tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-256414262024-02-19T07:37:09.915-08:00Monk NotesFrom Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, O.S.B., of Prince of Peace AbbeyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-27888375872146261042022-10-22T06:41:00.002-07:002022-10-22T06:41:51.072-07:00A Homily for Saturday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II of the Weekday Readings<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHBeg5O4Qg_bGgXlME1s85DOaQG4uOLhlVdPX-jbQ2Y4rg64vOSe5yLMNnhWX9nFw4lCynHVM81RtD3OsM6ELMV5DqxhZtjXb0uTyVYXgBsDYPv7gzRc2ryYzAdAUsoCElpsCM2pP3noOi1zBDL7ivLnjVLJVHKe2A7JYxCH0f8FNZ8gvCqE/s750/Ficus-Carica-Tree-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="750" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHBeg5O4Qg_bGgXlME1s85DOaQG4uOLhlVdPX-jbQ2Y4rg64vOSe5yLMNnhWX9nFw4lCynHVM81RtD3OsM6ELMV5DqxhZtjXb0uTyVYXgBsDYPv7gzRc2ryYzAdAUsoCElpsCM2pP3noOi1zBDL7ivLnjVLJVHKe2A7JYxCH0f8FNZ8gvCqE/w400-h300/Ficus-Carica-Tree-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br /></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ephesians 4:7-16.<br /></b><b>Luke 13:1-9.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God risks, wastes, and lavishes time, work, and his overflowing,
grace-filled, life-giving Spirit on us who are barren.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">He does it <b><i>NOT</i></b> because he needs anything from us,
but with the goal of enabling and helping us to uphold new life for ourselves.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">If we are still fruitlessly unrepentant after his over-the-top
generosity, he leaves that to us.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">To be unrepentant is to be a fruitless tree that has no place in
the orchard of the living.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">In the original language of the Gospel, the word for <b><i>repentance</i></b>
means literally <b><i>change of mind</i></b>.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Repentance is a change of mind about our own selves and about God.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The Word of the Lord in today’s first reading also upholds God’s
over-the-top gifts, and calls us to a change of mind.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">GRACE WAS GIVEN TO EACH OF US according to the measure of Christ’s
gift</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">— Christ <b><i>who
ascended far above all the heavens, that he might FILL all things</i></b>.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">... to EQUIP the holy ones for the work...<br />
for building up the BODY of Christ,<br />
until we all attain to the unity of FAITH<br />
and KNOWLEDGE of the Son of God,</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">to mature manhood</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">to the extent of the
full stature of Christ....</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">... LIVING THE TRUTH IN
LOVE,</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">we should GROW in every
way into him who is the head, Christ,</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">from whom the whole
BODY...</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">with the proper
functioning of each part,</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">brings about the BODY’S
growth</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black;">and builds itself up in
love.</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Going over-the-top<b><i>,</i></b> God the <b><i>Father</i></b>, in
the Body and Blood of his <b><i>Son</i></b>, works the ground at the roots of <b><i>our
humanity</i></b>, watering and fertilizing it with his <b><i>Spirit</i></b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">For <b><i>THIS </i></b>we have come to his altar once again, as we
have done daily and year after year.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us answer by choosing to change our minds, to grow, and to
bear fruit.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-28295017292841439342022-10-13T08:30:00.001-07:002022-10-13T08:47:45.210-07:00THE SCANDAL OF CHRIST, THE CHURCH, AND THE POPE<p><span style="background-color: white;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEf1gaO6ZnyoT2Wrl3P15d8aFj0f4rWEGQX6aBGECTr6I8NN2k6hxWTtk-HLlPmUXLK_ZaBGVEWjlJIMsy68Bmg5e86_LuyRtE-yRfG94XMQhJXLX6pPnS1TLdA6NkLTxfaS28NlxCat17x-FJfHRL9rWdOmhd5bVFBv57NO24koaulQjsYyY/s536/POPE%20FRANCIS%20SMILE.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="536" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEf1gaO6ZnyoT2Wrl3P15d8aFj0f4rWEGQX6aBGECTr6I8NN2k6hxWTtk-HLlPmUXLK_ZaBGVEWjlJIMsy68Bmg5e86_LuyRtE-yRfG94XMQhJXLX6pPnS1TLdA6NkLTxfaS28NlxCat17x-FJfHRL9rWdOmhd5bVFBv57NO24koaulQjsYyY/w400-h321/POPE%20FRANCIS%20SMILE.png" width="400" /></a></i></span></div><span style="background-color: white;"><i><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">It is tragic that some Catholics hate Pope Francis and wish him dead.</span></i></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Christ was a scandal, a stumbling block. As far as his
earthly neighbors could tell, he was merely a man of flesh and blood, and yet
he dared to forgive sins with the authority of God. He dared to uphold that he
had come down from heaven and was the Son of God. Asserting his authority to
judge all the nations at the end of history, he upheld our relationships with
other human beings as the deciding factor in whether we might merit everlasting
glory in heaven or everlasting torment in hell. At the Last Judgment, the least
of our fellow human beings in need will have been as “vicars” of Christ, and
Christ will judge our care or neglect of them as care or neglect of himself as
our Lord and God. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">[See Mt. 25:31-46]</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Forty days after he rose from the dead, he ascended into
heaven. He did not leave behind for us anything he had written. Instead of
leaving us a book, he chose to leave behind and send to us our fellow human
beings.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” <i>[Mt. 28:18-20]</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">They— mere human beings— were to dare to speak for him, just
as he, a man of flesh and blood, dared to speak as God. The scandal that was
Christ would continue in the scandal that is the Church and the human beings
that make up the Church.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">After he ascended into heaven, the first act of the human
beings Christ left behind for us was to be of one accord with each other and
devote themselves to prayer with each other. <i>[See Acts 1:14]</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The second act of those human beings was to renew their own
number by seeking to replace the apostle Judas who had committed suicide. They
had the replacement, Matthias, join the apostles in being human witnesses of
Christ who gave witness to being God as a flesh-and-blood human being. In the
original Greek language of the book of Acts, the role or office of being such
an apostolic witness is called <i>episkopen</i>, meaning literally
“overseeing,” and being the Greek word from which we derive the word “bishop.”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Call them apostles, overseers, or bishops— but they are still
human beings, and Christ wants us to accept the testimony of human beings, just
as he wanted his earthly neighbors to accept his own human, flesh-and-blood
testimony that he was God personally come down from heaven.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Since
creation, until the end of time, and into the everlasting Kingdom, everything
for us as we stand before God is about relationships with divine persons and
human persons; it is all about love of God and love of neighbor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">One
of those human persons is our neighbor Pope Francis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Some Catholics who pride themselves on conserving tradition
have now been contradicting traditional respect for the person of the pope in
their own words. Some of them make foul, derogatory comments about Pope
Francis, and they express the wish that he should die as soon as possible.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a
liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God
whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves
God should love his brother also. <i>[1 Jn. 4:20-21]</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The New Testament testifies that St. Peter— the first pope—
was unfaithful to Christ once Christ was arrested. While Christ was under
trial, Peter lied to save himself when accused of following Christ, and he went
into hiding. The risen Christ brought Peter back. However, Peter’s imperfections
did not all go away. Later, he and the apostle Paul were at odds over certain
issues of religious observance and doctrine.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Peter was not perfect, yet he was a vicar of Christ, not
merely as chief of the first apostles and holder of the keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven, but a vicar of Christ as much as the least of Christ’s needy brothers
and sisters.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Traditional and conservative Catholicism has long jumped to
the defense of the pope as the Vicar of Christ, but now some Catholics who
trumpet themselves as tradition-loving conservatives spout open hatred for the
present Vicar of Christ. Number 936 in the Catechism of the Catholic states the
traditional Catholic teaching as follows.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The Lord made St. Peter the visible
foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The
bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is “head of the college
of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on earth”
(Code of Canon Law, canon 331).</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Number
896 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of Catholics as following
with close attachment the bishop (and the pope is a bishop):<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The Good Shepherd ought to
be the model and form of the bishop’s pastoral office. Conscious of his own
weaknesses, the bishop can have compassion for those who are ignorant and
erring. He should not refuse to listen to his subjects whose welfare he
promotes as of his very own children. The faithful should be closely attached
to the bishop as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Let all follow the bishop,
as Jesus Christ follows his Father, and the college of presbyters as the
apostles; respect the deacons as you do God's law. Let no one do anything
concerning the Church in separation from the bishop. In the Creed at Sunday
Mass, Catholics profess “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” We are
liars in professing this Creed if we cannot embrace with respectful faith that
the apostolicity of the Church depends both on having had apostles in the
beginning and on still having apostles in the persons of Pope Francis and the
bishops.</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">The Creed is not the only moment at Mass when we profess that
the Church is one and apostolic. The Canon or Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass
also always professes the same thing.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Here is where it appears in the Roman Canon or Eucharistic
Prayer I.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">To you, therefore, most merciful Father, we
make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord: that
you accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices,
which we offer you firstly for your holy catholic Church. Be pleased to grant
her peace, to guard, unite and govern her throughout the whole world, together
with your servant Francis our Pope....</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">All
other Eucharistic Prayers that may be used instead of the Roman Canon express
the same thing. Here are two more examples.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">In Eucharistic Prayer II.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Remember, Lord, your Church,
spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together
with Francis our Pope....</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">In Eucharistic Prayer III.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Be pleased to confirm in
faith and charity your pilgrim Church on earth, with your servant Francis our
Pope....</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Every Eucharistic Prayer ends with a doxology and the
faithful answering the Eucharistic Prayer with “Amen.”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">To attend the Mass, profess its Creed, say “Amen” to its
Eucharistic Prayer, and receive the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Christ which
we have by virtue of priests ordained by bishops in union with the pope, but to
openly, disrespectfully, and hatefully denigrate the pope and wish for his
hasty death is to turn one’s participation in the Mass into a grave lie.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><b><i>One
might as well be Judas Iscariot at the Last Supper.</i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-45204451741086362252022-10-04T06:43:00.001-07:002022-10-04T06:43:53.247-07:00A "Mother and Child" with Filipino Christmas lanterns<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgPuygmVX814FKbWdgkIxxV9CzBRTM0NE6ZPqAQ_S5dY2CYGrg6omr2kIvlC8EaRTIxbaTX7MZZYOoip6_zAmHS4XTjcgJyOksMPpMPoDSrK80vbGRrDIqDos9JirkQA8H2akhTDFS0pJv23E1IGPYENcfyhrTJMewP8Cq08P-iDB1lhN8nm0/s678/Mother%20and%20Child%20with%20parol.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgPuygmVX814FKbWdgkIxxV9CzBRTM0NE6ZPqAQ_S5dY2CYGrg6omr2kIvlC8EaRTIxbaTX7MZZYOoip6_zAmHS4XTjcgJyOksMPpMPoDSrK80vbGRrDIqDos9JirkQA8H2akhTDFS0pJv23E1IGPYENcfyhrTJMewP8Cq08P-iDB1lhN8nm0/w533-h640/Mother%20and%20Child%20with%20parol.png" width="533" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-51566918392664959492022-08-07T13:54:00.003-07:002022-08-07T13:54:38.345-07:00Waiting Mindfully?<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCmcSSU8BbHJ7u5B_3fRzwi4i0ZZBNpkw4cVWyzXWN6wBovD5bmGtzixRyoLpvKpoiZABKuI6f-_gWwjkexrtfDYPPhStsR6L0kg9YhViQnI9N0qSu3yfYyGGxV8XkWe-q3VBbrGFA4dstkU6cIHLbTJatPDngPjXeaC7b8XQn0-LJoEFxag/s759/LIGHT%20YOUR%20LAMPS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="759" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCmcSSU8BbHJ7u5B_3fRzwi4i0ZZBNpkw4cVWyzXWN6wBovD5bmGtzixRyoLpvKpoiZABKuI6f-_gWwjkexrtfDYPPhStsR6L0kg9YhViQnI9N0qSu3yfYyGGxV8XkWe-q3VBbrGFA4dstkU6cIHLbTJatPDngPjXeaC7b8XQn0-LJoEFxag/w400-h264/LIGHT%20YOUR%20LAMPS.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><i>Year C, the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Readings at Mass.</i></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><i>Wisdom 18:6-9. Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19. Luke 12:32-48.</i></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The first two of today’s three readings speak of the bold faith of the ancestors of God’s people— faith that God would bring about great blessings for their family tree in time to come.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The old promise of those blessings echoed in today’s <b><i>Cóllect</i></b> prayer that we offered right before we sat for the readings.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">... Father,</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters,</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">that we may merit to enter into the inheritance</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">which you have promised.</span></span></b></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">And then in today’s Gospel, Christ promises that the gift of his Father’s kingdom is for those who keep watch to be worthy of it, since Christ’s return will break in on us without warning.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">You and I, with the whole human race, live between the first coming of Christ and his second coming.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Both comings of Christ touch our freedom that stretches between two realities.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The one reality is the original sin of humankind.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The other is the free offer God makes to us in Christ.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">God adopted us in Baptism, freely giving us an entitled share in the kingdom of heaven.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Because of Baptism, we no longer bear the guilt of original sin.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">God the Father has washed it from us with the Baptismal waters of grace and the Spirit that bear the might and truth of the death and resurrection of his Son.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Although the <b><i>GUILT</i></b> of original sin is no longer ours, we are still weak and can still turn away from God with other sins.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Nonetheless, <b><i>GOD</i></b> has freed us<b><i> </i></b>to be free <b><i>IN </i></b>God and free <b><i>FOR </i></b>God.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Freedom always brings with it <b><i>RESPONSIBILITY</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Freedom is <b><i>ALIVE</i></b> not in doing merely what we <b><i>LIKE</i></b>, but in doing <b><i>GOOD</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 30px;"><br /></span></i></b></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 30px;">IF</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 30px;"> freedom meant it were <b><i>RIGHT</i></b> for us to do <b><i>WHATEVER</i></b> we <b><i>LIKED</i></b>, then we would have to accept <b><i>ANY</i></b> sin that <b><i>OTHERS</i></b> might commit against <b><i>US</i></b> in <b><i>THEIR</i></b> freedom to do what <b><i>THEY</i></b> liked.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">On the contrary, <b><i>TRUE</i></b> freedom brings with it <b><i>MORAL RESPONSIBILITY</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Freedom <b><i>LIVES</i></b> and <b><i>GROWS</i></b> in choosing to do <b><i>GOOD</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The everlasting fullness of our freedom is in Christ <b><i>the master</i></b>, who says in today’s Gospel:</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Blessed are those servants</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Amen, I say to you, HE will GIRD himself,</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">HAVE them recline at table, and proceed to WAIT on them.</span></span></b></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In that outcome, Christ <b><i>the master</i></b> will be like fathers and mothers who serve and feed the children they have gladly adopted.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The goodness of Christ is the fulfillment, the perfection, the pattern, and the goal of our human freedom.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">To seek and follow <b><i>CHRIST</i></b> is to seek and follow <b><i>FREEDOM</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">He tells us in his Gospel today:</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Gird your loins and light your lamps</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">and be like servants who await their master’s return...</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText"><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Waiting for Christ in this way means to be mindful in taking responsibility for every free choice we make in how we live and how we think.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Waiting for the Lord is also a way of prayer.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">To wait in prayer is to be aware that something needed and good is missing, and that it comes in the person of the Lord.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Sincere prayer also helps and teaches us to live and grow in freedom.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In his Gospel, Christ asks, calls, and bids us be on the lookout for him, to watch for him, to stay awake for him, to hunt and wish for him.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">He has sworn that he is always with us and will come back one day.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">He is really with us in his Eucharistic Body and Blood.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">But his Eucharistic Body and Blood also feed us the mystery of his Second Coming.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Blessed are those servants</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.</span></span></b></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In his Eucharistic Body and Blood, Christ <b><i>the master</i></b> becomes the servant of his servants.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In his Eucharist, even though he comes among us as our servant, he remains both the standard and the judge of our freedom.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">As the standard of our freedom, Christ freely hands himself over in his Eucharistic Body and Blood as food and drink for our welfare.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In doing so, he is also already our judge, for he measures us by what we freely dare to receive.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">As he says in today’s Gospel: <b><i>Much will be required of the person entrusted with much....</i></b></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">When we receive him in his Eucharist, we hand ourselves over to his judgment.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">And yet our God and Judge, <b><i>Almighty-in-His-Love</i></b>, Innocent and Pure, chose to take a place on earth among the guilty and condemned.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">He freely took our guilt upon himself, and freely chose to be condemned as a sinner among us sinners.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">The master freely chose to be nailed to a cross of deadly punishment.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">God freely chose to die among us guilty sinners.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">That is the one who comes as Judge in his Eucharist.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">In his Eucharistic Body and Blood, our Judge offers us a <b><i>covenant ... for the forgiveness of sins</i></b>, but also a covenant of being <b><i>WITH US EVEN UNTO DEATH</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">He was <b><i>OBEDIENT</i></b> to being <b><i>God-with-us</i></b> <b><i>EVEN UNTO DEATH</i></b>.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">And then his <b><i>RESURRECTION</i></b> is our human body and soul <b><i>FREE AND</i></b> <b><i>OBEDIENT</i></b> in the <b><i>LIFE</i></b> and <b><i>GLORY</i></b> of God.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">To say it again: our <b><i>RESURRECTION</i></b> is our human body and soul <b><i>FREE AND</i></b> <b><i>OBEDIENT</i></b> in the <b><i>LIFE</i></b> and <b><i>GLORY</i></b> of God.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Christ the Son in his <b><i>Obedient Body and Blood</i></b> lets us share in his freedom and glory as sons and daughters of his Father.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Obedience, forgiveness, life, freedom, and glory are in his Body and Blood that call us to turn away from sin and to rise with Christ in his goodness.</span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote" style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></b></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Gird your loins and light your lamps</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">and be like servants who await their master’s return...</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Blessed are those servants</span></span></b></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyQuote"><b><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.</span></span></b></div></blockquote><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv9842308364NewHomilyText" style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: small;">Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-801142227824342932022-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:002022-08-01T13:07:00.789-07:00Wow! The Devil's Throat, part of Iguazú Falls!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYqAVBpCBROwHXFkXxI4UHxBxr7vri2ImuK6aS6AGxE8Bbr3-Rl8ribyC1kq7Gf5dKjDGhpjk2YvhNIrNXiUwKI6dkfbQndQjd7j5e8zoY7q12onyWp8lOCS4_M5wPf1ddcfyEubaYIFr5ZDNrxRlaVtC_8ZSkw4WZAXRZy9-_D9I_-9RrLcE/s1500/iguazU%20falls%20devils%20throat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="1500" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYqAVBpCBROwHXFkXxI4UHxBxr7vri2ImuK6aS6AGxE8Bbr3-Rl8ribyC1kq7Gf5dKjDGhpjk2YvhNIrNXiUwKI6dkfbQndQjd7j5e8zoY7q12onyWp8lOCS4_M5wPf1ddcfyEubaYIFr5ZDNrxRlaVtC_8ZSkw4WZAXRZy9-_D9I_-9RrLcE/w640-h360/iguazU%20falls%20devils%20throat.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-86805759847310120762022-06-09T13:17:00.001-07:002022-06-09T13:17:27.803-07:00He found himself guarding the door at his daughter's elementary school graduation.<p><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Parenting
as a Catholic pacifist in an era of mass shootings</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jon M. Sweeney, 9 June 2022, in the magazine, “America: The Jesuit
Review”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Only two days after the horrific killing of 19
children and two adults in Uvalde, Tex., I filed into an auditorium to watch my
daughter’s elementary school graduation ceremony.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">She attends Golda Meir, a public school in
downtown Milwaukee, Wis., and the 85 children finishing fifth grade were
participating in a “bridging ceremony,” celebrating their move next year across
the street to the middle school campus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Some time before the speeches and the video
presentation that paired a contemporary photo of each child’s face beside one
of each as toddlers, I found myself lingering near the front door.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">In some ways it was just like any other school
function throughout the year. Students and parents arrived, masked, and sat
down in the auditorium. The latest school shooting was everywhere in the news,
but I didn’t hear a word of fear nor a mention of the gun violence in the quiet
conversation of people near me. But as we gathered to celebrate this group of
school children, those children who died in Texas, who would never make it to their
own graduations, were at the forefront of my mind. Surely others felt the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My wife and I had arrived early, and from our
seats near the front, I kept looking back toward the entrance we had walked
through. It occurred to me, <i>Should there be a guard here?</i> And then, <i>Is
anyone watching the front door?</i> So I got up and did that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Admittedly, this is an unusual move for
someone who considers himself a pacifist. When I turned 18 and had to register
with Selective Service, I did so by writing “Conscientious Objector” on the
form. Since then, I have called myself a peacemaker. I have never held a gun
and never want to. But I am also a father. So on this day, I found myself
leaving my seat to stand near the entrance and eye every guy who walked through
the door.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If I’d seen someone with a weapon, I’d have
thrown my 195 pounds at him as best I could.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I often feel that it's inevitable: Someday
I'll be throwing myself in front of a stream of bullets. Maybe I won’t be
called on to throw myself in front of a stream of bullets, but I will need to
be ready to do so. The thought occurs to me at synagogue, too, since not only
is the tally of mass shootings going up, but so is the hate that fuels them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I’m a Catholic married to a rabbi, and I see
how anti-Semitism is growing. At the synagogue, I keep an eye on the door while
services are going on and make a mental note about which metal chair I might
pick up to throw at a gun-toting intruder, or from what angle I might rush at
him if he has come to get the rabbi.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Ever since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High
School in Colorado, schools have created safety drills and discussion and
training sessions for teachers, staff and students to prepare them to respond
to crisis situations involving guns. “Active shooter” has become a phrase known
to all. My oldest child was only 6 when the Columbine shooting happened. Our
family has grown up in this world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There is no question that mass shootings are
more common at public schools than private ones. I have not read much analysis
as to why. And I am not eager to. But the other day I asked a friend whose
children attend one of our Milwaukee Catholic schools if he thinks his kids are
safer there. He said he thought the small size of the school, along with
practical safety measures, created what he felt was a relatively safe
environment for his children. His answer spoke to the importance of community
in keeping children safe, the vigilance we owe one another at every school.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As a Christian I am told not to fear, and as a
pacifist I am told not to defend myself. Just look at the exchange between
Jesus and Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26). When the soldiers
come to take Jesus away, Peter strikes at one of them with his sword. Clearly,
Peter is armed. But Jesus rebukes his friend, the first pope. Put your sword
away, Jesus tells him. Do you really believe that is how the will of God is
accomplished? The church allows for self-defense. But attacking someone, even
someone threatening violence, is not what I have been taught to do as a follower
of Jesus and a pacifist. But these commands are getting harder to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A Christian is called to be a martyr, a word
that means “witness,” and the examples given by Jesus of martyr-witnesses are
those whom we have come to understand as saints. They are people who, when
faced with danger or violence, are willing to sacrifice their lives without
harming others, even those who try to hurt them. Even from the cross, with
violence all around him, Jesus did not fight back. Instead he said, “Father, forgive
them.” I want to show forgiveness. I want to respond peacefully. But I also
want to keep my eye on the auditorium door.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My wife, the congregational rabbi, is not a
Jesus-follower, but she shares my feelings of not wanting guns in religious
services, despite the risks religious people face by gathering together. Our
local Jewish federation recently provided funding for every synagogue to have
an armed guard at high holiday services each fall. My wife accepted the offer
but now feels uneasy about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There is now a worldly
reality that may require armed guards under certain circumstances. In St.
Peter’s Square in Vatican City, for instance. At the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
But the presence of weapons fundamentally changes a space. The result of this capitulation,
for me anyway, is that I cannot really pray in those places. Can you really
promote a sense of peace by surrounding a place with guns? Does an armed guard
make prayer possible, or does an armed guard make a place unholy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Everyone walking through
the door at my daughter’s fifth grade graduation turned out to be a parent,
grandparent, sibling or friend. I returned to my seat before the presentations
began, and the door to the auditorium remained open. It felt like a risk, but
what was I to do, really? Every day at school is now a day when our children
are at risk. I will not be there to protect my children 99 percent of the time.
But I also know that if I am there, I will not hesitate to lead the charge
against an attacker.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As that video presentation
rolled, showing the beautiful grinning faces of my daughter and her classmates,
I wept quietly in my seat, thinking of those parents who, on that same day,
were burying their children in the hot sun.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-75300972345713255052022-03-18T14:48:00.000-07:002022-03-18T14:48:37.776-07:00To Pray for Peace and to Consecrate and Entrust Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?<p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE0jRVCfPGN06QKsvOsgQcytqZQgA1CUGc4zzkxvYlJJSZfvOmCfHWcp0MFlPYqWnHjz9za6M1RtrJZgnW7nET_xLJNbc4ssplSCvgZ61sBLUVL-M_3qU_DPkBMgORKnw7ZzrHiKe_QxkqVMxkoTakCTAx8vUsLOfV816Z3BYJJheXcqWlS-w" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: georgia;"><img data-original-height="383" data-original-width="831" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE0jRVCfPGN06QKsvOsgQcytqZQgA1CUGc4zzkxvYlJJSZfvOmCfHWcp0MFlPYqWnHjz9za6M1RtrJZgnW7nET_xLJNbc4ssplSCvgZ61sBLUVL-M_3qU_DPkBMgORKnw7ZzrHiKe_QxkqVMxkoTakCTAx8vUsLOfV816Z3BYJJheXcqWlS-w=w520-h236" width="520" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span><p></p><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Some persons have fashioned a “subreligion” out of the Fatima children’s private revelation messages about Mary.</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">This cultism, its exaggerations, and its distortions have been and are wildly in conflict with the popes, with authentic Catholic teaching, and even with one of the Fatima children, Sister Lucia.</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Catholic teaching is that private revelations do not belong to the deposit of the faith, and so Catholics are free to ignore them.</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">What to think of Pope Francis inviting the world’s clergy to join him on March 25 in a worldwide prayer for peace and in a “Fatima-style” consecration and entrustment of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Some distorting exaggerators of cultist Fatimism are already barking that what Pope Francis is doing will be wrong and dangerous.</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Catholics are free to ignore the Fatima allusions and connections of the upcoming event.</span></span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">What will be authentically Catholic is that the event will unite Catholics around the word in praying for peace and justice for Ukraine.</span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-31424101253199701332021-04-13T19:09:00.000-07:002021-04-13T19:09:36.321-07:00ON BEING BLACK WHILE RAISING A CHILD AND STAYING ALIVE<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">By an Unknown Author</span></i><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. To ensure we arrive alive, we won't take public transit (Oscar Grant).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">signal every turn (Sandra Bland),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">and won't stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks).
I'm too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney)</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">so I just hope the car won't break down (Corey Jones).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I'll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once they are home, we won't stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean),</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford)</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">or to the gym (Tshyrand Oates)</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">We won't even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper).</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">We'll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd)</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor)."
</span></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-83841709498099449372021-01-17T08:31:00.003-08:002022-08-28T19:09:40.563-07:00The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Politics and the Antichrist<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPWvDwzSU2p1l8BHAkAGYcrXjGcrEc-ChA9UB7rfJy5n9y-qm_9p53akMq3Z4mSVCPGcy330hCSkGSw6x3iEPRjiStRb1tWs53uOU2sYAYv5yGgX1742utgKFavn9508-rGMosQ/s865/Two+Tau+Crosses.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="865" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPWvDwzSU2p1l8BHAkAGYcrXjGcrEc-ChA9UB7rfJy5n9y-qm_9p53akMq3Z4mSVCPGcy330hCSkGSw6x3iEPRjiStRb1tWs53uOU2sYAYv5yGgX1742utgKFavn9508-rGMosQ/w400-h200/Two+Tau+Crosses.png" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />Though we are followers of Christ the King, we
Christians still have a responsibility to take part in earthly political
processes. However, we must not put our hope in building on the sand of
shifting political triumphs or defeats. The Catholic Church teaches that our
faithfulness to Christ the King is going to result in our eventual political
defeat. We must go forward, but not despair when we suffer political defeat. If
we were to despair, it would mean we had put our faith and hope in earthly
politics. If we suffer earthly defeat for being genuinely faithful to Christ,
then we have triumphed in Christ. Conversely, the only “political” triumph we
can count on is the Last Judgment, which will come not by our triumphing in
earthly political processes but precisely in the midst of our suffering earthly
political defeat.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Many Christians have tried mistakenly to cast this or that political leader in a role that would correspond to the Catechism of the Catholic Church's three paragraphs describing the eventual Antichrist and his coming. Such Christians are examples of the kinds of persons the Antichrist will easily deceive. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The following is from the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM" target="_blank"><i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i>, paragraphs
675-677</a>.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The Church’s Ultimate
Trial</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Before Christ’s second
coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of
many believers.[i] The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth[ii]
will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception
offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy
from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a
pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his
Messiah come in the flesh.[iii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The Antichrist’s
deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is
made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized
beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even
modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of
millenarianism,[iv] especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a
secular messianism.[v]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The Church will enter
the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow
her Lord in his death and Resurrection.[vi] The kingdom will be fulfilled,
then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy,
but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause
his Bride to come down from heaven.[vii] God’s triumph over the revolt of evil
will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this
passing world.[viii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">------------------------</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Footnotes</span></i><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">[i]<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Luke 18:8. “When the Son
of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Matthew 24:12. “Because
wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[ii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Luke 21:12. “But before
all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up
to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and
governors for my name’s sake.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">John 15:19-20. “If you
were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his
master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word,
they will keep yours also.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[iii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.
[<i>The man of lawlessness, the son of perdition</i>] opposes and exalts
himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his
seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember
that when I was still with you I told you this? And you know what is
restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until
he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord
Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his
appearing and his coming. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of
Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all
wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the
truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make
them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe
the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">1 Thessalonians 5:2-3.
For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in
the night. When people say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden
destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and
there will be no escape.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">2 John 1:7. For many
deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming
of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">1 John 2:18,22.
Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming,
so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.
…. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the
antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[iv]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, in its Decree of 19 July 1944 (DS 3839), says: “In
recent times on several occasions this Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy
Office has been asked what must be thought of a system of mitigated millenarianism,
which teaches, for example, that Christ the Lord before the final judgment,
whether or not preceded by the resurrection of the many just, will come visibly
to rule over this world. The answer is: The system of mitigated millenarianism
cannot be taught safely.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[v]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Pius XI, <i>Divini
Redemptoris</i>, condemning the “false mysticism” of this “counterfeit of the
redemption of the lowly”.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Gaudium et spes</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">, 20-21. In her loyal devotion to
God and men, the Church has already repudiated and cannot cease repudiating,
sorrowfully but as firmly as possible, those poisonous doctrines and actions
which contradict reason and the common experience of humanity, and dethrone man
from his native excellence. Still, she strives to detect in the atheistic mind
the hidden causes for the denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the
questions which atheism raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes
these questions ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly. The Church
holds that the recognition of God is in no way hostile to man’s dignity, since
this dignity is rooted and perfected in God. For man was made an intelligent
and free member of society by God Who created him, but even more important, he
is called as a son to commune with God and share in His happiness. She further
teaches that a hope related to the end of time does not diminish the importance
of intervening duties but rather undergirds the acquittal of them with fresh
incentives. By contrast, when a divine instruction and the hope of life eternal
are wanting, man’s dignity is most grievously lacerated, as current events
often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of grief go unsolved with
the frequent result that men succumb to despair. Meanwhile every man remains to
himself an unsolved puzzle, however obscurely he may perceive it. For on
certain occasions no one can entirely escape the kind of self-questioning
mentioned earlier, especially when life’s major events take place. To this
questioning only God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons
man to higher knowledge and humbler probing. The remedy which must be applied
to atheism, however, is to be sought in a proper presentation of the Church’s
teaching as well as in the integral life of the Church and her members. For it
is the function of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies
her ceaselessly, to make God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and in a
sense visible. This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and
mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master
them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to this faith and continue to do
so. This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer’s
entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward
justice and love, especially regarding the needy. What does the most reveal
God’s presence, however, is the brotherly charity of the faithful who are
united in spirit as they work together for the faith of the Gospel and who
prove themselves a sign of unity. While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the
Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought
to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such
an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.
Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some state authorities
make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice to the fundamental
rights of the human person. The Church calls for the active liberty of
believers to build up in this world God’s temple too. She courteously invites
atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an open mind. Above all the
Church known that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the
human heart when she champions the dignity of the human vocation, restoring
hope to those who have already despaired of anything higher than their present
lot. Far from diminishing man, her message brings to his development light,
life and freedom. Apart from this message nothing will avail to fill up the
heart of man: “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” O Lord, “and our hearts are
restless till they rest in Thee.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[vi]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Revelation 19:1-9. After
this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven,
crying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his
judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the
earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his
servants.” Once more they cried, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for
ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell
down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
And from the throne came a voice crying, “Praise our God, all you his servants,
you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of
a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty
thunderpeals, crying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb
has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be
clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous
deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those
who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These
are true words of God.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[vii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Revelation 13:8. All who
dwell on earth will worship [<i>the beast</i>], every one whose name has not
been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb
that was slain.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Revelation 20:7-10. And
when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and
will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the
earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like
the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded
the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from heaven and
consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of
fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be
tormented day and night for ever and ever.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Revelation 21:2-4. And I
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and
they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">[viii]</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Revelation 20:12. And I
saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were
opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">2 Peter 3:12-13. The
heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!
But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells.</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-41006766602501317182020-11-27T15:26:00.000-08:002020-11-27T15:26:02.243-08:00Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">To
come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be
touched by others’ pain.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">From "</span><span style="background-color: white;">Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future," by</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"> </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Pope Francis</span></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In
this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People
I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces,
people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in
difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Sometimes,
when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of
apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it
helps to focus on concrete situations: You see faces looking for life and love
in the reality of each person, of each people. You see hope written in the
story of every nation, glorious because it’s a story of daily struggle, of
lives broken in self-sacrifice. So rather than overwhelm you, it invites you to
ponder and to respond with hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">These
are moments in life that can be ripe for change and conversion. Each of us has
had our own “stoppage,” or if we haven’t yet, we will someday: illness, the
failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal. As
in the Covid-19 lockdown, those moments generate a tension, a crisis that
reveals what is in our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In
every personal “Covid,” so to speak, in every “stoppage,” what is revealed is
what needs to change: our lack of internal freedom, the idols we have been
serving, the ideologies we have tried to live by, the relationships we have
neglected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">When
I got really sick at the age of 21, I had my first experience of limit, of pain
and loneliness. It changed the way I saw life. For months, I didn’t know who I
was or whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I’d make it
either. I remember hugging my mother and saying, “Just tell me if I’m going to
die.” I was in the second year of training for the priesthood in the diocesan
seminary of Buenos Aires.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I
remember the date: Aug. 13, 1957. I got taken to a hospital by a prefect who
realized mine was not the kind of flu you treat with aspirin. Straightaway they
took a liter and a half of water out of my lungs, and I remained there fighting
for my life. The following November they operated to take out the upper right
lobe of one of the lungs. I have some sense of how people with Covid-19 feel as
they struggle to breathe on a ventilator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I
remember especially two nurses from this time. One was the senior ward matron,
a Dominican sister who had been a teacher in Athens before being sent to Buenos
Aires. I learned later that following the first examination by the doctor,
after he left she told the nurses to double the dose of medication he had
prescribed — basically penicillin and streptomycin — because she knew from
experience I was dying. Sister Cornelia Caraglio saved my life. Because of her
regular contact with sick people, she understood better than the doctor what
they needed, and she had the courage to act on her knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Another
nurse, Micaela, did the same when I was in intense pain, secretly prescribing
me extra doses of painkillers outside my due times. Cornelia and Micaela are in
heaven now, but I’ll always owe them so much. They fought for me to the end,
until my eventual recovery. They taught me what it is to use science but also
to know when to go beyond it to meet particular needs. And the serious illness
I lived through taught me to depend on the goodness and wisdom of others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This
theme of helping others has stayed with me these past months. In lockdown I’ve
often gone in prayer to those who sought all means to save the lives of others.
So many of the nurses, doctors and caregivers paid that price of love, together
with priests, and religious and ordinary people whose vocations were service.
We return their love by grieving for them and honoring them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Whether
or not they were conscious of it, their choice testified to a belief: that it
is better to live a shorter life serving others than a longer one resisting
that call. That’s why, in many countries, people stood at their windows or on
their doorsteps to applaud them in gratitude and awe. They are the saints next
door, who have awakened something important in our hearts, making credible once
more what we desire to instill by our preaching.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">They
are the antibodies to the virus of indifference. They remind us that our lives
are a gift and we grow by giving of ourselves, not preserving ourselves but
losing ourselves in service.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">With
some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of
their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The
exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of
mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments
acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Yet
some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel
restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of
their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal
freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good
for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to
respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It
is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal
freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they
judge everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The
coronavirus crisis may seem special because it affects most of humankind. But
it is special only in how visible it is. There are a thousand other crises that
are just as dire, but are just far enough from some of us that we can act as if
they don’t exist. Think, for example, of the wars scattered across different
parts of the world; of the production and trade in weapons; of the hundreds of
thousands of refugees fleeing poverty, hunger and lack of opportunity; of
climate change. These tragedies may seem distant from us, as part of the daily
news that, sadly, fails to move us to change our agendas and priorities. But
like the Covid-19 crisis, they affect the whole of humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Look
at us now: We put on face masks to protect ourselves and others from a virus we
can’t see. But what about all those other unseen viruses we need to protect
ourselves from? How will we deal with the hidden pandemics of this world, the
pandemics of hunger and violence and climate change?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">If
we are to come out of this crisis less selfish than when we went in, we have to
let ourselves be touched by others’ pain. There’s a line in Friedrich
Hölderlin’s “Hyperion” that speaks to me, about how the danger that threatens
in a crisis is never total; there’s always a way out: “Where the danger is,
also grows the saving power.” That’s the genius in the human story: There’s
always a way to escape destruction. Where humankind has to act is precisely
there, in the threat itself; that’s where the door opens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This
is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities — what we value, what we
want, what we seek — and to commit to act in our daily life on what we have
dreamed of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">God
asks us to dare to create something new. We cannot return to the false
securities of the political and economic systems we had before the crisis. We
need economies that give to all access to the fruits of creation, to the basic
needs of life: to land, lodging and labor. We need a politics that can
integrate and dialogue with the poor, the excluded and the vulnerable, that
gives people a say in the decisions that affect their lives. We need to slow
down, take stock and design better ways of living together on this earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The
pandemic has exposed the paradox that while we are more connected, we are also
more divided. Feverish consumerism breaks the bonds of belonging. It causes us
to focus on our self-preservation and makes us anxious. Our fears are
exacerbated and exploited by a certain kind of populist politics that seeks
power over society. It is hard to build a culture of encounter, in which we
meet as people with a shared dignity, within a throwaway culture that regards
the well-being of the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled and the unborn as
peripheral to our own well-being.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">To
come out of this crisis better, we have to recover the knowledge that as a
people we have a shared destination. The pandemic has reminded us that no one
is saved alone. What ties us to one another is what we commonly call
solidarity. Solidarity is more than acts of generosity, important as they are;
it is the call to embrace the reality that we are bound by bonds of
reciprocity. On this solid foundation we can build a better, different, human
future.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-28244808302923824112020-10-24T16:05:00.001-07:002020-10-24T16:05:58.096-07:00FREE AT LAST<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IN8tSTPtvOaJa-hrtri0_QVNLXUWwVOE6jiigkDbqEgKxm9pDi39YEKerakeDi0IARLXTKSJf7BE4nxVBoKtL2DaTf4xe49FjwBcJQmHk0DSR5WtYv9BpZ5O9ek06tpMmRhnEA/s770/people_sky_nature_freedom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="770" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IN8tSTPtvOaJa-hrtri0_QVNLXUWwVOE6jiigkDbqEgKxm9pDi39YEKerakeDi0IARLXTKSJf7BE4nxVBoKtL2DaTf4xe49FjwBcJQmHk0DSR5WtYv9BpZ5O9ek06tpMmRhnEA/w400-h266/people_sky_nature_freedom.png" width="400" /></b></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><span style="color: #38761d;">California has withdrawn a law that went into effect last January 1.</span></b></span><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><b>It forbade <span style="background-color: white;">freelance writers, editors and photographers from providing more than 34 content submissions to a media organization per year unless the organization hired the freelancer as a salaried employee.</span></b></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><b>Patheos is a media organization, and I am a freelancer.</b></span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">So I had to limit my posts there to 34 per year, or 1 post about every 10 days.</span></span></b></p></blockquote></blockquote><div><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Now that the law is no longer in effect, there is no limit to the frequency of my posting at Patheos.</span></b></div><p><b><span style="color: #38761d;">So, for the time being, I don't need to use "Monk Notes" here to get around the limits of the California law.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Please find me at my Patheos column, "<a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/turnloverepeat/">Turn. Love. Repeat.</a>"</span></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-15373072186384010162020-10-11T00:00:00.001-07:002020-10-11T00:00:02.760-07:00The "Wedding Garment" Is Not About New Clothes to Wear, but New Ways of Being<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7iaSPt5DhkqaWM6UNxvVYzqOcztIE9BhPrJbfSCfvNd_iWpqCW8UPC7jkRFp_hjBF6hfvrJNr0_36GaH6d2TL7kuXmpzKDi2FiHGkR-KmEgteAcpgA4wJUg5pwDbvPkHoJd-WHQ/s782/Bowtie+Tux+Pixabay+Public+Domain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="782" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7iaSPt5DhkqaWM6UNxvVYzqOcztIE9BhPrJbfSCfvNd_iWpqCW8UPC7jkRFp_hjBF6hfvrJNr0_36GaH6d2TL7kuXmpzKDi2FiHGkR-KmEgteAcpgA4wJUg5pwDbvPkHoJd-WHQ/w400-h210/Bowtie+Tux+Pixabay+Public+Domain.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22" rel="noopener" style="color: #cc9900;" target="_blank">Matthew 22:1-14</a> for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The King’s invitation to his son’s wedding feast is all grace, graciousness and gratis.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The invitation is to all, bad or good, but all must come dressed worthily for a wedding.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Openness, but also conditionality: the same contrast and tension were present when Christ first began to preach in public.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Openness: <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>The kingdom of heaven is at hand</em></strong><em><strong>.</strong></em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conditionality: <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>Repent and believe in the Gospel!</em></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The kingdom of heaven is open, but to walk into it is repentance: <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>metánoia</em></strong></span>— a <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>new mind</em></strong></span>— a challenge to one’s old ways of feeling, reasoning, choosing, acting and living.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Repentance is the worthy <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>wedding garment</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">To get one means to work, earn, save, spend, buy and put on a new way that challenges one’s old ways.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Heaven is open, and everyone has an invitation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">To step into heaven’s doors means to put aside what is old, and to work and spend to put on what is new.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">The kingdom of heaven is at hand.</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Repent and believe in the Gospel!</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">God wants more and better for us than we can imagine.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">He calls us to change into a <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>wedding garment</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">He alone makes it possible, but wants us to take up and do what he has made possible.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">God in Christ lavishes on us a possibility and a reality better than anything else: he lavishes on us his very own self.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">As our Creed at Mass puts it: <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven</em></strong><strong><em>.</em></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">He left heaven behind to be with us and like us in joy and sorrow, in life and death, in all things but sin.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his Eucharistic Body and Blood, God opens for us the <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>wedding feast</em></strong></span> of the <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>kingdom of heaven</em></strong></span>, but if we do nothing we lock ourselves out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is hope for us in the Eucharist of Christ the Bridegroom, who for us all and for our salvation was tied up, thrown out of the holy city, stripped of his garment and crucified.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">For us he suffered, died, was buried and descended into hell.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the third day he rose from the dead, in the <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>garment</em></strong> </span>of nuptial Flesh and Blood made forever undying and glorious.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, in his Eucharist, Christ lives, suffers, fulfills and surpasses the whole parable in today’s Gospel.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in the supreme goodness and love of his Eucharist, Christ clothes us with the <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>wedding garment</em></strong></span> of his own ever-living, glorious Flesh and Blood.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The resurrection of God the Son in our humanity, our flesh, and blood is the Royal Wedding.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">God the Spirit gives everlasting life and glory to our flesh and blood in Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Spirit is the Lord, the Giver of Life.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">It falls to us to take hold, wear and live the life God freely gives.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>wedding feast</em></strong></span>, <span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><em>the supper of the Lamb</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us approach with joy and hope, but also with faithful love that repents.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us live what we receive, so that the Father may recognize us clothed with Christ his Son both now and in the life of the world to come.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc9900;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-50787485578347379582020-10-10T11:00:00.001-07:002020-10-10T19:18:21.284-07:00Is She "Blessed or Not?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-ug4u8MjpI3RkPTRxMbICu1dms18NDXEB3LNjpZHLLnBxuZP3MLp3Kt0KMYp60jx0hoLXoVjjLAHgKPSnOWzFZpMTWO9LwBjpZIyVJoxFN4tmdtJWEriSNAHeOMHfgOhq8I4bw/s782/OUR+LADY+OF+EINSIELDEN.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="782" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-ug4u8MjpI3RkPTRxMbICu1dms18NDXEB3LNjpZHLLnBxuZP3MLp3Kt0KMYp60jx0hoLXoVjjLAHgKPSnOWzFZpMTWO9LwBjpZIyVJoxFN4tmdtJWEriSNAHeOMHfgOhq8I4bw/w400-h210/OUR+LADY+OF+EINSIELDEN.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="color: #0b848f;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/11?27">Luke 11:27-28</a> for Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time.</strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">While Jesus was speaking,</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Blessed is the womb that carried you</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the breasts at which you nursed.”</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">He replied, “Rather BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND OBSERVE IT.”</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In its first pages, this Gospel shows that Mary the mother of Christ was a <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSED</em></strong> </span>hearer and observer of <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>the word of God</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to speak <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>the word of God</em></strong></span> to Mary.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gabriel gave her a godly <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSING</em></strong></span><em>. [Lk. 1:28-30]</em></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hail, O Full of Grace!</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Lord is with you.</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary, YOU HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITH GOD.</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">To have <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>FAVOR</em></strong> </span>with God is the heart and soul of all <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSEDNESS</em></strong> </span>and is the greatest of <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSINGS</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is the beginning and fulfillment of salvation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary was the first in the Gospels and Christian history upon whom the word of salvation was pronounced.</span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">You have found favor with God.</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Holy Spirit will overshadow you.</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>Therefore the child will be the Son of God.</em></strong></span><em> [Lk. 1:30,31,35]</em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">To this <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>word of God</em></strong></span> Mary chose freely to answer: <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>Behold, I am the slave of the Lord— let it be to me according to your word.</em></strong></span><em> [Lk. 1:38]</em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">She did indeed <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>hear the word of God and observe it</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">BLESSED are those who hear the word of God and observe it.</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">After overshadowing Mary, the Holy Spirit rushed upon Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth, as the Gospel tells.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Using Elizabeth’s voice, <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT</em></strong></span> called out to Mary.</span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>BLESSED</em></strong> <strong><em>are you among women,</em></strong></span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>and BLESSED is the fruit of your womb!</em></strong></span><em> [Lk. 1:42]</em></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSED is she who believed in the fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord!</em></strong></span><em> [Lk. 1:45]</em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those are the words of <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT</em></strong></span>, not the words of the nameless woman in the crowd of today’s Gospel.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSED</em></strong> </span>is Mary who did indeed <strong><em><span style="color: #0b848f;">hear the word of God and observe it</span>.</em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is Gospel truth.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is still more in the Gospel about Mary’s faithful obedience.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">After Christ ascended into heaven, his disciples heeded his bidding to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Word of the Lord says <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>ALL</em></strong> </span>of them— <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>THE</em></strong><em> <strong>WHOLE OF CHRISTIANITY</strong></em></span>— <strong><span style="color: #0b848f;"><em>with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with ... Mary the mother of Jesus</em></span>.</strong> <em>[Acts 1:14]</em></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Years before the rest of Christianity was born, Mary in Nazareth was the one to whom the powerful, overshadowing Holy Spirit had already come.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary, woman of the Spirit, Mary in the midst of the praying Church, still calls down the Spirit upon the disciples of her Son.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary’s history and faith are signs of hope for us.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Word of the Lord about Mary shows what happens when a human person does indeed willingly <strong><span style="color: #0b848f;"><em>hear the word of God and observe it</em></span>.</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Word of the Lord about Mary shows that the Spirit comes to us when we give our own word to God and observe God’s Word.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the Spirit comes to us in our obedience, then the Son of God and his Flesh and Blood— both his Church and his Eucharist— come into the world as God’s saving work.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to us in person, in Flesh and Blood, in the power of the Spirit, offering each of <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>US</em></strong> </span>what the angel said of Mary.</span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">HAIL, O FULL OF GRACE!</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">THE LORD IS WITH YOU.</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">YOU HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITH GOD.</span></em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his Eucharist, Christ gives us favor and <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSING</em></strong> </span>by nursing us with his Blood and bearing us in his Body.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">His <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>BLESSING</em></strong></span>, however, is also a command: <span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em>Do this in memory of me</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.</span></em></strong></span></p><p><strong><em><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></em></strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b848f;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-31331069391606226062020-09-26T15:12:00.000-07:002020-09-26T15:12:06.534-07:00Orthodox Lip Service Versus Repentant Disobedience<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJEZgo2PrCgbY8QuyP6L-FLE7Q-ClZAcHXAwtAW33_0t1dFEGTPcDZHKq-2Dn0Fn-aKZPGlcdmfkJtBnaI0LXz1L-xbvEOFwfIaDCxJoBciB4VDrp4o-0ios6NOc3OCbLtji2jCw/s782/Yes+no+No+yes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="782" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJEZgo2PrCgbY8QuyP6L-FLE7Q-ClZAcHXAwtAW33_0t1dFEGTPcDZHKq-2Dn0Fn-aKZPGlcdmfkJtBnaI0LXz1L-xbvEOFwfIaDCxJoBciB4VDrp4o-0ios6NOc3OCbLtji2jCw/w400-h210/Yes+no+No+yes.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">For the Twenty-Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time: A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #363936; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"> </span><i><span style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/21?27" target="_blank">[21:28-32]</a></span></i><b><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">.</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">"What is your opinion?</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">A man had two sons.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">He came to the first and said,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">He said in reply, 'I will not, '</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">but afterwards changed his mind and went.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">The man came to the other son and gave the same order.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Which of the two did his father's will?"</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">They answered, "The first."</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">tax collectors and prostitutes</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">are entering the kingdom of God before you.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">When John came to you in the way of righteousness,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">you did not believe him;</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">but tax collectors and prostitutes did.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Yet even when you saw that,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you did not later change your minds and believe him."</span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
first son refused to be orthodox in his words and deeds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But
he repented, <b><i><span style="color: #833c0b;">changed his mind and went</span></i></b><span style="color: #833c0b;"> </span>to do <b><i><span style="color: #833c0b;">his
father’s will</span></i></b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
second son gave his father orthodox lip service, but there was no orthodoxy in
his real deeds after all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Listen!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Amen, I say to you,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">tax collectors and prostitutes</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">are entering the kingdom of God before you.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">When John came to you in the way of righteousness,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">you did not believe him;</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">but tax collectors and prostitutes did.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Yet even when you saw that,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #833c0b; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you did not later change your minds and believe him.</span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Enough
said.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #833c0b;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.</span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #833c0b; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-50588687763100914572020-09-24T11:40:00.001-07:002020-09-24T11:40:41.040-07:00If Only We Were More Like Herod<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Jt9OJZS94-8xiGeNtfHGlaQWuxcLxT5KyA1KKc4mwKpVHJSXcGnBItJQb3vdhC9K1yGGPQBIodxBtrEqZ92c4edTDH4y-27MV2SWz4bcbriEBQ95txQUl2JLiCbUgQoRaF9XSA/s782/Feast+of+Herod+by+Lucas+Cranach+the+Elder.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="782" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Jt9OJZS94-8xiGeNtfHGlaQWuxcLxT5KyA1KKc4mwKpVHJSXcGnBItJQb3vdhC9K1yGGPQBIodxBtrEqZ92c4edTDH4y-27MV2SWz4bcbriEBQ95txQUl2JLiCbUgQoRaF9XSA/w400-h210/Feast+of+Herod+by+Lucas+Cranach+the+Elder.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">"Feast of Herod," by Lucas Cranach the Elder.<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/9?7" target="_blank">Luke 9:7-9</a> for Thursday of
the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We also have
heard the same things that left Herod <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">greatly perplexed</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, we
acknowledge and venerate even more about Christ than Herod knew at the time in
today’s Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How good it
would be if only we were more like Herod in being <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">greatly
perplexed</span></i></b> with amazement and curiosity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ
himself, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
source of God’s<br />
creation</span></i></b>, wishes we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">were either cold
or hot</span></i></b>, but never merely <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">lukewarm</span></i></b>
or room temperature. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[See Rev. 3:14-16.]</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We need to
wake up and warm up to the fact that only God is necessary, and we are not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The existence
of all creation is a mystery of God’s freedom, his will, his grace and his
love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That we are
alive at all should leave us <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">greatly perplexed</span></i></b>,
amazed, full of wonder and thankfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is
more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the face
of our forgetfulness, rebellion, sin and ingratitude, God freely chose to
become the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;">SLAVE</span></b>
who with his own life and death undoes our sin and suffering, and re-creates us
as his partners in glory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That did not
have to happen; and by all the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;">RIGHTS</span></b> of God should <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;">NOT</span></b> have happened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the face
of the extravagant, exorbitant, outrageous mystery of our redemption, we should
be even more <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: green;">greatly perplexed</span></i></b> than Herod.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The mystery
of our redemption and glorification through Christ’s suffering, death and
resurrection is so perplexing, so completely beyond the bounds of our capacity,
that we must ultimately surrender and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;">BORROW</span></b>, as it were, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;">CHRIST’S</span></b> own wondrous
thankfulness, Christ’s own wonderful sacrifice in order to thank worthily the
Father for all that he has done in creating and redeeming us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in the
Eucharist, Christ in his personal thankfulness and sacrifice is really present.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here, God
re-creates us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here, God
redeems us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here, through
Christ, with him and in him we give God fitting honor, glory and thanksgiving
for all that he has done for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love.
Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-78534848784115065142020-09-19T17:00:00.000-07:002020-09-19T17:51:32.873-07:00Nothings Who Owe Everything<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLZIXZmy62L0a3IveM2HEJt0SSKXXX-VTdHSMz3sINOFuP7G8Fyrh8fgpPtYP9tKD_NkyHsfpn7PRYsLVCCe66_jTUFFDvKOOZO8U37orPMe_b1qjKoVj23r0ixSxOuV3usOUFw/s968/widow+mite+-+Copy.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="968" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLZIXZmy62L0a3IveM2HEJt0SSKXXX-VTdHSMz3sINOFuP7G8Fyrh8fgpPtYP9tKD_NkyHsfpn7PRYsLVCCe66_jTUFFDvKOOZO8U37orPMe_b1qjKoVj23r0ixSxOuV3usOUFw/w512-h361/widow+mite+-+Copy.png" width="512" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/20?1" target="_blank">Matthew 20:1-16</a> for
the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time</span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With
today’s Gospel parable, Christ upholds God’s boundless freedom and
openhandedness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
acts with untold freedom, and is openhanded to the point of seeming foolish and
unfair.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His
freedom to do what he wills goes against the belief we might at first hold in
hearing this parable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For,
whereas the parable’s vineyard owner <b><span style="color: green;">OWES</span></b> his workers their
earnings, God— who <b><span style="color: green;">MADE</span></b> us from <b><span style="color: green;">NOTHING</span></b>— God <b><span style="color: green;">OWES</span></b> us <b><span style="color: green;">NOTHING</span></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What
he gives any of us is thoroughgoing grace and openhandedness beyond all earthly
reckoning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Owing
us nothing and needing nothing, God is unfathomable in the freedom with which
he gives his all to those he made from nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
is the freedom of thoroughgoing love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the face of it the most and the best we can do is fall into grateful wonder and
worship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even
in our best and greatest worship, we borrow from God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
Christ his Son, God himself becomes the payment for what we owe him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
can do no better than throw ourselves utterly into Christ’s sacrifice of
himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
taking, eating and drinking his Eucharistic Body and Blood with freedom and the
right goal, we are taken <b><span style="color: green;">IN</span></b> and <b><span style="color: green;">UP</span></b> with Christ in his sacrifice of perfect thankfulness and worship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If
we give ourselves over to it, the Eucharist takes, eats and drinks <b><span style="color: green;">US</span></b> into Christ up to the Father in the oneness of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the Father’s kingdom the first are no longer first, and the last are no longer
last.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All
owe a debt to God, and none but Christ can pay.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All
owe a debt, but Christ alone has paid for all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What
we have left is the mission of spending our lives to worship and imitate God in
his goodness to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our
lives need to uphold, show and flow from the Eucharistic worship we offer to
God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love.
Repeat.</span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: green;"><br /></span></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-79590543202061547832020-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:002020-09-14T08:02:19.352-07:00All Is Upside Down and Backwards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqXhE17MwzsB9F-MOhXYat0ze8fXr4fll-1W_GfJTK82zcqv6sXSwtEnHLpw9LvoOO40AJERRB9mmxGC-RjQ0wHrsV2FAJAM09r0XrVG_09C4DBH2-5jtDku51pDGSt7ZeMDrdA/s782/Cross+Sunset+Pixabay.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="782" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqXhE17MwzsB9F-MOhXYat0ze8fXr4fll-1W_GfJTK82zcqv6sXSwtEnHLpw9LvoOO40AJERRB9mmxGC-RjQ0wHrsV2FAJAM09r0XrVG_09C4DBH2-5jtDku51pDGSt7ZeMDrdA/w500-h263/Cross+Sunset+Pixabay.png" width="500" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091420.cfm" target="_blank">Numbers 21:4-9, Philippians2:6-11 and John 3:13-17</a> for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, 14 September.</span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How odd to speak of the <b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">Exaltation</span></i></b> of the Cross that is a tool of humiliation,
torture and execution!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How odd all the Word of
the Lord is today!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In all three readings
things are upside down and backwards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Moses lifted up the
lifeless image of a serpent on a pole to heal the people of deadly snakebite
that came as a punishment for their sin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then, God’s beloved Son
is to be lifted up in death on the beams of a cross, so that whoever believes
in him may be healed of sin and death, and gain eternal life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son ... that the world might be
saved through him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To ransom a slave and
rebel, God gave up his Son.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All-Holy God pays for
our sins by his own death on the Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, our benefit is
the smaller part of what took place on the Cross— the smaller part of what the
Gospel reveals.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today in his Gospel the
Lord speaks of himself as the Son who has received himself from the Father, has
come down from the Father to the earth, and goes up back to the Father.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today his Gospel also
tells us of the Father who in love gives his Word, overflowing himself in his
Son <b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">that the world might
be saved through him</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today’s Gospel unfolds
the meaning of earlier words about how the Father’s Spirit is at work in us
through the Son.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By Baptismal Water and
the Holy Spirit, our lives misshapen by sin and death are turned upside down
and backwards, and we are reborn into the Son of God, reborn into his human
life, reborn into his death, reborn into his resurrection, ascension and
exaltation, reborn in him as royal sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The invincibly living
mystery of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is present and powerful in
the Crucified Death of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is why we always
name the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as we make the sign of the Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God, who is Love lifted
up on the Cross, draws us all to himself, to his fulfillment of love on the
Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is the lure, the
beauty, the triumph and <b><span style="color: #c00000;">Exaltation</span></b> of the Cross, though by nature it be a tool of defeat and shame.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God in Christ in his
love on the cross freely chose to undergo, undertake and underlie all that is
human even unto death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This truth, this
historical event has the power to draw all that is in our hearts, minds,
strength and will.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We need to know, have,
and return this love emptying itself on the Cross— love absolutely present and
absolutely fulfilled in history, flesh and blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in the humble and
exalted Eucharistic Flesh and Blood of Christ:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the power of the Spirit gives us birth and life in God;<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the Father reveals and gives his love;<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the Son offers himself and our own humanity,<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">through the power of the Spirit,<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to the Father with obedience and gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On his Cross, in his
Resurrection, Ascension and Eucharist, Christ our God and Savior gives us triumph
and exaltation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn.
Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-15076294317655905022020-09-12T17:52:00.000-07:002020-09-12T17:52:06.981-07:00Ugly Jesus: God Is a Bean Counter Who Uses Torture<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLZ-G3dr9lG3jczkVtgvC78JtN3HhPgmAnUUEaM_M0QCFr5jr7bQkHgZB2WE78Bq899DcpKaZ067c62S70oESfaCRN2jTfaNv-fGdtxwyaKUrjXBgQOjb-ov0xe8zAyBHZBO8og/s640/Abacus+Wikimedia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLZ-G3dr9lG3jczkVtgvC78JtN3HhPgmAnUUEaM_M0QCFr5jr7bQkHgZB2WE78Bq899DcpKaZ067c62S70oESfaCRN2jTfaNv-fGdtxwyaKUrjXBgQOjb-ov0xe8zAyBHZBO8og/w500-h375/Abacus+Wikimedia.png" width="500" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /> </span><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18?21" target="_blank">Matthew 18:21-35</a> for the
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was
Christ’s way to teach with tales that at times went over the top.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His teaching
in today’s Gospel did it, and left no room for any <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">if</span></i></b>,
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">and</span></i></b>, or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">but</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God forgives
us, so we must forgive others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That was
Christ’s teaching in today’s Gospel, but he hammered it out with a frightful tale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us mark
these ugly images, and so let Christ drive home his teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First: that
the kingdom of heaven is like a king who kept a reckoning of everything his servants
owed him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God as a bean
counter!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then Christ
added to that ugliness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One servant
could not pay back his overwhelming borrowings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the king
set to sell him along with his wife, children, and belongings to begin to get
what was owed him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is a
foul image of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But then
Christ turned that ugliness into beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The servant
begged for mercy and time to pay the king back in full.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The king
could have done well and good to say: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">I will give you
time, and you shall pay me back in full</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However,
Christ instead said the king mercifully forgave the loan and let the man go
free.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ then
went on with the lesson, but brought back into it more ugliness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The servant
went and without mercy jailed a fellow servant who owed him much less.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The king
heard of it, took the merciless servant he had forgiven, and now <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">handed him over to the TORTURERS</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">TORTURE</span></b>— and Christ using it as an image of
God’s ways!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Torture, as
the Catechism of the Catholic Church <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[2297]</i>
says, is a sin against <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">respect for the
person and for human dignity</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">TORTURE</span></b>,
Christ brings his tale to a threatening end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So will my
heavenly Father do to you, UNLESS each of you forgives your brother from your
heart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The heavenly
Father as a bean-counting king who can be merciful, but also turns to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">TORTURE</span></b>!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A tale of
frightful, over-the-top ugliness!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, the
ugliness is not the goal, but only a tool to hammer home the teaching: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">God forgives
us, so we must forgive others</span></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ filled
out this teaching with the true tale of his own life, death, and resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We still have
and witness the living true tale of Christ in the sacraments and the Mass
throughout the Church year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The living
tale of Christ in all his truth, all his might and all his work comes to us
whenever we celebrate, offer and receive his Eucharistic Body and Blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is here
for us at this hour in this church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this
living, true tale, Christ is the king, while you and I owe him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He does not
sell us along with our families and belongings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the
Eucharist, the Living True Tale of Christ in Flesh and Blood, our King and God
has sold <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">HIMSELF</span></b>
to buy us back for our own sakes and to pay off what <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">WE</span></b> owe <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">HIM</span></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He shouldered
our sin-guilt, the debt we owe him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is the
Lamb of God who takes away on his own back the sins of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He did so
even before we dared to ask.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When we do
ask him for mercy, we are asking our King to take onto <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">HIS</span></b> own self <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">OUR</span></b> sin-guilt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But then the
Living True Tale of Christ goes over the top unspeakably more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He— our King,
Master, Creator, Lord and God— willingly underwent <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">TORTURE</span></b> for the debt of our sins
against him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In return for
his taking on our guilt, he lays his godliness, innocence and inheritance upon
us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This
wonderful exchange of our humanity for his divinity, our guilt for his
innocence, our sin-enslaved creaturehood for his divine sonship— all this is
again present, renewed and strengthened in us when we celebrate, offer and
receive the Eucharist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the
Eucharist, food and drink really become the Body and Blood of Christ, exchanged
for the debts of us sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the
Eucharist we share in Christ’s Life, Work, Suffering, Death, Resurrection,
Ascension and Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we draw
near to it, we declare our guilt, so as to be eligible for Christ’s innocence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For that
exchange, we are over the top in owing thanksgiving and worship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tale is
more than true: God has forgiven, so we must forgive, lest frightful ugliness
be our only lot forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-19267735990826017192020-09-10T10:54:00.000-07:002020-09-10T10:54:02.781-07:00Mercy: Diffuse It or Lose It<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIEtWDa7vrV3gmP4Do0eJqfAiaVCO8AAnfdn_T8XrGJBmyGthlGAt5stUL_o4YZEmGLqLsafzb9YGredUViM4-aDD-qGj2q8Ksg6mTxpKEXkYoqFElgBq6Dei2tNRf_eS9f3bpow/s1365/Pixabay+Public+Domain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1365" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIEtWDa7vrV3gmP4Do0eJqfAiaVCO8AAnfdn_T8XrGJBmyGthlGAt5stUL_o4YZEmGLqLsafzb9YGredUViM4-aDD-qGj2q8Ksg6mTxpKEXkYoqFElgBq6Dei2tNRf_eS9f3bpow/w500-h375/Pixabay+Public+Domain.png" width="500" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Pixabay / Public Domain.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/6?27" target="_blank">Luke 6:27-38</a> for
Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In today’s
Gospel, Christ calls us to follow our heavenly Father and show him to the world
through generosity that is boundless, unreasonable and careless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God creates,
loves, and saves us with boundless, unreasonable and careless generosity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Natural human
love normally has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">REASONS</span></b> behind it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Something in
another draws us; or something in us pushes us toward another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Faith in God
who <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">IS</span></b>
Love gives different reasons to love others than the natural and normal human
reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God creates
and loves us without needing us or owing it to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God loves us
for no reason but his own goodness and freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nothing in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">US</span></b>
gives God a reason, attraction, motive, or obligation to love us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Love that is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">DESERVED</span></b>
or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">EARNED</span></b>
does not come from God, whose love is totally free.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God’s love
has no needs, likes or dislikes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God’s love is
absolute might and freedom to be faithful forever, no matter how detestable the
circumstances— even when we reject and deny him, even when we do evil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God alone can
love in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">THAT</span></b>
way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God does <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">NOT</span></b>
love us for what we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">HAVE</span></b> or not, what we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">DO</span></b> or not, what we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">ARE</span></b>
or not, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">HOW</span></b>
we are or not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We cannot
attract, deserve or obligate God’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nonetheless,
God <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">HAS</span></b>
chosen us, and God <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">DOES</span></b> love us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christian
faith gives our self-esteem and sense of dignity a foundation in the mystery of
God, who loves out of his own goodness and freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So Christ
calls us to let go of all other sources of security, comfort, confidence and
self-esteem, because those are nothing before God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God in Christ
calls us to esteem and love others— whether friends or foes— <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">NOT</span></b>
because of what they have, do or are, but because GOD esteems and loves them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Christ
said in today’s Gospel: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">Be merciful,
just as also your Father is merciful</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In that way
we live mercifully as sons and daughters of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in the
Eucharist of the Son of God, we eat and drink God’s merciful <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">new and eternal covenant ... for the forgiveness of sins</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thereby he
commands us to live his mercy in our thoughts, words and deeds: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;">Do this in memory of me</span></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #068041;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn.
Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-51734902200440115942020-09-08T15:26:00.002-07:002020-09-08T15:26:58.071-07:00The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> </span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cmsXakgd_dGTpGuy3DMaa9nGOEGlCY8ZOzg_XT_FGCP21q_i5A5cvCQVfirpRatFZL45Tq_hR_7IhbsZbzgakVvXNMn4CAsUbUq6ypW6DBIJ3Yys1F-JM1zTXT3gM7KXLCJfnA/s1321/Joachim+Mother+of+God+Ann.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1321" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cmsXakgd_dGTpGuy3DMaa9nGOEGlCY8ZOzg_XT_FGCP21q_i5A5cvCQVfirpRatFZL45Tq_hR_7IhbsZbzgakVvXNMn4CAsUbUq6ypW6DBIJ3Yys1F-JM1zTXT3gM7KXLCJfnA/w500-h316/Joachim+Mother+of+God+Ann.png" title="The Mother of God, Saint Joachim and Saint Ann" width="500" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">The Mother of God, St. Joachim and St. Ann</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/1?1" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><b>Matthew 1:1-16,18-23</b></span></a></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Word of God tells us that everything our heavenly Father wills always meets with the eternal “yes” and living gratitude of the divine Son.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Father’s will and the Son’s obedient gratitude are also alive with the eternal power and communion of the Holy Spirit.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Father’s will, the Son’s obedience and gratitude, the Spirit’s power and communion— this is the Love that made the universe.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">We came into being from the will of the Father, from the obedient “yes” and living gratitude of the Son, and from the power and communion of the Spirit.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">However, through sin we have shut our eyes and turned our backs against this Love that made us.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Scripture tells us that after Adam sinned, he tried to hide from God.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">We have shut our eyes and turned our backs against the will of the Father, against the obedience and gratitude of the Son, and against the power and unity of the Holy Spirit.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">In the face of our sin, God who made us has chosen neither to annihilate us nor force himself upon our freedom.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Instead, God has given creation a new beginning, and freely offers us this new beginning of creation as a gift.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">God has done this in Christ the New Adam.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">In the beginning God made the body of the first Adam from the virgin earth.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">To form the body of Christ, the Sinless New Adam, God again prepared the earth through the virgin and sinless humanity of Mary.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">She whose birth we celebrate today is the dawn, the threshold and the mother of our salvation.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">She is ever sinless and ever virgin by the will of the Father, through the obedience and gratitude of the Son, and in the power and unity of the Holy Spirit.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Upon receiving God’s message through an angel at Nazareth, Mary gave her own “yes” to God’s plan…</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">her “yes” to the will of the Father…</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">her “yes” to the obedience and gratitude of the Son…</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">her “yes” to the power and unity of the Spirit.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Pope John Paul II pointed out in a lovely manner that Mary is the human race’s “yes” to God’s plan, and that she is God’s “yes” to our salvation.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Out of Mary’s “yes” is born our salvation in Christ Jesus.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">In him the Son of Mary, in him the New Adam:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">we return to the will of the Father;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">we return in the obedience and gratitude of the Son;</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">we return through the power of the Holy Spirit.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Mary gave birth to all of this.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Indeed, not only “happy” but most blessed is her birthday.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Blessed is she who bore and nursed our Savior.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death! Amen.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Turn. Love. Repeat.</span></b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-60207297660213047742020-09-06T12:00:00.024-07:002020-09-08T15:35:55.113-07:00Jesus, Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Christ and Abbot Menas" height="323" src="https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/1276/2020/09/Christ-and-Abbot-Menas-Louvre-Museum-Public-Domain-Wikimedia.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="614" /></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">“Christ and Abbot Menas,” Louvre Museum. Public Domain / Wikimedia.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="decorated-link" href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18?15" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(21, 26, 28, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank">Matthew 18:15-20</a> for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.</span></strong></p><p><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is it to be two or three gathered in the name of Christ?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today in his Gospel, Christ is speaking not to a crowd, but to his <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">disciples</em></strong> </span>only; and he uses the word <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">church</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking to his disciples as his <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">church</em></strong></span>, he expects them to act and pray as those who are <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">gathered together in my name</em></strong></span>.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We begin every Mass by having <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">gathered together</em></strong></span> and invoking the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">name</em></strong> </span>of the Lord— Father, Son and Holy Spirit— while we make the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">SIGNUM CRUCIS</strong></span>— the Sign of the Cross.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"></strong></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRUCI</strong></span>fixion of the Lord, at the most literally <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRUCIAL</strong> </span>moment, only his mother, a few other women and the disciple John <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">gathered together</em></strong></span> in Christ’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">name </b></span></em>at the event and sign of his cross.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Out of this small group, Christ singled out just two, and put them together as if these two were the closest to him in <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">name </i></b></span>and in deed.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They were his mother and his disciple John.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From his cross, Christ said to his mother: <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Woman, behold, your, son!</em></strong></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then he said to his disciple: <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Behold, your mother!</em></strong></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was from the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CROSS</strong> </span>that Christ assembled the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CHURCH</strong> </span>in his <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">NAME</strong></span>.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From the cross, he spoke directly to only two other individuals besides his mother and John.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He spoke directly to the repentant criminal who was also suffering crucifixion, and he spoke directly to the Father in heaven.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be two or three gathered in Christ’s name is not so simple or automatic, and it appears it is not entirely or always our initiative.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though Christ himself promised to be in the midst of those gathered in his name, it still belongs to Christ alone to judge who are <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">REALLY</strong> </span>gathered in his name.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the most literally <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRUCIAL</strong> </span>moment— at his <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRUCI</strong></span>fixion— the only individuals to whom Christ spoke directly were his heavenly Father, his mother, John his disciple and the repentant criminal.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of these four, the only one whose relationship to Christ we could fully claim for ourselves would be that of the repentant criminal.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To gather in Christ’s name and to receive his presence in our midst, we must repent and confess that we are sinners.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, that is how the Church begins the Mass: confessing that we are sinners.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned….</span></em></strong></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of His Body and Blood Offered in Sacrifice on the Cross, the Crucial Sacrament, Christ himself makes good his promise to be in our midst.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.</span></strong></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #993366;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-60817012010203479122020-08-29T13:36:00.001-07:002020-08-29T13:36:48.680-07:00Our Revolting Lord<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="1360" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgww4MVKTouVh3F3Vj2suVzePCwzHWo3H2c7Uzi69MXtT-QoUJpGPywhnt-vFAs2cChNJhuD-GVmKuH5b4019nsU1Vf9XfEkPLYvdEU4XrJFQjctSiq86xfekadzRuc-qtAdgXj8g/w512-h323/torture+chamber+pixabay+public+domain.png" width="512" /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span style="color: #548235;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #548235;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083020.cfm" target="_blank">Jeremiah 20:7-9. Romans 12:1-2. Matthew 16:21-27.</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everything
in the Gospel today aims at our receiving as a reward our lives and our
salvation when Christ returns with his angels in the glory of his Father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ
begins his Gospel today telling us that he will suffer and die at the hands of
the nation’s elders and religious authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">It
was </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">for us men and for our salvation</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">, as we say in the Creed
every Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">However,
today Christ calls our salvation a repayment he shall give </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">everyone according to his conduct</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">A
repayment to each </span><b><span style="color: #548235;">CONDITIONED</span></b><span style="color: #548235;"> <b><i>according to his conduct</i></b></span><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><i><span style="color: #548235;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the Son of Man
will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone
according to his conduct.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">What
is the </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">conduct</span></i></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">that earns the repayment,
but also, what </span><b><span style="color: #548235;">IS</span></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">the
repayment?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
conduct is the </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">conduct</span></i></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">of Christ
himself, and the repayment is rising from the dead, as Christ rose from the
dead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Risen
from the dead, Christ can die no more and can suffer no more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Resurrection
in Christ is life without bounds and joy without measure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Faith
in that truth can give us motivation to follow Christ, even though Christ today
gives a repulsive description to his path.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">Whoever wishes to come
after me</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">—
come after me into the resurrection— </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">must deny himself, take
up his CROSS, and follow me</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without
a doubt, we can say those who first heard him found his words repulsive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Taking
on a </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">CROSS</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">— an ancient instrument of public </span><b><span style="color: #548235;">SHAME</span></b><span style="color: black;">, </span><b><span style="color: #548235;">TORTURE</span></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">and
</span><b><span style="color: #548235;">DEATH</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More
recent versions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">Whoever wishes to come
after me must</span></i></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">undergo: public torture and
lethal injection, or public torture and gas chamber, or electric chair, firing
squad, guillotine, or noose.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
Gospel today is not inviting, but it’s revolting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Is
there an alternative to public torture and execution for someone who wants to
follow Christ into the resurrection?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes
and no.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christ
says today </span><b><i><span style="color: #548235;">whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christ
lost his life for </span><b><span style="color: #548235;">OUR</span></b><span style="color: #548235;"> </span><span style="color: black;">sake,
and he found a new life on the other side of resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s
role-reversal in some respects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All
the trouble started with role-reversal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the Garden of Eden, we tried role-reversal; we tried to be God, to remake
ourselves by ourselves, to redefine life and death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
role-reversal required us to reject God as God and to reject ourselves as God
had made us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Try
as we might, we can’t go back to the way things were in the beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
cannot reverse our own attempted role-reversal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
genius of God in Christ was to do the role-reversal himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
in Christ became a man.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
in Christ took on himself the lot of every sinner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
in Christ suffered and died at the hands of sinners for the sake of sinners,
and was buried.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On
the third day he rose from the dead— thereby taking the role reversal beyond
all its possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A
dead man rose and ascended in flesh and blood to take God’s throne in heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Humankind
in Paradise was not able to take God’s place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However,
humankind in Christ sits on God’s throne.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ,
the Son of Man and Son of God, has opened up for us the inviting possibility of
following him onto God’s throne.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sounds
nice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But
still, what about taking on the cross, torture, execution?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
revolting condition for boundless life and joy at God’s throne simply means
that we must not allow ourselves or anything to stand in the way of letting God
be God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
let God be God, and we push ourselves and everything out of the way to pray and
worship God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
second reading from the Word of the Lord today, the Letter to the Romans, tells
us:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><i><span style="color: #548235;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">offer your bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not
conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind....<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
also let God be God whenever for his sake and imitation we serve the good of
others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
let God be God whenever we deny ourselves in the service of God and others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
let God be God whenever we accept willingly whatever suffering comes our way
for the sake of Christ and following Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here
in his Eucharist, as always, Christ lives out his Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here
is role-reversal: God is the banquet for sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here
he is alive for our sakes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After
we receive his life in his Eucharist, to live for him in return is to find our
own joy and our lives everlastingly with the angels in the glory of the Father
when Christ returns.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #548235;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-728103017764288942020-08-26T10:18:00.001-07:002020-08-26T10:18:09.698-07:00Giving 'Em Hell<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgalbEqdyijqCbhA-XeThxs4x33CdY8Qnxal6B7op-wGhCCXNpOMMTQiOQfSpmjLHj_A5dGYTSvYfE3NUZVXTxWZ7MbvtZfkDUDt_3sDJSo4Ro7alPSjlDRH2i_CECw1evTdL3Q/s768/angry+eye+flickr+public+domain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgalbEqdyijqCbhA-XeThxs4x33CdY8Qnxal6B7op-wGhCCXNpOMMTQiOQfSpmjLHj_A5dGYTSvYfE3NUZVXTxWZ7MbvtZfkDUDt_3sDJSo4Ro7alPSjlDRH2i_CECw1evTdL3Q/w512-h342/angry+eye+flickr+public+domain.png" width="512" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/23?27" target="_blank">Matthew 23:27-32</a> for
Wednesday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today’s
biting Gospel is only a small part of a longer tongue-lashing Christ gave the
scribes and Pharisees.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his
drawn-out broadside he went so far as to call them children of hell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
everlasting woe we call <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">hell</span></i></b>
does not show up fully in the Old Testament as a straightforward truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">Heaven</span></i></b> as a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">reward</span></i></b>
for human persons also does <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">not</span></i></b>
show up in the Old Testament that sees heaven as the dwelling of none but God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ at
last broke into history with the naked news of an everlasting hell for the
wicked and of everlasting heavenly life with God for the righteous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ was
hard on the scribes and Pharisees— he <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">gave them hell</span></i></b>,
as the saying goes— because they would not acknowledge they were sinners
needing to repent, to change their minds, their wills, their deeds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Such
conversion is the true and straightforward way for meeting Christ <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">ON HIS TERMS</span></b>
in his Eucharistic Body and Blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We know
this is true if we mark and mind the words Christ says in giving us his Body
and Blood at every Mass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">Take... eat... my Body... given up for you... drink... my
Blood... poured out for you... </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;">FOR THE
FORGIVENESS OF SINS<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those are
Christ’s terms for his giving and our taking his Body and Blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If— like
the scribes and Pharisees— we do not repent, then we cut our own selves off
from the forgiveness of sins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That was
not what Christ in his love wanted— not for the scribes, not for the Pharisees,
not for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Repent,
and believe in the Gospel!</span></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></i></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn.
Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-60706328091567909062020-08-23T08:12:00.000-07:002020-08-23T08:12:24.579-07:00Building the Church on Revelation and Failure, Not on Opinion and Success<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3o260ecfAHWVpUnQ5heTPTab01kuV6DwJiT_pRTg6PYNEtYjPU7Gw8zd8urv4UejK6r5-WpXGltCv0mr2obe3qmxioJykOi5SwbuUlnGH4fOGttrUFNOEUfa_OCFvH3M58cJQw/s1566/flood+ruined+homes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1566" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3o260ecfAHWVpUnQ5heTPTab01kuV6DwJiT_pRTg6PYNEtYjPU7Gw8zd8urv4UejK6r5-WpXGltCv0mr2obe3qmxioJykOi5SwbuUlnGH4fOGttrUFNOEUfa_OCFvH3M58cJQw/w512-h334/flood+ruined+homes.jpg" width="512" /></span></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?13" target="_blank">Matthew 16:13-20</a> for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">This
day in the Gospel was the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">SECOND</span></b><span style="color: black;"> time that Christ spoke of building upon rock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
</span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">FIRST</span></b><span style="color: black;"> time was at the end of
his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sermon on the Mount</i>, where he
said:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">Every
one then who hears these words of mine and does them<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">will be
like a wise man who BUILT his house upon the ROCK;<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">and the
rain fell, and the floods came,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">and the
winds blew and beat upon that house,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">but it
did not fall, because it had been founded on the ROCK. </span></i></b><i>[Mt. 7:24-25]</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following
God in Christ is the way to build a house solidly on rock to last us unto
entering the kingdom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On
the other hand, if we do not bother to work at following God in Christ, then we
are building on sand a shaky house doomed to fall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
is as Christ warns in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sermon on the
Mount</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">“Not every
one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">but he
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">On that
day many will say to me,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">and
cast out demons in your name,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">and do
many mighty works in your name?’<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">And
then will I declare to them,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">‘I
never knew you;<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">depart
from me, you evildoers.’ </span></i></b><i>[Mt. 7:21-23]</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">In
</span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">TODAY’S</span></b><span style="color: black;"> Gospel, there are two
layers to the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">ROCK</span></b><span style="color: black;"> upon which to build our obedience to God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
deepest layer is the heavenly Father revealing </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">the
Christ, the Son of the living God</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
upper layer is in Simon Peter who took in and spoke what was </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">NOT</span></b><span style="color: black;"> his </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">OPINION</span></b><span style="color: black;"> as a man of </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">flesh and blood</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">No,
Simon Peter took in and spoke a </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">REVELATION</span></b><span style="color: black;"> from </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">GOD THE FATHER</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Simon
Peter said: </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">You are the Christ</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">— </span></i><span style="color: black;">Messiah, Anointed One<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">— </i></span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">the Son of the living God</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ
answered him:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">For flesh and blood has not REVEALED
this to you,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">but my heavenly FATHER.</span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Then
Christ changed Simon’s name: </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">you are Peter</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">— </span></i><span style="color: black;">Pétros, Rock<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">— </i></span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">and upon this rock I will build my church</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">.</span></i><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">As
rain, floods and wind come to naught against a house built on rock, so </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">the netherworld shall not prevail</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> against the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">CHURCH</span></b><span style="color: black;"> that Christ chose to
build on Peter and the revelation Peter received from God the Father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">This
is the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">FIRST</span></b><span style="color: black;"> time that Christ has
spoken the word </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">CHURCH</span></b><span style="color: black;"> in the Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">So,
we must pay </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">CAREFUL</span></b><span style="color: black;"> attention to what he says about building his church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;">AS SOON AS</span></b><span style="color: black;"> Christ finished today’s words in the Gospel, he went on to tell
just how building his church would happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">Jesus
began to show his disciples<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">that he
must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly...<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">and be
killed and on the third day be raised.</span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That
is how Christ builds his church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To
the world, it seems the church is built on sand as something worth condemning
and knocking down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">But
Christ does not build his church out of </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">SUCCESS</span></b><span style="color: black;">, as the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">WORLD</span></b><span style="color: black;"> sees success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christ
builds his church out of his </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">SUFFERING AND DEATH</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">It
is only after the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">DEATH</span></b><span style="color: black;"> of Christ and then his resurrection that </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">the gates of the netherworld</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">fail to </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">prevail</span></i></b><b><span style="color: #c00000;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">against</i></span></b><span style="color: black;"> the church of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
church of Christ is not truly built by succeeding as the world sees succeeding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No,
the church of Christ is built on the rock of confessing in word and deed what
God the Father wills to reveal in the suffering and death of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Only
then do </span><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">the gates of the netherworld... not
prevail against</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> the church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ
teaches and builds us through our solid union with the faith of Peter the Rock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">But
even Peter the Rock had to face that Christ held it </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">SATANIC</span></b><span style="color: black;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[Mt. 16:23]</i> to think that Christ’s suffering and death were not how
Christ should build his church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With
Peter the Rock we must face that lesson as the will of the heavenly Father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">“Not
every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">shall
enter the kingdom of heaven,<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">but he
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”</span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through
Peter the Rock, Christ has bound and loosed us for a new and eternal covenant
of doing the heavenly Father’s will by embracing communion in the suffering and
death of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">THIS IS
MY BODY<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">MY BLOOD<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">OF THE
NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT<br /></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000;">FOR THE
FORGIVENESS OF SINS</span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
church of Christ is truly built only through the </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">COVENANT</span></b><span style="color: black;"> of the flesh-and-blood
suffering, sacrifice and death of Christ before the resurrection of Christ over
the netherworld.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Here
and now we are celebrating that </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">COVENANT</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Our
taking the Body and Blood of Christ </span><b><span style="color: #c00000;">COMMITS</span></b><span style="color: black;"> us to renew our willing work to obey in our daily living all that
the heavenly Father teaches us in Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">DO THIS
IN MEMORY OF ME.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If
we do not, then we are just playing with sand all the days of our life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
might succeed in the world’s sandbox of success, but without building anything
to last us into the kingdom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25641426.post-20143439258202401452020-08-16T08:49:00.003-07:002020-08-16T08:50:43.607-07:00Greater Wishes<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPmFDLKjHrqM8PhbYEJ_5kqH91kPCr0Wwh5-xoWZvmvB5kj6aaGyI7cqMyRlsHQzDMgackqgrP22dPU7kX6FnW6JVbYKi-MMLS7cXsII3UgToGG_IFglQLXsvSnvV1TGmbFsfnA/s1449/The+Canaanites+Daughter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1449" data-original-width="917" height="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPmFDLKjHrqM8PhbYEJ_5kqH91kPCr0Wwh5-xoWZvmvB5kj6aaGyI7cqMyRlsHQzDMgackqgrP22dPU7kX6FnW6JVbYKi-MMLS7cXsII3UgToGG_IFglQLXsvSnvV1TGmbFsfnA/w506-h800/The+Canaanites+Daughter.jpg" width="506" /></a></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">"The Canaanite's Daughter," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Musem / Public Domain.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/15?21" target="_blank">Matthew 15:21-28</a> for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
this Gospel, the sick girl’s mother is one of the Canaanites— who are
foreigners, enemies, worshipers of heathen idols.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
first thing the sick girl’s mother called Jesus was </span><b><i><span style="color: #806000;">LORD, SON OF DAVID</span></i></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">With
that name, she prophetically acknowledged Jesus to be the chosen Messiah, the
Anointed One of the God of </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">ISRAEL</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><i><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, Son of David!<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After
that, her brave persistence in begging for help is only secondary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Jesus
came as the Messiah of the </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">JEWS</span></b><span style="color: black;">—
God’s </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">CHOSEN PEOPLE</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Every
human being is able to become a </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">CHOSEN ONE</span></b><span style="color: black;"> of
God through the mercy of God and faith in Jesus as the Messiah promised to the
Jews.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today
in his Gospel, Christ emphatically asserts that his mission was for Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">However,
he fulfilled his mission by suffering and dying for Israel and for </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">ALL</span></b><span style="color: black;"> of sinful humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like
the Canaanite woman today, we also beg for healing, whether of body, mind or
spirit, whether for ourselves or for others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ
carried our sins, weaknesses, diseases and our death; and he destroyed them in
himself by his own suffering and death on the Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
can offer us particular healings of body, mind or spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However,
those are merely crumbs on the floor compared to what he offers us in his
Eucharist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Faith
in Christ offers us </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">SALVATION</span></b><span style="color: black;">:
the privilege to eat at the table of the sons and daughters of God— and not as
mere </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">FOREIGN GUESTS</span></b><span style="color: black;">, but as </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">SONS AND DAUGHTERS</span></b><span style="color: black;"> brought
to birth within Christ’s Body— </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">NATIVE</span></b><span style="color: black;">
sons and daughters born of God through faith and baptism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We
might continue to pray for mere crumbs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet
God himself gives us the whole table— and his dining room as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
his Son Christ Jesus, God himself is the Open Door through which we enter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
in Christ is the gracious host who serves us at table.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God
in Christ is the Living Food and Drink set before us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When
we partake of this Banquet as God’s children with faith and fidelity, God gives
us the gift of a full, undivided share in his own life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
his Gospel today, Christ finally answered the Canaanite woman’s pleas for the
healing of her daughter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><i><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">O woman,<br /></span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">great is your faith!<br /></span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let it be done for you
as you wish.</span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">With
his Eucharist, he says to us: </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">Let it be done for you
even BEYOND your wishes</span></b><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Let
us at least begin to wish what </span><b><span style="color: #806000;">GOD</span></b><span style="color: black;">
wishes.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #806000;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn. Love. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com