Like I mentioned last weekend, in Matthew’s gospel, there is the famous Sermon on the Mount, that is followed up with a lesser-known sermon called the Missioning Sermon. Last week and this week’s gospel are about the Missioning Sermon, how Jesus is sending his followers out into the world to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is breaking into the world here and now. Jesus isn’t trying to hone skills within his disciples before unleashing them on the world. …
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It’s a pretty safe statement for me to say that every one of us has experienced doubts, discouragement, and fears. I hope every one of you has also had moments of hope and people on your life journey who have spoken words of encouragement to you. The Scripture readings we are given today are so realistic, echoing both discouragement and encouragement. If you spent just a little bit of time with the Prophet Jeremiah, our first reading, or with …
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Sometimes when I read gospel stories, especially stories that are so familiar, my mind automatically jumps ahead and says, “I know where this story is going.” Jumping to the conclusion is not a good way of entering into any scripture story. The revelation that the story is trying to enlighten our minds with is not the same thing as walking the path of the revelation. Anybody can say, “Jesus is Lord.” I believe that’s true, but it won’t get …
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There are at least two, if not three, acts of faith we are called to make every time we share in the Eucharist. The first act of faith is to believe that these simple, unassuming materials of bread and wine have become the Body and Blood of Christ. This first act of faith leads to the second act of faith which asks us to believe, that in receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we are to become Christ’s …
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There is a part of us that prefers neatly packaged, clearcut answers over and against going on journeys to seek answers. And usually the answers we prefer, if we are honest, are the ones that justify a position we already hold and are not willing to budge from. That way we don’t have to change or grow or consider another opinion but just sit in our self-constructed security and always see the world out of the same lens. Jesus …
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If you have ever accompanied a person approaching their own death, you know the words they share with you are among the most important words you will ever hear from them. When someone is withing hours or days of death, what preoccupies their hearts and minds tends not to be about last night’s Blue Jays game or the price of broccoli. They want to make things right. It’s their last chance to say what they always wanted to say. …
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The feast of Pentecost is part of our Judeo-Christian heritage. It was a Jewish festival long before it was celebrated as a Christian feast. For our Jewish ancestors in faith, Pentecost was called the Festival of Weeks. It was a week (7 days) of weeks (7 days) plus one day, totaling 50 days. In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after the great Feast of Passover. It was a festival celebrating the first harvest of grain. With the harvest in mind, …
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I’ve had the good fortune to make two pilgrimages to the Holy Land. My advice, first to myself and then to those traveling with me, was the same both times– honor the event not so much the place. For example, we will never know, with absolute certainty, the exact spot where Jesus was born. That’s not important. What’s important is the event, the inbreaking of God into our world in human flesh. It makes no difference whether Jesus was …
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The first reading throughout the entire Easter Season, if you haven’t already figured it out, is always taken from a book in the Bible called the Acts of the Apostles. They are stories, not always flattering, about how the Church began, survived, and thrived in the absence of Jesus’ physical presence. In order for the Church to get out of the first century, I just have to believe there was and is a Holy Spirit, and that Spirit must …
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When I read and ponder these gospel stories, Jesus always comes across as the model, the archetype, the goal to which I strive. I believe he is the potential within me, that I never quite reach, and he is also the encouragement within me to keep striving. Jesus is the complete human being calling me and every human being to be fully human as he was. In that sense, I can say he is the universal Christ.
On the …
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