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

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.

Suffering in the World

Homily for June 25

Photo by Gates Dupont Homily for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time ( Scriptures for today's Mass) (Technical glitch: no ...

A Concord Pastor Comments

There may be times in our lives  when we think that the Father has promised (or should promise), to keep us from falling, from being hurt, from suffering… 

Or times when we think that the Father has promised to keep those we love from falling, from being hurt, from suffering…

Of course, not even Jesus, God’s only Son was spared any of that.

The Lesson of the Rattlesnake

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All fear is bondage.  If we let fear control us, it robs us of our freedom to act.  It paralyzes us.  It sets us in a vicious circle, where we keep knowing the things that we should do but somehow never find the power to do them.  How do we break this bondage of fear?  How do we short-circuit this vicious circle that keeps robbing us of our life?  We have to reach outside of ourselves.  As those in AA would say, we have to find a higher power.  This is what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel.  Three times in the gospel he says, “Do not be afraid.”  He can say this because he knows that not a sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing about it and caring about it, and that we are worth more than many sparrows.  Jesus tells us that to deal with fear we must recognize love.  We must recognize the love of God that surrounds us, the love of God that has intimate knowledge of our life, the love of God that knows the number of hairs on our head.  If we can claim that love and recognize God’s presence in our life, we can overcome the fears that paralyze us.

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

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.

The Fear of the Lord

Fear God. That is a biblical concept that is often misunderstood. It does not mean that we should be afraid of God. It does not mean that we should not develop a personal relationship with the Lord. But it does mean that we should respect God, reverence God, and be infinitely more concerned with fulfilling the Law of God than with the way others might respond to our Christianity.

There are many times that we fear what others or saying or thinking about us. We are afraid that the next door neighbors will think that we are not good parents if we don’t have our children involved in as many activities as their children are involved. We are afraid that our children will want to know why they don’t have all the stuff their friends have. We are afraid that our parents or relatives will see us as a disappointment if we haven’t met their financial standards for success. We are afraid of being a disappointment to ourselves if we have achieved our own expectations.

Original Sin

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...

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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

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.

Fulcrum of History

Bottom line: Just as fatherhood is the fulcrum of society, the Eucharist is the fulcrum of history.

Fatherhood is a great fulcrum. Just like a fulcrum can lift a heavy weight, fatherhood can change our world. Jesus has a word today for fathers, “Fear not.” Then he adds, “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” He’s counseling patience. You and I can’t resolve every injustice. Some will have to wait until Judgment Day when everything will be revealed. Best to concentrate on where we can make a difference. Again to quote President Obama, “Too many fathers are MIA, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men.”

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Do Not be Afraid: Jesus is Our Model In Coping with Anxiety

What was Jesus’ remedy to overcome worry and distress? Having faith in his heavenly Father and sharing the cause of his worry in prayer with the Father. We see a transformation in Jesus during his prayer: he began praying, “My soul is sorrowful even to death” (Matt 26:38) but when he concluded he prayed, “your will be done!” (Matt 26:42) That is what happens to us when we have faith in God and bring our anxieties to God in prayer. We are transformed during prayer and receive strength from God to face what lies ahead. So when there are problems, have faith and pray!

Baptism Frees Us from Original Sin

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

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

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!