Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's readings can be found here.

In many of the Gospel stories, people who meet Jesus go away giving thanks to God, or proclaiming that he is the messiah. They have been healed, their sins have been forgiven, they are free and so very happy. The man in today's gospel is not. He goes away sad.

From the outside, his life is a testament to following God. He wants to follow God so badly that he even asks Jesus his advice in how to obtain everlasting life. Unfortunately, the answer he hears is not what he wants to hear.

Jesus, first of all, loves us. He sees us as we are. Jesus IS the Word of God. The reading from Hebrews tells us that the Word of God is living and effective, penetrating, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. The gospel says, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said...” (what he did not want to hear). Jesus looked at him, he penetrated his reflections and thoughts. He saw what was holding the young man back. His wealth was important to him, so much so that it was keeping him from fully entering into the life that God wanted for him. This is why the young man went away sad. If there was one thing he did not want to do, it was give away his possessions. Jesus saw this, and knew that the young man needed to hear this word.

The advice he heard was not what he wanted to hear. Maybe he wanted to hear, “You are doing a great job! Keep it up! Nothing more is needed from you!” Don't we all want to hear that our current level of effort in our faith is enough?

God has a challenge planned for each of us. This challenge is designed to see if we are really willing to make the proper sacrifices to “pick up our cross and follow after Christ” For some people, it is loving a completely unlovable person, for some people it is following a part of the Church's teaching that they do not fully agree with or understand. Almost everyone finds a part of the bible or church's teaching that they may not agree with on the surface. They might even think that their opinion, or society's opinion of the teaching is more important than what God has said.

God loves us, and he wants what is best for us. I pray that each of us could open our hearts to respond to God's desire for us. I pray that the word of God would pierce our hearts so we would be able to “take up the cross” and do the hard thing which we resist, the thing that will bring us closer to God and his kingdom.

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday's readings can be found here.

The crowd gathered around the foot of the cross shouted, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” “He saved others but cannot save himself.” “He trusts in God, let God rescue him now” (Mat 27:38-44) Those who mocked him were the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders, but also the criminals who were crucified with Him. The leaders who mocked Christ should have seen the company that was with them. They were behaving like criminals who had been sent to their deaths.

Sinners are often offended by those who stand up for what is right in God's eyes. People who have prayed in front of abortion clinics, porn shops, and on Bourbon Street in New Orleans can tell you this is true. They have received taunts and insults from passersby and honks from cars with people shouting out of the windows as they drive by. At times it can be disheartening to experience this, but it can also be a boost to the just who pray harder for God's work to be done. Jesus teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven is worth suffering the taunts of the sinful. He did it, and we should do it too.

The prayer of the psalmist is “O God, by your name save me, and by your might defend my cause.” It is a wonderful prayer to those who are being persecuted. The second reading gives a warning though, to those who would not follow God's plan. When we pray and do not receive it is because we have prayed to satisfy a passion that is not God's passion. We are praying for something that is selfish, conflict-driven, covetous, envious and of a human passion. If what we pray for is just, then the result should be peaceful, gentile, merciful and fruitful, without inconsistency and insincerity. God is passionate about justice. God is consistent and sincere about justice. We must pray to have this same passion and to know our part is in God's plan for justice.


Jesus tells us “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” To receive God we must receive the child, the lowly, the cast aside in our society. Our actions in this world should be for the lowly: the children, the poor, the cast aside. Mother Teresa once said, “each of them is Jesus in disguise.”

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Click here for today's readings.

The second reading urges us to go further in our faith then we had before. We may have come to mass today, we may have prayed, worshiped and loved our neighbor. But do we give freely of what God has given to us? We need to take from our abundance and give to others, and when others have more, they shall give to us. Abundance is not always in the form of money or goods, it can come in the form of love and compassion. Even a child knows this rule. When they see someone sad, they have innate ability to feel the sadness and comfort their neighbor out of the abundance of their love.

God made us to be everlasting. In the garden of eden, we were made to live forever. Desire, want, and greed, prompted by the serpent drove mankind to take from the forbidden fruit and death was the punishment. However, if we are born again in Christ, then we are free from death. Should we not also be free from desire, want and greed? If we have much, let us give it to those who are in need. If we have little, let us share what we can when we can. If we always shared what we had, then those without would not need to desire, want nor feel envious of what others have. They would know that if their neighbor has something that they would like, they only need to ask, and that neighbor will share with them.

Last week, we examined God's might and power over all creation, and placing our trust in God's providence. We also had the opportunity to sign letters to our congresspersons regarding policies that would fight worldwide poverty. After the 6 o'clock mass, there was another opportunity to address poverty. A man was standing outside of church with a sign that asked for help for him and his children. He had lost his job and could not pay his rent. His older daughter was at the exit of the parking lot. It is challenging to see people begging, but especially outside of our church, and especially when we had just been asking others to help fight poverty. How did we respond as a community to this man and his family? Did they go home hungry that night? Did they lose their apartment? I don't know. What I do know is that God has showed us the ultimate sign of generosity. God has asked us to respond accordingly. Our abundance must meet the needs of others.

In the Gospel, Jesus performed many miracles, and we are challenged to do the same. Giving of ourselves can help make miracles happen. This week, I leave you with a prayer written by St. Teresa of Avila, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the earth, yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.”