Monthly Archives: January 2019

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Nehemiah 8:2-6,8-10 | Psalm 18(19):8-10,15 | 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 | Luke 1:1-4,4:14-21

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If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body’, would that mean that it stopped being part of the body?

1 Corinthians 12:15

Excuse the pun, but…my foot! (In polite company: “I say, my dear chap, I find your assertion to be rather hard to believe.”)

It’s so easy to think that we’re not as good as some other person at a specific task, and therefore decide not to even try. Whether it be cooking, publishing an original work, or climbing Mount Everest, it’s always tempting to say “why bother, I can’t be perfect?” (Though, to be sure, that last activity is definitely not for the faint of heart or body.)

Since this is a Catholic blog, you can probably guess what I’m about to say next, and you’re probably right: That’s no excuse for not bothering to spread God’s Word.

We listen to our local priests delivering homilies on a daily basis, and think to ourselves, “That’s so hard! I’ll never be able to reach that level of spiritual enlightenment.” That may well be true, but if we then just stop dead and limit our Catholic activities to appearing reluctantly at mass, and consuming a small wafer while mentally planning our next meal or destination, we’re selling ourselves way short.

For we are indeed different parts of the body of Christ, and while not all of us can be eloquent mouths, there’s more to sowing God’s love than talk talk talk (or write write write for folks like me).

Some of us make excellent hands, laboring in charitable and life-giving activities.

Other are sturdy feet, shuttling needed supplies and laborers to each Christian harvest.

Still others are eagle-eyed or bat-eared, uncanny in their ability to find opportunities for showing and telling others about the Way, Truth and Life.

Whatever our talents, there’s surely a way to employ them in God’s mission here on earth. We just need to commit our time and attention, pulling together with the whole body of the faithful.

And since everyone’s spirit will flag at one point or another, we should heed St. Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonians:

So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

For as the hymn goes:

We are one body, one body in Christ
and we do not stand alone.

Amen.

Thursday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
(Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop, Doctor)
Hebrews 7:25-8:6 | Psalm 39(40):7-10,17 | Mark 3:7-12

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And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.

Mark 3:9-10

NOTE: As I wrote this blog, news broke that local actor Aloysius Pang had died from injuries sustained during a reservist training exercise. The unfortunate reference to “being crushed” in my chosen Bible passage is entirely coincidental, but I decided to keep going with the general tenor of this post.

Today’s Gospel speaks of Jesus gaining great fame. Like many a modern celebrity, thousands flocked to see Him, and His disciples probably found themselves having to learn “crowd control” on the job.

I see two modern parallels in the above passage. The first is the need for an “escape hatch”, a mental bolt-hole to which one can retreat when the cares of life become too much to bear. Jesus the God could’ve swept aside the oppressive crowd with but a thought and a word to His heavenly Father; Jesus the man chose not to apply such brute force, and instead prepared to retreat to a place of calm and serenity, out in the middle of the lake.

The second…is the crowd’s eagerness to be near Jesus, to touch Him. We’ve mostly lost this eagerness in modern times, spending our limited time and attention instead on worldly goods and vices. Even in our escape, we’ll fill our “panic rooms” with secular entertainment, choosing hedonism over quiet contemplation with the Jesus who’s always beside us.

Brothers and sisters, let’s make Jesus the #1 celebrity in our lives, yeah?

Amen.

Monday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
(Saint Agnes, Virgin, Martyr)
Hebrews 5:1-10 | Psalm 109(110):1-4 | Mark 2:18-22

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No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

Mark 2:21

Every Sunday at mass, when the celebrant elevates the host and chalice, and declaims Behold the Lamb of God, there will inevitably be a few folks in my line of sight bowing their heads instead of focusing on the Body and Blood of Christ. If asked, some of them might argue that it’s the appropriate posture when we respond with “Lord, I am not worthy”, but that seems more like retroactive rationalization.

I think it’s actually an attempt to excuse force of habit, formed from our early years being taught to always humble ourselves before our Saviour, and tacitly encouraged by the older and more casual invocation: “This is the Lamb of God”. This is Jesus, folks, no big deal really.

But with the new missal translation, already several years old, the intent couldn’t be clearer, especially since a key word is repeated:

BEHOLD the Lamb of God,
BEHOLD him who takes away the sins of the world.

A less-tactful priest might even go:

Behold the Lamb of…BEHOLD, people! That means LOOK UP AND SEE!!! Jesus is RIGHT HERE!!! Why are you all groveling?!?! LOOK UP, DAMN IT!!!

The new translation, it seems, is like the unshrunken cloth in today’s Gospel. The many meaningful tweaks, meant to focus our minds and hearts on this sacred celebration, are instead being ignored in favour of “the old way was better” or “we’ve always done it this way, why change now?”

Thus, the “old cloth” of habit and unthinking rote pulls away from the “new patch” of awareness and understanding, leaving the old faith to further rip, rot and crumble.

Few things are sadder than going through the motions at Mass. I know this from experience, having drifted alone in my faith during my college days, half-listening to the words of scripture in a dark mental fog, receiving a mere white wafer on my tongue each week, waiting for this hour-long ritual to end.

God help me, I never want to go back to those awful days again.

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Brothers and sisters, what can we do, as individual parts of the one body of Christ, to avoid falling into such a faith-based rut?

We could start by “preparing ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries”, not just through the Penitential Rite (from which those words above were taken), but also by simply picking up the missal and reading the Order of Mass. From the rubrics (literally “red ochre”), to the priest’s words, to our responses, there is a deeper meaning hidden in it all. We should spend time pondering the rites we use each Sunday, thinking carefully about how they tie in with sacred scripture, and taking inspiration from the quiet words for the priest alone, that are nevertheless profoundly meaningful for us all.

Only by consciously reminding ourselves of the what, how, and most especially the why, can we draw meaning and strength from our weekly celebration at the Lord’s table.

It’s time to take ourselves off autopilot at Mass, to make good on the words we sing:

We remember how You loved us to Your death
And still we celebrate, for You are with us here
And we believe that we will see You when You come in Your glory, Lord
We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

Amen.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Isaiah 62:1-5 | Psalm 95(96):1-3,7-10 | 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 | John 2:1-11

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When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine’. Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’

John 2:3-4

I’ve heard and read those words many times over the years, but it’s only after I heard the Lanky Guys (a priest and a catechist podcasting from Boulder, Colorado) comment on today’s readings (podcast audio here) that I realized how significant they are, given that we celebrate today the moment from which Jesus begins his ministry.

It’s easy to forget Mother Mary’s role at this nexus, and how it must have affected her. She probably remembered Simeon’s fateful words, when she brought the infant Jesus to the temple:

‘You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected-and a sword will pierce your own soul too-so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’

Luke 2:34-35

She may have realized that, by asking her son to resolve a supremely embarrassing situation, she would set in motion everything to fulfill Simeon’s prophecy…and suffer grievous hurt sometime in the future.

Jesus too makes no bones about this: Mother, do you know what you’re asking of me? If I take a hand in this, there’s no stopping this ministerial train…and it ends at Calvary.

Yet, in the end, Mary accepted what had to happen, and what needed to be done, regardless of the all-too-human misgivings and dread she may have felt:

‘Do whatever he tells you.’

John 2:5

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We frequently feel that same dread when we’re called to love and serve God. Where is this train headed? What obstacles will I face? How much will I have to sacrifice?

But we have an advantage that Mother Mary did not, when she made that pivotal decision. We have been promised by Jesus Himself that “my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:30)

So let us boldly go forth and spread the Word that is Christ, in word and deed. Let us be confident that He’ll fit us for, and guide us in, the task at hand, and never forget His admonition:

‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

Luke 9:62

Amen.

Saturday of week 1 in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 4:12-16 | Psalm 18(19):8-10,15 | Mark 2:13-17

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No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.

Hebrews 4:13

I was at the funeral of Fr. John Bosco Pereira’s father yesterday, and listened to his daughter and granddaughters eulogize him. As with most eulogies, he was verbally painted as a caring, strict, and God-fearing father, as well as a doting and generous grandfather.

It would be unusual for a dead person to be slammed at his own funeral, but if there were truly dark aspects to his life, there’s the potential for this knowledge to leak out through subtle phrasings…or even outright omissions of expected revelations.

And all this would be laid bare for everyone to see.

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Humans have been hiding from God since Adam and Eve.

Some lessons, it seems, are almost impossible to hand down the generations. Even cold reason dictates that a Supreme Being, with the power to cause life in all its remarkable complexity and variety to come into being, also has the power to inspect it all.

In brightest day, in blackest night, 
No evil shall escape my sight 
Let those who cleave to evil’s blight, 
Beware my power…my Holy Light!

God, channeling Hal Jordan

God sees, brothers and sisters. It’s past time for us to accept that, and live our lives in acknowledgement of this. Time to clean up our act, and live and love in accordance with His will. Time to acknowledge our flaws, and cleanse ourselves regularly with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Time to spend more time with Him, pondering both the word that is holy scripture and the Word that is Jesus the Christ.

Time to do all this, while we still have time.

Lord, remind us to live in Your light always. Amen.