Articles for Ordinary Time

  Here we are, Saturday, another great day for MIZZOU football (hopefully) and another great Saturday to honor Our Lady! Jesus tells his disciples today, “When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For…

  Today is the feast day of the great St. Teresa of Ávila! She once said, “Have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that.” Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body…Even the hairs of your head have all…

  Today’s Gospel says, “When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.” On Tuesday, I asked you if you are a follower of Jesus or a Pharisee, so I pose…

  “The Lord said to the Pharisees, ‘Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be…

  In the Alleluia verse today, we hear “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” When we hear the word of God, we should never harden our hearts. Yes, there are times when we want to grumble and complain to the Lord, and you know what, that’s ok! Today is the optional…

  There has been a lot going on in my life lately, which can make me nervous and full of anxiety, so much so that I become paralyzed and don’t know what to do. Our first reading from Wisdom has a great antidote for that! “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and…

  Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. This is one of the shortest passages selected for the liturgy. And its words are simple yet potent. A woman in the crowd was clearly moved, inspired, and swept up by the words she heard from Jesus. Possibly thinking this really is…

  Questioning. Questioning motives? Questioning who is this? How does he/she do this or that? By what authority? Or in the case of the Gospel, false claims – He drives out demons by the power of the devil himself. We are familiar with such questionings and dubious claims. Sometimes these even arise in response to…

  Jesus’ instructions to his disciples on prayer continue in today’s Gospel passage. In yesterday’s Gospel, he instructed them in the form that prayer should take and gave them a model. Today’s passage extends that further and says something about how to use that form and the attitude that guides prayer. The key idea seems…

  Today’s Gospel begins with a simple request of the Lord: teach us to pray. Jesus’ answer is very familiar and very simple. the words we know so well. The words of this prayer, the Lord’s own prayer, tell us much about prayer and serve as a model for our prayer. We know it well.…

  Jesus visits the house of Martha and Mary, his friends, possibly to get away from the crowds. Martha was a woman of lots of energy, and Mary had the heart of a disciple. Mary and Martha speak to us. We all know have our anxious moments when we’re concerned about many things, worried when…

  Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most beloved of all the saints by people everywhere. What appeals so much to so many? His simplicity of life, his honesty, zeal for the poor, love of nature and all of creation? All of this points to a man of great…

  Today Jesus is asked one of those tough questions about divorce. Jesus appealed to the harmony of creation in its initial perfection. Throughout the creation account, we hear: God saw all that he had made, and he found it very good. All creation existed because of God’s goodness. All life was holy, sacred. In…

  I am responsible for my own life and the decisions I make. It is also true that I am not solely responsible for sustaining my life. Our belief in guardian angels is that God wishes to protect us and provide all that we need for a life of flourishing. Part of flourishing is giving…

  Jesus excoriates the Jewish towns that were impressed by his teaching and healing miracles but now have gone back to their lives as if nothing happened. How quickly they forgot! The Prophet Baruch records their ancestors expressing their regret when they were in exile: they followed God half-heartedly, “each one of us went off…

  It is so hard for us to relate to this story in the Book of Nehemiah. The Judahites return from their Babylonian Captivity to Jerusalem. The Governor Nehemiah and the priest-scribe Ezra are tasked with repopulating the land and, most importantly, rebuilding the Temple. We come upon them without a temple yet, but from…

  Do we really need angels? Are we not mature Christians now so that we can put aside childish notions of God’s fairies? Isn’t Christ powerful enough? If we look at our Scriptural texts for today’s feast we see just how badly we need angels. Why? Because there is a war out there! The devil…

  The prophet Zechariah said just yesterday that God was jealous for His people Judah, stranded in Babylonian exile. Yet today the Lord predicts all peoples – even those from those strong, conquering nations – will seek out the Jewish people to worship in Jerusalem. In the gospel today as Jesus sets out for His…

Jealousy gets a bad rap. Seriously! I know, I know, every wedding you have ever been to has droned on with 1 Corinthians instructing you that “love is not jealous” (13:4). Yet, our word jealous and another word zealous have a single word origin. And I think that you could describe the love and duty…

  Just prior to the start of Jesus’ public ministry, he was tempted by Satan in the desert. The devil presented Him with the three primary temptations that plague mankind: power, pleasure, and prestige. Now we are coming to the culmination of the Lord’s public ministry in the Passion. In each Passion prediction, Christ attempts…

  the Old and New Testaments can describe the ways of human behavior with pinpoint accuracy. Open almost any page of Scripture, and you can find someone making a decision about what to do. The story of Adam and Eve provides our earliest human record of fear, pride, dominance, greed, and confusion. We can always…

  Some years ago, there was a popular radio and later TV news commentator who always concluded a surprising tidbit at the end of the program with the words: “And now you know the rest of the story!” First of all, imagine Jesus posing this direct question to his disciples: “Who do you say that…

  Some might imagine Jesus gathering a squad of soldiers about to go out on patrol. But the image of a group equipped with weapons, protective body armor, and ready for anything doesn’t fit this Gospel scene. We need to remember that the Gospel accounts were collected some 80-90 years after the Resurrection. It was…

  The Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle, and Evangelist, makes me think about that old song “On the Road Again.” After all, the word “apostle” is about movement and travel because it means an “emissary being sent out.” This may not seem to touch us until we realize that our baptism was the beginning of…

  Have you ever noticed that if you wait long enough, even waiting through painful periods of “same-ole, same-ole,” suddenly a surprise happens? Notice the surprise in today’s reading from the Book of Ezra. Somehow the Prophet Jeremiah prevailed upon Cyrus the King of Persia to suddenly allow the Hebrew people to go back to…

  Many years ago, I heard a little story that has stayed with me. A little girl came up to her daddy and asked: “Daddy, are you getting older every day?” Her father said, “Well, yes, I’m getting older every day.” Then the little girl said, “Oh, that’s too bad, I’m getting newer every day!”…

  We are not in charge. It’s that simple. We want to be. We think we have to be, yet it’s not all about us. Each one of us makes individual decisions, and we all bear individual responsibility for them. Still, we have to come to grips with how much we don’t control. That’s hard.…

  I continue to focus on the meaning of the Cross and reconciliation. It’s important to focus on another simple yet necessary theme in Christianity. Poverty, or being poor in spirit. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” This theme always runs against the grain. There never has been a…

  We live in the midst of a phenomenon called “Cancel Culture.” It often goes like this: A certain person, a celebrity, politician, or historical figure is criticized for something they did wrong. It can be a word they said or a thing they did, sometimes even decades or years ago. The wrong is made…

  Sorrow. We don’t like to focus on the negative. I find myself turning to what is “light and bright.” On the other hand, some people never see the bright side. They only see things as “dark and stark.” Mary understood the importance of following Jesus in faith. She, in her model discipleship, looked for…

  I’ve been reflecting recently on the importance of reconciliation in life. The whole world watched the recent events that unfolded in Afghanistan. Conflicts are occurring at home in the United States as politics continues to be polarized. We Christians have an important role to play in all this. Christians are called to live lives…

  In American society, we value freedom and achievement. Jesus values humility, love, and service. The greatest freedom is to love others. Humility is also a true ingredient for authentic freedom. And truly, you can have no greater achievement than to serve Christ by serving others from a pure heart. St. John Chrysostom understood this.…

  Today’s readings offer different messages that converge in the Gospel. In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet declares that he will not turn back. He “gave his back” to those who beat him and his face to “buffets and spitting.” He knew the Lord would help him. “Who,” he says “will prove me wrong?”…

  Today’s Gospel is from the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. If we look back over the whole sermon (see Lk 6:20-49), which we heard this week, what might we gain from such a spiritual treatise? There is no other teaching quite like it. The Kingdom of God upholds the opposite of what…

  Gratitude is the attitude of everyone. As Christians, gratitude is our attitude, because of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. In today’s reading from 1 Timothy, St. Paul is an example of this. St. Paul had a rough start. He admits he was arrogant, prideful, and a persecutor and…

  Today the Church commemorates a Spanish missionary who is known for his untiring ministry to Africans as they arrived in slave ships on the shores of 17th century Colombia. For nearly 40 years, Pedro Claver, “the slave of the slaves,” cared for their bodily and spiritual needs. It is estimated that he baptized 300,000…

  Today the Church celebrates the birthday of Mary, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. Her birth is not recounted in the Sacred Scriptures, but the circumstances of her marriage to Joseph and of the birth of her son are (see Mt 1-2 and Lk 1-2). From these sacred stories and also…

  In the passage from Colossians today, St. Paul paints a unique picture of Christ and how we participate in his life, death, and resurrection. In Christ dwells the fullness of the divine, and we have a share in it. How so? Read on. In Christ, we are circumcised, not according to the old law…

  On a certain sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught. (Lk 6:6a) Let us go in with him. Let us hear what he has to say. Yet, today it is not so much what he says but what he does that is the lesson. Who is there in the synagogue? There was a…

  God is good. I can say that wholeheartedly because I have experienced it. I have reflected on my life, and all the disparate strands of decisions I’ve made—yet I see the hand of God in it, guiding me all along. God is good, even clever! “Praise the Lord, my soul!” (Ps 146:1b) I have…