Whole-hearted response

Next Sunday is the celebration of the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. You can read a complete commentary on the Gospel here.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. 46 When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. 47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. 48 When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. 49 Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. 51 “Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” 52 And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” (Matthew 13:44-52) Continue reading

Growing weary

We all have people in our lives with whom interaction leads to weariness. We get tired of hearing the same story, tirade, commentary, joke, response, the same sameness. We all have moments in our lives when “life” just adds up to makes us weary. We lack motivation, energy, enthusiasm, and sometimes are just bone tired. Maybe it is the realization that you have already explained how to do something, the same something, to the same person, and nothing changes. You grow weary and are on the road to not caring, emotional shutdown, and not a whole lot seems attractive or not engaging enough to actually get up and engage. Continue reading

Those who are just must be kind

It’s your first baby. It has been great. Sure, it has been hard work, but what a bundle of joy. And tomorrow is the last day of maternity leave. You have a great job and love the people you work with. Maybe you should stay home longer? Maybe the family can get by on one salary? But there is a great day care center near work. Maybe we could nanny-share with a neighbor? But the big project that you really want to be part of is coming up…. Such is the circumstance of ambivalence. Continue reading

What is your “Bible Plan”?

It was a simple email. The writer said that she was committed to reading and studying the Bible. For her first time through, she wanted to accomplish it in a two-year period. She had already researched the internet for Bible study plans and discovered there are tons of plans, lots of perspectives, and advice a plenty. So much so, it was hard to sort through it all. And such was the genesis of the email asking for advice on “the plan.” Continue reading

The Book of the Prophet Micah

In the 16th Week of Ordinary Time, the first reading for daily Mass comes from the Prophet Micah. So, take a moment find out more about this amazing prophet of the Lord.

Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. Like his better-know contemporary, Micah proclaimed God’s word during the reigns of three kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It was during a particularly turbulent era when each of the three Judaean kings had to face the machinations of four Assyrian kings with empire expansion on their minds. The Assyrian goal was simple: completely dominate the western Fertile Crescent that also included the Kingdoms of Israel (north) and Judea (south). There is not a great deal of biographical information in the text itself to narrowly date the time of Micah’s ministry, but the consensus of scholars is that his earliest writings preceded the fall of the northern kingdom, Israel, in 722 BCE. The majority of his writing are associated with the 701 BCE threat again Jerusalem/Judah by King Sennecherib of Assyria. This leads to the best estimate of a ministry that covered some 20+ years. The solitary reference to Micah outside the book (Jer 26:17–18) places him in the reign of Hezekiah and reports that he went from his small town to proclaim the word of the Lord in the capital, and asserts that his announcements of judgment against Jerusalem moved the king and the people to repentance. Continue reading

A moment of mindfulness

Today is the Feast of St. Bonaventure the great Franciscan saint, theologian and provincial minister of the Order in the mid-13th century. There are a special set of feast day readings for the Saint. I was particularly taken by the feast day’s first reading that describes a deep abiding intercessory prayer by St. Paul for the community of Ephesus: Continue reading

Up until now

StBonaventureToday marks the Feast Day of one of the great figures in Franciscan history – St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio – as well as the 15th anniversary of our Franciscan presence in this historic downtown parish.  St. Bonaventure is a good model of what it means to be a Franciscan while at the same time being a priest in leadership positions in a parish.  Bonaventure reminded the friars of his day that our first vocation is as “brother.”  At the core of our charism, we are a fraternity in mission to the People of God striving to continue our Order’s 800-year-old mission:  bringing the Gospel into the everyday experience of men and women through our life in fraternity and compassionate service to all. Continue reading

Gravity’s Center

I have always thought yesterday’s gospel was harsh. Likely, we all prefer the comforting, peaceful Jesus rather than the Jesus who proclaims: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” And that is just the warm-up – here is what follows: “For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.” While I might think it harsh, perhaps a more important question is was it necessary. The Christian writer Flannery O’Connor has some insight about this: Continue reading

The Prophet Isaiah

This 15th Week of Ordinary Time (2020) the first readings in the daily Masses are from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. With other prophetic works, to talk about the writings are to talk about the prophet themselves. Isaiah calls for more nuance in that the prophet was a person of the 8th century BCE who preached to Judah (the southern kingdom) and its capital Jerusalem. It was during a particularly turbulent era of three Judaean kings and four Assyrian kings. The later who sought to overrun the western Fertile Crescent that also included the Kingdoms of Israel (north) and Judea (south). Isaiah provides more than enough “markers” for us to know with certainty that he exercised his prophetic ministry from 740-701 BCE.

And yet, in Isaiah 44:28 (and 45:1), the prophet proclaims that Cyrus, King of Persia, will release the Jews from the Babylonian Exile, return them to the promised land and order that the city and the temple be rebuild. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 587 BCE with Cyrus conquering Babylon some 40 years later – in other words, 110-150 years after the prophetic ministry of Isaiah who preached to the three Judaean kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. What are we to make of that? Continue reading

Always a chance for conversion

Next Sunday is the celebration of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time. You can read a complete commentary on the Gospel here.

24 He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 26 When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. 27 The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Continue reading