Solemnity of Christ the King • Year A
It is Christ we serve. It is Christ we are. We are the Christ with plenty sharing with the Christ in need. We are the Christ at home welcoming the wandering Christ. Just as the death and resurrection of Christ gives us life, we give Christ life when we care for him out on the street, down on his luck, lost in addiction, far from his friends, troubled in marriage, looking for answers, praying for health, crying in secret, staring at walls, reaching through bars, breathing his last.
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
The scriptures call us to look more deeply at the brief span of our years here below, and the quality of living and service to others we offer. Yet the ads in the Sunday newspapers and the stores ready for Christmas at Halloween urge us, “Yes, the time is very short, so shop now.” We are pulled in at least two directions. The readings encourage our pondering our future in eternity and how we’re doing at living well. The present world wants to lure us elsewhere.
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
All too often the circumstances of our lives will force us to confront such mysteries as the death and our own mortality. Natural disasters, disease and our own human finitude threaten, and take us and our loved ones everyday. November is the month in the liturgical calendar that the Church reserves to remember, and honor those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
God’s word today challenges all of us who are priests, prophets, and kings by Baptism, but especially the ordained leadership of the Body of Christ, to reflect deeply on what it means to be Christ for others today. We are most the Body of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist, which the Second Vatican Council calls “the center and summit of the Christian life,” and therefore, each of us individually and together must be Eucharistically focused.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Governments and their forms change, national boundaries change, social conditions change, cultures and civilizations change, but the problem does not change. What is God’s, what is Caesar’s? Jesus’ real answer is given in response to the question of which commandment in the Jewish law was the greatest. “You shall love the Lord your God,” Jesus said, “with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-38). Jesus spent his whole life and ministry interpreting this law for all times and places and situations. The two great commandments in the Jewish law, he said, are inseparable. You cannot fulfill the first if you are not fulfilling the second. Loving God and not loving your neighbor is a contradiction.
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Governments and their forms change, national boundaries change, social conditions change, cultures and civilizations change, but the problem does not change. What is God’s, what is Caesar’s? Jesus’ real answer is given in response to the question of which commandment in the Jewish law was the greatest. “You shall love the Lord your God,” Jesus said, “with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-38). Jesus spent his whole life and ministry interpreting this law for all times and places and situations. The two great commandments in the Jewish law, he said, are inseparable. You cannot fulfill the first if you are not fulfilling the second. Loving God and not loving your neighbor is a contradiction.
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Why? Why kill the messenger? For that matter, why is the invitation unwelcome? Why would anyone want to go to a farm rather than a palace, why would anyone want to go to work instead of a feast? A party with the king means “a feast of rich food and choice wines,” music and dancing and laughter. What’s not to like?
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
It has been said that “indifference, not hate, is the fabric of inhumanity,” and this echoes perfectly with the message of Isaiah. We can fall into this, and look at the national level and throw there all the attention, and forget that each of us is baptized, each of us has been given gifts to use for building the Kingdom of God, and yet we often fail to do anything, remaining indifferent or simply frozen by being overwhelmed, to advance the cause of life, of justice, of peace.
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Prayer is the foundation for a genuine response to the Love of God. As is humility, beautifully articulated today in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. When I pray, I learn to sense the presence of God in myself, and in the events of my life. Prayer helps me to weigh the evidence that is unseen which exercises caution when things seem too good to be true, and offers hope to those in need of a second chance. Prayer is also the primary way to help discern the difference between those who talk the talk from those who walk the walk.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
We have to go one step further, as the woman did. Do we believe that God will help us in those times of our lives when we need help? Do we believe that God loves us enough to be involved in our lives? God may not wave a magic wand over our problems and change them, but God will be there to hold us up and give us the strength we need to get through the difficulties of life. He can help us, but the important faith is that God will help us.
