Category Archives: Musings

The Folly of God

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Today’s first reading from St. Paul is part of a cohesive thought that he has been building upon since the beginning of this 1st Letter to the Corinthians (which began with Friday’s readings and continues for about three weeks.) It all began after Paul left the Corinth community for new evangelizing opportunities. He received a letter from a believer named Chloe who reports problems in the community: there is quarreling in the community all carried on in the name of “wisdom” and some associated boasting about who possessed wisdom and the exact nature of the wisdom. Continue reading →

Nothing Borrowed

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A world of information, expert advice, and knowledge all sit at our fingertips. With all that available to us via a simple query or the use of artificial intelligence such as Chat GPT, we should have plenty of answers to our questions. But will the answers carry wisdom? I can find a world of knowledge about bees and bee stings with a few keystrokes. Wisdom lies much deeper than our quick keystroke answers. Knowledge understands bee stings, but wisdom does not disturb the hive. Continue reading →

Why confused?

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As a Catholic priest I have done my fair share of weddings. It is a honor to help prepare the couples and to celebrate with them – and you get to meet some really nice couples and their families. Over the years I have also seen the pre-wedding day traditions change and the costs of the wedding (dinners, receptions, etc) grow in size and cost. Continue reading →

Shunning

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Today’s first reading begins: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.” (1 Thess 3:6).

I have to admit I was surprised with the word “shun.” My first thought was from some movie from long ago when an early American faith community formally “shunned” one of its members for some transgression. Everyone in the church turned their backs to the person, marking the point in time when that person ceased to exist in the life of the community. It was a harsh moment. Continue reading →

Dem bones, dem dry bones

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Today’s first reading is from the Prophet Ezekiel chapter 37, the famous “dry bones vision.” Ezekiel has been the source of all the first readings for this week. It has been a week in which the Word of God came to the prophet and directed him to preach a word of destruction against Jerusalem, the kingdom of Tyre and the shepherds (kings) of Judah and Israel. Then the Word of God changes.

In Wednesday’s first reading, after condemning the shepherds (kings), we have the wonderful passage from Ezekiel 34:11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” And indeed, God sent his only son to be the King of kings and the Good Shepherd.

Thursday, the Word got even better

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees…you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ez 36:25-28)

That is what God plans to do and in today’s reading Ezekiel is given the vision of result of the promise

“Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright” (Ez 37:9-10)

It is always good to pay attention when God breathes into the world. The ruah (breath/spirit) hovered over the void of chaos at Creation and there was life. God sent the Good Shepherd at whose baptism the Holy Spirit hovered. The ruah of God hovered over the disciples at Pentecost and their was new life for the Church – all this just as God promised.

The ruah, breath, Spirit of God is present in the world, fulfilling the promises of the Covenant, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “…you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” God is fulfilling the divine side of the deal. We are called to let the Spirit heal our dry bones and be the people of God in the world.

Figure out the part of your life, the hard part of your heart, or whatever burdens you. Ask the breath of God to instill new life in you.

Image: central imagery from blockislandtimes.com/sites/ marked as “public”

Bonfire of Our Vanities

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The first reading is from the Prophet Ezekiel from a larger section known as the “Oracles Against the Nations.” In our reading the charge leveled against the prince of Tyre is simple and direct: you have become arrogant, or as we read “haughty of heart”. The prophet outlines three dimensions of his hubris: the king claims to be divine, possessing divine authority and divine intelligence/wisdom. It is not hard to think about animating the prophet’s words with a strong measure of sarcasm. Continue reading →

Hollow Declarations

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It seems these days there is always some imperative for organizations and institutions to make a statement about the latest headline.  For groups that already have a stake in the issue, it makes sense. Consider the days, weeks and months after the death of George Floyd. That event clearly raised issues of police action, racism, justice, and much more. Without a doubt there are civil, governmental and private institutions that already had a voice in the arenas. These statements were often accompanied by actions such as policy reviews, educational initiatives, and support for protests and advocacy work. Other voices joined in. Continue reading →

A week with Ezekiel

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Beginning today, Monday, and continuing until August 24th, with the exception of some solemnities, Sundays, feast/memorial celebrations, our first reading is from the Prophet Ezekiel. It is a dense book with lots going on, and it is broken up into bits and bites that make it hard to know what is transpiring. And without that sense of continuity and flow, it’s difficult to understand what the Word of God is trying to say to us in our time. So…. let me bring you “up to speed.” Continue reading →

Paradox: Affliction and Hope

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What I notice about my own reflection on these scriptures, the Franciscan tradition and the writings of Simone Weil, is the paradox of affliction and hope.  Job, Lazarus, Paul writing to the Corinthians, and even Simone Weil, all are able to point to hope – not because they see it or sense it – but because they stayed turned towards God. Job never finds an answer, but he finds God. Martha and Mary do not receive an answer as to why God allows death with such power in the world, but they do discover who suffers with them. Simone Weil deeply enters her own affliction and the sufferings she saw in Europe from the Spanish Civil War to World War II. What she discovered, even as an agnostic Jew, was the love of God centered upon the cross of Jesus. She found hope in the world even as her world collapsed. Continue reading →

Christ as Center of the Journey

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There is also a light of promise in all the scriptural texts as well as in the writings of Weil.  All of them seem to say that the experience of affliction is not one that completely heals, yet there is comfort and solace possible in the wounding. The experience of affliction is not vanquished, it will always be there. But there is a deep hope even in the harsh image of a nail whose point is applied at the very center of the soul. It is in the fact that the soul is pierced and nailed to the very center of the cross – our Christian symbol of hope, resurrection and redemption. Continue reading →