Category Archives: Franciscan

The Departure of the Younger Son

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The parable begins with the younger son asking for what he considers his share of the inheritance – something that is for the father to decide. In the asking, the son communicates that he does not view the inheritance as a gift given because of his father’s good graces; rather he sees it as his due.

Kenneth Bailey, a NT scholar who lived for years in the Middle East, asked many people in the Near East cultures how one is to understand the younger son’s request.  The answer is consistent and harsh: the son would rather have his father dead so as to gain the inheritance. In an honor/shame society it would be appropriate to ask, “What father having been asked by a son to give him inheritance…” Again the Lucan answer is not the answer of the society. The father grants the request. Where the younger son asks for “the share of your estate (ousia) that should come to me.” Luke tells us that the father “divided between them his property (bios, literally “life”).” 

Imagination can fill in the familiar story line that is compressed with great economy: the extravagant spending, the attraction of freeloading friends, the crash. It should be noted that the young man squandered (diaskorpizo) the money. This does not imply a use for immoral reasons (which the brother suggests in v.30), but rather a thoughtless use of the funds.  In any case, he becomes penniless and is reduced to tending swine for the Gentiles.  For the Hebrew, caring for pigs evoked the idea of apostasy and the loss of everything that once identified the younger son as a member of his family and of God’s people. He is even lower than the swine — they have access to the husks, but he does not. It is a story of downward mobility

Praying on the Mountain

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This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

28 About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.

Characteristically Luke tells us that Jesus went to the mountain to pray. This is a key motif in the Lucan narrative. In the gospel and in Acts, Luke continually points to people achieving the proper attitude and posture before God through the discipline of prayer which Luke repeatedly highlights. He has two principal ways of doing this: 

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A golden rule

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This coming Sunday is the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time and our gospel is the second part of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. “A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.” (v.17) The description certainly points to a Jewish and Gentile audience and thus raises the question of how “wide is the circle of relationships.” Consider this bit of wisdom from Sirach 12:1–7 (ca. 180 BCE) 

1 If you do good, know for whom you are doing it, and your kindness will have its effect.2 Do good to the just man and reward will be yours, if not from him, from the LORD.3 No good comes to him who gives comfort to the wicked, nor is it an act of mercy that he does.4 Give to the good man, refuse the sinner; refresh the downtrodden, give nothing to the proud man.5 No arms for combat should you give him, lest he use them against yourself;6 With twofold evil you will meet for every good deed you do for him.7 The Most High himself hates sinners, and upon the wicked he takes vengeance. 

Is this the wisdom that was active among the Jewish listeners? It certainly seems to point to limits on acts of mercy and forgiveness.

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A Final Thought

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The gospel for this coming Sunday, the 6th Sunday, Year C is St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” The following come from Walter Pilgrim (Good News to the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts).

The clear social distinctions drawn here are between the haves and the have-nots, the possessors and the impoverished, those favored by society and those despised. The new and surprising element is the way in which the norms and values of society are turned upside down. The promised blessings belong to the suffering poor, while the coming woes are pronounced upon the contented rich. According to one commentator, this marks the first time in Jewish religious literature that the poor are directly called the blessed (Hengel Property). [p. 76]

…we have argued that the Lukan beatitudes are addressed to people who are literally poor and persecuted. Yet their poverty is blessed within the context of their response to the ministry of Jesus and the call to the kingdom of God. Thus it is not just poverty or riches per se that is blessed or condemned, but poverty in the context of trust in God and riches in the context of rejection of God. The two go hand in hand for Luke. [p. 77]

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Catching Men

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This coming weekend is the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Here at the end of this pericope, Jesus tells Peter: “from now on you will be catching men.” Literally, the next line reads: “from the now, you shall be catching alive (zogreo) people.” The similar phrase in Matthew and Mark reads: “I will make you (to become) fishermen [halieus] of people.” (This word for “fishermen” is used in v. 2 of our text.)

The Greek verb translated “catching alive” is a compound word: zoos = “alive, living” + agreo = “capture, catch”. (This is a verb closely related to agra used in vv. 4 and 9 about “catching” the fish). Classically, it also came to mean, “to restore to life and strength, to revive.”  Maybe a more literal translation might lead us to a sense of this verse as something like “You will be restoring people to life and strength.”   This is perhaps a more captivating thought to people who don’t want to be caught in a net… but what about being “caught up in his or her love” or “captured” by love. Being caught in this way can make us feel really alive and energized – captivated!  By the end of our text, Peter and some of his friends are captivated by Jesus. They leave everything and follow him. (Stoffregen)

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Franciscan Martyrs of Georgia

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Many years ago I met Fr. Conrad Harkins OFM. Conrad was a friar of Holy Name Province (my province before the recent merger of the United States Franciscan OFM provinces and taught at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. When he learned I was from the south, he was eager to share that was the postulator for the five Franciscans that were martyred in 1597 near modern-day Eulonia, Georgia. The postulator is the person assigned to begin the cause of sainthood. They are responsible for gathering evidence and presenting a case to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican to initiate the process of beatification and canonization.

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A passing interest

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It is a quite Sunday afternoon in space between the last morning Mass and the 5:30 pm evening Mass. Outside the people of Northern Virginia are attentively watching emails and text messages to see if their place of work, their children’s school, or their plans are on hold while the stream of closures begin to digitally arrive. A winter storm this way comes. It brings back memories of the “traffic armageddon” in Northern Virginia during this first week of January 2022. It was a perfect storm of events: (a) rain preventing salting the roads, (b) suddenly turning to snow, coupled with the (c) extremely hilly area around Quantico (Occaquon to Rappahannock Rivers) and (d) a super-heavily traveled truck route – and the back up was 65 miles with people stranded 15-24 hours.

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Fr. Joe Nangle OFM – Stories of Mission

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My good friend and mentor, Fr. Joe, passed away December 14th. His life was celebrated in a wonderful ceremony a week later. I was honored by Joe in his asking me to give the homily when the time arrived. In the homily I mentioned Joe was a gospel man and a wonderful storyteller. A while back I had the opportunity to meet Joe at one of our houses of formation in Silver Spring, MD – the purpose was to capture Joe on video telling stories. We did several videos with just Joe reminiscing, but there was a “spark” missing. I suggested we try a another video but this time with a dialogue partner. All good storytellers need an audience.

Below is the video. The plan was to go for about 7-8 minutes, but as the conversation evolved, I just let the camera roll. The whole video is 35 minutes, so grab some popcorn and a beverage, and enjoy!

Thanks to Russ Murray, OFM: you were a great audience!

Then what should we do?

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10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”

The basic question is asked three times: what should we do? The questions come from the crowd, tax collectors and soldiers – and later in Luke’s writings by a lawyer (10:25), a ruler (18:18), a Jerusalem audience in Acts 2:37, a jailer (Acts 16:30), and a zealous Jew, Saul (Acts 22:10). The fundamental response will be “What behavior is appropriate to those who claim to have repented?” Continue reading →

Isaiah’s Promise and Challenge

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The first readings for these beginning days of Advent are all taken from the Book of Isaiah. It is a complex book in many ways and it is one of the most cited books of the Old Testament by New Testament writers indicating the importance and esteem it holds in the scriptural imagination. You can read a short introduction to the book here.

Today the first reading is taken from Isaiah 2:1-5, whose opening is duplicated almost exactly in Micah 4:1–3. Like Isaiah, Micah was an eighth-century prophet of the southern kingdom. Both prophets held Mount Zion to be a sacred mountain, the center of the earth, and important for the whole world  – the same sentiment expressed in Psalms 46–48.

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