Jesus presents himself to us in the vulnerable – Luke 9:1-6, St. Jerome

Ordinary Time, Week 26, Monday; Feast of St. Jerome.  Holy Cross Parish.

What associations come into your mind when you think about children?  Cute?  Charming?  A breath of fresh air?  Noisy rascals?  Precious?  Hard work?  Our future?  How about: poor.  In the US today, 22% of children live in poverty.  That’s as compared with 14% of adults.  Statistically, children are more likely to be poor.  Globally, the pattern is the same.  Statistically, children are more likely to be hungry.  The effects of poverty and malnutrition take their toll more rapidly and more viciously on those not yet fully grown.  In societies where most children don’t last till adulthood, which was the case in Jesus’ world and is the case in far too much of ours: they are undervalued, viewed as expendable.  Today’s abortion crisis is not new: in the Ancient world, all children were seem as discardable.

God dreams bigger than we can ever imagine – Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a

Saturday of the 25th week of Ordinary Time; St. Stanislaus.

They had lost everything.  If you’ve ever met a refugee, or just kept yourself informed about the plight of the 10.4 million refugees that are displaced from their homeland today, you don’t need a long spiel from me about the horror of being forced from your homeland, of being displaced, of feeling like you are a person without a place, as if your roots were amputated against your will.  But if I can say it, being an exiled Israelite was even worse.  Your Land was your God’s promise to you in terrestrial form; your Temple was the locus (no mere sign) of your God’s very real presence in your midst and an invitation to relate to Him in worship; your King was the embodiment (however imperfect) of God’s sovereignty.  In the Exile, Babylon took all of that.  Marduch, their god, beat up your God and took Him from you.

For seventy years, the people were bereft.  Then, Cyrus the great Persian warrior-king arose, beat the Babylonians, bid the exiles return to their homeland and even gave them resources to rebuild their city and their Temple.  No wonder many called him Messiah!

WwtW: God moves us to compassion through the inspiration of prophets

A day late, but here's this week's Wednesdays with the Word Bible Study notes.  Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 26.

1^st Reading:    Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Context.          Amos is the first of the “classical prophets” (ie. those who left a book).  Himself a Southerner, he prophesied at Bethel, a cultic center in the Northern Kingdom in the early to mid 8^th Century.  This was a time of great material prosperity for Israel, but also social and religious corruption.  Amos is a book of judgment; we will have to wait until later prophets to get the hope of restoration after punishment.  The hypocrisy of ‘correct’ worship while oppressing the poor is condemned – it is not right worship.  This reading is part of Amos’ attempt to break through the complacency of the comfortable: God is coming, get ready!

Jesus formed a poor Church to make him present for all ages – Luke 9:1-6

Daily Mass at Holy Cross parish; Wednesday of Week 25.

“Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than teachers and, if they listen to teachers, it’s because they’re witnesses.”  It was in 1974 that Pope Paul VI said that.  I think the word ‘modern’ could probably be elided from that famous quote and it could be uttered in any year.  Certainly, Jesus seems to be very aware of its truth when he sends the twelve out in today’s reading.  He sends out not teachers, but powerful healers, proclaimers of the kingdom, impoverished witnesses: witnesses to trust in God’s care rather than in their own strength to provide for themselves; witnesses to the God who made Himself poor that we might be rich in grace.

Jesus invites us, his friends, to be part of his mission – Lk 8:1-3; Korean Martyrs

School Mass, Feast of the Korean Martyrs.

Imagine for a minute that you were God.  As you’re God, you’re really really loving.  You love the people you’ve created and you’re sad to see them trapped by sin and death so you want to rescue them.  You decide you love your people so much you’re going to go down to earth to rescue them.  How would you do it?

WwtW: God's generosity wins out in the end

Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 25.

1^st Reading:    Amos 8:4-7

Context.          Amos is the first of the “classical prophets” (ie. those who left a book).  Himself a Southerner, he prophesied at Bethel, a cultic center in the Northern Kingdom in the early to mid 8^th Century.  This was a time of great material prosperity for Israel, but also social and religious corruption.  Amos is a book of judgment; we will have to wait until later prophets to get the hope of restoration after punishment.  The hypocrisy of ‘correct’ worship while oppressing the poor is condemned – it is not right worship.  Our reading comes in the midst of visions of God’s destruction of Israel and seeks to answer the question ‘why?’

God gives us something to hang onto and hand on – 1 Tim 3:1-13

Daily Mass, Holy Cross parish, Tuesday of Week 24.

The widow of Nain has a certain fame among younger Holy Cross clergy, as anyone who’s been through the preaching formation program at Notre Dame in the last ten years or so will have preached on that passage as their first assignment in second semester preaching.  That means I heard 12 homilies on it within three weeks two years ago, so, as beautiful a passage as it is (the teacher chose it for good reason) I haven’t no intention of adding another one today!  I need a little cooling off period from the widow of Nain, but a better reason to not preach on that read is that our reading from first Timothy rather grabbed me, especially as a new deacon.  While I can assure you that I have not contracted multiple marriages, the question of whether I have held fast to the mystery of faith: that occasioned more reflection on my part.