Today at Holy Mass we hear from the gospel of Luke…Jesus addresses the leaders and teachers of the people….”“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building”…….Have we ever stopped to think about what it must have been like for Christ to speak truth to power knowing full well he was going to be tortured and brutally murdered?…..Can you ever imagine the thoughts that ran through his head as he sweat blood in the garden of gethsemane the night before he was killed?…..What drives a person to go to such extremes?…The answer is simple…Love!….Only a person who loves can do what Jesus did….No one is willing to die for a lie…..But for love a person will do almost anything and endure the worst the world can throw at them…..We can study and read about Jesus, the lives of the saints and the teachings of the Catholic Church all we want…But if we are not driven by love…We will not stand firm when the “rubber meets the road”…..However, if we encounter love itself….God who loves us…We can endure…We will persevere…And we will conquer in the name of the Carpenter from Nazareth…Only love can do that and we must find this love because it is there!
Thursday, October 17, 2024
What is the cornerstone of your life?…..That is the question…..Is it love?…Is this what drives you?...And if it is love….Who do you love?
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
You worry about you and leave the rest to God…..”If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit”…Just make sure that “spirit” is the Holy Spirit!…And we do that by sticking to first principals
Today at Holy Mass we hear in the gospel of St Luke Jesus addressing the teachers of the law……”“Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God”…These men paid attention to detail…They knew all the right things to do and for the most part they did them very well…However, they forgot the most important thing…The love of people in the process…What became “god” to them was the doctrine and dogma itself forgetting why it was written in the first place…This is a trap people fall into today - You see it all over Catholic social media….All the teachings of the Church are to point us to the love of God and the love of neighbor…..The commandments protect us!…..The commandments make us free!…However, we can get lost in “the details”…Forgetting why the Church says what it says and teaches what it teaches…When that happens the teachings of the Church can become an idol replacing God….Also keep in mind our common humanity…People sin and fall short, always have and always will…That includes me and you!….We must be patient with each other….Giving good example…Loving God above all things and love our neighbor as our self…The teachings of the Church help us to do that…However, don’t get lost in the “weeds” and forget why the teachings were created in the first place!
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
How can someone not know who they are?…..Its our job to discover what is actually already there!
Today at Holy Mass the Universal Church honors St Teresa of Ávila, who is a Doctor of the Church and was a great reformer….If you are a student of history as I am you will notice that whenever the Church grows weak, the Lord rises up saints to renew her…St Teresa of Ávila was one of those saints…I was reading a small portion of some of her writings this morning…She tells her nuns something interesting…..”Thus it is a shame and unfortunate that through our own fault we don’t understand ourselves or know who we are”….How can someone not know who they are?……St Teresa wrote a lot about penetrating into what she called the “interior castle of the soul”….That within each of us there are “caverns”, which we do not know exist - But they are there…The deeper you go…The more you may find the deeper you still have to go…And many do not discover these “caverns” that are within us….What should that tell us today?…..There is so much potential within YOU!……If we "tap into" what God has placed deep within each of us…We will set the world on fire!…..This is what St Teresa did….And 600 years later the world is still talking about her
Monday, October 14, 2024
God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called…..“He raises up the lowly from the dust”…Only to move mountains that the world thought could not be moved
Today the Universal Church commemorates the life of a 3rd century Pope who is a saint…St Callistus was an interesting person who did not take the usual route to the papacy…Callistus was a former slave and when he became pope a man by the name of Hippolytus opposed him because Callistus believed that grave sinners who sought confession and were willing to do penance can be welcomed back into the Church….Hippolytus did not believe so…And as a result….Hippolytus assumed for himself papal privileges and became the first “anti-pope” in Church history…Here is where the story gets interesting…Callistus continued to give a faithful witness to the gospel of Christ even as he was persecuted and his life was taken from him for it….At the sight of Callistus death and the witness of his life, his archenemy Hippolytus not only repented but became a martyr for the faith himself and is now declared a saint as well…Why is this story relevant to us today?…This is the power of a faithful witness….Callistus, the former slave who became pope won over his enemy not by force but by the consistent example of a life dedicated to the gospel…..We will never argue anyone into the Church…However, a life grounded in gospel truth exhibited to the world for all to see “moves mountains”….If we want to see the world change…We first need to change ourself, pick up our cross and follow the carpenter from Nazareth…..No words needed! - Such a life speaks volumes and when it speaks - It speaks loudly!
Sunday, October 13, 2024
”If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.”….For those who have ears - Let them hear…But in the meantime…Do we wish to “see”?
Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first readings from the Book of Wisdom….”I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne”…There is an implication made in that sentence…That wisdom is better than material wealth…Would you agree?…….People say these days…...Common sense is not that common any more…There is a big difference between raw analytical intelligence and wisdom…There are many highly intelligent people, who do not possess any wisdom what so ever and it shows by the outcome of their decisions in real time…Remember, you judge a tree by the fruit it bears…..Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit, which allows us to see as God sees…Ultimately, it is only when we can “see” properly will our decisions lead to positive outcomes…But when we lack wisdom, no matter “how smart we are”….Our lack of clarity when viewing what stares us directly in the face results in us “missing the mark”…So how do we receive this gift of wisdom?…And is this “gift” more valuable than gold?…..Because if we “can’t see”…We will not end up where we want to be
Saturday, October 12, 2024
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Today at Holy Mass St Paul states something that at the time was revolutionary…And still is revolutionary to this day for that matter……..”For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”……..Jesus Christ is the common denominator…..Societies have always divided people…By education, economic status, race, etc…However Jesus Christ and through our common Baptism unites us all…All of us are equal in the eyes of God and all of us have something to do….So the question we should ask ourself is this…Do we see and treat all people as equals?
Friday, October 11, 2024
When the Truth becomes a lie, darkness descends upon us and when darkness falls, how very deep will that darkness be?
Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…In this readings Jesus talks about how people are accusing him of being evil…How can that be?….It seems that what was good is being called bad…And what is bad is being called good…Sound familiar?…..”For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out?”….We all must make a choice…..And no choice is a default choice…We either choose the Kingdom of God……. And if we make that choice…We must walk the “narrow road” that leads to heaven…The other option is hell and the road to hell is wide……And yes - Hell is real and people go there……We cannot have it both ways…..Far too many people “think” we can have it both ways…But it simply does not work that way….Don’t take my words for it…Jesus is pretty clear on the subject