, console them, and offer them help. Such generosity reflects warmth radiating from the very love of God.

The main theme of today’s readings is that we are commissioned, or sent, to transform others with the “Good News” of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation through Jesus, His Incarnate Son.

The first reading gives Israel the good news that the God of Mount Sinai loves and cares for his people. God showed His continuing care for Israel by liberating His Chosen People from slavery in Egypt and by offering them a relationship in which they would be God’s “special possession,” “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 100: 1-2. 3, 5) is permeated by a strong sense of God’s loving care for His people as “the flock He tends.” The Psalm affirms that the Lord is good, and that His kindness endures forever.

Paul, in today’s second reading, reflects on how Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, made manifest God’s love and care for mankind. According to Paul, the greatest proof of God’s love and care for us was Jesus’ willingness to die on behalf of sinful mankind and so make possible a new and better relationship with God. 

Today’s Gospel is, in effect, a reminder from God to each one of us, saying, “You have received grace and talents from Me without charge, and so you have to give without charge through your simple, responsible and sharing lives.” This, indeed, is the core of the priestly vocation and of the vocation of every Christian through his or her Baptism. Today’s lesson marks a turning point in the establishment of the Christian Church as presented in the Gospels. Up to this point in the story, Jesus himself was the focus of the healing, teaching, and controversy. With the commissioning of his disciples, others began to assume some of the responsibility for the new movement that heralded the kingdom of God. That new movement was destined to grow later, with increasing diversity, as it extended beyond the borders of Galilee, into the Gentile world and became the Universal Christian Church.

1)We need to be Jesus-Presenters: Jesus continues to be active in our lives through the Bible and the Sacraments. He has promised that he will do whatever we ask in his name, meaning that he will answer us when we ask for help in revealing the power and character of God. In addition, the Lord God gives us the Holy Spirit, the One Who teaches us, and reminds us of all that Jesus has said to us. We are invited to become one with God and Jesus, and to let the Holy Spirit work through us. We are asked to perform the works of Jesus, and through these works to reveal the power and character of God to the world. If we accept this invitation and act on it, with God’s grace people will look at us and say, “Jesus!”

2) We need to be healers in the modern world:  People can be sick in body as well as in mind. As Christian’s sharing Jesus’ mission, we can bring healing and wholeness to people with whom we come into contact.  Although we cannot raise the dead, we can help people to recover interest and a zest for living.  People can be physically alive but dead in many other respects. Cleansing the lepers means rehabilitating and bringing back fully into our communities all those who, for one reason or another, are marginalized, rejected, despised — ostracized on the basis of race, nationality, marital status, religion, gender, wealth, intelligence, or sexual orientation.   In our day, demons act through all those suffocating and enslaving forces which dominate, manipulate, and restrict our freedom to live in Truth and Love. We have to pray for God’s help in beginning and carrying out the vital process of casting out these demons from our own hearts first before we can help others to true liberation.

3) “You received without payment; give without payment.”  Every single thing we have, and are, and can become, is a gift of God.   God’s gifts to us are literally priceless, and the best of these is Faith. All these gifts are meant to be used freely and liberally for the benefit of all.  We are not in the business of sharing our Faith for the money or the admiration it brings.  Further, God’s freely given gifts must be used with care and responsibility. Exercised wisely, they can bring great joy and peace into our lives and the lives of others. They can be a means to care for others. We must always remember that the “good” in our “good works,” is entirely God’s doing: we are His vessels and the instruments, through whom He heals, frees and enlightens those we encounter.  Jesus reminds us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him, will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) What gifts, both material and spiritual, have we received from God? How have we passed those gifts onto others? How have we thanked God and given Him the glory for those gifts? The passages from Matthew’s Gospel present us with a challenge: to pass along the graces we have received. Jesus gave his followers this key to evangelization. 

4) Bishops, priests, and deacons are in need of our prayer because they, too, have the same human limitations and weaknesses and temptations as we all do. When was the last time we prayed for Bishops, priests, or deacons?  If we don’t pray for them, why are we surprised if there are scandals?  Bishops, priests, and deacons cannot survive without our prayers. It is a question of praying to the Lord to give the bishops, priests, and deacons the energy and enthusiasm to bring them in. We need to pray also for future priests, as instructed by Jesus in today’s Gospel, by praying for an increase in the quality and quantity of those responding to the Holy Spirit’s vocational call to priesthood and the religious life.