Category Archives: Musings

National Pi Day

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Today, March 14th, is the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. And it is not just because some mathematicians got together and said so, on March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (111 H. Res. 224), recognizing March 14th as National Pi Day. So, its official… in a non-binding kind of way. Continue reading →

Commanding Love

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The scribe’s question in our gospel from St. Mark about the greatest commandment was not posed “to test” Jesus as is done in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. The question is, in fact, a familiar one from Jewish tradition: “Is there a way of summarizing the commandments?” Jesus gave a traditional answer. The first part is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Shemaʿ ), but combined with another part from Leviticus 19:18.

What is interesting is that only Mark quotes v.4 from the traditional Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one.” The traditional response is the imperative command: “Hear.” It is a present tense imperative, which implies continuous or repeated action: “Keep on listening!” “Continue to hear!” This command to listen is heard frequently in Mark, e.g., in the parable of the sower (4:3) and at the Transfiguration: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (9:7). Perhaps the “first command of all” is: “Listen!”

What follows this initial command are the consequences of truly listening and hearing as indicated by the shift to a future tense: “You shall love…”; a thing that cannot be commanded and still remain true.

Brian Stoffergen offers an insight on love and its command. He writes: “Could you imagine a young couple on their first date? The woman thinks to herself, ‘I really like this guy. He’s so handsome. He’s so charming. I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with him. What can I do to get him to love me?’ Then you hear the woman say in a stern voice: ‘I command you to love me. You will marry me. We will live happily ever after.’ Would a marriage like that work? Can such love be commanded?”

Of course, one question to ask is whether that is the kind of love Jesus is talking about?

The underlying word for the verb “to love” is agano. It implies action rather than emotion. No command can change one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. Rules might make us act more lovingly towards other people but not “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” But then again there is one other time agano is used in Mark’s gospel.

In the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus asking him what he must do to inherit the kingdom of God (10:17-22), we read: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Jesus’ love for the man was evident in the action recommended. Jesus’ response was not a Hallmark card moment, but a response for the good of the other. Jesus commands us to love our enemies (in Matthew 5:44). Our response might well be all action accompanied by feelings not commonly described as “love.” So, maybe there is a way that love can be commanded.

In any case, I think there is perhaps a prelude to the greatest commandments: Listen!  In the case of the Word of God – first listen, then do it. One day your heart, soul, mind and strength will catch up.

Image credit: If you want to be perfect (Christ and the rich young man), A.N. Mironov 2010, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until

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The gospel for today comes from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The verses following the Beatitudes and the longer portion of the Sermon in which Jesus will explain the deeper meaning of the Commandments of God. (“You have heard it said, but I say to you…). The between verses are subject to much debate as to the correct understanding:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.’”

The problems are centered on the use of the word “until.” Long story short, there is one view that essentially says, “Well…. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law and the promises of the Prophets… hence the Law and Prophets – a way to say the entire Old Testament – all of it can be ignored now.”

Then again, “Until heaven and earth pass away” is the equivalent of our modern “until hell freezes over” – a none too subtle “never” (also used in Jeremiah, Job and the Psalms). The conclusion is all the OT laws still apply and so we should keep the Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) and move away from Sundays.

The scholar RT France offers a great understanding: The law, down to its smallest details, is as permanent as heaven and earth, and will never lose its significance; on the contrary, all that it points forward to will in fact become a reality.  The new reality is present in Jesus, but not fully present as the kingdom of heaven. Still the law (smallest detail and all) have to be seen in a new light, but they still cannot be discarded.  Matthew will make that clear in the Sermon on the Mount.

Image credit: Cosimo Rosselli Sermone della Montagna, 1481, Sistine Chapel, Public Domain

The Bulwark

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We should certainly hear an echo of the Lord’s Prayer in today’s gospel: ““Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” The mention of “forgiveness” should echo Jesus’ teaching about prayer. In the Lord’s prayer we are told to forgive others as we are forgiven: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Mt 6:14-15)

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Disturbed

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I am a bit troubled by today’s readings. The gospel is this uncomfortable sequence in which Jesus, for the third time, has told his disciples 

“Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified.” 

At least this time Jesus lets them know he will be raised from the dead… not that they understand what he is telling them – or maybe they weren’t really listening.

Then comes the mother of the sons of Zebedee. It is as though they are saying: “OK, sure, that’s all good and well, but when you come into your kingdom…” 

There is a part of me that wants to reply, “Really?!?” 

And there is the part of me that is troubled. 

How many times have I missed the important Words of God while I was thinking of something else, something focused more on me than on the ones I am called to serve. When I am focused on my list of things to do… no doubt important … but are they things of service to the Lord and his people?

I wonder if sometimes I am exactly like the people in the first reading who are conspiring against Jeremiah. They’re thinking: So what if we get rid of Jeremiah, “It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets.”  At least not the ones who give us what we want to hear, offer easy grace, and don’t disturb us from our view of the world.

The Word of God: just last week the prophet Isaiah told us that the Word goes out and accomplishes its mission and does not return to God empty-handed. 

The question is will the Word return with us in hand? Did we listen even when it made us uncomfortable, disturbed our world view, and shone a light on a path we are less-than-willing to walk.

The world is not ready to hear the disturbing words of the Gospel. Folks don’t like the true prophet who draws people’s attention to the things they don’t want to hear. Folks need to figure all that out. 

But what about us? Are we willing to be disturbed?

Image credit: The Prophet Jeremiah, Michelangelo, fresco on ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City | Public Domain

When Worship and Life Drift Apart

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Both readings today speak with a sharpness that may unsettle us but it is the sharpness of a physician’s scalpel, not a weapon. God is not condemning for the sake of condemning. He is calling His people back to integrity, back to a faith that is lived and not merely displayed.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God addresses leaders who are very religious on the surface. They offer sacrifices. They observe rituals. They show up for worship. And yet God says something shocking: “I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.” In other words, religious activity has become disconnected from moral conversion.

So God does not ask for more prayer, more offerings, or more public devotion. Instead, He says: “Wash yourselves clean. Put away your misdeeds. Learn to do good. Make justice your aim.” God is not rejecting worship. He is rejecting worship that does not change how people live.

Jesus makes the same point in the Gospel from Matthew, though He directs it squarely at religious leaders. The scribes and Pharisees know the law. They teach correctly. But Jesus says they “do not practice what they teach.” Faith has become something they perform rather than embody.

Jesus’ concern is not with leadership itself, but with leadership that seeks recognition instead of responsibility. Titles, honors, places of importance—these become substitutes for humility. And when faith becomes about being seen, it quietly stops being about being faithful.

At the heart of both readings is a single question God asks every generation:
Does your worship shape your life or does it simply decorate it?

God desires a people whose prayer leads to justice, whose knowledge of the law leads to mercy, and whose closeness to God leads to humility. That is why Jesus ends with a simple but demanding truth: “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Humility, in Scripture, is not thinking less of ourselves it is living honestly before God, allowing Him to align our words, our worship, and our actions. It is choosing consistency over appearance, conversion over comfort, obedience over applause.

Today’s readings invite us to examine not how religious we appear, but how deeply our faith is shaping our daily choices: how we speak, how we forgive, how we treat the vulnerable, and how we seek God when no one is watching.

If we are willing to listen, God still speaks the same promise Isaiah proclaimed: “If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land.”

Not because we performed well but because we allowed our hearts to be changed.

Image credit: CANVA, “a sailboat adrift” AI generated, downloaded Mar-1-2026

A Litany for Our Life

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What did you take away from today’s readings?  Before reading on, take a moment. Click on the link and peruse the readings for today. What are the one or two notions or ideas that stand out for you? We’ll wait…

The first reading is largely a confession of sin, a lament and recounting of all that the people of God have done that led to the Babylonian Exile and the ensuing tribulation. It is a prayer by the prophet Daniel as he meditates on Jeremiah’s prophecy that seventy years would pass while Judah remained desolate and its people captive. As ponders he also does penance and fasts. It is a very Lenten scene.

Daniel offers a prayer that opens with a frank confession of the disobedient sinfulness of the covenant people. Then just beyond the scope of our reading, Daneil recalls God’s graciousness in leading the people out of Egypt and God’s justice in punishing Jerusalem. Then Daniel petitions God to deliver the holy city and the nation that bears God’s name. He does so in a threefold request which is akin to an Old Testament version of Kyrie eleison or “Lord, have mercy.”

The Responsorial Psalm is, in its way, also a frank confession of our sad condition in the valley of tears – we are sinners who acknowledge the justice due to the Lord and yet we hope: “Remember not against us the iniquities of the past; may your compassion quickly come to us. Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins.”

Then in the Gospel, after all our pleading, God doesn’t not recount our sins, does not lecture us on the justice due the Lord, the litany from our loving God is this: Be merciful…stop judging…forgive. Do these things and “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.”

A litany for life: Be merciful…stop judging…forgive.

Like Daniel, people of Faith are quite good at recounting their sins. But as a priest and confessor it seems to me, like the first reading, we stop short. We fail to recall God’s graciousness and loyal love. Like the psalmist we are good at asking the Lord to not remember our sins and to be compassionate. And yet, even when forgiven, we are a people who not only recall our failures, but dwell on them, failing to let the compassion of the Lord infuse our souls in a way that we are able to be compassionate with ourselves.

Be merciful…stop judging…forgive. We are better at doing that for others than ourselves as though it is a litany for every life except our own.

Be merciful…stop judging…forgive. These are Jesus’ words, akin to a divine version of Kyrie eleison. It is the Lord’s prayer for us about ourselves.

Image credit: “Kyrie Eleison” by Soichi Watanabe, Japan; used with permission

Lent and McDonald’s

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Did you know that nearly one quarter of McDonald’s Filet-of-Fish sandwich sales take place during Lent, when many fast-food customers are abstaining from meat? “That’s exactly what the McDonald’s operator who first put the cheese-topped sandwich on his menu had in mind back in 1962. When Cincinnati McDonald’s franchise owner Lou Groen noticed that his heavily Catholic clientele was avoiding his restaurant on Fridays, he suggested to McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc that they add introduce a fish sandwich. That led to a wager between Groen and McDonald’s chief Ray Kroc, who had his own meatless idea. “He called his sandwich the Hula Burger,” Groen said. “It was a cold bun and a slice of pineapple and that was it. Ray said to me, ‘Well, Lou, I’m going to put your fish sandwich on (a menu) for a Friday. But I’m going to put my special sandwich on, too. Whichever sells the most, that’s the one we’ll go with.’ Friday came and the word came out. I won hands down. I sold 350 fish sandwiches that day. Ray never did tell me how his sandwich did.”

The Filet-of-Fish won, the rest is history, Groen’s restaurant thrived, and since then, the sandwich has been McDonald’s fixture, all year long.

Clark, Paul (February 20, 2007). “No fish story: Sandwich saved his McDonald’s”. USA Today.

Power and Life

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Today’s first reading is one of my favorite chapters of the Old Testament: Isaiah 55. It always reminds me of the parable of the Sower and the Seed from the gospels with the Word of God being sent into the world on good and poor soil alike.

Starting in Isaiah 40, the prophet begins to describe the end of the Babylonian Exile period and the triumphant return of the People of God to Jerusalem. By the time the Prophet’s narrative arrives at Isaiah 55, Israel is invited to seek the Lord anew, forsaking the choices and ways that got them into Exile in the first place (Isaiah 55:6-7a). It is not the simple moral imperative, it is a reminder that echoes the beginning of Exodus 20: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). The Lord is now delivering them from Babylon with the same admonishment that the people received in Deuteronomy 34: choose life.

Isaiah has told them that they received what their choices deserved, but now they are encouraged to turn away from that which led them toward death and to turn again to the God of restoration and pardon.  It is an OT moment: “Repent and believe in God’s Word” that echo the words of Ash Wednesday: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”  The people hearing Isaiah’s words are called to believe that God’s mercy and pardon triumph over God’s wrath. It is God’s mercy that gives life – and in today’s first reading Isaiah offers an illustration from the world around them.

“Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth…”

The heart of the image here is life. The earth is not that which gives life; it is the rain and snow, moisture from above, that causes the earth to proliferate, “making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.” Without the moisture, fertile and fruitful life shrivels-up. The power and the life is in the rain and snow.

The power and the life is in the Word of God: “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”  And what is that end? Repentance, faith, and salvation. We participate in this work of God. We don’t add to this work or validate it or accomplish it. This is God’s work done by way of God’s Word proclaimed.

And in Isaiah 55:12, the next verse just outside our reading Isaiah tells them that if the listen to the Word of God, take it as the compass of their journey in life, “Yes, in joy you shall go forth, in peace you shall be brought home; Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, all trees of the field shall clap their hands.”  Even the very earth will give witness to the power and life in the Word of God.

The Word of God has come to you again and again in your lifetime. Have you allowed it to make your life fertile, fruitful, and cooperate in God’s work in this world? Yes? Then in joy may you go forth to let that Word work in you to accomplish its end.

Image credit: Detail of “Sower Went Out to Sow” | Irish Dominican Photography | Brasov, Romania | CC-BY