God always goes first. Salvation history teaches us that Almighty God, out of his own gracious and loving goodness, freely decided to share the life and love of the Trinity with humanity, the capstone of his creation. God stepped out of mystery and revealed himself to us. Even when humanity responds as God wills, it is always God who has gone first, who has reached out, prepared, invited, and, in fact, loved each and every human person so that we might know him, love him, and serve him. Christians respond to that call, when either by themselves, or through their parents, they are Baptized. Another term for this “call” is our “vocation (from the Latin word ‘vocare,’ which means ‘to call’).”
On this next to last Sunday of the church year, our first reading comes from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs attempts to capture the essence of practical wisdom which illumines the experience of everyday living. It portrays the particular genius of a life lived amid the wonder and awe of God’s presence.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord . . . as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). The difference between the ways of God and the ways of humanity forms the basis of this Sunday’s Gospel teaching, the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. In this section of his Gospel, St. Matthew warns us that we must set aside some very ingrained human attitudes in order to see things the way that God sees them.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, the unfolding of God’s plan is seen in St. Peter’s increasing faith and in the mission of strengthening the faith of others that the Lord entrusts to him. Guided by divine inspiration, Peter’s faith developed rapidly from being so weak that he almost drowned when crossing the sea to meet Jesus to the point where his faith-filled insight was strong enough for him to proclaim boldly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, St. Matthew focuses our attention on the central theme of all Jesus’ preaching – the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom (Reign) of God refers to God’s dynamic Lordship over all creation, that is, to God’s will being fully embraced and executed by all he has made.
This Sunday the Church marks the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, thus offering a special opportunity for us to celebrate the great truths that we proclaim so often in prayer — in the Apostles’ Creed we profess that Jesus “ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” and in the Nicene Creed at Mass every Sunday we similarly declare our faith that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” In the earliest eras of the Church, the Ascension was usually treated simply in the larger context of the Resurrection or Pentecost, but beginning in the late 3rd century in the East and shortly thereafter in the West, the important message of this particular part of the salvation history became a topic of interest in its own right.
“And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him” (Mt 27:31). With these somber words, St. Matthew begins his account of Jesus’ crucifixion. The forces of sin and darkness that had conspired against Jesus throughout his ministry were now to have their way — Jesus would die on the cross, the most painful and humiliating means of execution allowed in the Roman Empire. But, the supreme irony of all this was that this very death, the seeming moment of evil’s triumph, would become the center point of all history, the moment when the power of sin and darkness would suffer its ultimate defeat.
Our annual journey toward Easter has begun. The great season of Lent is upon us, for Lent is, above all else, an opportunity to prepare for Easter. For those who seek Baptism, Lent is a final period of intense preparation for full, sacramental participation in the life of Christ. For those already baptized, Lent is an especially graced opportunity to renew our seeking after the Lord, to once again unite ourselves with Christ’s suffering and self-giving so that we might also share in his glorious victory over sin and death.
This Sunday we are treated to one of the most beautiful and beloved passages in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ presentation of the Beatitudes. Understanding the Beatitudes is crucial for understanding the rest of Jesus’ mission for they express the definitive ethics of the Christian community, and are, in a certain sense, the constitution of the Kingdom of God. The Beatitudes refine the moral absolutes of the Ten Commandments by setting believers on the road to perfection; our task as followers of Christ is not simply to avoid evil, but always to be striving to do (ever better) good.
The celebration of our Savior’s birth has acquired a long and rich tradition. Part of this tradition is manifest in the fact that the Church does not assign only one set of prayers and Scripture readings for the Masses on Christmas, but rather four different sets. The Gospel readings provided for these liturgies — Vigil Mass, Mass during the Night, Mass at Dawn and Mass during the Day — each illuminates a particular facet of the “tidings of great joy” that graced humanity the day that Jesus was born.
Writing about the Priesthood during the Eucharistic Revival now occurring within the Church quite naturally focuses my mind on the intimate tie between the Eucharist and the priest. Catholic Christians believe that the Eucharist is the “Source and Summit of the Christian life.” The Eucharist, Holy Communion, is recognized as holding such an exalted place in our Church and life of faith because it is, after all, Our Lord Jesus Christ himself. The Word made flesh, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father becomes present, via the miracle of Transubstantiation, on the altar table each time we celebrate Mass. Jesus Christ himself — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — comes to be with us under the appearances of bread and wine.
This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the final Sunday of our liturgical year. Pope Pius XI presciently instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925 to combat the progressive secularization of Western civilization. The Holy Father was dismayed by the increasing influence of anti-Christian values in the mainstream of society, culture, and government; his point was that despite attempts to find fulfillment in all the wrong places, only when all people “realize that Christ is King, will society at last receive the blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace, and harmony.”
The great Irish author and theologian, C.S. Lewis, once wrote that “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” This insight serves as an apt introduction to our readings this Sunday. Our call is to re-member that it is all about God — and God’s goodness — and our privilege to be instruments of that goodness.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, St. Luke presents Jesus speaking to his disciples about prayer. For the past few weeks, our Gospel readings have focused on the marks of a good disciple — love and service of God and neighbor as well as devotion to Jesus — and now Jesus adds the necessity of prayer as another such characteristic.
This Sunday, this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, begins a multi-year mission called for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to reassure us of the living presence of Jesus Christ — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — among us in the Eucharist. Our world is surely filled with troubles, frustrations, sins — but we are reassured that even among the very many real difficulties that weigh us down, the Living, Loving God is always among us, always lifting us closer to his Divine Majesty. This is very much in line with the Church’s traditions. In fact, it was to foster reverence for the Eucharist and revitalize Catholic belief in the Real Presence, that Pope Urban IV originally instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. Each year this feast affords us the privileged opportunity to revere and give thanks for the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11).
Third Sunday of Lent (A) Our Gospel reading this Sunday is the well-known story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. In this passage, St. John provides a theologically and spiritually rich commentary on the person of Jesus and the process of coming to salvation. Placed on this Third Sunday of Lent, this Gospel is intended to whet the thirst of those preparing for the life-giving water of baptism, and to remind those already baptized of the ultimate source of their strength, the streams of life-giving water already flowing within them.
Pope Francis has declared this coming Sunday to be the “Sunday of the Word of God,” a special annual celebration reminding us that “the word of God can enable the Church to experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world” (Aperuit Illis, 2).
This Sunday, we celebrate the great feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Jesus’ glory. Like Christmas itself, the Epiphany is one of the most ancient feasts in Christendom, having been observed as early as the mid 300's in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. Actually, immediately after the legalization of Christianity, the Church borrowed the pagan festival known as the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” and baptized it as the Epiphany, the feast of God’s Son gloriously shining among his people. By doing so, the Church was able to re-direct people’s allegiance from the pagan deities to Jesus Christ.
As we approach the conclusion of the liturgical year, our readings place increasing emphasis on the end of our earthly lives and the end of time. Both our first reading and Gospel this Sunday, in fact, speak of our chief hope -- that we may continue to live eternally with Christ Jesus in heaven. We take heart in Jesus’ promise that God “is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive” (Lk 20:38).
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal . . .” (Sir 35:17). These words from the Book of Sirach serve as an apt summary of our Gospel reading this Sunday. This week St. Luke’s Gospel, the Gospel of Prayer, provides yet another lesson on how to pray. Before the Lord God, Luke stresses, all must bow their heads and hearts as humble sinners.