While I like technology, I don’t think I am too much of a gadget person. I am rarely-to-never an early adopter and will acquire gadgets when I think they serve a functional purpose I might value. The one exception was Amazon Echo. They promoted it at about 25% of the first generation Echoe and I thought why not, buying the device before it was generally available.. The year was 2014. As with most things technological, things change and advance. Continue reading
This coming weekend celebrates the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time during Lectionary Cycle C. In yesterday’s post we looked at the idea of being saved and striving. But the question of “how many” still lingers. How many will be saved? Jesus does not answer directly, but urges his questioner and others (“Strive” is plural) to make sure that they are in the number, however large or small it proves to be (v.24). Continue reading
Today’s reading is from the Prophet Ezekiel, one of the really interesting prophets. Ezekiel was among the first wave of refugees forced from Jerusalem and relocated to Babylon in 597 BC. No doubt he had other plans for his life. He certainly was not planning on becoming a stranger in a strange land nor becoming a prophet to the people in exile. Ezekiel’s problems started back 1 Samuel 8. Continue reading
This coming weekend celebrates the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time during Lectionary Cycle C. Our reading continues Jesus’ formation of his disciples for their time to take up the mission of the proclamation of the kingdom of God. Jesus makes several references to the seriousness of the proclamation of God’s reign and to the need for a sober decision of discipleship to undertake the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, a journey that will end in suffering and death (Luke 9:22–23). Continue reading
This coming weekend celebrates the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time during Lectionary Cycle C. Our reading begins:
22 He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
One should also note that the stability of teaching in the synagogues has given way and returned to the travel motif that began in 9:51 when Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. Again he is passing through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. (12:22) Continue reading
This coming weekend celebrates the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time during Lectionary Cycle C. There are only so many Sundays in Ordinary Time and so sometimes, the Church will skip over sections of Scripture as we continue to unfold the story of Jesus. Here in Year C readings, our gospel suddenly moves from Luke 12:49-53 (last week) to our gospel for this weekend, passing over 12:54-13:21. What did we miss? Continue reading
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Those are Jesus’ words from the gospel but it is not hard to imagine those same words coming from the prophet Jeremiah. He had begun his public ministry during the heyday of the religious reforms of the good King Josiah. It was the best of times. The people were being taught the Word of God and right worship – and Jeremiah was on the vanguard of the reforms. Then King Josiah died in battle and everything changed. Continue reading
Do you remember Art Linkletter’s “Kids Say the Darndest Things?” It was an entertaining segment on show “House Party” which aired on CBS from 1952 to 1969. In the show’s best-remembered segment Linkletter interviewed schoolchildren between the ages of five and ten. During the segment’s 27-year run, Linkletter interviewed an estimated 23,000 children. What made the segment fascinating was the complete lack of guile. They simply said what they were thinking. No diversion, no coverups, just a bit of innocence. Today’s gospel encourages us to have that same innocence and openness, fascination and wonder. Without all the flotsam and jetsam of adult life maybe Ps 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path.” – is just a little easier to discern. Then maybe in child-like fashion we can follow the path that light marks for us.
Beginning this Monday just past and continuing until August 21st, with the exception of some solemnities, feast days and 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 is trying to say to us in our time. So…. let me bring you “up to speed.” Continue reading
In yesterday’ post we discussed the biblical and Lucan use of the idea of judgment and the coming kingdom. Today we will consider “the signs of the time” a verse that is just outside our Sunday reading: He also said to the crowds, “When you see (a) cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain—and so it does; 55 and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot—and so it is. Continue reading
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