Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
If Jesus were in advertising, Madison Avenue experts would judge his approach to be a dud. Today’s Gospel is especially clear about this, but it’s a trend that you can find throughout Jesus’ life. His first spokesman is John the Baptist, a wild-man dressed in camel’s hair, eating bugs and honey, yelling about sin and repentance and the coming judgment. Where are the perfect teeth, the groomed hair, the tailor-made suits and slick pitch – all the things you look for in a spokesman? Jesus himself isn’t much better. All his talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, his constant harping about turning away from sin, and now, today, his talk of rejection and crosses and death. Any half-decent focus group would never sanction Jesus’ advertising campaign. ‘Why can’t you focus on the rewards of exclusive membership rather than the cost of complete discipleship? And what is this business about being seen with lepers, tax collectors, and people possessed by demons? What demographic are you going for with all of this?’ But as always, Jesus thinks as God thinks, not as we do.
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
I was watching the news earlier and starting to lose hope. So much violence, hatred, and pain. I am grateful for the mute button on my remote; I don’t have to listen to it – or deal with it. I wonder if the healed man was actually happier now that he could hear everything: not only the songs of the birds, the whisper of the wind, children’s laughter, but also the village gossip, Roman belittlement, rumors of insurrection. You get the idea. Jesus returned the man to full participation in the life of the community – the good, the bad, the ugly.
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year
We put love into our actions. We bring compassion with us into our relationships. As St. James says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction.” In holiness, there has to be an element of compassion, an element of love, an element of care in whatever we do, especially to those who are in the margins. Being called a Christian is not enough. There has to be a component of love in our lives, a love that is shown through our actions.
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Just as a majestic oak tree starts from a tiny acorn so the change in Catholic worship from the Latin Tridentine Mass to the current form began with small seeds. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century there was much interest in the origins of the Mass. Within the Benedictine community of monks there were two separate movements that were started in order to elevate the experience of celebrating the Tridentine Mass. The first was an effort to develop a greater appreciation for Gregorian Chant. The monks at an abbey in France did research and discovered lost tunes and melodies that were beautiful and esthetically pleasing. These tunes were eventually published in a book called the Liber Usualis which became quite popular while at the same time renewing interest in the history of the Mass.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Changes and adaptations to the Mass came to a screeching halt with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. The Reformation was more a battle over theology rather than liturgy; theology certainly impacts liturgy, but the main battles were about the role of Scripture and Tradition, as well as the primacy of the pope. The theological battles were complicated by political ones as kings and princes saw an opportunity to undercut the authority of the Church.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Emperor Constantine credited his accession to power to Christianity. He lavished much wealth on the religion and built large churches in the city of Rome. The Christians chose the style of a basilica over that of a temple or a synagogue.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
The first followers of Jesus were Jewish and they did not see themselves as founding a new religion. Judaism has always been a wide tent with many variations on the theme of belief in the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The first followers of Jesus called their movement ‘The Way’ but they were still essentially Jewish; it wasn’t until later that they became known as Christians. Most of what we know about the manner in which these people worshiped has to be pieced together from references made in the writings of the New Testament and from other texts that were written in the same period.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Then as Jesus did with the bread, he broke the ritual and said, ‘Take and drink. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.’ If some of the disciples did not understand at the breaking of the bread that this was the making of a new covenant between God and man, they couldn’t miss it now.
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
In today’s Gospel, Jesus welcomes back the twelve Apostles. He had sent them out two-by-two to preach repentance, to drive out demons, and cure the sick, and now they have returned, full of stories of their successes, anxious to tell Jesus all they have done. Jesus has missed his friends. He wants to have a reunion with them, just himself and his closest companions. He says to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” Jesus is looking forward to a pleasant evening of eating and laughing and storytelling with his friends
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year B
Inspiring others to make the world a better place is at the heart of today’s readings. In the first reading, Amos was inspired to preach the word of God to his community and to make a positive difference in their religious lives. The same is true in the Gospel. Jesus sent the Twelve out to preach the Word of God to others and to inspire them to become Christ-like in their actions.