News - June 2022 RSS Feed

"When Jesus saw their faith...." - Last March, when we were planning for the Loyola weekend retreat "I Call You Friend' (commemorating the friendship between Ignatius and Francis Xavier), Father Paul and I chose the story of Jesus' healing of the paralyzed man as the Gospel proclamation for our Friday evening prayer experience ...

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”—Psalm 34:5 - Whenever we become discouraged about our own sins, we need only to look at Peter and Paul for encouragement and hope! Both men have great zeal for spreading the word of God. 

“Even the Wind and the Seas Obey Him!” - Today’s gospel from Matthew (8:23-27) has Jesus asleep in a boat with his apostles crossing the Sea of Galilee when a violent storm suddenly arises. As we all know well, they awake Jesus in a panic. He immediately calms the storm and rebukes His disciples for their lack of faith in Him.

"Solidarity" - For most of this week, we will hear the frank and ferocious words of the prophet Amos. He pulls no punches in indicting the injustices of Israel’s and our society. We may, in fact, be discouraged at seeing how similar are the injustices against the poor in our world and then.

"The Good Shepherd" - On this feast of the Sacred Heart the theme seems to definitely be that of Christ the Good Shepherd. All the Gospels speak of shepherds or sheep many times over. John especially speaks to this theme. There, Jesus himself states that, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and they know me.”

Elizabeth, refusing to call her son Zechariah, announces that he will be called John. Her neighbors and relatives argue with her, but her [temporarily mute] husband confirms her choice by writing, “His name is John” on a tablet. Odd though it be, in all my years I’ve never thought about the significance of that choice. I’ve now learned that John is derived from Yohanan, which in Hebrew means “graced by God” or “God is gracious.”

“Give me discernment, that I may observe your law with all my heart.”—Psalm 119 - How often have we received the following phone calls?  “This is the IRS calling. You owe money to the government.” “Your Medicare will be cut off if you don’t make a payment.” “This is your grandson. I need money.” “With a small donation, you can reap big bucks in return!” 

“Treat Others …  the way you would have them treat you: this sums up the law and the prophets.” What Jesus seems to be saying, at least to me, is that these three commandments sum up the Law and the Prophets. That these three commandments are the heart “of the matter”. Everything else is secondary. What strikes me also is the extraordinary simplicity of content and message. I find nothing complicated here.   However, simplicity is not to be equated with something easy.

"A Little Self-Questioning" - “Israel sinned. They venerated other gods. They were stiff-necked. They rejected God’s covenant.” Today’s first scripture reading may seem to provide us with ample reason for self-congratulation. After all, it was the ancient Hebrews who sinned, practiced idolatry, turned their backs on the covenant and were so stiff-necked – not us!

"Where Your Treasure Is" - There is the age-old expression, “I saw it with my own eyes.” But metaphorically, we enter into an entirely new understanding of what we mean by “seeing.” For we are well aware that people are entirely capable of “seeing” what they want to see. How often do we experience someone understanding something in a completely different way than we do?

“Prayers and Love” - Matthew 6: 7-12 - We have been a 'love and prayers' kind of family for years now. This is our go-to salutation in emails and all manner of greeting cards in every season -- birthdays, anniversaries, expressions of sympathy, Mother's and Father's Days. Love...but not love alone. Love of friends and family carried in our hearts of prayer to the very heart of God. 

“And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”—Matthew 6:18 - Each time I listen to a news clip, I wonder if there is any privacy in people’s lives. Something said or done in secret manages to come out in some form of social media. “And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” When we do anything good—especially in helping another—Jesus encourages us not to look for any recompense or any advertisement.

“Love Your Enemies.” - In today’s gospel (Mt 5:43-48) Jesus gives us in His ongoing Sermon on the Mount what is for me probably the most counterintuitive (and difficult) commandment in all of the gospels. Some might even think it more than a little insane.

"Another Way To Measure?" - We use that famous line about “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” in our language to signify vengeance and retaliation. Actually in the Law of the Jews it was an attempt to limit retaliation. Instead of gouging out both eyes of enemies, smashing all their teeth, this law was urging restraint and limitation. An eye for an eye, no more! Don’t do worse to your foe than your foe has done to you.

"A Tiny Whispering Sound" - We have been following stories of the great prophet Elijah all week from the first book of Kings. Today’s passage is a very famous one. Elijah is instructed to go outside his cave and wait for the Lord to pass. But God is not in three traditional manifestations of God and God’s power; wind, earthquake and fire. Instead, God is in that “tiny whispering sound.”

Today we celebrate a Spanish Jesuit, José de Anchieta [1534-1597], a relative of Ignatius Loyola, who also spent more than four decades in Brazil. He became highly influential in Brazil after a Portuguese fleet arrived there in 1550. Surviving a shipwreck on the way, he was one of the founders both of Sao Paulo and of Rio de Janeiro. But more than that, he is a renowned poet and writer and is considered the first Brazilian author.

“Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.”—Psalm 16 - Let’s take some time today—maybe over our mug of coffee—to talk to Jesus about our own priorities.  Do we live our Baptismal commitment to be prophet?  Or are we lazy and cowardly, hoping for some fire to come from the sky?

"Salt of the Earth. Light of the World" - Today’s gospel (Mt 5:13-16) immediately follows the Beatitudes in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. What I find interesting, but not necessarily obvious, about these two images is that each calls attention to, enhances, and/or reveals something else, not itself.

"Living With Passion" - Yesterday we arrived at the goal of our fifty day Easter Season – the Great Feast of Pentecost. The Scripture reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2: 1-11) spoke of rushing wind, fire and Spirit that brought a group of frightened disciples out of hiding and energized them to go out and inflame the world with the love of Christ. They were filled with enthusiasm, and all who witnessed it were amazed.

“What Is That to You?” - Today and tomorrow we come to the end of the Acts of the Apostles with Paul under house arrest in Rome, where he remained for two years, Acts states. It is a rather poignant picture of the great Apostle to the Gentiles who spent his entire post conversion life as a missionary to everywhere in the known world of his day preaching the Gospel, now spending some of his last days living alone and captive in Rome.