God grants us vision through the gift of the saints – Luke 18:35-43; Rose Duchesne

Monday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne; Holy Cross Parish.
Note: I'm traveling for a couple of conferences over the next week, so this blog will probably lie dormant until Advent I.

“Lord, let me see.”  What a prayer!  Let me see.  How much depth, beauty, awe and wonder is there to the world that we do not see!  We believe that every marvel of nature was lovingly crafted by God, but how often do we miss His fingerprints?  We believe that every human was made in the image and likeness of God, immeasurably precious in His eyes, but how we view another person as an inconvenience or distraction from what’s really important?  We believe that Love has conquered, that sin and death have are powerless, that the world is being redeemed, standing on tiptoes to see the coming glory, but how often do we give in to the prophets of doom, lapse in our hope, and content ourselves to the blinkers of pessimism and cynicism.  “Lord, please let me see.”

WwtW: God's coming, in God's time

OT C 33.  This week's Bible study notes.  Note: Wednesdays with the Word will be taking a winter break now we've finished the standard Ordinary Time Sundays.

Gospel:           Luke 21:5-19

Context.           Last week, we read of Jesus having entered Jerusalem and begun teaching in the Temple.  It was an attempt to reclaim the Temple for its true purpose: the revelation of God’s word.  However, the Temple leadership consistenly opposed him.  Now, Jesus gives up on the Temple: it is to be destroyed.  This leads into a discussion of end times.  We read about the first half of the speech: the rest is about the coming of the Son of Man and the need for readiness.  Immediately after this speech, comes the Last Supper and the beginning of the Passion narrative.

God reveals Himself in the service of the poor – Luke 17:11-19; Frances Xavier Cabrini

Memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini; Holy Cross Parish.

Frances Cabrini said thank you to God with her life.  Not for a terribly prosperous life; not for a spectacular moral healing, for she had no great life of dissipation to turn away from.  Not for a miraculous physical healing, for she was a sickly child, and remained in poor health most of her life.  She lived a life of gratitude for the everyday sustenance God provided for her, the slow growth in virtue, the sacramental life she rejoiced to participate in.  She was so grateful for the gift of education in her life that she wanted to join the order of sisters that had taught her, but they wouldn’t have her because of her ill health. 

God loves us everlastingly – Luke 20:27-38

Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 32; Holy Cross Parish.

I saw a picture this week of two tombstones, facing away from each other, back to back.  Between the two, there’s a wall separating them, but the wall is shorter than the tombstones.  Extending from the back of each tombstone is a sculpture of a hand.  In the middle, over the wall, the hands embrace.  The graves belong to a married couple, who died in the Netherlands in the late 19^th Century.  One was Catholic; the other, Protestant.  Unable to be buried in the same cemetery, they still found away to embrace.

God makes his home with us – Rev 21:1-4, Lk 19:1-10, St. John Lateran

School Mass homily at Holy Cross School.

You know what all stories have… an end, a beginning and a middle?  Is that right?  [Get them to give usual order for a story]  Well, today, that’s how our readings go.  They go together to tell a story, but first we heard [lector] tell us the end, then I just read the beginning, and now it’s up to us to do the middle.  If that sounds complicated, I’ll explain it all again slowly, but then I’ll need your help to do the middle, OK?

WwtW: Resurrection makes all the difference

This week's Bible Study Notes; Sunday, Week 32 of OT C.

Gospel:           Luke 20:27-38

Context.           Jesus has now entered Jerusalem.  The lectionary skips the account of his triumphal entry (which we read on Palm Sunday).  Once in the Jerusalem, he seems to go straight to the Temple to clear out the merchants and start teaching.  The people are enraptured by his teaching.  The temple is reclaimed for the true revelation of God’s will.  Various powerful groups (priests, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees) oppose Jesus.  His teaching is mainly presented as a series of controversies, initiated by one or another of these groups.  It all ultimately revolves around questions of authority: who has it and how should it be exercised?

God is at home with the lowly – Rom 12:5-16, Lk 14:15-24

Tuesday of OT Week 31; Holy Cross parish.

You might notice that today’s reading from Romans sounds pretty different from all we’ve read from Romans over the past few weeks.  For one thing, you might have noticed that the word “God” didn’t appear once.  We’ve moved from the first, and longer, section of Romans, which is the proclamation of the good news of God’s action for us in Christ, to the second: the exhortation, which fleshes out what it means to live as recipients of such a gift.  And it’s easy to misunderstand what this structure is trying to communicate, that after Paul has proclaimed the grand grace of a Gospel apart from the Law, he’s going back on himself, constructing a new Law, a set of instructions of how to work our way into heaven.  Nothing could be further from the Spirit of Romans!

God overlooks our sins – Wis 11:22-12:2, Luke 19:1-10

Sunday OT, Year C, Wk 31; Holy Cross-St. Stan's parish.

I have on occasion been know to overlook things.  My brothers in community with whom I live will probably be able to tell you that I sometimes overlook turning a light off when I leave a room.  (Sorry, father!).  In school, I was terrible at team sports because I would overlook where the ball was, only finding my athletic home in swimming, as the large expanse of water and solid wall at the other end of it were pretty hard for me to overlook.  For a couple of years as a young adult, I overlooked that smoking kills.  Haven’t touched a cigarette in over ten years, praise be to God.  At times, I’ve overlooked dealing with a bill that needed to be taken care of.  Sometimes, I’ve overlooked a friend who needed reaching out to, or I’ve overlooked the humanity of a beggar who it was more convenient to ignore, or I’ve overlooked the sorrow and repentance in the person I wanted to hold a grudge against, or the good heart in the person I was sure was misguided, or the still-hurting wound that someone was acting out of when they flared up at me.  I’m guessing I’m not alone here.  I’m guessing we all overlook things.  Whether out of inattentiveness, or sloth, or fear, or stubbornness… we overlook things.