Heart of the Matter

Heart of the Matter

Sacred Heart of Jesus – not heart of the Father or heart of the Holy Spirit – the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There is nothing more human than the heart.  In western thought, we speak the heart as the s…

friarmusings

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — It is this gospel that St. Bonaventure used to speak to his brother friars when we were at our worse. The order was divided, there was an active war of words that were anything but kind. One side held up the vow of poverty and accused the other of only being interested in privilege and prestige. The other side held up the vow obedience and accused the other of only serving themselves and not the people of God. The rift was growing deeper and more fractious.

Bonaventure, the Minister General of the entire Order gathered the brothers. Using today’s gospel his message was simple: we are Franciscans, vowed to a common life, seeking to follow Christ by the example of Francis of Assisi. We are yoked to each other. Jesus, the only Son of the living God, became flesh and “pitched his tent among us.” He yoked his divinity to our humanity. We brothers take on the yoke – to Christ and each other. Let us again look to the Heart of the Savior.

Abundant Harvest: Help Wanted!

Abundant harvest: Help Wanted!

Homily - 11 th Sunday, Ordinary Time: June 15, 2008 Exodus 19:2-6a Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36-10:8 Oh, how sweet, how easy would be my lif...

A Concord Pastor Comments

Every week in the prayers of the faithful we pray
“for men and women being called to serve God’s people…”
I believe God is constantly drawing men and women in this parish,
and everywhere, to be laborers
for the harvest of the gospel of peace.
And there are a variety of jobs to do in the fields of the church.
For some ministries you must still be a male – and celibate.
But for most work in the Church, gender is not an issue
and celibacy is not required:
7 of the 10 people on our parish staff are women
and 8 of the 10 are happily married!

Teaching for Our Sake

One of the problems that many of us have in following the teachings of Jesus is that we see those teachings as a series of obligations, as a list of commands against which we are asked to measure our discipleship.  Some of us might even see them as a set of hurdles over which we are asked to jump in order to demonstrate our love for God.  Now, as disciples we are clearly obliged to follow the teachings of Jesus.  But to understand them as some kind of test or burden that we are asked to bear is to approach them in an exactly wrong direction.

Consider the teaching of Jesus that comes at the end of today’s Gospel.  Jesus says, “The gift you have received, give as a gift.”  Our inclination is to approach this teaching as an obligation.  “Yes,” we say, “I should be more giving.  I should be more generous. If I were more generous, I would more clearly show that I am a follower of Christ.”  Now this is true.  But, approaching the teaching as a simple command, overlooks another benefit of the teaching. Jesus’ teaching that we be generous is not commanded for God’s sake or even simply for our neighbor’s sake. Jesus gives us this teaching for our sake, for our benefit.  When Jesus asks us to be generous, He is not giving us an obligation to be met, but a secret to be lived.  The secret is this: when we are generous, we are happy. This teaching of generosity leads us to a deeper life.

God’s Protection

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A 21st June 2020 Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33.   The theme of fear and the confidence in God’s protection make up the readings of

Sunday Homily

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — The theme of fear and the confidence in God’s protection make up the readings of this Sunday. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah expresses confidence that the Lord will protect him. In the second reading, St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that Sin (fear) came into the world through one person; so salvation came through one person for many. Finally, in the gospel according to Matthew the evangelist, Jesus Christ assures his Twelve disciples that God cares about them. The Christian confidence is based on the fact that the merit of the resurrection outweighs both fear and its source.

Some Father’s Day Thoughts

This Sunday is Father’s Day. All Fathers, birth fathers, adoptive fathers and priests, are reminded of their mission to bring the caring protective love of the Lord to their families.

There have been both negative and positive concepts regarding Fathers in our papers recently. On the negative side, there is a direct relationship between the number of homes without fathers and the number of children who are in trouble with the law. The legalization of abortion has become the greatest anti-woman action of the century. Many future fathers tell the girls they have impregnated that they have no responsibility beyond the providing of the fee for an abortion. Those courageous girls with the moral integrity that will not allow themselves to be compromised are treated as though it was their choice to have a fatherless child.

Original Sin

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — In the second reading today St. Paul teaches us that in the sin of Adam, all sinned. While Original Sin is not a personal sin of ours, we are still conceived and born with this sin on our souls. It is removed through Baptism, but the effects of the sin remain in us. Over the course of our lifetime we have each added many sins on top of the one we inherited from Adam.

How each of has been affected by Original Sin varies in many ways. The darkening of the intellect and the weakening of the will affect us directly in our day to day lives. Combined with the environment in which we live, we are very much prone to temptation and sin. Our personality, the events that have occurred in our life, our companions, and the example of others are just a few of the variables that can influence us.

Two of sin’s effects are described in the first reading: fear and aggression. Some people live in fear of what might happen to them; so are aggressive, even violent toward others. As we hear from the Prophet Jeremiah, there were some people who were plotting against him, denouncing him and seeking vengeance against him. What did Jeremiah do to cause this kind of reaction? He spoke the Word of God which the people did not want to hear.

Do Not Be Afraid of Being “Cancelled”

Do not be afraid of being "cancelled"

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A One of my greatest fears is waking up to find that the comments section of my social media post...

michaelckw.blogspot.com

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — One of my greatest fears is waking up to find that the comments section of my social media posting has been inundated with people calling me out for something problematic that I posted. There was a time when social media was a relatively innocent, peaceful and harmless virtual platform where you could post just about anything and get away with it. This is no longer true especially if you are a high profiled personality. Every word or thought or opinion which you express would be thoroughly scrutinised by keyboard warriors. The fear of being “cancelled” can cripple us to the point that nowadays, we find it hard to share our opinions honestly in public.

This phenomenon is what we call “cancel culture” which involves public denouncement of those who dare to express an opinion that is different from the position of a particular group. What makes them such a fearful force to contend with is that, they often act in a pack – like a pack of wolves or a school of piranhas. For actually expressing your opinion, you will be labelled with all sorts of names, depending on which end of the spectrum your critics belong to. One begins to see how the majority can be held ransom by a small but loud militant minority and eventually be forced to placate the latter by giving in to their demands. It is no longer Truth which motivates us but fear.

Clergy E-Notes

Pro-life reflections and intercessions related to the Sunday readings

Do Not Be Afraid

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — Do not be afraid or fear not are very familiar words. It was a recurrent theme in the beginning of St. John Paul II’s pontificate in 1978. Do not be afraid, repeatedly appear in the Bible. In the Old Testament God instructed the prophets not to be afraid. Angel Gabriel echoed the same words to Mary before telling her that she would become the Mother of the Saviour of the world. Jesus instructed the Twelve not to be afraid when He commissioned them to continue His work of proclaiming the Good News. Commenting on the Gospel of Matthew 10:26-33 the Montreal based physician and preacher, Yves I-Bing Cheng, identifies three kinds of fears Jesus is telling us to avoid: Fear of Persecution (vv. 26-27). People are capable of framing up lies just to persecute a true disciple. The disciples are misunderstood because some truth about themselves is “covered up” and “hidden”. However, there is a moment of vindication because the truth will be “uncovered” and “made clear.” What many are saying in secret or “in whispers” because they are reluctant to speak out, will eventually come to light and will be proclaimed on housetops.

A Firm, But Compassionate Father

Bottom line: God is a firm, but compassionate father; he wants us – especially the dads among us – to imitate that firmness and compassion.

On this Father’s Day we are praying for our dads, whether they are near or far away, living or deceased. And especially for the dads here in our congregation. It is not easy being a parent. Someone wrote: “The great defect of young people today is that they are rebellious and that they do not pray. And the great anxiety of our day is that prices are constantly rising.”* You would think those words came from a recent newspaper, but they didn’t. They were found on an Egyptian papyrus from the sixth century B.C.! So, parents, if you are troubled by children who don’t listen to you and who resist prayer – and by the constant increase in prices – take heart. You are in noble company and your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Today I would like to tell you about a father who had an unruly son. The boy constantly broke the family rules. The father told his son that if he disobeyed one more time, he would send him to the attic, with only bread and water to eat. Well, he disobeyed again and the father ordered the boy upstairs. The father then became quiet. His wife said to him, “I know what you are thinking. But you must not bring him down from the attic. It would cause him to keep disobeying. He would have no respect for your word.” He knew that his wife was right, but the father couldn’t eat, thinking about his son. Finally, he grabbed a blanket and a little bit more bread. He joined his son and spent the night with him in the attic.

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The Ministerial Priesthood Serving the Priesthood of All the Faithful

Does God really love us? Does God really care? When a disaster strikes, unfortunately some people think God does not love them and does not care and they distance themselves from God. We heard in our first reading that when God was giving the Israelites the covenant through Moses, he reminded them of all he had done for them:

You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself. (Ex 19:4)

Yet unfortunately when a hardship came their way, they forgot that God bore them up on eagle wings and brought them to himself at Sinai. We could say that the great sin of the Old Testament was forgetting what God did for his people.

Baptism Frees Us from Original Sin

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — Baptism frees us from Original Sin in the sense that we are given a choice. We are no longer locked into a world that blocks itself from God’s love. It is up to us to choose. We can accept or reject Jesus as his contemporaries did. God’s love is never forced upon us. We can still choose to drink the polluted water and die, or we can drink the sweet water flowing from the heart of Jesus dwelling within us.

There are times when we feel like Adam. We feel overwhelmed, lost, bewildered and heavy of heart. There are times when we cry out, like Jeremiah in today’s First Reading, but feel that no one is listening. The Responsorial Psalm picks up the mood of the Mass nicely by encouraging us to keep crying out, trusting that God does hear the cry of the poor, and that he is answering us. We must remember, however, that only God knows best what we really need. We must remember also that sometimes we are not yet ready to receive the grace that God is offering us. We will receive the grace we really need, as the psalmist says, ‘at an acceptable time’: in other words, when we are ready.

hear God speaking to us. We need to know that we are loved by God.

Providence

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — The objects of our fears usually have names: something, some event, some person. They are the things we worry or fret over: the precious possessions we might, like Job, be divested of; the health of body that, like Job’s, could disappear; the loved ones we might lose.

We know the threats we fear. We see them in nightmares, muster our forces against them, plan our defenses and counterattacks.

Yet in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus advises us not to fear the things or people who can harm the body. God attends to the needs of the sparrow, knowing every one that drops to the ground. As for us, every hair on our head is counted. We are not to worry.

Spiritual Lessons from Ordinary Time

THIS HOMILY IS FOR JUNE 25, 2023 — We are given the prophet Jeremiah who was a persecuted prophet of Israel, living in tumultuous times. He is rightly aware of the danger he was in, that there was terror waiting for him on every side. Even though he knows that he will likely be killed for being a prophet of God, he nevertheless has the courage to say, “The Lord is with me like a mighty champion…Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord!” That is what his faith was made of. Jesus challenges his disciples to have the same courage that Jeremiah articulates today when he tells them in our Gospel reading from Matthew, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” These are challenging words but, if understood correctly, it is also very good advice!