October 27th, 2024 – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sisters & Brothers,
I cannot speak for others who preach homilies, but I realize that I seldom offer reflections on the responsorial psalms we pray after the first reading at every Mass. In light of that, I would like to reflect on the psalm we are praying today.
This Sunday, we pray the first six verses of Psalm 126. The first reading from the Book of Jeremiah relates God’s promise to deliver the people of Israel from their exile in Babylon and bring them back to the land he had given them. The people understood this deliverance from captivity as the work of God. Therefore, Psalm 126 is a hymn of thanksgiving and praise for what God had done for them. They pray The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. This prayer of thanksgiving is both an acknowledgment of God’s goodness and power and the utter joy they experience because of God’s goodness.
We will celebrate Thanksgiving one month from now. On that day, many of us will manage to squeeze in some expression of gratitude for God’s blessings between the football games and the eating. Unfortunately, our prayers of gratitude are often reserved for the holiday or when we see something “big” that God has done for us, such as healing from a serious illness or condition. Yet, God’s goodness is everywhere, even in the most dire circumstances. These “smaller” gifts of God are often overlooked, and thus, our hearts really aren’t moved to joy.
In the month ahead, may I suggest we take a deeper look at our lives and ask for the grace to recognize all that God has done for us? And if we are not accustomed to saying “thank you,” perhaps we could add a prayer of gratitude to God before we go to bed. Acknowledging God’s graciousness can lead our hearts to experience unshakable joy, another gift from God. If this sounds too simplistic, why not give it a try? God loves a grateful heart, which, in turn, makes us love God all the more.
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With my love,
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October 20th, 2024 – Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Fisherman’s Prayer
I pray that I may live to fish until my dying day.
And when it comes to my last cast, I then most humbly pray;
When in the Lord’s great landing net and peacefully asleep,
That in His mercy I be judged—
Big enough to keep.
Dear Friends,
I thought of this prayer from the memorial card of the funeral of a dear man who loved to fish when I read the gospel this Sunday, and James and John, the fishermen sons of Zebedee, make their audacious request for favored placement to sit right next to Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven.
As usual, Jesus answers the self-important request with kindness and a gentle lesson on humility. We funny humans always seem to have to make ourselves bigger, usually by making others feel smaller. Perhaps it is insecurity or fear or the shaky pleasure of being noticed and the center of attention.
Whatever it is, Jesus is telling us to chill out. There is enough room for all in eternity. There is no ranking, and the only thing that stands in the way of us enjoying the fullness of life is an overblown, self-enclosed ego. By bringing out the best in others we bring out the best in ourselves.
So this week– let’s all practice:
Bring out the best in everybody who crosses your path.
And then one day, we will all have privileged places at the heavenly banquet. The great table of Heaven, circle that it is, has no head but Jesus.
Sincerely, with love,
Fr. Tim
October 13th, 2024 – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Happy Sunday!
What is our goal? Here in October, we are quickly approaching the end of Ordinary Time in the church’s calendar. It allows us the opportunity to reflect on our purpose in life. Through our baptism we have a desire for heaven, and we do everything we can to help on this journey to heaven.
Today’s Gospel challenges us to be detached from worldly possessions. We can own things and have possessions, but we should never put those things above God. Furthermore, how would you feel about losing all your possessions? Would you be devastated? Or are you able to be fully attached to God that you could continue to live your life for God? Our goal is detachment from material goods so that we can be attached to God.
God is the one who can help us through the most challenging times in our lives. When we are attached to our
possessions, we tend to forget to rely on God in difficult times. What is keeping you from fully relying on God? Is there anything you can do to detach yourself from this world to help prepare your soul for the next? I encourage you to pray about detachment this week.
God Bless,
Fr. Joseph
October 6th, 2024 – Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear friends,Last Tuesday, October 1, we celebrated the memorial of Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
Saint Thérèse is also known as the “Little Flower” and the teacher of the Little Way. In a world that promotes visibility, influence, and power as the meters of success and a “good life,” we celebrate a little one who did not spare words to speak about her own “littleness”. She once said, “BECAUSE I was little and weak, Jesus stooped down to me and tenderly instructed me in the secrets of His Love.”
What, then, led saint Thérèse to holiness? The grace of God, of course, and her great trust and faith in the Lord who casts down the mighty from thrones and lifts up the lowly (cf. Luke 1:52).
In the Gospels, we often hear the Lord speak about the little ones. The Lord once equated himself with them when he said, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40) and elsewhere he actually asked of his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3.)
The Little Way is by no means the way of childishness. Rather, it is a concrete way of taking up one’s own cross to follow the Lord. In ancient Israel children were “invisible,” with very few rights if any at all. When the Lord invites his disciples to become like little children, his invitation is to be willing to become invisible, the opposite of the power and influence that characterize the aspirations of many in our society today.
Saint Thérèse knows that the Little Way is narrow and it needs to be paved by the offering up of the daily sacrifices that so often come our way. As she herself says, “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
May Thérèse’s intercession obtain for us the grace to know how to walk the Little Way that leads to salvation.
