One day a very successful lawyer headed out the door for work. In his path was his three-year-old son playing with blocks. The man patted the boy on the head, stepped over him, open the door, and went outside to get to his car. Halfway down the walk a guilt bomb exploded within him. “What am I doing?” he thought to himself. “I’m ignoring my son. I never play with him. He’ll be old before I know it.” In the ...
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Well, that’s Good News. No matter what label anyone puts on you, Jesus calls you blessed.
This Gospel passage always reminds me of something the late Fr. Herb Grattan said in a homily he delivered in the late 1970’s at Immaculate Heart of Mary church. He said that when you are 20 years old you are worried about what everyone thinks about you. When you are 40 years old, you don’t care what anyone thinks about you. And when you are ...
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One possible theme that courses through all three readings is this idea that someone, or some group of people, is being called by God. And of course, since God’s Word is a living word, and we are listening to that living word, this call must apply to us just as much as it applied to people in Biblical times. It’s God who initiates it, but it’s up to us whether we respond or not to God’s invitation, God’s call. Don’t ...
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Although not obvious, there is a common thread in all three Scripture stories we have today. They are all stories of someone being called by God which should get us thinking about our own call. Along with being called is often our relentless low opinion of ourselves countered by God’s high estimation of us. If we let God’s opinion win out, we become—like every Saint in the history of the Church—useable and pliable in hands of God. Being willing to ...
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January 1st each year is a weighted day. It’s obviously, New Year’s Day in the secular world. Furthermore, for the Church, it is also the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and World Day of Peace. Putting together Mary, Mother of God and World Day of Peace makes a lot of sense in my mind.
There’s an ancient Jewish blessing, that we heard in that first reading from the Book of Numbers. In its paraphrased version it says, “May God bless ...
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You may have noticed that our gospel readings are not in chronological order. The opening line of today’s gospel tells us that the Wise Men had left. They paid homage to the new-born King, left their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and went home. Next weekend, the Feast of Epiphany, we will be told about the arrival of the Wise Men. Act surprised next weekend!
So, the Wise Men are gone back to their homeland. But as you know from ...
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For well over a thousand years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, prophets—special envoys of God—were sent to remind people that God had not abandoned them. In fact, they were to wait for the Messiah, whose desire it was to be close to people and to bring them salvation. Most of the people, because they did not see the Messiah in their own lifetime, just gave up waiting. But a small group of people didn’t give up at all. They ...
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Once again, the readings the Church asigned us have a common thread between the first reading and the gospel reading. Each is about a man who finds himself in a dilemma. King Ahaz, in that first reading, deals with the dilemna poorly while Joseph, in the gospel, handles his predicament much better. Let’s look at these two contrasting guys and see what God might be saying to us .
Firstly, let’s look at King Ahaz who was the king of Judah. ...
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The readings we have today for the Feast of the Epiphany remind me of the word catholic (with a small “c”). The word catholic is not found in the Bible, by the way, but what it means is found everywhere in the Bible. Catholic means universal, inclusive, all-embracing. It was coined and applied to the Church around the year 110 by St. Ignatius of Antioch. If we are to keep calling ourselves the Catholic Church, then the challenge is to ...
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All three readings, proclaimed worldwide by the Church today, remind me of the saying, “the seed never sees it’s flower.” If we take it literally, the seed is underground, so it naturally can’t see the blossom above ground. But more to the point, the seed (unless it is a bulb) must die long before the plant ever produces a shoot, a stem, or a flower. The metaphor is true for humans as well. Some of our greatest efforts will only ...
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