Monthly Archives: October 2020

Centrality of Love

Posted on by
Reply

Next Sunday is the celebration of the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. You can read a complete commentary on the Gospel here.

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40) Continue reading →

Images

Posted on by
1

It was a straight up trap from the outset. A plan to put Jesus between the proverbial “rock-and-a-hard-place.”  Pay the tax and one side thinks you are a heretic and are capitulating to a pagan emperor who thinks himself divine. Don’t pay the tax and the other side sees you a seditious and a problem to be immediately dealt with. Seems like a lose-lose proposition.

Jesus’ answer is: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Nice. Maybe we can think of it as a biblical “drop the mic” moment. There is a part of me that wants to revel in Jesus’ victory and turn the page. And there is the inner voice that tells me to wait a moment. If the Bible is really a book of questions, then what am I being asked to consider? Continue reading →

Holiness

Posted on by
Reply

God’s holiness is rooted in his unique identity as the creator of the cosmos and the powerful source of all life and beauty and goodness. However, the power of God’s holiness is also dangerous to us as mortal creatures. But, in God’s desire to partner with humanity, he made a way for us to access his holy presence safely through Jesus. Jesus applies the dangerous heat of God’s holiness to the things that separate us from God.

As we read the Bible, we see that wherever Jesus goes, sickness is healed, brokenness is made whole, and death gives into life. This tells us something significant about what it means to participate with Jesus’ ongoing work in the world. Those who follow Jesus are called to be agents of God’s transforming holiness.

The Bible Project is a non-for-profit organization that depends on our support. If you would like to support their efforts with a donation, you can reach them here.

Less clear and more difficult

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s daily readings for Mass can be found here. If you would like to read an introductory post for the reading this week, you can find that here.

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”46 And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.47 Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.48 Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.49 Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’50 in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world,51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Continue reading →

Real Strength

Posted on by
Reply

After acknowledging that real strength comes from Christ and not himself, St. Paul writes: “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Woe to you!

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s daily readings for Mass can be found here. If you would like to read an introductory post to today’s gospel and the gospels for the two days following, you can find that here.

42 Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Continue reading →

Being Tested

Posted on by
Reply

In the Garden of Eden, humans are presented with a test, a choice between two trees. This familiar story is the beginning of a narrative pattern we see play out again and again throughout the biblical story. But why does God choose to test people? It may seem cruel or like he’s attempting to trap humans into making the wrong choice, but the biblical story is clear. God’s desire is to partner with humans, and these tests are opportunities for humans to return to the ideals of the garden despite our countless failures.

If you would like to read the Bible Project’s blog on this topic/video, you can access it here. The Bible Project is a non-for-profit organization that depends on our support. If you would like to support their efforts with a donation, you can reach them here.

Every so often

Posted on by
5

Every so often someone approaches me after I have celebrated a Mass to inform me what I have done wrong in the ritual. It is in those moments that I have great empathy for the physician who resigns themselves to  listen to a patient reveal their self diagnosis based on what they have discovered on WebMD. Given the ubiquity of the internet I suspect every profession has similar moments. On one hand it is good that patients and clients inform and educate themselves; on the other hand there is a reason medical school, internship, residency, and specialty fellowships take a bit more time than an internet search. As a doctor/friend once offered, “There is a reason it is called the ‘Art of Medicine,’ – the human body is beyond complicated in all its possible reactions.” Continue reading →

Inside and Out

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s daily readings for Mass can be found here. If you would like to read an introductory post to today’s gospel and the gospels for the two days following, you can find that here.

37 After he had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat.38 The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.39 The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.40 You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?41 But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you. Continue reading →

Scripture for this week

Posted on by
Reply

The gospel readings for this 28th Week of Ordinary Time (Tuesday through Thursday) come from a section of Luke’s gospel – Luke 11:37-54. Three daily gospels are considered part of one pericope (fancy work meaning one narrative) from Luke’s writing. The parameters of this narrative unit are carefully marked: “he entered … he left” (vv. 37, 53). I will post each day about the daily gospel, but thought that today I would provide some context. Our reading come from the “travel narrative” (9:51–19:27) which begins following the Transfiguration, Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). From then, leading up to our passage, we encounter narratives about: Continue reading →