A man on a quest

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Friar Musings

This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Yesterday we look at the parallels and connections within the Lucan narrative as Jesus, moving steadily towards Jerusalem, continues to prepare his disciples for their evangelical mission.

At first glance we might expect this to be another parable challenging the rich. The rich have not fared well in Luke’s gospel. Jesus pronounces woes upon the rich (6:24). God called the rich farmer a fool (12:16, 20) and required his soul of him. The rich man went to Hades while Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham, and Jesus observed how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (18:23, 25). Zacchaeus is a “wealthy man” (19:2) Continue reading →

On this day in history…Oct 25th

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Friar Musings

On this day in 1415, (Saint Crispin’s Day) the English army, led by Henry V, scored a decisive victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years’ War. There had been several decades of relative peace, when the English resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. Henry V of England was a claimant to the throne of France. Henry’s claim was through his great-grandfather Edward III of England, although in practice the English kings were generally prepared to renounce this claim if the French would acknowledge the English claim on Aquitaine and other French lands as outlined in an earlier treaty. Continue reading →

Stories of Opposites

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Friar Musings

This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Yesterday we briefly looked at all the stories in Luke that fall between the gospel readings of the 30th and 31st Sunday – save one: The Blind Beggar (Luke 18:35–43). Today we will review that story and its interesting parallels with the story of Zaccheaus. Continue reading →

Living in the Light

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Friar Musings

In today’s first reading, believers are reminded to speak “as is fitting among holy ones” and warned with a list of items which are considered “out of place.” Instead we are admonished to speak words of thanksgiving. This admonition about speaking “as is fitting among holy ones” follows one of the great passages from Ephesians that is not used in any weekday or Sunday liturgy. The verses speak to the role of anger in our lives – which seems to me the polar opposite of thanksgiving. Continue reading →

Zacchaeus: what we miss

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Friar Musings

This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle C. The gospel reading is the encounter in Jericho with the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus. A long section of the Gospel of Luke is passed over as we move from the 30th to the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C: Continue reading →

It ain’t over

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Friar Musings

The early 20th century evangelist, Billy Sunday is reported to have said once that the best thing that could happen to any person would be to reach a moment of deep conversion, to be justified, to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, walk out of the revival tent, be hit by a truck, and killed instantly. There would be no backsliding, no withering under the scorching sun of modern life, and no chance to move from this one moment. Continue reading →

Not like them

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Friar Musings

The Gospel for this Sunday is from Luke 18:9-14 in which Jesus tells a parable about those who depend upon their own compliance with religious regulation for righteousness: “The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”

A Parable of Right Relationships

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Friar Musings

This coming Sunday is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in prayer in the Temple. Culpepper (Luke, 343) concludes his comments with:

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, contrary to some interpretations, is a two-sided parable. To read it as simply a warning against pride, self-sufficiency, or a relationship with God based on one’s own works is to miss the other side of the parable, which connects the Pharisee’s posture before God with his contempt for the tax collector. To miss this connection would be tantamount to emulating the Pharisee’s blindness to the implications of his attitude toward the tax collector. The nature of grace is paradoxical: It can be received only by those who have learned empathy for others. In that regard, grace partakes of the nature of mercy and forgiveness. Only the merciful can receive mercy, and only those who forgive will be forgiven (6:36-38). The Pharisee had enough religion to be virtuous, but not enough to be humble. As a result, his religion drove him away from the tax collector rather than toward him.

Continue reading →

Reading the signs

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Friar Musings

“Red sky in morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, a sailor’s delight” So goes the adage. The saying is most reliable when weather systems predominantly come from the west as they do in the United States. A red sky appears when dust and small particles are trapped in the atmosphere by high pressure. This scatters blue light leaving only red light to give the sky its notable appearance. A red sky at sunset means high pressure is moving in from the west, so therefore the next day will usually be dry and pleasant. Red sky in the morning appears due to the high-pressure weather system having already moved east meaning the good weather has passed, most likely making way for a wet and windy low-pressure system. Hence “sailor take warning.” Continue reading →

A Parable of Reversal?