The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
Deuteronomy 30:10-14  +  Colossians 1:15-20  +  Luke 10:25-37
July 10, 2016

“Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

My father loves to tell stories, especially about his children.  One of his favorites concerns Angela, my oldest sibling.  On her very first day of school, her class was led to the cafeteria at lunch time, and the entrée was (this will tell you how long ago it was) the entrée was liver.  This did not please my six-year old sister at all, and she promptly explained to the cook:  “My dad doesn’t eat liver, and I don’t either!”

From what young parents have told me over the years, the chore of getting children to eat healthful foods is among the more exasperating that they face.  Parents might try different strategies:  for example, they might try the percentage strategy, where if the child eats seventy-five percent of his spinach, he gets released from the dinner table for good behavior. Continue reading →

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
Isaiah 66:10-14  +  Galatians 6:14-18  +  Luke 10:1-9
July 3, 2016

“…do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you….”

Father Sam may have explained that one of the reasons I’m residing at Aleppo is because my chief assignment is Chaplain for the IHM Sisters, who last year moved into their new convent two miles south of Colwich.  It’s a much shorter drive to the convent than the drive I had this past year.  But a happy consequence of residing at Aleppo is serving in the two parishes where my classmate, Father Sam, is pastor. Continue reading →

The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
I Kings 19:16,19-21  +  Galatians 5:1,13-18  +  Luke 9:51-62
June 26, 2016

“He resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem….”

All over the Wichita Diocese, many priests this past week were “on the road again”, to use the words of Willie Nelson, moving to new residences and taking up new assignments within the diocese.  However, while Mr. Nelson just couldn’t wait to get on the road again, most of our priests had mixed feelings about uprooting themselves and beginning again in a new part of the diocese.  Those mixed feelings come from, on the one hand, wanting to be faithful to the bishop’s plan for the diocese, and knowing from experience that change brings blessings eventually.  On the other hand, change is difficult, and the longer a priest had been in his previous assignment, the harder it is to leave.

We priests should count our blessings, though.  In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus explains to a would-be disciple that “‘Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.’”  Most rectories, by contrast, have not only very fine mattresses, but pretty good recliners, as well (for mid-afternoon meditation)! Continue reading →

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time [II]
Sirach 48:1-14  +  Matthew 6:7-15
June 16, 2016

“…all gods are prostrate before Him.” [Psalm 97:7]

In the modern culture that surrounds us, the word “prostrate” has many negative connotations.  By contrast, within Catholic culture during the rite of ordination the ordinand lays prostrate on the ground.  He re-lives this ritual action every year on Good Friday, when at the beginning of the service he makes the same action.

Of course, there is at least one significant difference between those two acts of prostration within the Sacred Liturgy.  The Good Friday service commences in silence, and we might compare that silence to the silence in Garden of Gethsemani, as Jesus looked forward to what was about to happen to Him, similar to how the priest laying on the ground is mindful of the rites that will transpire throughout the course of the service, liturgically making present the sacred mysteries of Jesus’ Passion and Death. Continue reading →

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 19:9,11-16  +  Matthew 5:27-32
June 10, 2016

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.”

“[Jesus] then goes on to correct the error of the Pharisees, declaring, “Whoso looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart.” For the commandment of the Law, “Thou shalt not lust after thy neighbour’s wife,” [Ex 20:17] the Jews understood of taking her away, not of committing adultery with her.”

“For there are three things which make up a sin; suggestion either through the memory, or the present sense; if the thought of the pleasure of indulgence follows, that is an unlawful thought, and to be restrained; if you consent then, the sin is complete.  For prior to the first consent, the pleasure is either none or very slight, the consenting to which makes the sin.  But if consent proceeds on into overt act, then desire seems to be satiated and quenched. And when suggestion is again repeated, the contemplated pleasure is greater, which previous to habit formed was but small, but now more difficult to overcome.” Continue reading →

Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 18:41-46  +  Matthew 5:20-26
June 9, 2016

“…you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 5:20]

Saint Augustine of Hippo states that:  “This expression, the kingdom of heaven, so often used by our Lord, I know not whether any one would find [it] in the books of the Old Testament.  It belongs properly to the New Testament revelation, kept for His mouth whom the Old Testament figured as a King that should come to reign over His servants.  This end, to which its precepts were to be referred, was hidden in the Old Testament, though even that had its saints who looked forward to the revelation that should be made.”

“For almost all the precepts which the Lord gave, saying, ‘But I say unto you,’ are found in those ancient books.  But because they knew not of any murder, besides the destruction of the body, the Lord shews them that every evil thought to the hurt of a brother is to be held for a kind of murder.” Continue reading →

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 18:20-39  +  Matthew 5:17-19
June 8, 2016

“They multiply their sorrows who court other gods.” [Psalm 16:4]

Transcendence lies at the heart of the authentic spiritual life.  The Church’s teachings about “divinization”—teachings readily found in the Eastern Fathers, and becoming more appreciated in the West today—help us understand that God calls human persons to transcendence.  That’s not to say that the Christian ceases to be human in coming to share in the divinity of Christ.  We are not meant to transcend our human nature itself, any more than the Glorified and Ascended Christ sheds His human nature.  Nonetheless, the saint transcends his fallen human nature as he comes to share in a divinized humanity.

By contrast, every sin is a diminishment of the person who commits it.  The saint transcends, while the sinner descends.  The descent of the sinner is what the Psalmist describes in Psalm 16 when he sings:  “They multiply their sorrows who court other gods.” Continue reading →

Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 17:7-16  +  Matthew 5:13-16
June 7, 2016

“O Lord, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!” [Psalm 4:7]

In yesterday’s Responsorial the Psalmist sang, “I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall help come to me?” [1]  St. Augustine helped us distinguish between the mountain that we’re climbing, and the light that illumines the mountain.  Today’s Responsorial, from Psalm 4, helps us fix our gaze upon this light.

“O Lord, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!”  In the Creed, we profess that God the Son is “Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.”  This language describing the Father and Son as “light” is mysterious, even though the New Testament, most especially in the prologue of St. John’s Gospel account, uses the imagery of light to describe God. Continue reading →

Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
I Kings 17:1-6  +  Matthew 5:1-12
June 6, 2016

“I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall help come to me?” [Psalm 121:1]

Today’s Responsorial is the entirety of Psalm 121, the second of the fifteen “Songs of Ascents”.  At the beginning of his exposition of Psalm 121, Saint Augustine of Hippo reminds us that these fifteen psalms “deal with our upward climb….  The ascent[, step by step,] is made in our hearts as we mount toward God through the valley of weeping, which symbolizes the humility of our very distressed condition.  The ascent can succeed for us only if we are first of all humbled and remember that it is from this valley that our climb must begin.”  Today’s Responsorial sings in the context of this climb. Continue reading →