5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Job 7:1-4, 6-7

Job is not a very fun person to hang out with right now and we all know why.  Everything has been taken from him – family, friends and possessions.  Also, he is afflicted with sores on his body.  Things were going well until recently.  He had family and enough possessions to last him a few lifetimes, but the devil took away everything from him.  In today’s reading, Job is lamenting the loss of everything he holds dear.  Despite all his suffering, he does not curse God.  In another section of this book, Job says, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the Lord.”  This is a statement of great faith in the midst of suffering and trial.

We also can experience difficulty and suffering.  Perhaps our health is compromised or a relationship went bad.  Perhaps we can pray with our sufferings and ask God’s help.  Are we thankful when all is well and when all is not so good?

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

Yo Yo Ma, the famous cellist, said once that if he doesn’t practice for 8 hours a day, he can sense that his skills have slipped and if he misses a full day of practice, the audience will notice that his skills have slipped.  You have to keep working to keep your skills sharp.  Paul has the same dedication.  “Woe to me if I do not preach it!”  He has to keep preaching the Gospel if he is to fulfill the call that Jesus gave to him.  The Gospel now is the driving force of his life and he must serve it always.

Is there a part of our lives which needs deeper dedication to the Gospel?  What is the driving force of our lives?  Jesus or something else?

Mark 1: 29-39

Today’s Gospel presents the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law.  It says that Jesus grasped her hand and “helped her up.”  Scholars say that this word is the same word that Mark will later use for “resurrection.”  Jesus resurrects Simon’s mother-in-law which predicts his own resurrection.  And what does she do after her “helping up?”  She begins to serve the others.  All of us are called to serve because of our resurrection to new life.  Later, the disciples report to Jesus, “Everyone is looking for you.”  It may have been true then but it is not so now.  Not all are looking for Jesus.  Perhaps you have family members and friends who are not in contact with their faith or with a church.   

How has Jesus helped us up to a new life?  Have we had resurrections in our own life?  Also, let’s pray for those who are looking for Jesus and those who are not.  May God touch their hearts and minds.

 I invite your comments.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Moses is considered the greatest prophet of Israel because he spoke with God face to face.  He was able to go into the cloud surrounding the ark of the covenant and talk directly to him.  I wonder what those conversations were like.  “Hey, how you doin’ today?”  “Not so good, God.  This desert sand gets everywhere.”  In this reading God shows a desire to maintain conversation and communication with His people after Moses is gone.  God will give prophets to Israel so that he can maintain communication with Israel.  Israel, however, will reject these prophets over the years.  They will persecute them and even kill them.  We pray that God will communicate with us through the words of others.

How has God communicated with you recently?  Homily? Song? Book of reflections? Friend’s touch or presence?  Remember that communication with God does not have to be verbal.  Maybe you just had a feeling of God’s presence.

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

This reading once again shows that Paul is very concerned about being prepared for Jesus’ second coming.  Just like the reading from Paul two weeks ago, he says that people should remain focused on the Lord and not on their human relationships.  Because we are in a very different time from Paul’s time, it seems to me that our faith is expressed in our human relationships and not hindered by them.  In waiting for the Lord, be a better husband or better wife.  Attend to your spouse’s needs as if attending to the needs of the Lord. 

Paul also presumes that an unmarried person is not anxious about the things of the world.  We are now preparing our budget for 2012-13.  I am unmarried, however, I am anxious about the budget and many other things – definite things of the world.

What preoccupies you now?  Hand that over to God in prayer.  What about your life “pleases the Lord?”  What doesn’t?

Mark 1: 21-28

I am noticing that people nowadays are obsessed with demons and other supernatural things.  The kids in our Confirmation class have asked me a lot of questions about that stuff due to the many recent movies about the demonic.  People have asked me to bless their houses because they hear unexplained noises.  In my 20 years as a priest, I have never heard or seen anything “demonic” when blessing a house, but I am not in that house all the time.  Demons know not to mess with me.

Today Jesus encounters an “unclean spirit.”  Jesus reacts quickly, telling the spirit to come out of him.  I have never had any experience with phenomena such as this but it is easy to see in our world that evil exists.  We encounter it every day.  Evil is very often not expressed in possessed people who shriek and spit green pea soup like Linda Blair, but is expressed in the wrong choices we sometimes make.  We take the easy way or the more profitable way, which then affects adversely our brothers and sisters.

Is there any evil you must repent of?  What is the sinful thing you struggle with most – lack of patience, stealing, lying, etc.?  Ask God’s forgiveness and help. 

 I invite your comments.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Jonah goes to the great city of Nineveh to tell them that God is angry and they will be destroyed if they don’t mend their ways.  They believe him and everyone repents.  Pretty amazing.

Jonah’s journey to Nineveh takes a few twists and turns.  If you remember, God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and he decides to run away because he does not want to do this work.  When Jonah tries to escape by ship, God sends a storm that is swamping the ship.  Jonah is thrown into the sea by the sailors and everything quiets down.  Jonah, however, is swallowed by a whale and remains in the whale for three days.  Nineveh’s story is Jonah’s story.  They have run away/turned away from the Lord.  They have to make a radical shift back to the Lord just like Jonah did when he splashed into the sea.  Jonah is a sign that all can be well again with God.  Nineveh sees the sign and turns its’ life around.  All is well between the city and God.

Have you ever felt separated from God?  What do you need to turn around in order to be closer to God?

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Many scholars believe that St. Paul believed that Jesus would return very soon to earth for His Second Coming.  This short reading presents that belief very clearly.  He tells people to give up everything in order to receive Jesus well.  This reading surprises me to a certain extent.  “let those having wives, act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, etc.”  He is telling people to detach from everything so that you can meet Jesus without distraction.  I don’t want to criticize St. Paul, however, it would seem to me, if you have a wife, you should be a better husband.  If you weep, ask Jesus to comfort you.  If you rejoice, thank Him for the rejoicing.  The world may be passing away, but let’s pass away well.

Mark 1:14-20

I was pointing out the other day to the weekday Mass crowd that this Gospel is an interesting one.  We are reading from the first chapter of Mark.  Jesus is just new on the scene and he says, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”  Since it is so early, the people who hear him are probably saying, “Hey, what’s a Gospel.”  Jesus is preaching something entirely new.  The people probably don’t have vocabulary to understand the message.  Still there is something about Jesus that makes Simon and Andrew, James and John follow him.  He himself is the Gospel.  “Repent and believe in me,” he is saying.

What is it about Jesus and His message that attracts you?  Repels you?  Would you be ready, like Simon and Andrew, to risk everything for someone you haven’t seen before?

 I invite your comments.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Samuel 3:3-10;19

I always find this story to be funny.  Samuel is sleeping in the temple in front of the ark.  Eli, the priest, is sleeping in another location.  God calls Samuel’s name and he runs off because he mistakenly thought Eli was calling to him.  God never tells Samuel to stop.  He lets the boy go to Eli and wake him up.  God calls us and sometimes we are unclear about what we are called to do.  We might even not recognize the presence of God calling to us.  Our challenge is to stop, open our ears and respond as Samuel does, “Speak, Lord, your servant I listening.”  Those words are powerful.  In my prayer, I am usually doing most of the talking.  I am worried about this and that.  I want this and that.  Perhaps God is calling all of us to keep quiet and listen rather than talk.

Has God ever called you to anything?  Were you listening?  Was the task to be done easy or difficult?  What blessing came to you as a result of this call/invitation?

1 Corinthians 6:13-20

If anyone has ever accused the Catholic Church of worrying a lot about sexual morality, welcome to this reading.  Notice, however, that not even one time is the word “sex” ever mentioned.  This reading calls us to use the gift of our bodies for one thing only – serving the Lord.  That can be done in many ways – giving yourself to another in marriage, giving yourself to many in holy orders or religious life, or giving yourself to others as a chaste Christian.  Remember that God looked upon the creation of humans and found them “very good.”  Our bodies despite all their frailties mirror the goodness of God and are made in God’s image and likeness.  Even if you are older and your body is not functioning like it used to, it is still a body that God loves.

Do you see your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit?  If so, does the way you live reflect that belief?  Do you take care of your body as you should?

John 1: 35-42

I find it interesting that the apostles of John ask Jesus “Where are you staying?”  They do not ask him where are you going?  I am not sure why that jumps out at me.  Perhaps they want to know if he is just a transient or will he stay with the Jewish people.  Remember that Jesus does not stay.  After his Resurrection, he ascends back to His Father.  Stay also indicates permanence.  Perhaps there are asking, “Jesus, John told us you were coming.  Can we stay with you?  Can we be part of your plan?”  The Gospel says that “they stayed with him that day.”  Before they stayed with John and left when John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”  Now they stayed with Jesus one day.  Will they stay tomorrow or will they leave?  We don’t know.

Have we asked Jesus to stay with us?  What would that “staying” look like?  Do we live differently as a result?

 I invite your comments.

The Magi

Please forgive me for not writing a blog for the last two weeks.  I took a little vacation for Christmas and New Year’s.

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany also known as the day when the Magi bring gifts to Jesus.  Who are the magi (or kings or wise men or astrologers)?  How many were there?  Why are they important?   I just want to offer some reflections about the Epiphany.

“Now, after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the East came to Jerusalem asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  For we have seen his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.”

Herodotus, the famous historian, had said that in the 6^th century before Jesus there was a caste of priests in Mede who had the ability to interpret dreams.  They were priests of the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism.  In the following centuries, anyone who could interpret dreams was known as a Magi.  The term was used very loosely.  Most scholars see the Magi as astrologers who had the ability to read the stars in the heavens as signs from God.

Some refer to these magi as “Kings.”   Were they eastern kings?  In Psalm 72, the text reads, “May the kings of Sheba and Saba bring gifts; may all kings pay him homage.”  Over the first five centuries of Christianity, many people considered the magi to have some type of earthly power based on the psalm above.  This is a case of popular culture, ascribing to the magi more than their due.  But it does bring up an interesting point for reflection.  Here are kings with much power and influence and wealth, yet they come to the King of kings, Jesus, to offer homage.  They are the opposite of Herod who will never bow to a new king. 

Also the magi/kings are numbered in popular tradition.  We say that there are only three of them.  We say that because they offer three gifts.  Three gifts, three magi.  Yes, but there could have been more.  The gospel, however, does not tell us how many magi came.  There could be 10, 1000, or a million, right?  How many came to adore Jesus?  We really do not know.

Do they have names?  The Bible does not offer names for the magi.  Our popular tradition tells us that they were named Caspar, Melchior and Baltasar.  In the calendar of saints, listed at the Cathedral of Cologne in Germany, there is an obituary for the kings.  It says, “having undergone many trials and fatigues for the Gospel, the three wise men met at Sewa (Armenia) in A.D. 54 to celebrate the feast of Christmas.  Thereupon, after celebration of Mass, they died.”  You can judge for yourself if that is true or not.

The presence of the magi in Matthew’s Gospel is very interesting.  Matthew is writing to a Jewish community but tells them that the first people to recognize Jesus are people from the East – unclean, non-Jewish people.  That is a challenge to Matthew’s people.  These Magi, schooled to read the stars, see Jesus for who he truly was.  Yet, the Jewish people waiting for the Messiah could not see him. 

The magi put their lives on hold and travel a long time to find Jesus, enduring many hardships.   They sacrifice much for their faith.  Would we be willing to do the same?

 I invite your comments.