Location in Matthew’s Narrative

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A. The gospel it taken from Mt 18:21-35. There is a large jump in our Sunday gospels as we move from the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time –Year A (Mt 16:21-27) to the 23rd and 24th Sunday – in fact, the entirety of Matthew 17 is passed over. As shown in Boring’s diagram [“The Gospel of Matthew” 117], we are in a part of Matthew’s gospel in which the focus is community. Continue reading →

The Long Walk

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It must have been some 30 years ago when I saw a film entitled “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” It was a clever comedy about a tribe that lived in the Kalahari Desert of southwest Africa. The Kalahari is a tough place in which only a community survives through its cooperation, assistance, and support of each other. The web of individual and communal relationships are a key element by which life is sustained. And so, the people work at maintaining the relationships through the cycle of seasons and over the generations. Yet the tribe also understands that the essential element for life is favor from the gods; favor that is undeserved, unearned, and all gift. These key and essential elements are what our western and Christian perspective would call a community of Grace. Continue reading →

Equanimity

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It could be said that the operation of a submarine has a certain equanimity about it. There is a general balance and harmony between buoyant forces, the surrounding waters, and its silent movement through the depths. The word is properly used to describe people. In its proper context, equanimity is a state of mental calmness, composure, and balance. It is often associated with the ability to maintain a level head in difficult or challenging situations. If you think equanimity looks like it has something to do with equal you’re correct. Continue reading →

Sins against you: what’s next?

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This coming Sunday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage takes into consideration that the person has not listened to you or you and the gathered witnesses. What’s next? “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”  (Mt 18:17) Continue reading →

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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This is one of the most ancient Marian feasts. It is thought that this feast originated in connection with the Feast of the dedication of a church dedicated to Mary, now the Church of St Ann, in Jerusalem in the 6th century. Tradition holds that this is where the house of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Ann, stood and where she would have been born.  What began as a local Jerusalem celebration began to be celebrated in Rome in the 8th century. The traditional date of the celebration is chosen to follow 9 months after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. It is noteworthy that the tradition of the Church is to celebrate the life of a Saint on the anniversary of their death. However, in the case of Mary and John the Baptist, the celebration is on their day of birth, recognizing the special grant of holiness that was theirs from the beginning. Continue reading →

A Note from Brandon

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From time to time, with permission, I post one of the weekly reflections from Brandon Jubar, our parish youth minister. This week’s reflection is a reminder to us all on the need to be mindful of the movement of the Spirit in our lives and the goodness that surrounds us.

Parent to Parent

St. Paul, the passionate early Christian author of many influential letters in the New Testament, challenges us not to blend in with the world’s flow. Instead, he calls us to something remarkable: to transform our lives in ways that truly matter. It’s a message that holds incredible relevance for teenagers today. Continue reading →

Star Trek Day

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Happy Star Trek Day. It was September 8, 1966 that the pilot of the television series “Star Trek” was first broadcast on NBC. As you no doubt already know (or should know!) the series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, commissioner for deep space exploration by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century. Its mission was  “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. Continue reading →

Sins against you: listening

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This coming Sunday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. (Mt 18:15)  One of the things to ask is: what is at stake? Sin, of whatever form, is not to be tolerated within the disciple community, but is to be dealt with when it is noticed. But what is at stake is winning over the brothers or sisters. The pastoral purpose of the approach is underlined by the verb “win,” which shows that the concern is not mainly with the safety and/or reputation of the whole community but with the spiritual welfare of the individual. “Win” suggests that the person was in danger of being lost, and has now been regained; it reflects the preceding image of the shepherd’s delight in getting his sheep back (v.12). Continue reading →

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding

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The first reading for today is from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians 1:9-14, a part of the opening greeting of the letter – which is more than a greeting, it is a prayer for the people of Colossae in which Paul hopes the people are filled with the “knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” It is this ‘knowledge’ which forms the basis both of holiness and of thanksgiving, and which is the central characteristic of humanity that is now renewed in Christ (3:10 – the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator). Continue reading →