There is a drive in all three readings to leave the past in the past and to forge a new future. The reason this drive is in the readings is because it’s the fundamental drive in God, and since Jesus came to do God’s will, it’s the fundamental drive in Jesus as well—to make all things new. We cannot make all things new without God nor without letting go of the past. Holding onto past sins or living in a ...
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We have to celebrate
Next week, Holy Week, we will enter the holiest week of our lives. Passion (Palm) Sunday begins the journey. It is aptly named—”Passion Sunday”—and is a key to what is about to unfold. The words passion and patience originate from the same root word which means “to suffer” or “to endure.” Later on, the word passion took on the more informal connotation as a strong “desire.” Jesus enters his Passion with these words, “With desire have I ...
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This gospel episode begins by telling us that Jesus was teaching the crowd. Jesus often targets a particular group with his teaching, like the Scribes or Pharisees or a particular person like a centurion or a leper or a Canaanite woman. But this is not the case here. He is teaching the crowd, which means this teaching is for every person on this earth at all times and in all places including us right here.
Some of the people listening to ...
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We all need conversion; that’s a given. Lent is given to us as a gift to ponder what conversion looks like in each of our lives, what it looks like for the Church, and what it might look like for the world. One of the most important conversions Pope Francis says the world needs is an ecological conversion. Ecological conversion is a change in how we look at, interact and behave, to care for our common home—the earth. It is ...
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About 25 years ago, I took up the hobby of stained glass making. The first thing I attempted to make, with my new-found hobby, was the “comedy and tragedy” masks you have probably all seen. It’s a laughing face alongside a frowning face based on ancient Greek theatre. It’s called “comedy and tragedy,” but my first attempt at stained glass was so bad, I named my creation, “tragedy and more tragedy.” However, I didn’t give up. Nothing I make, in ...
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At the Sunday Mass, 6 ½ weeks ago at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, we celebrated a special ritual within the R.C.I.A. process with seven wonderful people who will be joining the Church at the upcoming Easter Vigil. Perhaps the most powerful part of this ritual came when their sponsors, with obvious gestures, made the sign of the cross over various parts of the candidates’ bodies, beginning with the head and ending the candidates’ feet. From their heads to the ...
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When Jesus commanded us, in last Sunday’s gospel, to “love our enemies,” it was probably the most challenging thing he could have said. Most days, loving my enemy takes more courage than I think I have. Today, in the gospel, he commands us to take the “log out of our own eye” before we even attempt to take the sliver out of our neighbour’s eye. Again, most days, removing the log from my own eye takes more honesty than I ...
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Church. Why bother?
Back in the 1st century when the Church was just getting going, St. Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you with a part to play in the whole” (1 Cor. 12:27). The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as the Church. Every part of our physical body is dependent on every other part. You are part of Christ’s body—that’s who you are. Only as ...
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Our starting point in anything, especially in life, is so important. Experts say that 80% of our personality is formed by the time we are five years old. That’s probably why therapists are so interested in our childhood or the household we grew up in. That was our starting point, and it was so formative. Coincidentally, 80% of your image of God has to do with parental imagery. If your parents were punitive, cold, distant, and just waiting for you ...
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You’ve probably heard about the “Sermon on the Mount” in the Gospel of Matthew. Well, this version is from the Gospel of Luke and doesn’t happen on a mountain. It happens after Jesus comes down the mountain and stood on a level place, a plateau perhaps. That’s the opening line of today’s gospel reading, “Jesus came down the mountain with the twelve and stood on a level place.” Luke tells us that Jesus spent the entire night on a mountain ...
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