The father in this beautiful parable led with compassion rather than judgment and confrontation.

Who is the person in your life you find most difficult to forgive?   Who has judged very unfairly, who has betrayed your trust, who has cheated on you, or who even in your own family do you experience considerable tension?

Sometimes genuine forgiveness is so difficult to come by.

As you pray over this parable of the prodigal son, consider the feelings of the father in this parable.  His younger son demanded his share of the inheritance coming to him upon his father’s death.  He wanted it now so he could abandon his family and his home and go off to live a reckless lifestyle.

 Consider the sense of abandonment, the betrayal, the anger the father must have felt.  From the son’s perspective, he seemed to be oblivious to the hurt he was inflicting on his dad.

Fast forward to when the son was penniless and came to his senses and decided to return to his father’s house, he came back just to be treated as one of his dad’s servants.

The point of this beautiful gospel parable is the father’s reaction when he caught sight of his son. He ran to him.  He embraced him with much love.  He put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and ordered the fatted calf to be killed and to have a celebration.

The father led with compassionate healing forgiveness rather than judgment and confrontation.  What happened to his negative feelings and judgments he surely could have carrying around?  This is a challenge for me to get my head around this.  But this is how God loves us.  Simply gaze at the crucifix to be immersed in the merciful love of Jesus for us.

This beautiful parable of the prodigal son can rightly be called the parable of the forgiving father.  The message of the parable is not so much about the recklessness of the son as it is about the forgiving, loving father.

Now consider again the person you have the most difficulty extending a hand of forgiving love.  If you encountered this person just now, how would your encounter compare with the father’s encounter with his younger son?

Are we able to lead with compassion rather than judgment?  This is the grace we seek from today’s Scriptures.  And it is only with God’s grace are we able to let go of our negative feelings.

I know for myself that the only I can imitate the loving forgiveness of the father is when I immerse myself in the reality and the grace that this how God loves me.

I suggest that the only way for us to extend forgiveness to those in your life that are so challenging for you is for you and me to humbly recognize ourselves as the prodigal son in this parable.

The prodigal son abandoned home and family in favor of reckless living.  While we may not have physically left home and family as did the prodigal son, the prayer of the parable invites us to reflect on how we have spiritually abandoned home and family.

When have the challenges of life have caused us to lose trust that our loving God holds us in the palm of his hand?  When have we questioned or doubted God’s healing presence in our life?

Our sinfulness our greed, our pride, the judgments we make about others are an abandonment of our Father’s house of merciful love.

As we examine our conscience, there are many ways we have abandoned the faithful and unending love of Jesus

As we examine the conscience of the church living under the very dark cloud of sexual abuse and the recent bankruptcy filing of the diocese, we ask ourselves:  what gives?  Can we place our trust in the Church of Rochester as we live with this dark cloud of sexual abuse and bankruptcy?  Is this the time for us to look for another Church we can put our trust in?   Do we feel abandoned by the spiritual leaders we have previously trusted?

The truth is yes we personally  at times, too many times, have abandoned the home of our heavenly father through our sinfulness.  Our sin has separated us from God’s love.

Yes, we have also been blindsided by the institution of the Catholic Church in the horrific crime of clergy sexual abuse and now the bankruptcy of the diocese.  Who can we trust?

The answer is very, very clear.  We can trust now and forever in the abiding, reconciling love of our heavenly Father.  One thing has not changed in the life of the Church:  Jesus is our Lord and Savior. 

Our future as individuals and as a Church is full of hope.  Why?  Because Jesus goes with us now and forever.  This Church, your Church, needs you now more than ever.  Jesus had not abandoned the Church, and hopefully we do not abandon the Church just now. 

The spiritual renewal we seek is the renewal that happens when we immerse ourselves in the mystery of God’s love.  May our image of God be the image of the merciful, loving, compassionate father that is portrayed in this parable.

In both the stories that Jesus told and the story that he lived, we are given chance after chance to return to the embrace of a loving God.

Sadly, the Church has not always lived to her high calling.  There needs to be accountability for the loss of trust in our spiritual leaders.

In this world  of prodigal sons and prodigal daughters, do we witness of the judgmental scowl of the older brother in today’s Gospel parable or do we witness to the reconciling love of the father?

This leaves us with a challenge.  Clearly the central message of Jesus is mercy and forgiveness.  But his does not give a free pass to the need for accountability in the life of the Church.  Parents needs to know that their children are safe in the life and the ministries of the Church.  Sadly this hasn’t always been the case.  Going forward, the Church needs to hold accountable to the high calling it is given.

At the end of the day, may we the Church of the Holy Spirit re-commit ourselves to witness to God’s love and mercy in our world.  May we commit ourselves to bring healing and forgiveness to a broken world.  May we in all situations and circumstances witness to the love of Jesus in our world.

Have a Blessed Day.

If there is a bit of the parable that makes us uncomfortable or challenged beyond our comfort zone, we have understood well the message of Jesus.

The Franciscan Biblical scholar Robert Karras has written a book entitled EATING YOUR WAY THROUGH LUKE’S GOSPEL.   If you read Luke’s Gospel from cover to cover, you will find some 50 references to food.  Much of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel is centered around table fellowship.  Jesus sits down with all sorts of people.  Jesus will share a meal with anyone from a Pharisee to a leper.  Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners much to the dismay of the more proper scribes and Pharisees.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is dining at the home of a leading Pharisee.  Jesus has obviously been invited for more than pleasant conversation.  The people at the meal are observing him carefully.  He is known for not following protocol during his table fellowship.  As the story proceeds, the dynamic shifts from the people observing Jesus to Jesus observing them. He is a wisdom teacher offering lessons in humility.

To help us understand today’s Gospel,  it has been rightly said the dinner table mirrors society.  What you eat, how you eat, when you eat, with whom we eat with tells us a good deal about yourself.  And eating is a primary way of maintaining relationships.

Reflecting on today’s Gospel, imagine that a rough-looking, rather unkempt stranger came to your door and asked for something to eat:  How would you respond?   Let me suggest three possible responses:

“Go away or I will call the police.”

Another response could be:  “Wait here on the porch, and I will make you a sandwich.”

A third response might be:  “Come right in and you are welcome at our dinner table.”

Now there are good reasons for each of these responses.  I do not wish to make any judgments about any of these responses.  But who eats with whom is a primary way of developing relationships.

Going back to today’s Gospel parable.  What is often true in the parables of Jesus is that we go from the known to the unknown.  In this parable, the known for all is that we are familiar with eating together at table.  What is the unknown that Jesus is pointing to is two very important lessons on what the kingdom of God is like.   So we ask what is God’s kingdom like?

First Lesson:  Jesus is observing how the guests are choosing places of honor at the banquet table.  Where we are seated at the banquet is indicative of your place of honor.  For those of us invited to wedding banquets, the bride, or perhaps the bride’s mother, has somewhat carefully chosen who seats with whom at the wedding banquet. The places of honor are somewhat predetermined.

There is a side of all of us that welcomes a bit of honor and recognition.

Jesus invites us to take the lowest place and hopefully the host will invite you to come higher.  But please notice that this parable is not about clever maneuvering so that you will be honored when the host invites you to come up higher.

Rather Jesus is challenging that side of us that wants to be honored and recognized.

The meaning of the parable can be found by recalling the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples in which Jesus knelt down and put a towel around his waist and washed the feet of his disciples.  Jesus gave the example to the apostles of how they were to be His followers.

The first lesson from this parable is that his disciples, rather than jockeying for places of honor, were to humbly serve one another.  The way of humble service is to characterize table fellowship in the kingdom of God.

The second extremely important lesson can be found in the latter part of the parable when Jesus says: “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”

This second lesson speaks to the hospitality of God that the Church is to embody.  All are welcome without prejudice in the kingdom of God.  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s hospitality.

How do we as a parish community welcome the outcasts into our parish community?  Do we welcome all people without regard to their race, their sexual orientation, their marital status or whatever there is about a particular person?

And do we feel at home eating where the poor, the crippled, and the outcasts eat or is this below our status and way of life?  This is a challenge, is it not, to go beyond our comfort zone.

While our parish community is primarily white Caucasians, how can we be more welcoming to people of all cultures and nationalities and races?  Shame on us if all do not welcome everyone in our midst.

What is your sense of welcome and what is my sense of welcome to someone who has a different sexual orientation than you or I.  The clear message of the Gospel is that all of us are God’s beloved sons and daughters.

No matter what your marital status is you are welcome in the kingdom of God and therefore you are welcome in the Church and in this parish community.  All are welcome.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.  The point is everyone is invited to the banquet of Jesus.

As we gather for this Eucharistic meal today, we reflect on how we have gathered for this meal.  Do we see each other as brothers and sisters?   Do we see ourselves as servants of each other?  Do we see ourselves as the servants of all who are poor?  Are all welcome to this table of the Lord?

If there is a bit of the parable that makes us uncomfortable or challenged beyond our comfort zone, we have understood well the message of Jesus.

Have a Blessed Day.

Twentieth Sunday in OT C  2019

Jesus said to his disciples:  “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”...  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This Gospel imperative runs in the face of a more compassionate pastoral approach to ministry.  To become a member of the Church of the Holy Spirit, you simply need to be breathing and fill out a census card.  It is very, very easy.  I try to short circuit the hoops that people sometimes need to go through in the Catholic Church.  My mother taught me always to be kind and trust that God’s love will be revealed.

If your body is in the Church today, you get a gold star from me as being a very active member of Holy Spirit.  After all, there are many parishioners who are not here today.  It’s still summer.  So, congratulations.

However, however, I am not the final word on discipleship of the Lord Jesus.   Jesus is!  Jesus, of course, is the Savior and Lord of our lives.  For Jesus, being here on Sunday is just the beginning of our discipleship.  There is much more expected of me and much more to be expected of you.   Jesus expected the same prophetic fire that burned in him to burn also in the hearts of his followers.

You may have heard the expression “cheap grace.”  This is the grace we seek as Catholics without ever troubling ourselves about the need to move beyond our comfort zone in the ways we live out the message of Jesus.  The truth is there is no such thing as cheap grace.

In answering the call to follow Jesus, we are in for rude awakening as to the cost of discipleship.  We need to look no further than the crucifix to witness the extent of the giving love of Jesus.  He gave us His life.  The cost of discipleship for us is to witness to the kind of giving love that Jesus has given us.

As we read in today’s Gospel, Jesus has come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”

The flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  We need to be advocates for the peace and justice that characterizes a Gospel way of living.  But also the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  Jesus is a God of mercy and compassion.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.   None of us get a free pass from reflecting on the cost of discipleship.

As a priest today, in the midst of the dark cloud of clergy sexual abuse and where there is considerable anger in the Church, I ask myself where is God to be found?  Maybe, just maybe, the Church is in need of purification. I think back 51 years when I was first ordained a priest, quite frankly, perhaps, that was a time of privilege for priests.  It was far easier to live the Gospel and to be a priest.  For some, you were held up on a pedestal.  Now is another time in a darker chapter of the Church, it is more challenging to be a priest.  It is not a time of clerical privilege; in fact, there can be a suspicious attitude toward the clerical lifestyle.  We stand in need of purification. 

In a curious way, this is an opportunity for me and the whole Church to be a follower of Christ crucified --- the Jesus who was mocked and scourged and given a crown of thorns and died an ignominious death.

Never confuse God – or what is holy – with current cultural religion which worships the included, the glamorous, the ones who aren’t shamed and ridiculed, and the ones who seem important and indispensable. 

The God we worship is the God who died on the cross and was hated and spat upon.

Where is God?  God is on the side of the victim, standing with the one who is excluded, and specially present in the one being ridiculed and dying and in the one who is being put to death.

The truth is we are all sinners.  Imagine yourself in conversation with Jesus, what truths do you need to share with Jesus about your need for God’s forgiveness – what about our failure to share more fully with those who are in need; how much of our income do we tithe; do we have time for God in our prayer life or are too busy; what kind of judgments or gossip are hurtful to others; how selfish are we in using our God-given gift of sexuality?

Thanks be to God, the truth of our life is also that God forgives any and all of our sinfulness and invites to rejoice and trust in God’s healing love for us. 

The truth is to belong to the faith community of Holy Spirit demands much more that filling out a registration card.  It is the commitment to make Jesus the center of our life and to be sent forth to proclaim the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

May we pray:  Holy Spirit, flame of God, hover over each of us as you did for the followers of Jesus at the first Pentecost. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Again, the flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  And the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

What is the grace that you ask for today?  Ask the Lord to enkindle within you the fire of God’s love.

Have a Blessed Day.

Have a Blessed Day.

Faith is not merely us holding on to God -- it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

One night a house caught fire and a young little boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." Hearing this, the boy jumped. He jumped because he trusted his father.

Can we place ourselves in the mind and heart of this boy as his dad is telling him to jump?  What about when we face life situations of sickness, death, brokenness in relationships, and we are gripped by fear, are we able to trust in God as a loving Father in the same way as the young boy who jumped off the roof into the arms of his father?    Faith is the willingness to risk, to jump when we are not in control and to trust that we are in the hands of God.

Our faith in Jesus calls us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known. Faith is not merely us holding on to God -- it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

God is holding onto to us in both the green pastures and the dark valleys of life.  Faith is our seeing in trust.

In the Second Reading of today, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks about two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah. He recalls how our early faith ancestors placed their trust in God.  Abraham and Sarah left their comfortable home and set out for an unknown land because God called them. They passed through great deserts and villages full of strangers; dwelt in temporary shelters along the way.  When God promised them that their descendents would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, they were old enough to be great-grandparents and Sarah too was sterile. Even though for so long they saw no fulfillment of the promise, they believed. They had the virtue of faith, a lasting confidence that God's Word would be fulfilled someday.

And when God finally granted them a son, He asked Abraham to sacrifice him and still continue to believe, to trust, and to hope that the promise would still somehow be accomplished.  Abraham, faithfully listening to the Word of God, 'hoped against hope' that his son would be restored to him, even as he was willing to sacrifice him. It is shocking  to think that somebody was willing to sacrifice his own son to God. Essentially, Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son is an act of trust, of faith, in which he was proved right. We consider Abraham our father in faith, and he is a model for our own times – he took great risks; he had no agenda other than his faithful obedience to the God in whom he trusted completely.

The gift of faith was life changing for Abraham.  He relied completely on the steady reality of God’s loving kindness.  On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your trust in God in your challenging life situations as did Abraham?

Trust is difficult for us today, is it not?  Relying on someone else involves a risk, and we have been disappointed so often.

In the world that we live in which that are deadly random shootings of innocent people as in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, in a political world in which decency and civil dialogue is hard to come by, in our society in which too many relationships have been broken,  is there any room left for trust?  In our Church, is trust the defining characteristic of who we are as the disciples of Jesus or is the lack of trust more of a reality in our Church today? 

In our St. Joseph’s School Advisory Board meeting last Monday evening, we were asking the question whether the fact that we are a faith-based school makes for a marketing plus or a marketing minus.

This leads us to ask the question:  Do you see yourself as a person of faith and what does that mean for you?

As a person of faith, does it mean that you practice considerable spiritual disciplines?  Does is mean that you are a very moral person?  Does it mean that you keep all the rules and the commandments?  What does it mean?

First and foremost, a person of faith is a person of trust.  That young boy on the roof of the house  risked jumping – trusting that his dad will keep him safe.  The boy had faith in his dad.  Our faith question is do we have that same kind of faith and trust in Jesus in the frightening circumstances of our lives.  For Abraham and Sarah in the second Scripture reading today, their faith was life changing – such was their trust in God’s loving kindness.

While all of us need to humbly say:  “Be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”  Does our faith lead us to risk and trust that Jesus goes with us in all circumstances of life?

Without faith, we live in a very scary world.  As a person of faith, our future is full of hope no matter what circumstances in life we are facing.  We are always surrounded and lifted up by a loving God.  This is not too good to be true.  This is the truth of our lives.  This is the meaning of our faith.

For me, the jewel of St. Joseph’s Church and St. Joseph’s School is we are a people of faith.  Jesus is the North Star of our lives.  The sun rises each morning in the heart of one who trusts in Jesus.  For me, no matter what the tuition of our school is, you cannot put a price on our children being fashioned after the mind and heart of Jesus.

In the big scheme of things, at the end of the day, what are we waiting for?  What is your hope for the future?  What is your ideal retirement?  Would it be wealth or power or pleasure? 

Jesus warns us that material possessions can capture our heart, not allowing us to be free to follow him.  Jesus challenges us to reveal what it is we truly value --  may we truly value loving and being loved.  In faith, we are loved by Jesus completely and unconditionally.  May we find the fulfillment we are looking for in the ways we love and serve one another.

Have a blessed day.

                                                     

Does our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?

In today’s Gospel’s parable, an exceptionally good harvest made a rich farmer even richer.  The lesson of the parable leaves us with the question.  What is the farmer to do with the abundance of crops?  It never occurs to him to do anything with them except to keep them.  His problem then is simply is where to keep them, and the solution is a major building program on the farm.

The gospel message is:  Do not let greed take you over.  Easily, it will become your goal in life.  Give it free reign, and it will become the God you serve.

The learning for us as we pray over this parable is not where to store the crops but how can they be used to give honor to God?  How can they be used in the service of others?

As we pray this morning, what are our abundant crops that we are blessed with?   What talent, what possessions, and what wealth do we have?  The Gospel question for each of us is what we do with what we have?

In the parable, wealth, in and of itself, is not being maligned.  Rather, the appropriate use of wealth remains a challenge. 

The story is told about the wealth of John D Rockefeller.  When he died, many were curious as to Rockefeller’s monetary worth.  So curious was one man that he scheduled an appointment with Rockefeller’s chief financial aide and asked, “How much did he leave behind?”  Without hesitation, the aide replied, “He left all of it.”

As with the rich farmer featured in today’s Gospel, Rockefeller’s millions did not pass with him to the next life.  Just as the budging bins of grain would have been better shared than stored away, our mission in life is to be found in our relationship with God and in our relationship with one another.  Everything we have is for the sharing.  This is Gospel stewardship.

The seduction that can trap any of us is to think that our security is to be found in our possessions.  Rather the message of Jesus is that our spiritual security is to found in a life of gratitude, living with an attitude of gratitude. 

In today’s Gospel, someone in the crowd said to Jesus:  “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”  Sharing and gratitude are such important life lessons.  I had the privilege to spend some time last week with my niece Emily.  Emily and her husband have five children – ages ranging from 11 to 2 years old    -- three boys and two girls.  As you can imagine, the life lesson of teaching children to share is sometimes a bit of a challenge.    The movement from “this is mine and don’t touch it” to sharing what we have with each other is a beautiful parental challenge, is it not?  This movement to sharing among my five grandnieces and grandnephews is the spiritual challenge for all of us and is the message of today’s Gospel?

Does our prayer life reflect that we seek to give back to God the giftedness that we have been given.  Do we find the deepest meaning to life in all the ways we share ourselves in the service of others and in gratitude for the blessings of life?

The beginning of the parable has only one character living in his own world, making plans and anticipating the future as though he were entirely in control of it.  The abrupt divine intervention is the more startling because this is the only Gospel parable in which God Himself appears as a character and speaks.  The significance of this emerges when we notice that this story is about a man who thinks he can write his own story.  That is the value of his wealth for him: it gives him control over the future that enables him to say his story is going to go on.

The farmer’s fatal flaw is to believe that power comes from possessions.  This gave him a false sense of security.   The rich man understands security in terms of abundant wealth.   This control over life is an illusion.  The message of the parable is to beware of the seduction of wealth.  It provides the illusion that we are in control of our lives.  The rich man of the parable discovers in shock that it is God who really writes the story of his life.  The grace we seek is the spiritual awareness that God writes the story of our lives, and that all is a gift of God and all that we have is for the sharing.

We tend to think we can provide for our own future, but the Gospel reminds us that the future is God’s.   Our true inheritance is neither more possessions nor security but life with God.  All is a gift of God.  All that we have is for the sharing.  What is the vision by which we shall live?  Is our vision fixed on the person and the mission of Jesus?

From the first Scripture from the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is the clear message that obsession with the things of this world will never lead to happiness.  “Vanity of vanities.  All things are vanity.”

Yes, we need to be aware of the seduction of greed that keeps from giving back to God in gratitude.  This is such an important truth.  Even more important that going to your medicine cabinet for the right pill to cure what ails us, gratitude heals.  Further, sincere gratitude for what we have makes us less likely to covet what we don’t.

As we give thanks for all that we have, let us remember to be grateful for the gift of Eucharist.  The reason why we gather at Eucharist Sunday after Sunday after Sunday is to give thanks to the Lord our God.  When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we indeed are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

Does our security and our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?  This is such a fundamental spiritual challenge for all of us.

Have a blessed day.

Offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.

Sixteenth Sunday in OT  C 2019

The Scripture message today is that offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.   Perhaps even more important than physical hospitality is simply listening to one another.

A man attending a crowded Sunday Mass refused to take off his hat when asked to do so by the ushers. Others also asked him to remove his hat, but he remained obstinate. The priest was perturbed, too, and waited for the man after the service.

He told the man that the church was quite happy to have him as a guest, and invited him to join the church, but he explained the traditional decorum regarding men's hats and said, "I hope you will conform to that practice in the future."

"Thank you Father," said the man. "And thank you for taking time to talk to me. It is good of you to invite me to join the congregation. In fact, I joined it three years ago and have been coming regularly ever since, but today is the first time that anyone paid attention to me. After being an unknown for three years, today, by simply keeping on my hat on, I have had the pleasure of talking with the ushers, several of the congregants and you. Thanks!"

The scriptures are about welcoming - about hospitality. It is about noticing the other and being attentive to the other.  We all need to ask ourselves the question where are we on the giving and the receiving of hospitality and friendship in our parish community?

Today’s readings tell us two very different meal stories.

In the first Scripture reading, Father Abraham is the host who spares absolutely nothing in welcoming strangers to his home.   Abraham looking up saw three men standing nearby.  When he saw them, he ran from the entrance to greet them, to welcome them, to provide extravagant hospitality and a warm meal for them.

Abraham’s story reminds us that we never know in what guise God will show up.  Luckily, he did not live in a gated community.  Abraham’s servants were tasked with hospitality rather than security.

The first reading is about strangers being entertained and the people didn’t know that the Lord was visiting them.  When we open our heart and home to the stranger and the neighbor we are receiving God into our lives.  The Indian poet Tagore writes – “and when you left I saw God’s footprints on the floor.

As with Abraham in the first reading, God may be coming to us as the one in need.  If our hearts are not generous and welcoming, how often have we turned God away and in turn failed to experience the generosity He wants to bestow on us.  Abraham shows us that the welcome we offer to the stranger is the welcome we offer to God.  Christ is received in every guest.

Offering hospitality always brings a gift from God.  Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality to the three mysterious visitors leads to the revelation that they will have a son.

In the Gospel account, Jesus, going along a road, came to a village and was welcomed into a house.  There one sister, having to get the meal, complained that the other sister just sat and listened to Jesus; and Jesus says that this second sister, named Mary, had chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.

The traditional interpretation of this passage points to the distinction between an active service spirituality and the more prayerful listening spirituality.  In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, there is a place for service, and there is a place for prayerfulness.  We spend a lifetime seeking the balance between the two ways of discipleship.

Lord, there is a Martha and Mary within each of us.

            -a part of ourselves which is busy and active,

            -another part which sits at your feet and listens trustingly to your word.

We need our active side to accomplish your will, but the listening is the best part, and we must not allow it to be taken from us.

Martha’s major error was to let the menu overshadow the encounter with Jesus.     Martha let agitation about the kitchen cancel out the nourishment that comes from being in Jesus’ presence.  We need the nourishment that comes from the kitchen table; we also need the spiritual nourishment that comes from the Lord Himself.  Isn’t it true that hospitality’s most important dimension is listening attentively to your guests?

As we reflect on our spiritual side, remember the truth that we can do many holy things without ever becoming holy.  There may be much action in our lives, very worthwhile action, but we need first to listen to the Lord in prayer before we can be people of action.  Is our active life leading us to deepen our encounter, our relationship with the Lord Jesus?

Jesus is not telling Martha that her work is not important, nor is he commending Mary for doing nothing.  He is simply reminding his followers that if we want to serve Him, we must first listen to Him.  We need to be people of prayer before we are people of action.

Martha and Mary serve together as partners in a living Church. Thanks be to God there is both a Martha and a Mary to the spiritual dynamic of St. Joseph’s Church.   May we learn a lesson from Mother Theresa.   Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity devote an hour to the adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament before going to serve Jesus in the suffering people they find in the streets.   Please God, may we never lose sight of the ways we encounter the Lord in our prayer.  Hospitality’s most important dimension is listening attentively to your guests.

May we embrace both the Martha and the Mary that is within us.

Have a Blessed Day.

What would it take for us to live by the values of the founders of this great nation, and what would it take for us to be more faithful to the mission given to us by Jesus?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,  that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In reflecting on these words taken from the second paragraph of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, we must say there are many ways in which we are not all equal.  Some people enjoy the blessings of material prosperity much more than others.  Some people are more academically gifted than others.  Some folks enjoy the blessings of health much more than others.

And so we ask the question:  how is equality shared among us?  The Declaration of Independence says we are all created equal and that we are endowed by our Creator.  The fundamental equality that we all share is that each one of us without exception are God’s beloved sons and daughters.  The Declaration of Independence has it right when it says we are created equal, and that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Indeed the equality envisioned by the founders of this great nation is a Gospel truth that is to be celebrated.  We are God’s beloved, and that we are to relate to one another in ways that reflect that equality.

As we celebrate the Fourth of July weekend and as we give thanks to God for the many blessings we enjoy as citizens of this country that we deeply love, it is good to pause and reflect on being American and being Catholic.

For example, what is the freedom we aspire to as Americans and what is the freedom we aspire as the disciples of Jesus?  As Americans, it is easy for us to lose track of the meaning of freedom that was given to us by our founding fathers and mothers.

Sometimes as Americans we think of freedom as the right to self-expression, to express my individuality in any way I wish and at any time I wish.  This is my right as an American, thank you very much.

This overly individualistic view of freedom needs to be balanced and corrected by a Gospel sense of freedom and discipleship.  As St Paul says, Christ has set us free – free to serve, free to love, free to celebrate that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Freedom for a disciple isn’t just about individualism.  It is the freedom to be about building up the Kingdom of God in the here and now; it is the freedom to serve; it is the freedom to wash the feet of God’s poor.

From today’s Gospel, twenty centuries ago, Jesus summoned 72 committed people and sent them, two by two, to communicate God’s love, to bind up wounds, and to be peacemakers in a troubled world.  These ordinary people took with them no great plan, no set speech, no “how-to” manual.  They brought only their faith, their trust, and their experience of Jesus.  Jesus knew they would make mistakes; nevertheless, he involved them in his mission and gave them his authority.

Jesus may have sent them out without purse, bag, and sandals, but he did not send them out without advice.  Yes, they were to live simply.  The disciples of Jesus are to experience freedom in that simplicity.  They are to be missionaries for the reign of God.

Flash forward now twenty centuries to July 7,2019.  We are missioned to share in the mission and ministry of Jesus.  This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  We need to leave the baggage behind that keeps from focusing on our mission of witnessing to the love of Jesus in our community.  We need to leave behind the baggage of old hurts, of grudges that we have been holding on too long, of prejudices that keep us from recognizing in our neighbor one of God’s beloved.

The Gospel invites us to reflect on the truth that Jesus sends all of us out to be missionaries.  As American Christians, we have a dual citizenship.  We certainly are citizens of America; but as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, we are also citizens of and belong to the Reign of God.

What would it take for us to  live  by the values by the founders of this great nation and what it take for us to be more faithful  to the mission that Jesus gave to His original apostles and disciples?

As we celebrate our nation’s anniversary of our independence, may we remember and celebrate that indeed we are a nation of immigrants; we celebrate the equality

 we share with one another; we are a nation of welcome and hospitality; we are a nation that fosters peace and provides opportunities for growth for one and all.

May we retain true to these values as Americans.

As disciples, Jesus challenges us in our life’s work, in our relationships, in our personal spirituality to try to instill elements of the Reign of God into American culture.   As we celebrate the great nation that we have been blessed with, let us also be aware of the great gift of faith we have been blessed with. 

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus appointed 72 others to go ahead of him with news of God’s love and peace.  Those 72, in Luke’s view, represented the diverse nations of the world.  Jesus’ mission and message were intended for all.  That work of evangelization continues throughout history.

In sending out the 72,    Luke wants to tell us the mission of Jesus is not only carried forward by the so called experts like priests and religious but it is the responsibility of every believer in Jesus.  Each one of us, as the community of the baptized, are missioned to communicate God’s love, bind up the wounds of our brothers and sisters, and we are to be peace-makers in a troubled world.

The mission of the Church is to carry on the mission of Jesus  --  to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus  forgives us.  The mission of the Church is to lift us and to affirm the dignity of each and every person – regardless of their race, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless of their politics, their religion or whatever difference you can possibly think of.  Today’s Gospel makes clear that all of us are to be missionaries proclaiming this mission.

We are both Americans who are committed to the values of the founders of this great nation.   We are also the disciples of Jesus committed to binding the wounds of our brothers and sisters and we are to be peace-makers in a troubled world.

Have a Blessed Day,