Radical Loyalty

Radical Loyalty

Next Sunday is the celebration of the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. You can read a complete commentary on the Gospel here. 37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and w…

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The Sunday gospels pass over several verses, important to the context of the reading: ³⁴“’Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.³⁵ 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;³⁶ and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’” (Mt 10:34-36) One should not think of an actual sword, but rather an eschatological one that is reminiscent of the sword of Rev 6:4 that involves a division within families, households, and society.

A Concord Pastor Comments

Daily Prayer, Spirituality and Worship in the Roman Catholic Tradition

A Concord Pastor Comments

No homily for this week in the archive.

Only a Cup of Cold Water

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A number of years ago Seattle, Washington, hosted a Special Olympics event. Young people with a variety of physical and mental challenges gathered to participate from around the country. The 100-yard dash had nine contestants. All of them were disabled in some way. At the sound of the starter’s gun, they all got off to a good start except for one boy who tripped, fell to the ground, scratched his arm, and began to cry. Hearing this, the other eight contestants stopped, turned around, and walked back to the boy who had fallen. One girl who had Down Syndrome bent down and kissed his arm, saying, “This will make you feel better.” Then all nine of them joined hands and walked to the finish line.

Christian Faith

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A 2nd July 2017 2 Kings 4:8-11,13-16; Romans 6:3-4,8-11; Matthew 10:37-42. Today the Thirteenth Sunday, the church presents to us through the readings the

Sunday Homily

When faith is pushing us to the edge of natural limits, God is simply saying that he wants to be in control of life. The miracle that comes from this challenging situation points to God as the author of life. He wants to be in control of life. Ours is to live according to his dictates. Today’s Psalm reads

Happy the people who acclaim such a king, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who find their joy every day in your name, who make your justice the source of their bliss.

When God is in control, difficult situations are handled easier. We need to respond to this difficult demand of faith by surrendering to God.

Are You Not Aware?

Our relationship to the Lord must be the center and the foundation of all the relationships of our lives. Next to it, all other relationships are secondary, even those relationships that carry the greatest impact in our lives. Jesus Christ must be the center and goal of these relationships. If He is not, then even our most cherished relationships are destructive instead of life giving. This is a hard concept. It is what Jesus is saying in the Gospel reading, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” The love we experience in our families has to reflect the deep love we have for our Lord. If it does not, then that love is not real love. Any love that does not make Jesus Christ present, is not true love. It ultimately is a selfish love. So what Jesus is saying in that difficult passage is that he must be at the center of our love, our love for our parents, our love for our children, the love of husbands and wives, and our love for each other.

Four Disciplines of Worthy Disciples

Four Disciplines of Worthy Disciples - A Homily for the 13th Sunday of the Year - Community in Mission

In the Gospel this Sunday, the Lord gives four important principles for a disciple. He also teaches on the concept of being worthy of Him. We tend think of being worthy as acting in a way that meets a certain standard, but the Greek word for “worthy” involves more than merely external behavior, important though … Continue reading "Four Disciplines of Worthy Disciples – A Homily for the 13th Sunday of the Year"

Community in Mission

1. The priority of a disciple 
2. The profundity of a Disciple
3. The passion of a disciple
4. The prize of a disciple 

Charity

In the Gospel reading today our Lord tells us that “anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.”  In the first reading we hear about a woman who received the Prophet Elisha, knowing him to be a holy man of God.  The charity she demonstrated in offering Elisha dinner then, after some time, deciding to make a room for him so he could stay there any time he was passing by that way, was true and pure charity.  In other words, she was not seeking anything for herself; she was only seeking to do something good for a holy man of God.

The Hospitality of God

The Hospitality of God

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A What seems to be the most common comparison made between Catholic parishes and Protestant churches...

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What seems to be the most common comparison made between Catholic parishes and Protestant churches is that the former lack the warmth and hospitality which you can readily experience in the latter. This too has often been cited as the main reason why these Protestant churches appear to be more attractive than their Catholic counterparts. So, is offering better hospitality the solution to getting our Catholics to stay put and to attract more new members? …

Before dismissing this as pure superficiality, let us consider what the readings have to say about hospitality? It is clear that hospitality is more than just a five-star personal butler service by your team of wardens, or getting a Louis Vuitton door gift bag when you are identified as a first timer, or you are feted with a standing ovation by the whole congregation or a cheerful welcoming ditty led by the choir. Hospitality means more than welcoming people and making them feel at home. It means more than being friendly and generous, especially toward strangers. The theme of hospitality in the readings is more nuanced. 

Clergy E-Notes

Pro-life reflections and intercessions related to the Sunday readings

• Our greatest love should be Jesus. Everything we do must be centered on Him, even if it causes us to lose our lives, because it is only in losing our lives for Him that we can gain eternal life. So, we must not be afraid to speak the life-giving Gospel, which calls all people to repentance and forgiveness.
• Besides preaching the Gospel, Jesus tells us also that we must welcome those who come in His name, even the “little ones.” By doing so, we receive a share in their reward. These “little ones” can be either those who are spiritually little, like the unbeliever, or physically little, like an unborn child. Both must be accepted with love.

Hospitality

Do not be afraid or fear not are very familiar words. It was a recurrent A common theme in the scripture is God’s desire that we show hospitality to others as seen in the Bible.  Hospitality is “the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.” We typically understand hospitality as a willingness to host, feed, and entertain a guest, something we all do, especially to our friends.

God commanded the Israelites to be hospitable. “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God”. (Leviticus 19:33-34). Before this, one admires Abraham’s great hospitality (Genesis 18:2-8). It was after this that his wife Sarah conceived. Today’s First Reading presents the beautiful story of the hospitality of the Shunamite woman to Elisha. Despite being a Woman of Rank; also translated as a prominent or great woman, she lacked a son. She was full of faith and good works and undoubtedly had a great deal of love and respect for the teaching of the Word. She willingly opened her home to those in need. She extended her hand to the needy and shared the good things God had given her. Her reward was great – she had a son.

Small Things with Great Love

Bottom line: St. Teresa of Calcutta tells us to do small things with great love. In the Eucharist Jesus does something seeming small with the greatest possible love.

St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Jesus says something similar in the Gospel: “whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

The Old Testament reading describes a couple who does small things with great love. They provide a room for the prophet Elisha. As Jesus indicates, such acts can bring an unexpected reward. In the case of this couple, they were getting up in years and had no child. The prophet blesses them and they receive their greatest treasure – a child of their own.

Doing small things with love brings a reward. You and I can easily lose focus. We see so many injustices where the strong take advantage of the weak. We want to respond with rage. Rage, however, brings its own injustices. We wind up hurting the people closest to us. So much better to do small things, but to do them with great love.

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Is Your Cross too Heavy to Bear?

Complainingly I told myself,
“this cross is too heavy to wear”
And I wondered discontentedly
why God gave it to me to bear.
And I looked with envy at others
whose crosses seemed lighter than mine
And wished that I could change my cross
for one of a lighter design –
And then, in a dream, I beheld the cross
I impulsively wanted to wear,
It was fashioned of pearls and diamonds
and gems that were precious and rare.

Renouncing Our Behaviors

Let us pause to reflect on the ways of behaviour that we are renouncing, helped by tradition which speaks of seven founts from which all sins are said to spring. As Christians we commit ourselves to give up a life that is characterised by the following:

• pride – thinking, judging and acting in a self-reliant, self-focused way, disdainful of others and inattentive to God and to God’s will.

• covetousness – never satisfied with who we are or what we have but grasping for possessions, prestige, reputation, and whatever gratifies our self-centred desires.

• anger – not the anger which is an appropriate protection of self against unjust aggression, but the anger that resents anyone who crosses our ideas, our preferences, our comfort zones, even when they are right and we are wrong.

• gluttony – living so superficial a life that bodily gratification is more important to us than the aspirations of our spirit, or the needs of others.

• envy – when we see someone doing well, instead of experiencing joy we feel ourselves devalued and in overt or subtle ways we find ourselves putting others down, feeling miserable that we do not have their beauty or their possessions or their success.

• sloth – unwilling to commit ourselves and our energy to the noble tasks of life, preferring to hang around waiting for life to deal out fortune to us.

Letting Go of the Beloved

In Matthew’s account, Jesus tells us not to love our family members more than we love him. This text illuminates, I believe, the rather troubling formulation found in chapter 14 of Luke. Luke has it this way: “If you come to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and your own life too, you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Although the word translated “hate” in Luke is closer to the original Aramaic, John L. McKenzie reminded us that Aramaic actually had no words for “love more than.” Thus, the comparative softening of Matthew’s “loving more than” is a fair alternative. It also provides an insight into the nature of human loves.

The Gospel of Hope

JUNE 2020 – These past several month have been difficult for so many of us. Covid-19 has turned the world upside down. Even as society begins to reopen, we can still be tempted by some fears. Will there be a second wave of this virus? Will we have to lock down society again? Will I or a loved one eventually catch it? And, as much as we do our best to forget about the times we live in, every time we see a mask, we get reminded about it.

How do we deal with something as insidious as fear? All throughout history, the topic of how to best understand and cope with fear has preoccupied more than few philosophers, theologians and even scientists. The psychologist Carl Jung believed that most of our deepest spiritual and psychological dysfunctions could be attributed in some manner to an unresolved fear of death. His take is that we tend to bury that fear really deep down inside of us as a coping mechanism. But that fear is nevertheless still there subconsciously and expresses itself in many different ways, not all of them are good. It can be at the core of a person’s depression. It can be at the root of a midlife crises. It can also be the underlying cause of a life-long addiction. And the list goes on. I personally find it fascinating at how many blockbuster movies there are that are drenched with violence, death and dysfunction. I wonder if these movies are popular because they are a way to somehow subconsciously cope with our deepest fears. What is the answer to this age-old dilemma?