Author: ra

St Paul points out in today’s first reading that our suffering allow us to participate in the suffering of Christ – if we join our suffering to his. St Peter Claver, Fr Jim observes, understood the value of joining our suffering with the suffering of Jesus.  The more than 300,000 men, women and children Peter baptized and ministered to over his lifetime worked and died as slaves. They lost their lives, yet through Peter Claver’s efforts, they also found them.  We may not be Peter Claver. Yet, even the smallest kindness we offer to someone who is suffering is of inestimable value – if we offer it in union with Jesus.

Today’s Readings

I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.
COL 1:24 – 2:3 (New Living Translation)

God is my safety and my glory.
PS 62:6-7, 9

“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”
LK 6:6-11

Jesus tells us that God must come first in today’s Gospel.  God, Fr Tony points out, doesn’t just want a little bit of us, he wants all of us. Can we love God the same way Jesus loves him – with total commitment?  Fr Tony discovered that when we pray as St Francis of Assisi prayed, “my God and my all,” we, too, may find ourselves doing things for God we never thought we could do.

Today’s Readings

Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
WIS 9:13-18B

I am sending [Onesimus] …. to you … that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother.
PHMN 9-10, 12-17

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
LK 14:25-33

Fr Jim points out that while there certainly are times for penance and fasting, this is not one of them. Like the disciples in today’s gospel, we too, have Jesus with us. He is here – on our altar. This is the time to rejoice: to “come with joy into the presence of the Lord.”

Today’s Readings

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
COL 1:15-20

Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
PS 100:1B-2, 3, 4, 5

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
LK 5:33-39

Peter and his partners caught nothing until Jesus showed them where to fish in in today’s gospel. Jesus calls us, too, to “fish” for others – with hooks of love and lines of kindness. And, like the apostles, we don’t have to worry about the size of the catch.  Jesus, as Fr Paul points out, will make it happen.

Today’s Readings

[God] delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption.
COL 1:9-14

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men. “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
LK 5:1-11

What struck Fr Ed in this morning’s readings were St Paul’s and St Luke’s descriptions of how Jesus brings us into intimate, healing and enabling contact with God.  Hopefully we’ll be able respond as Simon’s mother-in-law did – ready and willing to serve the Lord!

Today’s Readings

Just as in the whole world [the gospel] is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth … [and] your love in the Spirit.
COL1:1-8

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever… He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.
LK 4:38-44

Fr Peter suggests that if you only had two words to describe today’s reading from St Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians they’d be “get ready.”  St Paul, like the members of his churches, expected the immanent return of Jesus. Although, after more than 2,000 years of waiting, we continue to wait for Jesus’ “second coming,” St Paul’s advice is still sound. We should live every day as though it were our last – one day it will be!

Today’s Readings

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters … you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.
1 THES 5:1-6, 9-11

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.
LK 4:31-37

Fr Paul notes that the prophetic vision Jesus brings to his hometown in today’s gospel doesn’t go over well with its inhabitants.  Their vision has narrowed to just themselves, while Jesus’ wider vision includes all who are vulnerable. If, unlike the townsfolk of Nazareth, we wish to embrace Jesus, then we must first open our minds and hearts to those whom Jesus sees.

Today’s Readings

If we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
1 THES 4:13-18

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went … into the synagogue … [and read from] a scroll of the prophet Isaiah… “The Spirit of the Lord … has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor …  proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
LK 4:16-30

Biblical scholars agree that today’s “eye of the needle” gospel is about how difficult it is for those who cling to material wealth to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Fr Charlie points out that even those of us who don’t have much material wealth are born with great spiritual wealth that we must not cling to either. We are all born rich with a God-given capacity for love, patience, compassion, understanding, empathy, and forgiveness. All these we are called to give freely to others.

Today’s Readings

The angel of the LORD appeared to [Gideon] and said, “The LORD is with you, O champion!” Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us?”
JGS 6:11-24A

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
MT 19:23-30