Today’s Thoughts: Given the negativity, anger, misinformation, violence of our world and the bad things that often seem to happen to good people living with a generous and willing heart is not always easy and sometimes is downright frustrating. At least it seems that way to me. I truly want to follow the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5: 38-42), “Give to the one who asks of you and do not turn your back on the one who wants to borrow.” Yet, time and time again I struggle with the Gospel way that Jesus outlines today.
At times I want justice or maybe more so revenge, yes, I want an eye for an eye. I don’t like to get hit at all and I certainly don’t want to turn the other cheek. I am happy at times to go the extra mile but not always. You can have my jacket or coat as long as it is an old one and I have another. And it seems at times there are people on every street corner and subway stop if I give to everyone I will be broke within a day! Yes, often I fail when it comes to Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel and that bothers me! How can I be a person of faith, how can I be a Christian, a Catholic and fall so short? Jesus’ words are haunting words today and I have no answers. Sure, I have often rationalized – I can’t give to everyone; the money will surely be used for drugs or drink; they got what they deserved; somebody has to teach them a lesson; it’s too cold; I don’t have time; somebody else will help them; and on and on! But Jesus doesn’t give conditions or excuses he just says offer no resistance, turn the other cheek, give your coat, go the extra mile and don’t turn your back! So, I am still faced with my imperfection, I am still faced with how to act and live. I have no intelligent answer, no sage wisdom of many years. All I can say is that it is perhaps good to pause and listen to or read Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel today knowing that we are not perfect but also reminding ourselves that there is still much to learn, much to do. Perhaps, Jesus’ words help us to make sure that we see the world around us and that we don’t close our eyes to it! Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: The line that has stayed with me all week as I have reflected on our readings for today is the opening line of the Gospel, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:26) What is most important about this open sentence of our Gospel is the phrase “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity…” If we were to translate this line literally from the Greek it might say, “Jesus was moved in his guts…” The translation moved with pity makes what is happening a little distant or less emotional. Moved in his guts says to us that there were real emotions and feelings involved. We have all had those feelings in our gut. When conventional wisdom, when common knowledge, when the status quo says one thing, but we sense something else is better, more important, right or wrong. I have often said the NCIS is one of my favorite shows. I don’t watch as much anymore because Leroy Jethro Gibbs is no longer a character. He was the reason I began to watch and when he left the show did seem the same. One of the phares you would often hear at some point during the show was, “Ok, Gibbs what does your famous gut say?” Gibbs often had a gut feeling that something was wrong, or right, or needed to change in the case, and he was often right. Sometimes his gut made for more problems or struggle at the moment but in the end his gut seemed to save the day. Our readings today are about God’s gut feelings. Feelings for the Israelites, feelings for St. Paul and the early Church, feelings for the crowds who gather to listen and the disciples who will take the mission. God, Jesus often went against, conventional wisdom, the knowledge of the day, tradition or what appeared to be the smart choice or way of doing things. May feeling is that like Gibbs, Jesus often when with his gut and as we know it often made his life and the lives of the people around him, more difficult, more challenging but in the end, it was the right choice, it was the right way. My guess is that fathers often live by their gut. Making their way through life, trying always to do what is best for the family. Having profound feelings that cause them to pause and consider what is best even when life, the world says otherwise. We are remined today that God often goes against conventional wisdom and what the world believes is the way because of the deep feelings of love that God has for all of us! Father’s Day blessings to all and have a great Sunday everyone. As always don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: Today we celebrate the second half of the Church’s focus on the heart. Yesterday we celebrated the Sacred Heart of Jesus and today it is Mary’s Immaculate Heart that we honor. There are many things we can say about Mary’s heart but the virtue that stands out most to me about Mary is strength. I think Mary’s heart was truly a heart of strength.
In the Gospel today, Luke tells us that Mary kept all the experience of Jesus in her heart. She kept the joys and sorrows, the miracles and the opposition, the quiet moments and the great crowds, the mother and father moments of family and the community moments of discipleship. Mary kept the triumphant moments of shepherds, angels, kings and palms and failing moments of whips, nails, wooden crosses and death on a hill. Yes, Mary kept all things in her heart, so she needed a very strong heart to hold all the experiences of life that she encountered from early on. Mary was truly a woman, a mother of great strength, a strength that came from and was nourished, feed and supposed by her heart. The heart is central to who we are as a human being. Whether we are speaking about our physical, emotion or spiritual life the heart plays a central role in how we live our life. Mary’s heart was a heart of strength carrying the grace of God’s presence in her life. Her strength enabled her to say “yes” to God and then watch as that “yes” unfolded in the life, passion, death and resurrection of her son, Jesus. Mary, woman of strength, hold us in your heart that we too may be strong in living our journey of life! Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our focus today is the “heart,” the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The heart is the center of who we are, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is the place where we often think of God’s presence within us.
Think for a moment, in a physical way the heart is the center of who we are. It is the pump that pushes life through us. Without it we can do nothing. All our other organs, muscles, bones, and assorted other things are important, but it is the heart that keeps us alive that makes everything we do, say, and feel possible. Emotionally the heart is central to what we feel. It is the home of the emotions. On February 14th we do not receive or send a card with a gallbladder on the front that says, “I love you!” No, we send or receive a card with a heart on the front. The heart is the place of feelings and emotions. If we were to write a song, a poem, or a story about love we would talk about the heart. A broken heart means we have lost at or been hurt by love. In a spiritual way the heart is important too. The heart in a spiritual sense is the dwelling place of God. In the Old Testament, the psalmists and prophets talked about the community or individual who was without God as having a stony heart. A stony heart has no room for God, is closed to the presence of God. So, we might say the heart sits at the center of who we are as human beings. Today’s feast reminds us of just how important the heart is to us. Jesus’ heart led him through his journey of life. Jesus’ Sacred Heart teaches us about love. It is a heart full of the kind of love and mercy that leaves no one behind. As our Gospel tells us today, Jesus’ Sacred Heart enables him to come to him, with all our struggles and are burdens, so that he might give us rest. Jesus’ Sacred Heart enables him to invite us to take his yoke upon us and learn from him, for his Sacred Heart is meek and humble; and if we do this, we will find rest. For share life with Jesus makes the struggles and burdens easier, and even light! This Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is about the sharing of love, and hope; the hope that God is always searching, looking, and waiting for us because we are that special, that important. The question for today is, “Can we believe in our value, can we believe in our specialness, can we believe in God’s love for us, can we trust that God will always find us and be willing to share in our burdens, struggles, hopes, and dreams and bring us home embraced in his love!” Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I ran across a quote by David Benner the author of Healing Emotional Wounds, “Forgiveness…is letting go – letting go of the anger, letting go of the right to retaliate, and letting go of the right to savor any of the emotional consequences of the hurt."
I have always reflected with people who were struggling with forgiveness that forgiveness is about letting go. It is about moving beyond the hurt. Yet often people think that forgiveness means forgetting. The wisdom in Brenner’s reflection is that he is not saying that we forget that we let go of the experience itself but that we let go of the human effects of being hurt that can often paralyze us. Perhaps said another way we need to let go so we can get beyond being a victim. I think this is what Jesus is getting at in the God today (Matthew 5:20-26). In order for the commandment of love, which we reflected on yesterday, to fully be part of our life we have to let go of the anger, retaliation and the victimization that being hurt can often bring about. Jesus talks about taking the high road. Jesus speaks about being the bigger person. Jesus teaches us the importance and power of love. However, there is one thing we always need to remember none of this is easy and sometimes taking the high road, being the bigger person, living by love can open us up to be hurt once again. It can also mean being rejected. The commandment of love requires that we be forgiving people, to seek forgiveness and to offer forgiveness whether it is successful or not. So, we pray for the strength and the grace to be people willing to seek forgiveness and be forgiving! Have a holy and blessed Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: After reading today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-19) one might ask the question, “What law is Jesus speaking about?” At first glance we might be tempted to say that Jesus was about abolishing the law rather than fulfilling it. His life and ministry often seemed to challenge Jewish law rather than support it or fulfill it.
However, we might think about a conversation Jesus had with a scribe in Mark 12:28-34, the scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus’ responds “to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself, these are the two great commandments.” Now, if we think of this conversation considering today’s Gospel then we might begin to have a real understanding of what law Jesus is talking about. All of law flows from these two great commandments, love of God and neighbor. Jesus’ life was about fulfilling these commandments, his life, his actions, his teaching and his ministry all centered on living a life in love of God and others. All that Jesus said and did was to bring fulfillment to the great law of love. Jesus showed us the way to fulfill the law, to change the world. Thus, the challenge for us in today’s Gospel is about how we live our life. Do we live our life to help bring fulfillment to the law of love? Do we live life loving God, others and ourselves? Have a blessed and holy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In Matthew Jesus uses the wonderful example of salt and light in asking the disciples, in asking us to reflect on our lives. I have often preached on this Gospel using the image not of the Sermon on the Mount but of Jesus talking with his disciples one evening as they rested at an inn. They have traveled with him and Jerusalem in not far away and Jesus isn’t sure that they are ready for what is ahead, he isn’t sure their answer is “yes.” How can he help them trust in their relationship?
Then an idea comes to mind. He calls them together. Before he speaks he looks at each one of them and then says, “You are the salt of the earth! But what if salt loses it flavor? What is then good for?” Then he looks at each of them intently again and says. “You are the light of the world! People don’t put a lamp under a bushel basket, they put it on a stand so that it gives light to the whole room. In the same way your light must shine, your flavor must be tasted!” Now I know I am being a bit free and easy with Jesus’ words, but the point is that in order for us to say “yes” to God we need to trust in the gifts and talents God has given us. We need to realize that we have something to offer no matter how ordinary our gifts, abilities and talents seem. Salt and light were everyday staples of life, yet as Jesus tells us they were also very valuable and so are we. However, it is up to us. We can hide our light, we can lose our flavor, or we can give light to the whole room and add flavor to life! Perhaps the first place to start is to begin our day asking God to let his face shine upon us so that our flavor isn’t lost and our light shines! Have a blessed and holy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have a couple of thoughts about the Gospel today (Matthew 5: 1-12). The Beatitudes are one of my favorite Gospels but also one of the most challenging Gospels for me. Often after hearing it proclaimed, I am energized yet also humbled. I am ready to encounter the world, yet I am also ready to head to the confessional. I want to be a true disciple, yet I know I am far from it!
Fr. James Martin, S.J. writes “What does it mean to be poor in spirit?” I must admit I have always struggle with an understanding of this first beatitude. Fr. Martin’s answer, “Poor in Spirit is to know one’s reliance on God, to understand one’s dependence on God and to grasp one’s humanity.” I guess we might say that to be “poor in spirit” is to let go and let God. The other challenge of the beatitudes is that to live fully any one of the beatitudes, you will almost automatically begin to live them all. Perhaps to put it another way, “You can’t live just one!” In order to be a peacemaker, we need to also be meek, merciful, clean of heart, righteous and poor in spirit. In order to be merciful, we need to be clean of heart, meek, poor in spirit, righteous and a peacemaker. They go hand in hand. However, living the beatitudes is not easy because they will make us vulnerable to insult, persecution, and the evils of our world. They will open us up to the insecurities of the world which can be troubling, harsh, insensitive, and hurtful. In other words, living the beatitudes can open us up to be stepped on, hurt, and not valued as a person. Living the beatitudes almost always put us in tension with the ways of culture, society, and the world. Yet, during all this Jesus tells us to rejoice and be glad. The challenge of the beatitudes has been going on since the beginning of time. Women and men before us have faced the challenge and their prize, the Kingdom, awaits us. Perhaps all the beatitudes can really be proclaimed and lived in the phrase, “Let go and let God!” Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: As I begin my reflection this morning a scene from a traditional Christmas movie comes to mind, the movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The scene comes in the middle of the movie and is probably not that important to the story line, but I have always remembered it. If you remember George Bailey, the main character is the CEO so to speak of a Building and Loan Company that his father started and that he had to take over when his father died. One of the purposes of the company is to help people buy a home and, in the scene, I am referring to, Mary and George are celebrating with the Martini Family their new home. As the scene begins Mary and George are standing on the porch of the new home and Mary presents Mrs. Martini with bread, and says “Bread, so that this house will never know hunger”, “Salt, so that life will always have flavor”, and then George says. “Wine, so that joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini castle.”
I thought of this scene as I reflected on the feast we celebrate today. Might we think of Jesus saying to us, “Bead so that this community of faith never goes hungry and Wine so that joy, love and life will reign forever, eat and drink and enter the gift of eternal life!” As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ our first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy seems to take us and the Israelites on a trip down Memory Lane. Moses reminds the Israelites and us what God has done. We are reminded of God’s faithfulness during a time of struggle, difficulty, affliction, hunger and thirst. We are reminded that God always cared for the Israelites, always saw to it that they had food for their journey of faith. Two times in our first reading Moses reminds the Israelites that God fed those on the journey with bread that was “unknown to their fathers.” Even though they did not understand the nature of this bread, they were hungry, so they ate it and were strengthened for their journey. Our first reading reminds us to remember God’s faithfulness in the past so that we might be moved to be faithful in our times. In the journey of faith when we do not struggle, when times are good, we might be tempted to forget the bountifulness and the faithfulness of God. We might be tempted to go it alone. We always need to be reminded that all we have is a gift from God! In our today’s Gospel, Jesus, as Moses did, is inviting us to move beyond the limits of what we know and our experiences of life, and trust in the Bread that we do not know. We like the Israelites in the desert are hunger, perhaps not physically but spiritually. We are looking to be nourished and Jesus is offering Eucharistic Bread, His Body and the Eucharistic wine His Blood. we do not understand. Jesus teaching through out John’s Gospel on his Body and Blood is not part of our human knowledge or experience but we are asked to have faith, to trust, to believe and to enter into the mystery so that we will have the strength to make the journey of faith to the promised land, eternal life! Our Solemnity today invites us into a journey of mystery, the mystery of God’s love and God’s ways. When we celebrate the Eucharist, when we participate in the Eucharistic, we are challenged to believe more deeply in Jesus, in the presence of God in our life. We challenge to give our life for others just as Jesus did. At each Eucharist when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus says, I demand your life of you. I have given you mind now go and be my Body and Blood in the world! Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Once again, in our Gospel from Mark, we find Jesus in conflict with the religious leaders of his time. Jesus seems to always be hard on the religious leaders of his day. The long robes, the honors they receive so willingly, clashes with Jesus' view of leadership. For Jesus their leadership is a shame, they “recite lengthy prayers” while at the same time, devour the houses of widows." Jesus’ vision of leadership, of being a religious person is about kindness, compassion, and authenticity.
We might ask what has gone wrong for the religious leaders? What is the temptation that takes them to self-righteousness and the externals of religious practice, and away from a heart like Jesus’ rich in mercy and hearing the cry of the poor? When our story moves to Jesus' sitting across from the temple treasury, he becomes the teacher who gives us an image to remember for life. Jesus observes, "many rich people put in large sums," but then, "a poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents." Jesus contrasts those who "contributed from their surplus wealth" and the widow who "from her poverty, has contributed all she had." Jesus offers us an honest challenging and liberating message. Having many things makes it difficult to depend upon God alone. Letting go of things, placing our lives in God's hands, allows us to keep everything in perspective and to give generously, "and not to count the cost." Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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