One of my summer jobs as a kid was working for a retired farmer. My parents knew this would be a good character-building opportunity and drove me out to his farm most every week in the summer. I mowed the huge yard and did many other odd jobs. One job that I hated the most was digging up the thistles in the pasture. I was given a spade and told to go “dig them up by the roots”. When the prickly thistles have grown up taller than you, they can be nasty. It’s tempting to cut them off at the ground and walk away…but unless you dig up the whole root, you know they will grow back. Looking back on it now, weed killer would have been very helpful.
Rarely do we have a reading from the second book of Chronicles which is used for today's first reading. It includes a description of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the people being captured and taken to Babylon and then the restoration of Jerusalem under Cyrus, the new king of Persia.
Here on the 3rd Sunday in Lent, since I have talked about the Preface Prayer for the last two Sundays, I thought I just as well keep it going. Today we will hear this Preface: “For by your gracious gift each year your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts with the joy of minds made pure, so that, more eagerly intent on prayer and on the works of charity, and participating in the mysteries by which they have been reborn, they may be led to the fullness of grace that you bestow on your sons and daughters.” So I’m just going to give some thoughts, three thoughts, on this prayer as it relates to our readings.
Here on the 2nd Sunday of Lent we always focus on the Transfiguration, which is a story that we talk about quite a bit, we are quite familiar with it. Again, much like last week, I wonder what is it that I can say that I haven’t already said about the Transfiguration and will be helpful?
Here on the 1st Sunday in Lent we always hear about the Temptation of Jesus in the desert for 40 days. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four, he gets right to the point, very succinctly, but maybe too succinctly, he doesn’t describe the Temptations at all, he just mentions that Jesus was “tempted by Satan” and moves right into His public ministry.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! That's probably not what you were expecting me to say, it's kind of a weird combination of Holidays, Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, somewhat in conflict even.
Another week, another healing story from Mark. But before we get into that, the “Catholic Charities Annual Appeal” kicks off this weekend, and Archbishop Zinkula has asked us to read a message at all the Masses, so here is his message:
You might be tempted to think I picked these readings out specifically for our parish Healing Mission, but no, you can see they are in the Missal, so this is just what the Church gave us for this particular weekend. Or you might think that I picked this particular weekend for our Mission because of these readings, but no, I picked this weekend because there were no NFL football games this weekend! The free weekend between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, no excuses that way…
A common thing that I hear is about the debate over celibacy in the Church, specifically within the priesthood. People will say to me, “Father, I think you should be allowed to be married.” Most of the time I believe that comment comes from a place of concern for me, people are worried that I am “lonely” because I’m “alone.” Sometimes people recommend I get a dog for the same reason!
At first glance the Gospel we just heard sounds a lot like last week, they both sound like when the Apostles first start to follow Jesus, with Andrew and Simon Peter mentioned in both. However we know that it is a different episode, because last week it said, “John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.” (John 1:35-42)
When we look at our readings today and study them a bit, it becomes clear that the common theme is one of being called, or in other words, discipleship. Look at the first reading. At a very young age, Samuel is called by the Lord to be a leader in Israel. He had a very key role in salvation history, especially when in later years, Samuel anointed David as the future king.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and there are a lot of practicals in these readings. But we’ll start with the more impractical question of what is happening in this Gospel. What we just heard is a ritual known as a Presentation. Thirty days after the birth of Jesus, according to the Jewish law, His parents “took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord…”
Merry Christmas! Just want to wish a warm welcome to all visitors and guests, there’s really no better place to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus (our Savior) than at the Church of the Nativity, so thanks for being here to worship Him.
Well here we are at the end of Advent already, the shortest Advent we can possibly have, and if you have been following along with the daily readings, you might recall that this is the 4th time we have heard this exact same Gospel, the story of the Annunciation. I heard that fact somewhere, but I didn’t believe it, so I went back and counted and it’s true, 4 times in 22 days.
Today is a natural favorite in the Advent Season - today we lit the rose candle which represents “Joy.” Our readings are full of joy, Isaiah says, “I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul;” Mary says, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” and Paul tells us to “Rejoice always.”
This is the second week into the new year reading the Gospel of Mark, and now in week two we start at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. You might remember that I said with Matthew, a big theme was “invitation” - so a big theme with Mark is “immediately” - it is a much shorter gospel, the fluff is cut out, Jesus is coming back soon, so do this immediately!
Today we celebrate Christ the King, and it is the end of the Church year so we will be moving on from Matthew to Mark, so I want to tie a bow on this, really just tying everything together that we have been talking about.
So we are getting to the end of the parables in Matthew’s Gospel, and this one has always been one of my favorites, but I’ve found a new appreciation for it in looking for that twist. Before we get there, we often think of talents as skills or abilities, God given usually, but in the time of Jesus, a Talent was a value of money. A silver Talent would have been worth 20 years worth of wages, so in today’s terms, worth about a million dollars. So the Master gives 5 million dollars, 2 million, and 1 million and goes away.
At the end of the Church year we focus on “the Last Things.” These readings are actually funeral readings. Well not so much the first one but definitely the second two, I’ve used both at funerals recently, in fact the reading from Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians was read at my funeral (today/yesterday). (In my green funeral book they are numbered E12 and G3.)
Today’s readings are about spiritual leadership. They are directed at the priests, no doubt, but I believe there are some good lessons in here for everyone. First, in our Gospel, you’ll notice that Jesus recognizes legitimate authority. He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.” The “Chair of Moses” is the chair of power so to speak, it is the legitimate leader’s seat. In the Catholic Church, there are several levels, the first being the Pope’s chair in Rome for the whole Church, second being the bishop’s chair in the Cathedral for the local area Church, and the third being the Pastor’s chair in the individual church.