THE WORD TO THE WISE

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19, 10:1 and Mark 2:13-17]

     Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus heard this and said to them, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.  I did not come to call the righteous but sinners." [Mark]

     In his inaugural document, Evangelii gaudium [The Joy of the Gospel], Pope Francis referred to the church as a "field hospital for the sick and wounded," and not a club for a spiritual elite.  His consistent outreach to those who have, for whatever reason, been excluded from active participation in the Body of Christ, has garnered him criticism from certain elements in the church who feel that any attention given to those whom they regard as "tax collectors and sinners" is wrong and "creates confusion."    These critics do not seem acquainted with the consistent example of Jesus, as shown in today's gospel scripture.  

     Very early on in the Gospel According to Mark, we hear of Jesus' principal critics - the scribes and Pharisees.  The scribes were experts in the Law of Moses.  As such, they were able to read and write and helped with any endeavor that required a written record.  The Pharisees prided themselves on their meticulous observance of the Law of Moses.  Jesus was a threat to their positions of social influence and power.  Later on, the elders and Sadducees would add their opposition.

     This is not merely history.  We have equivalents in our own time. The Code of Canon Law and the Catechism can become weapons of criticism in the minds and hearts of those who oppose any outreach to "sinners and tax collectors."  I remember, back in the 1970's, a movement among students that had the motto, "What would Jesus do?"  That is still a valid question.  The gospel scripture for today gives us an answer.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2024  2ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42]

     "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak Lord, for your servant is listening."  [1 Samuel]

     John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God."  The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.  Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?"  They said to him, "Rabbi.....where are you staying?"  He said to them, "Come and you will see."  [John]

     Many times in my years of campus ministry, I have had the experience of doing spiritual direction with a student who is trying to discern his or her "vocation."  Although this process is often associated with discernment toward religious life or priesthood, it can easily be applied to discernment about marriage or an area of endeavor that requires a complete orientation of a person's life: e.g. law, medicine, teaching, nursing, etc..  I have often heard the wistful words, "I just want to do what God's will is for me!"  The stories in the scripture about being "called" show that this can be experienced in many different ways: from a burning bush (Moses), to dreams (Samuel), to dramatic temple scenes (Isaiah), to curious inquiry (today's gospel from John), to a dramatic scene on the road to Damascus (Paul) to a verbal challenge (Peter) etc..  These can lead to one thinking this is how the decision is made - from above and from a pre-decided plan.  It's not that simple in ordinary life.

     A vocation is a call to "be all that you can be."  A career is how one expresses it.  Marriage or celibate religious life is a fundamental vocational choice but one must have the requisite skills to live that vocation.  A job or career can be a temporary thing.  A vocation is not a thing but a person.  Those who go into law, medicine, etc. can experience these as vocation or as career.  It will make a big difference in how they live.  

     Ultimately, Jesus' statement, "Come and you will see!" is the only real way to determine one's vocation.  It is how I learned that I really belonged in the Dominican Order.  I have had many "careers" in the Order - campus minister, pastor, itinerant preacher -  but only one vocation!  The Lord, with the cooperation of my parents, gave me certain tools and skills.  I had to decide how to use them.  Samuel, Andrew and other biblical figures had dramatic experiences.  All I had was an idea that wouldn't leave me alone.  What has been your experience?  The stories of the discerning process are the stuff of amazement.  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Samuel 16:16-23 and Mark 2:18-22]

     The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.  People came to Jesus and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"  Jesus answered them, "CAn the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  But the days are coming when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.  [Mark]

     In the Mosaic Law, fasting was only required for the Day of Atonement, but the practice was popular as a way of expressing mourning or in times of crisis.  The Pharisees and the Jewish ascetical group called "Essenes" made a point of fasting.  Jesus did not emphasize it and in today's gospel he points out that his presence was the same as that of a bridegroom - a time of rejoicing.  When he would be "taken away," the disciples would have cause to mourn and fast.  We know from the Sermon on the Mount that if a disciple of Jesus would fast, they should not make a public spectacle of it but do it privately. [Matt. 6:16-18].  Jesus was something new and the old observances were not a good expression of his mission.  That is what the image of the wine and wineskins (omitted above for length) is about.

     We have a similar situation now when some older Catholic observances are making a comeback of sorts.  Fitting them into the new direction begun by the Second Vatican Council can be somewhat difficult and awkward because the context that gave them meaning before the council does not exist any more.  The example that comes to my mind is the "fish on Friday" rule (which I personally still follow).  It was a distinguishing and required observance for Catholics before Vatican II.  When it became optional, some really felt their Catholic identity was threatened.  Fasting in the Latin rite is now mostly confined to Lent, when the context of the season gives it a special importance.  For some, like me, the "fish on Friday" rule is helpful but I don't make a law of it for others to follow.  The real focus should be on the bridegroom and his joyful presence until Lent reminds us that there are hard times ahead for disciples.  Fasting takes on its real importance then.   AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Samuel 16:1-13 and Mark 2:23-28]

     "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.  That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."  [Mark]

     The sabbath observance was, in Jesus time, one of the distinguishing characteristics of Judaism.  The rabbis in that time had distinguished at least 39 forms of "work" that could not be performed on the sabbath.  Jesus' disciples were rubbing the husks from grain, which was considered preparation of food and prohibited.  Jesus' response, summarized only in the Gospel According to Mark, is to point out the reason for the sabbath.  It is for human welfare and not a matter of worship.  He was particularly critical of the Pharisees and others who used the sabbath to prevent healing or helping someone in need, pointing out that Pharisees would rescue their farm animal on a sabbath, but prevent helping a sick person.  The purpose of the observance was lost by turning a practical and humane thing (the need for rest) into an immutable law.

     There is an expression in canon law: Cura animarum, suprema lex! [The care of souls is the highest law.]  I have often heard people accuse themselves in confession of missing Mass on Sunday because of illness or they  had to take care of an ailing child or parent.  It is one thing to miss Mass for that reason and quite another when it is merely a matter of inconvenience because of a cultural or athletic event.  Jesus urges common sense and compassion as the guide to observance.  His attitude made him an enemy to the Pharisees who were benefiting from their cynical use of the law.  

     Sunday Mass is definitely one of the distinguishing marks of Catholicism.  The commandment to gather in worship is a serious obligation.  But it is meant to remind us of our relationship to God and what that means - a good thing.  It is not intended to prevent us from doing good.  Jesus' example should be our guide.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2024  ST. ANTHONY, abbot

[1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 and Mark 3:1-6]

     "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" [Mark]

     Although this scene is part of the broader picture of mounting opposition to Jesus' preaching and ministry on the part of the Jewish religious authorities - scribes and Pharisees and Herodians - there is a valuable point to be made.  The purpose of the law regarding the sabbath is a good one, but it can be frustrated by a juridical rigidity.  It is true that Jesus could have waited until the Sabbath was over since the man with the withered hand was not in danger of death.  The Pharisees even allowed for extreme circumstances.  But the way in which they interpreted the law prevented any other good from occurring, which would put them in the position of approving evil on the Sabbath!!!

     I have encountered this question numerous times in pastoral life.  Someone will say that they inadvertently ate or drank something within an hour of receiving communion and felt that they could not go to communion.  I would have to tell them that the purpose of the regulation is to promote devotion, not to prevent a person from going to communion.  Casual disregard of this observance is not good, but when it is not a matter of disregard, the value of receiving communion far exceeds the value of an hour's spiritual preparation. Those of us who lived before 1955 or earlier can remember the regulation that required fasting from midnight!!!

     The role of law in the Body of Christ requires wisdom and prudence in its observance.  Mere literal enforcement can lead to evil being done in the name of law!!!  AMEN  

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2024  ST. MARGARET OF HUNGARY, O.P.

[1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7 and Mark 3:7-12]

     Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.  A large number of people followed from Galilee and Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.  He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.  He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him.  And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God."  He warned them sternly not to make him known.   [Mark]

     Jesus is fighting a battle on many fronts.  He is being overwhelmed by the crowds, some of whom are ill and some of whom just want to see what they have been hearing about.  He is battling the "unclean spirits" who know his identity far better than any human and that identity will only be known to humans with his death and resurrection.  He is battling the religious authorities - the scribes and Pharisees - who resent his popularity and attitude toward religious observance.  And, as we will see later on, he will be battling the misunderstanding of his own family and his closest disciples!!!  Popularity (notoriety?) or celebrity comes with a price!

     The irony in the gospel is that those who were in the best position to put their faith in Jesus are the ones who reject him.  It is the lowly folk, the sinners and tax collectors who show some faith and come for healing.  The powerless recognize Jesus' power, although even here Jesus warns about faith based only on "signs and wonders."  

     We who are now living more than 2,000 years later can ask what it is that attracts US to Jesus?  What is OUR faith based on?  Is his teaching a threat to our way of life?  A reading of the Sermon on the Mount or of the parable of the Last Judgment in the Gospel According to Matthew can be a challenge to the way we live and act.  Does it impact our belief?  The Gospel According to Mark is a challenge to accept or reject Jesus.  Where do we fit in?  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Samuel 24:3-21 and Mark 3:13-19]

     Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.  He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons..... [Mark]

     The choices made by Jesus of those who would not only accompany him but also go out themselves to preach and drive out demons are an indication of the kind of people who were drawn to him.  Although we are told in the Gospel According to Luke that Jesus spent the night in prayer on the mountain before designating the Twelve, the choices could be a bit mystifying, especially Judas Iscariot.  But they include fishermen (Peter, James, John), a political activist (Simon the Zealot), a chronic skeptic (Thomas), a tax collector (Matthew/Levi), etc.  Scripture scholars believe the number twelve simply reflected an echo of the twelve tribes of Israel which would be reflected in the "new Israel," the church.  Nevertheless, when Judas was gone, another apostle was chosen by lot: Matthias.  And St. Paul would lay claim to the title later on.  The word, "apostle," comes from the Greek word, apestelein, meaning someone who is sent on a mission.  

     Every Sunday and solemn feast day, the Body of Christ professes its faith in an "apostolic Church."  The initial preachers of the resurrection of Jesus after the Pentecost event were the apostles.  Tradition has them going all over the known world at the time.  Thomas is said to have gone to India.  Andrew is said to have been to Greece and Scotland, etc.  

     What can come through all of this is that God chooses ordinary human beings to do extraordinary things.  The apostles and those who would accompany them (as Barnabus did with St. Paul) would be the ones who made the spread of Christianity possible.  They were not perfect, as Peter showed in denying Jesus after Jesus was arrested.  And neither would their successors be perfect - then and now.  Most of us will not be doing a lot of exorcisms, if any, but we all preach in one way or another.  If we remain faithful to the message, God will do extraordinary things with us ordinary folks.  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2024 SATURDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27 and Mark 3:20-21]

     Jesus came with his disciples into the house.  Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.  When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."  [Mark]

     This has to be the cruelest cut of all.  Even Jesus' own family rejects him because he is causing such a commotion and attracting the hostile attention of the religious authorities!  His actions reflect on all his family!  They set out to do what we would nowadays call an "intervention!"  We will have to wait until next Tuesday to discover how Jesus reacts to their behavior.  Right now, the major idea, which has been in the air from the beginning of this gospel, is rejection by the Jewish "establishment."  And now rejection comes from Jesus' own family.

     In my campus ministry pastoral experience, I have received phone calls from anxious parents about a religious group that their son or daughter has become involved with.  In some cases, membership in the group meant summer experiences when the son or daughter was not permitted to communicate with family.  In a few cases, families have hired "de-programers" to go and remove the student  from the particular group and put the student through a process designed to remove the influence of the group.  The imprudence both of the group and the parents adds up to a bad situation for the student!!!  

     Jesus' family is well-intentioned, given the possible cultural and political consequences, but Jesus has come to bring something new, which will change the whole way of life of those who believe in him.  He warns elsewhere in the gospels that his teaching will cause division in families.  [Matt. 10:34]

     The Gospel According to Mark is the oldest of the four gospels, and it is the "rawest" of the four.  We will have to "fasten our seat belts" for this journey.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2024  3RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20]

     The word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you."  So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord's bidding.  [Jonah]

     As [Jesus] passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen.  Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."  Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.  They too were in a boat mending their nets.  Then he called them.  So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.  [Mark]

     One might get the impression that Jonah was like the fishermen - Simon [Peter], Andrew, James and John - that Jesus called to be apostles.  But the lectionary doesn't give us the complete story of Jonah.  God called Jonah earlier in the story and Jonah tried to run away.  He got in a boat to escape and God sent a storm.  The sailors learned Jonah was trying to run away from God, so they threw Jonah overboard, where he was swallowed by the "whale" that kept him three days and then spit him up on the beach!  Finally,  Jonah got the message that God was not to be denied.  The Gospel According to Mark (and the other two synoptic gospels) makes it look easy.  Jesus says, "Come!" and they go!  I think most of those whom I have talked to about why they chose priesthood or religious life would identify more with Jonah!!!  But the story isn't just about those who make that choice.  It's really about all of us.

     Pope Francis, in his inaugural document, The Joy of the Gospel [Evangelii gaudium] states that by virtue of our baptism, we are all called to be "missionary disciples."  Indeed, one of the principal achievements of the Second Vatican Council was to focus on baptism and its meaning for ALL the People of God, and not just for those who receive a special "call."  The ministerial priesthood and religious life are  special ways of living the baptismal commitment, but every priest or religious - every baptized person -  is FIRST called to the "priesthood of the laity."   Jesus calls all of us who are baptized.  Where are we on the spectrum between Jonah, who tried to run away, and the fishermen who, according to Mark, just got up, left everything, and became "fishers of people?"  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2024  DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN  [Monday in the 3rd week in Ordinary Time]

[2 Samuel 5:1-7 and Mark 3:22-30]

     The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."  Summoning them, [Jesus] began to speak to them in parables, "How can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand...." [Mark]

     The story of Jesus and the family "intervention" is interrupted by another story of Jesus' rejection by the religious authorities of his time - the scribes - who attack him on the basis of his power to cast out demons.  Scribes always called on an authority beyond themselves to make a point.  They tried to say that Jesus' authority came from the most powerful demon of all - Beelzebub.  Jesus responds that their argument doesn't make any sense.  Why would Satan want to drive out his own powers?  No, Jesus acted on his OWN authority.

     The scribes in question came from Jerusalem, the center of Jewish faith.  Jesus is headed for Jerusalem.  Eventually, the religious authorities will find a way to get rid of him.  We already know that some of them were already scheming with "the Herodians" (partisans of the local ruler installed by the Romans) to "put him to death!"  What they do not realize is that death has no power over Jesus.  They and the disciples will learn this only with Jesus' resurrection.  In the meantime, we join in the journey with Jesus and see how the opposition is developing.  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[2 Samuel 6:12b-15, 17-19 and Mark 3:31-35]

     The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.  Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.  A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you."  But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"  And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.  For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."  [Mark]

     Last Saturday, we were told by the Gospel According to Mark that Jesus' family thought "he was out of his mind and they set out to seize him."  The story resumes today.  The family arrives but the crowd prevents them from achieving their purpose.  This highlights one of the major themes of this gospel, the rejection of Jesus by even those closest in kin to him. But there is also another point being made.  The determination of discipleship is not a matter of kinship.  Nor is it a matter of simple intellectual or mental acceptance or vague familiarity.  Discipleship is a matter of action. [Matt. 7:22-23].  In today's gospel, Jesus puts it this way: "For whoever DOES the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." 

     I once had a poster with the words: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"  The Gospel According to Matthew [25:31-45] contains the parable of the Last Judgment with the separation of the sheep and the goats and the words, "When I was hungry you gave me to eat...."  Discipleship is more than signing off on the Creed or participating in liturgy and sacrament or devotions.  It embraces all of our life.  Hanging a cross on the wall is not enough if we are unwilling to bear it as well.  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024  ST. FRANCIS DE SALES [Bishop and Doctor of the Church]

[2 Samuel 7:4-17 and Mark 4:1-20]

     The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.  And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm.  It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.....Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.  [2 Samuel]

     Although these words from the vision of the prophet Nathan were intended for King David and refer to the son he would have through his relationship with Bathsheba - Solomon - they would have considerable influence on early Christian preaching [Hebrews 1:5].  The early community would see this "dynastic oracle" as a foreseeing of Jesus, a descendant of David.  The problem for some of the Jewish listeners of Jesus' time is that Jesus did not appear to be very "kingly," as they expected.  Jesus resisted the idea of his being a "king."  His mission had nothing to do with political power, although his message can be a threat to oppressive and greedy politicians and rulers.  One of the charges brought against Jesus before Pilate was that he was making himself a king in opposition to Caesar.  

     Although we celebrate a big feast day at the end of liturgical "Ordinary Time" entitled, briefly, "Christ the King," this is intended to show that he transcends any earthly power.  Nathan's vision can remind us of the eternity of Jesus' reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The temple which Nathan refers to would be the temple of each believer, as St. Paul would preach. [1 Cor. 6:19]

     The Old Testament is not simply ancient history.  It is part of the Word of God that reaches over the centuries to enlighten our faith and understanding of God's plan of salvation.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2024  THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE

[Acts 22:3-16 or Acts 9:1-22 and Mark 16:15-18]

     "On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.  I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'  I replied, 'Who are you, sir?'  And he said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazorean who you are persecuting.'  [Acts]

     Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." [Mark]

     How did Christianity manage to get beyond the bounds of Jerusalem and the territories surrounding it?  Why didn't it remain a kind of sect of Judaism?  One of the major reasons is personified in St. Paul the Apostle.  His dramatic conversion, recounted three times in the Acts of the Apostles, led to his three missionary journeys and the founding of new Christian communities in the eastern half of the Roman Empire.  It is St. Paul who is identified with the mission to the Gentiles and the eventual break with Judaism that made the spread of Christianity possible.  He has been called by some historians and theologians, "the second founder of Christianity."  It is his preaching, reflected in his letters, that has shaped Christian faith the most.  So, it is fitting that we celebrate the event of his conversion.

     One of the features of the three accounts in Acts that captures my attention is the line, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."  Jesus identifies himself with those who believe in him.  We see this also in the Gospel According to Matthew 25:31-45 ("As often as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me!").  It comes through strongly in the Last Supper discourse in the Gospel According to John.  All of this is a challenge to a tendency to separate Jesus from our neighbor and focus on him  (Jesus) separately and devoutly.  But, that is not true Christianity.  St. Paul's preaching on the Body of Christ, a reality larger than any institutional expression, challenges us to see Jesus beyond the bounds of Catholic or even Christian faith.  It can be helpful to read St. Paul's address to the Athenians in Acts 17:22-34 and ask ourselves how we would have reacted.  

     In God's plan of salvation, the charge recounted today in the Gospel According to Mark to go out into the whole world is personified in St. Paul.  His conversion was an act of grace.  That same grace has come to us in baptism.  Can we become "missionary disciples," as Pope Francis has challenged us to become.  This is how WE became Christians!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2024  STS. TIMOTHY AND TITUS

[2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5 and Mark 4:26-34]

     I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.  For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.  So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.  [2 Timothy]

     St. Paul did not accomplish all that he did simply by his own efforts.  He had some faithful co-workers who carried on his mission in places where he established communities of believers.  We celebrate two of those faithful disciples today, in large part because they are mentioned prominently in the letters that bear their names.  The missal offers a choice between the two in regard to the first scripture.  The passage above is taken from the Second Letter to Timothy.  It amounts to a "pep talk" of encouragement to a trusted associate to not let faith and mission grow tepid or cold in the face of the continued difficulties and challenges.

     In the past, I have preached retreats for priests, deacons and religious sisters in which I have used these lines: "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control..." and "[B]ear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God."  Both Timothy and Titus were placed in positions of leadership with all the challenges that came from proclaiming a new faith in the midst of polytheistic and morally chaotic cultures.  The hardships that came with their responsibility could only be endured with the "strength that comes from God."  To that I can only say, "AMEN!"  My own experience in positions of leadership in my Dominican province continually confirmed to me the truth of St. Paul's encouragement.  Leadership in any Christian community requires the awareness of the "Spirit of power and love and self-control" that enables a leader to "hang in there!"  But all of us who have been baptized and confirmed have received that same Spirit and are called to bear our "share of the hardship for the Gospel."   St. Paul and Sts. Timothy and Titus are cheering for us!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2024 SATURDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[2 Samuel 12:1-7a, 10-17 and Mark 4:35-41]

     Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.  They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"  He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!"  The wind ceased and there was great calm.  Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?"  They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"  [Mark]

     A friend once gave me a small plaque with the words: "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage and calms his child!"  There seems to be a little bit of both in the account in today's gospel passage from the Gospel According to Mark.  The disciples probably woke up Jesus to get him to help with bailing the boat!  What seems obvious, as Jesus tells them, is that they do not YET have faith.  And even when Jesus has calmed the wind and sea, they are still asking, "Who is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

     In the Gospel According to Mark, the disciples in this incident are acting in accord with the overall vision of the evangelist, which is that everything before Jesus' death and resurrection must be seen in the light of his death and resurrection.  So, whatever power Jesus displayed in his ministry was seen, at the time it occurred, in a kind of superstitious way.  Faith in "demons" of all kinds was very much a part of the culture. 

     The fundamental question that can arise from this is.  Is it possible to believe in Jesus without faith in the cross and resurrection?  The answer from the gospel is that we cannot.  His death and resurrection are the final proof of the power that calms the wind, the waves and the child!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024  4TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28]

     "A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kind; to him you shall listen....Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it." [Deuteronomy]

     ...Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.  The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.  [Mark]

     One of the difficulties that Jesus encountered was precisely the fact that he was someone like those who were listening to him.  How could a carpenter from Nazareth teach on his own authority or, as in today's gospel scripture, cast out demons?  Where did he get this authority?  The scribes always claimed someone else's authority for what they taught.  Jesus spoke on his own.

     After Jesus' death and resurrection, the disciples sought to understand his life, death, and resurrection in terms of the only scripture they had, which was the collection of writings and traditions which later on became "the Old Testament" - especially the Torah, the first five books - the Law of Moses.  The passage, for example, from Deuteronomy which is the first scripture for this Sunday, was interpreted to mean a foreshadowing of Jesus as Messiah.  Jesus spoke with the authority of God.

     History teaches us that true prophets live a risky life.  They confront us with our failures to live in accord with God's commands.  The latter commands are removed from public life in our own country by a "separation of church and state."  Faith in God becomes a "private matter."  When prophets speak out against the onslaught of secular political theory which supports an "anything goes" life in the name of "freedom," there will be efforts to silence, neutralize or relativize that troublesome voice.  The apostles and other early preachers experienced precisely that effort to silence them.  The same thing can happen in our own time.  Who are the prophetic voices in our own time, even in our own Catholic church?  How do we react to them?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13 and Mark 5:1-20]

     As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.  But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."

[Mark]

     The colorful story of the encounter between Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac makes three points.  The first is that Jesus is more powerful than the most powerful demons.  The second is that Jesus' miracles do not always bring about faith.  The reaction to his exorcism of the demon(s?) was one of fear and the townspeople beg Jesus to leave their area!  The third is that discipleship does not always mean dropping everything and going with Jesus.  In today's story, instead of letting the man come with him, Jesus tells the former demoniac to go home and tell his family and others about what has been done for him.  This third point is one that I have encountered in my pastoral experience and want to comment about today.

     In my years as a campus minister, I have met students who have had a powerful experience at a retreat or other gathering or joined a faith group of some kind and feel that God is calling them to missionary work outside their culture, or family.  It is hard to convince them that their "mission" might just be to continue where they are and bear witness to family or fellow students!  The "day in and day out" challenge of Christian life requires a steady commitment that is noble in itself.  Elsewhere, in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God being like leavening yeast in bread. [Matt. 13:33].  What may seem mundane to an idealistically motivated person might require a lot more "missionary effort" than they realize.  Jesus' challenge to the demoniac is to do exactly that.  The preaching of the gospel requires many different kinds of discipleship.  Careful discernment must be added to idealistic motives to produce effective discipleship!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 242-25a, 30-19:3 and Mark 5:21-43]

     "Daughter, your faith has saved you.  Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."   "Do not be afraid; just have faith." [Mark]

     The evangelist Mark once more "sandwiches" a story within a story.  Earlier, the story of Jesus' family setting out to seize him  "for he was clearly out of his mind" was interrupted by the scribes claiming Jesus was possessed by Beelzebub.  In today's gospel, the story of the raising of Jairus' daughter is interrupted by the story of the woman with hemorrhages.  The seriousness of her illness (twelve years) is placed alongside the death of the little girl to show the power of Jesus over illness and death.  The important thing to remember is that Jesus is responding to the faith being shown by the woman and Jairus.  Jesus' sensitivity to faith is demonstrated by the fact that he could sense the woman's touch of his clothing in a jostling crowd!  The single point of both stories is intensified by their being "sandwiched" together.

     The connection between faith and healing is well-known, but it is important to understand that healing is a broader reality than curing.  The latter may or may not occur in a given situation but the peace that can come from faith is always healing.  This is not some kind of psychological escape from suffering.  It is the response of God with a way forward through the suffering.  God's way of responding does not always correspond to our hopes, but the response will be there through faith and love. AMEN

       

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2024  ST. JOHN BOSCO, sdb

[2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17 and Mark 6:1-6]

     Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!  Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon:  And are not his sisters here with us?"  And they took offense at him.  Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kind and in his own house."  So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.  He was amazed at their lack of faith.  [Mark]

     It's tough on anyone to be misunderstood and rejected, but when it's one's own family and hometown folks, it's painful.  Jesus was "amazed at their lack of faith."  Palestinian society of the time was very class conscious.  Jesus was getting above himself.  The old oriental proverb was very much in force: The nail that stands out gets hammered down.  In the version of this event recounted in the Gospel According to Luke, the townspeople were about to throw him physically off a cliff!!!  But this is just one more example - a particularly neuralgic one - of the rejection Jesus experienced and is a major theme of the Gospel According to Mark.

     There may be a challenge in all of this for us to consider.  The town folks and Jesus' family thought they knew him and had him "put in his place."  But they were mistaken because they were locked into their socio-cultural context and could not accept something or someone completely beyond that context.  It was more than their faith could bear.  I've experienced this, pastorally, in folks who could not accept the changes that occurred after the Second Vatican Council, or even now, in the resistance Pope Francis is experiencing from some Catholics.  The work of the Holy Spirit can be thwarted just as Jesus was in his own hometown because of a hardness of heart. [Mark 3:5].  The work of preaching the gospel cannot be locked into one period of history and imprisoned in nostalgia.  The folks in Nazareth and Jesus' own family are teaching us an important lesson.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024 THURSDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 and Mark 6:7-13]

     Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick....So they went off and preached repentance.  The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.  [Mark]

     The Gospel According to Mark has identifiable "segments," with familiar traits.  Chapters 3 and 6 each begin with Jesus being rejected and with Jesus calling the special Twelve to be with him and help him preach.  Today, with chapter six, after being rejected by his people in Nazareth, Jesus summons the Twelve and sends them on mission to preach repentance and to heal.  Their lifestyle was to be an important part of that preaching.  They weren't to keep looking for better accommodations and should accept whatever hospitality is offered.

     For us Dominicans, this should remind us of St. Dominic's instructions to his first followers.  The preacher's lifestyle is a part of the message.  I am reminded of the media guru, Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum: "The medium is the message!"  This, in turn, raises the fundamental question for any Christian: "How does the way I live reflect what I believe?"  Does the consumer-oriented culture we live in shape our faith?  Do our political beliefs serve as filters for the gospel?  Are the "demons" that the Twelve are called to cast out existing in a more subtle form in our day in material and political considerations?  

     The gospels were written, in part, for early Christian preachers to read and shape their lives accordingly for the sake of the mission.  What shape are we in?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024  THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD

[Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40]

     When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of  Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord....[Luke]

     The "infancy narratives" in the Gospels According to Luke and Matthew are meant to be read in the light of the overall meaning of each of them.  The stories are filled with symbolic figures and invite reflection on the entire meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  The feast day has the traditional title of "candlemas," because it has its origins in a pagan celebration of the  midpoint between the Winter and Spring equinoxes, when days would begin to have more light.  So, candles are blessed and carried in procession in many Catholic locations.  In the "Canticle of Simeon," (his prayer of gratitude on seeing the infant Jesus in the temple), Jesus is portrayed as "a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel."  The Gospel According to Luke was composed for a predominantly Gentile Christian community.

     Jesus is presented both as fulfillment of ancient prophecy (Malachi) and God's plan of salvation with a hint of warning that this would mean dire things.  Simeon's own prophecy speaks of the child being "destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted."  

     The light that candles bring is a symbol of the "light of revelation" represented in the presence of Jesus in the temple.  The figure of Anna is a figure of all those who encounter Christ and speak "about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem."  

     The feast day is rich in symbolism and sentiment and is a  good break in the midst of the bleakness of Winter!  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Kings 3:4-13 and Mark 6:30-34]

     The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.  He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while."  People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.  So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.  People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.  They hastened there on foot from all the town and arrived at the place before them.  [Mark]

     Anyone who has attended a Wednesday public audience of the kind that occurs at the Vatican can understand today's gospel passage!  The pope arrives in the little white jeep "popemobile" and there can be a lot of enthusiastic jostling and elbowing among those who are close to the path.  To those toward the back, the pope is a distant white figure!  Similar experiences are reported by those who make the effort to line the streets when the pope comes to visit the USA or elsewhere.

     One of the constant themes in the Gospel According to Mark is the popular response to Jesus.  The crowds are frequently mentioned and often become a problem.  On one occasion, Jesus has to get in a boat and the crowds stay on the shore!  There are incidents like the sick woman in the crowd who just tries to touch his garment or the paralytic who is carried up on a roof to get him lowered in front of Jesus!  Today we have the almost comical scene where the crowds on the shore figure out where the boat is headed and run around to get there ahead of Jesus.  Fame comes with a price.

     In the Gospel According to Mark, the crowds serve as a counterpoint to the scribes and Pharisees.  But the crowds, like the apostles, will still not know who Jesus truly is until his death and resurrection.  His significance is not in the miracles and wonders that he works, even though it is these things that draw the crowds!  This can point to a question in popular faith.  Do we need miracles in order to believe in Jesus?  Is his loving sacrifice on the cross insufficient?  How many miracles does it take before faith is firm?  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2024   5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39]

     If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!  If I do willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.....Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win as many as possible.  To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.  I have become all things to all to save at least some. [1 Corinthians]

     When St. Dominic, early in the 13th century, went on a diplomatic mission as the companion to his bishop, Diego of Osma, they encountered a heresy in Southern France that had gained popularity.  The heretics were known as the Albigensians, from an area in France (Albi).  The official preachers sent by Rome to counter the heresy were bishops and abbots who traveled in great state and were having no impact.  The Albigensian preachers went about in poor state, like most of the people whom they preached to, and were gaining converts.  Dominic and Diego came up with the idea of founding a religious order dedicated to sound preaching, which was given the official title of the Order of Preachers [O.P. after our names], by Pope Honorius III.  The nickname is "Dominicans." The brothers were to beg for their living to support their preaching.  They were to become "mendicants," from the Latin word mendicare, meaning "to beg."

     I joined the Dominican order in 1964, right out of college.  During my time of formation, I was continually reminded that my education was being paid for by the nickels and dimes of people who donated to the Shrine of St. Jude at our parish in Chicago.  Since, as student  brothers, we were not employed in any official capacity, we had to rely on the generosity of people who heard our preaching.  I am still very much aware of that generosity as I see our young brothers preparing for what I have done since my ordination in 1971.  I send this reflection every morning because, like St. Paul, I feel that I have been called to do this, and woe to me if I don't do it - whether by internet or by pulpit.  And my life outside of that task has to preach as well.

     At this time of year, the particular regional part of the Order that I belong to - the Southern Dominican Province - reaches out to friends and benefactors to beg for help in educating our young brothers and taking care of our elderly and infirm brothers - a category in which I increasingly find myself at almost 81 years of age.  We call this the "1216 Campaign" from the year the Order was founded.  You can send a donation made out to SOUTHERN DOMINICAN PROVINCE c/o P.O. Box 8129, New Orleans, LA 70182.  If you can remember to do so, indicate the 1216 Campaign - Fr. RB on the little line because the office will inform me and I can send a personal "THANK YOU" note.  You can also go to <www.opsouth.org/giving>   to donate online.

     One of the early nicknames of the Order was "the Holy Preaching."  You can help us continue that mission just as St. Paul depended on his listeners to support him.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024   ST. AGATHA, virgin and martyr

[1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 and Mark 6:53-56]

     After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.  As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.  They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.  Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.  [Mark]

     The Gospel According to Mark is the earliest in chronological order of composition of the four gospels.  The gospels according to Matthew and Luke borrowed a great deal from it, but added and elaborated the "good news" of Jesus from various other sources and shaped their compositions to reach the particular communities for which they wrote. [The Gospel According to John did this, too, but did not borrow from Mark.]  So, in the Gospel According to Mark, the various elements of Jesus' ministry are presented - preaching, healing, exorcisms - as well as the conflict between Jesus and the "powers" that be - the scribes, Pharisees and demons.  All of these are meant to be understood in the light of the cross.  This is why the disciples and crowds and others do not seem to recognize Jesus' true identity. (Only the demons do and Jesus silences them.)  Finally it is the pagan centurion at the foot of the cross who says "Truly this man was the Son of God." [15:39]

     This can help us understand the crowd scenes like the one in today's passage from Mark.  Jesus is perceived as a healer or exorciser but nothing more.  However, the gospel uses a Greek verb that means both heal and save, and not the usual word for healing from an illness.  The crowds (and the disciples) do not understand what Jesus is really doing for them.  The meaning of all of Jesus' ministry in the Gospel According to Mark is to be found in the cross and resurrection.  It can be a challenge to begin reading the Gospel According to Mark with the passion account, but doing so can help us to understand everything that went before.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024 ST. PAUL MIKI ET AL. [martyrs]

[1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30 and Mark 7:1-13]

     "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"  "

     "You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition... You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.  And you do many such things."  [Mark]

     There were, at least in Jesus' time, 613 precepts found in the Law of Moses (first 5 books of the Old Testament - the "Torah.").   These included the Ten Commandments.  The scribes and Pharisees prided themselves on observing these precepts.  Inevitably there were conflicts in the manner of observance that required decisions about interpretation.  There will always be folks looking for "loopholes" that will allow them to act against the overall purpose of the law.  Jesus attacked the scribes and Pharisees for doing exactly that.  They found a way around the commandment to honor father and mother by claiming they had dedicated all they (the scribes) had to be dedicated to God and could not be used to support parents in their old age or needs.  This, in Jesus' view, circumvented the fundamental law of the Ten Commandments and the even more fundamental law (also found in the Torah) of love of God and neighbor!  In the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of "straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel." [Matt. 23:24]

     When religious etiquette and rubrics become more important than the faith they are meant to express, there is a big problem.  In a church like ours, with its many, many "traditions," the attitude easily arises that gives an almost magical power to procedures and gestures, as if the grace of God is dependent on them.  The important development of canon law in the 10th century A.D. led to an unfortunate view of the church as being like a civil society, governed by laws and jurisprudence.  The Body of Christ is much larger than that.  The purpose of the law, not the letter,  should be the guide to its observance.  

     Washing one's hands before eating is good hygienic practice, but when it becomes a matter of religion, there is a problem.  The same can be said about human devotional traditions that can become religious "fads" and lead to judgments against those who do not follow those fads.  We know what Jesus thought about that.  What do we think?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Kings 10:1-10 and Mark 7:14-23]

     "Hear me, all of you, and understand.  Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile....From within the person, from their heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.  All these evils come from within and they defile."  [Mark]

     Jesus' attitude toward the Mosaic Law gained him enemies among those who were strict about the observance of that law in all its precepts.  Two of the observances, in particular, are featured in the Gospel According to Mark: the sabbath and dietary conduct.  Jesus healed on the sabbath and did not require his disciples to observe washing of hands or other behavior connected with eating.  The scribes and Pharisees referred to these and other observances as the "traditions of the elders."  As we saw in yesterday's gospel passage, those "traditions" could be manipulated to accomplish unjust results, e.g. failure to support one's parents in old age.

     Those of us who remember the Broadway musical, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF may recall the song, TRADITION!!!.  "Traditions" can shape identity to such an extent that any behavior that seems at odds with them is met with challenge and even hostility.  We have our own as Catholics and they can differ according to cultures and nationalities!  An important distinction can be made between tradition with a capital "T" and tradition with a small "t."  Tradition with a capital "T" would refer to such things as the scriptures or Creed or other truths handed down to us from apostolic times and early Church Fathers.  These are essential and unchangeable. Tradition with a small "t" refers to the various forms of liturgical etiquette and behavior that are characteristic of Catholic life and can change by custom or Church law.  

     In today's gospel, Jesus points to the importance of interior integrity that should guide observance.   Why we do something can be more important than what we do.  It is true that "good intentions" are not the only thing, but behavior finds its roots in them.  What "traditions" do we follow that are part of our faith?  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024  THURSDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Kings 11:4-13 and Mark 7:24-30]

"Let the children be fed first.  For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."  She replied and said to him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."  [Mark]

     This incident, reported also in Matthew 15:21-28, reflects an important moment in the history of Christianity.  On the surface, Jesus is responding compassionately to a mother's plea.  On a broader level, however, the important question of the meaning of Jesus' mission is at stake.  The woman was not Jewish.  Was Jesus' mission solely to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel?" [Matt. 15:24]?  Or was Jesus' mission meant for the whole world?  If the woman (and others) were to accept Jesus as Messiah, would she be required to follow Jewish observances in the Law of Moses?  This would become one of the most important challenges the early Christian community would face.  By the time the Gospel According to Mark was composed - and it is the earliest - the Council of Jerusalem had already occurred and the decision had been made that Gentile converts were to be held to a minimum observance (no food offered to idols and no blood of animals).  St. Paul's decision to concentrate on preaching to Gentiles would have enormous consequences for the future of Christianity. [Acts 18:6].  

     When Pope St. John Paul ll proclaimed a "new evangelization," he was referring to an effort to renew Catholic faith in those who had become separated from the church or grown indifferent to the faith.  That task has proven to be a very big one and the results have been mixed.  The "Eucharistic Revival" which the American Bishops have promoted is in no small part the result of polls showing a lack of understanding of Catholic faith in "the real presence."   Pope Francis has urged all baptized Catholics to become "missionary disciples."  Our mission is to evangelize the world, including Catholics who have become "Gentiles by default!"  "Preaching to the choir" is not going to get us very far!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19 and Mark 7:31-37]

     And people brought to [Jesus] a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.  He took him by himself away from the crowd.  He put his finger into the man's ears and spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")  [Mark]

     In reading the gospels, one may be content with the simple human situation of Jesus healing someone.  But there is more because we have the benefit of 2,000 + years of reflection. In the Gospel According to Mark, this scene also carried the theme of Jesus' growing popularity plus the "messianic secret," i.e. that his real identity as Son of God will only be known at his death and resurrection.  So, in the story,  he asks the people not to talk about his healings, which was an almost futile request.   Mark also may be referring to the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5-6 in regard to the Day of the Lord: Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened.  At the end of today's passage, the crowd seems to acknowledge this by saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!"   But their focus is on the healing and not on the identity of Jesus.  In good story-telling, this is all part of building the dramatic tension!

     We are warned in the Gospel According to Mark that we cannot truly know Jesus until we accept his death on the cross, no matter how many miracles he worked or parables he preached.  The early Church had to face this in preaching.  How could the Savior of all be someone who was executed like a common criminal?  Can we be like the pagan centurion at the foot of the cross and say, "Truly this man was the Son of God?"  Can we bring it forward and proclaim, "Truly this man IS the Son of God!?"  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2024  ST. SCHOLASTICA, osb

[1 Kings 12:26-32, 13:33-34 and Mark 8:1-10]

     Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.  They also had a few gish.  He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.  They ate and were satisfied.  [Mark]

     There are two accounts of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the Gospels According to Mark and Matthew.  Scripture scholars generally conclude that it is a matter of telling the same story twice with details changed.  After that, opinions vary as to WHY the same story is told twice.  St. Augustine and other church fathers thought one story indicated Jesus feeding a Jewish crowd and the second story had him feeding a Gentile crowd.  There is "eucharistic language" that can be noted: "blessed, broken and given" and "They ate and were satisfied.."  There is a lot of speculation about the numbers, etc.

     What is clear is that the disciples simply misunderstood what Jesus was doing beyond feeding a multitude.  Until they realized that the cross is the key to understanding all that Jesus did, they would remain uncomprehending.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, there is considerable emphasis on the word  "sacrifice,"  The crucifix is prominently displayed at the altar.  We are not celebrating another "multiplication of the hosts" but remembering Jesus' sacrifice of himself for our sakes and that we are called to give of ourselves to others as Jesus' disciples. The  "bread of life" is food for the journey and not just personal spiritual maintenance.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2024  6TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 and Mark 1:40-45]

     A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it.  Be made clean."  The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.  Then warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what MOses prescribed; that will be proof for them.  The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.  [Mark]

     There are two things to note from today's passage from the Gospel According to Mark: leprosy was more than a disease, it was a social status of separation, and the paradox of Jesus' healing and then commanding it be kept secret.

     In Jesus' time, leprosy could be any number of skin conditions which would require the declaration of a priest to be leprous and thus require the leper to live apart from society as "ritually unclean."  At one point, during the COVID crisis, lots of people experienced this kind of isolation.The medical condition known as Hansen's disease (leprosy properly so-called) is rare nowadays in most places.  But there are forms of  "social leprosy" which are unfortunately more common.  These are declared and spread by prejudice and ignorance.  Recent examples include some of the reactions to Pope Francis' document on blessings.  The challenge is a direct one.  What would Jesus do?

     The apparent paradox of Jesus' demanding secrecy about his healings and exorcisms rests on the agenda of the evangelist Mark.  Jesus' life and ministry were not to be seen from the viewpoint of miracles but from the viewpoint of the cross.  Acceptance of Jesus means acceptance of his death on the cross for our sakes.  A true disciple is one who, like the centurion at the foot of the cross, points to Jesus as "truly the Son of God."  The miracles and wonders make sense only in that way.  In a strange way we are challenged to read this gospel by beginning with the events of Holy Week and the crucifixion!  The "agenda" of the Gospel According to Mark seems to echo St. Paul's preaching which focused on the cross and resurrection of Jesus as the "filter" through which all of his life and ministry should be seen.  The leper in today's gospel experienced this death (leprosy) and resurrection (healing).  Perhaps we can do a better job of it in reaching out to the socially declared "lepers" of our time.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

[James 1:1-11 and Mark 8:11-13]

     Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith  produces perseverance.  And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may ber perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.  [James]

     Wisdom and perseverance are virtues that have been very much a part of my own life and certainly the lives of the many college students I have encountered in my years in campus ministry.  The challenge is found in having the wisdom TO persevere when the challenges and woes are considerable.  I have found that reflecting on one's experience to see what lessons can be learned is a great way to prepare for the next challenge.  This can be done by one's self or with the help of a wise counselor.  The process is one that also calls for perseverance because recalling a difficult experience, especially when it is fresh - broken relationship, academic woes, vocation, financial problems, children, you name it - can be painful.  It can be hard to "relive" the experience!   The Letter of James assures us that praying for wisdom is guaranteed to get a positive response.

     I have had the experience in pastoral life of responding to a particular challenge in a way that helped  and wondering HOW did I know to respond in that particular way?   The only explanation I could come up with is that the Good Lord provided the wisdom and common sense that was needed at the time.  Today the Letter of James urges us to have confidence that God will do that for any of us who ask in faith.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2024 BL. JORDAN OF SAXONY, OP

[James 1:12-18 and Mark 8:14-21.  The scriptures may vary at Dominican locations. ]

     Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life that [God] promised to those who love him.  No one experiencing temptation should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.  Rather, each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire.  Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.  [James]

     The well-known comedian Flip Wilson had a routine in which he portrayed a woman named Geraldine who had a good angel on one shoulder whispering into his ear and a bad angel on the other shoulder doing the same.  The dialog was funny and usually resulted in the line, "The devil made me buy that dress!"  The funny routine, though, portrayed the way many people think about the conflict that arises in moral decision making.  The Guardian Angel squares off with an almost guardian devil.  The Letter of James, in the first scripture for today, exhorts Christians to understand that temptation does not come from outside a person but from inside.  Marketing programs are designed to go after that "inside."  

     Are we mere victims of ourselves?  St. Thomas Aquinas, among others in Catholic tradition, reminds us that God gave us reason to guide and control passions.  We often refer to reason as "common sense."  Addiction, for example,  begins with small decisions made against common sense ("Just one time won't hurt, etc.), and leads to loss of freedom.  When we fail to use the most important resource God has given us to deal with temptation, we must pay the consequences.  Yes, our reasoning may be impacted by background and ignorance, but faith can point to Christian moral tradition and the teaching of the Church to provide a beacon in what can be a real struggle.  The real sin may be in refusing to get help because the temptation is so attractive ("It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission!")  Long term consequences are hard to think about when passion is aroused, but the Letter of James reminds us that the rewards of perseverance are eternal.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2024  ASH WEDNESDAY

[Joel 2:12-18; 1 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 and Matthew 6:1-6, 6-8]

     Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. [Joel]

     Which is more difficult: to rend the heart or to rend the garments?  I suspect the garments would win out for most folks in Lent.  That usually means "giving up" something that we'll go back to doing after Lent is over.  Yes, rending the garments might include even going to Mass every day.  Going to confession might be closer to rending the heart but what happens after we exit the confessional? Rending the heart may mean a "hidden Lent" but it may be the most productive one.

     What do I mean then?  After all, most dioceses do impose a "public" penitential practice such as fast and abstinence [Ash Wednesday and Good Friday] and abstinence [no meat] on the Fridays of Lent.  Those serve as minimal reminders [along with purple vestments!] of the season, which finds its whole purpose in Holy Week.  But do they "rend the heart?"  I suggest that reading the passion account in one of the gospels [beginning with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem] and then evaluating our lives in the light of all that Jesus underwent is a good beginning.  This is a broader perspective than the Way of the Cross, a devotion that helps the process to some extent.  

     Lent points us to the cross and resurrection.  Rending the heart means "dying" to whatever in our lives is deadening - addictions, hatreds, poor care of our health, etc. - so that we can "rise" with Jesus to a new life.  What does "picking up where we left off" after Lent accomplish?  The ashes we receive today are not simply a reminder that we are "dust" but can be an invitation to a resurrection and new life in Christ.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2024  THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

[Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Luke 9:22-25]

     "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised....  If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it,  What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"  [Luke]

     Jesus' words are spoken after the first of three predictions of his death and resurrection.  But, in the telling of this by the evangelist Luke, is Jesus speaking only about himself?  Is he not, rather,  making a prediction about anyone who follows him?  Lent brings us face to face with the fundamental realities of death and resurrection in Christian faith.  These are not simply events at the end of life or the end of time.  They are a continual process.  "Dying" to oneself and rising in new life are a daily demand.

     On Ash Wednesday we accepted ashes on our forehead as a sign of repentance (dying to oneself).  But it is not repentance for repentance' sake, it is for the sake of new life.  Although "giving up something" and attending the devotion of the Way of the Cross, and receiving the sacrament of reconciliation can be  important parts of this during Lent, we can do more by intentionally entering into the story of Holy Week, to which Lent is pointing us.  One way to do this is by reading each of the four accounts of the Passion in the gospels and letting those give light and life to our observance of Lent.  Where is Jesus' death and resurrection at work in our own lives?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024  FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

[Isaiah 58:1-9a and Matthew 9:14-15]

     Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: that a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes?  Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?  This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those  bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.  [Isaiah]

     

     Fasting seems to have acquired a certain fashionableness nowadays.  I hear students speak of a "date fast" or a "social media fast."  Other folks speak of it as a way to lose weight!  In the Old Testament, fasting was usually associated with mourning.  It was required by the Mosaic Law only on the Day of Atonement, but there are descriptions of fasting as a mode of preparing for a great event as well.  I am old enough to remember the requirement to fast from food and drink from midnight if I wanted to receive the Eucharist on that day!!

     The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees adopted fasting as a public expression of faith.  In today's gospel, they question Jesus about this because he did not require it of his disciples.  Jesus replies that he has come to bring about a time of rejoicing (a wedding) and not a time of mourning!  Isaiah thunders against fasting that is a display while others are being oppressed and naked and hungry.  In the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus makes fasting a private observance that cannot be noticed by others who were doing it in order to BE noticed. [Matt. 6:16-18].

     Fasting should have a positive purpose.  When it is a matter of faith, fasting should direct us toward the love of God and neighbor.  The bumper sticker that I've seen, the words "live simply so that others may simply live" captures some of the idea.  Those little cardboard "rice bowls" that show up in the church vestibule  during Lent can have the same effect.  Perhaps the expression "giving up" in Lent could be better expressed by "giving TO!"  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2024 SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

[Isaiah 58:9b-14 and Luke 5:27-32]

     If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for your in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday....[Isaiah]

     "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy did not need a physician, but the sick do.  I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."  [Luke]

      Every Lenten season I recall from my initial formation days a little card on the door of one of my fellow Dominican student brothers which read: REPENT!*.  The asterisk pointed to a small line at the bottom of the card which read: "If you have already repented, kindly disregard this message."  Can we ever disregard it?  I hope not.  Jesus is calling those who are attentive to that message of repentance.  The scribes and Pharisees who disdained the "tax collectors and sinners" with whom Jesus was dining considered themselves to be the righteous ones.  

     Isaiah points to the way of repentance, which might mean a change in the way we look and act as a society, let alone as individuals!  It might mean the way in which our Church treats some people by trying to exclude them from God's grace (as if that is actually possible!)!  I have pointed out in parish missions on the night of the Penance Service that reception of the sacrament of reconciliation is not the end but the beginning of repentance!  The scriptures offer us ample examples of true repentance if only we put aside political and cultural prejudices which blind us to the "tax collectors and sinners."  Addressing those prejudices during Lent (and anytime!) is one way of "rending the heart and not the garments."  Jesus is calling.  Is our "righteousness" making us deaf?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2024 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

[Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15]

     "This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel."  [Mark]

     During my years as a full-time itinerant preacher (2009-2019) I was usually beginning a parish mission on the First Sunday of Lent.  If the scripture cycle was "B," the gospel passage from the Gospel According to Mark would appear.  When that happens (and even now), I like to address the congregation and ask them to repeat after me each line of the proclamation quoted above.  Then I congratulate them on preaching their first homily!  Those three lines are Jesus' own proclamation and we are commissioned ourselves to proclaim it.

     How does this "commission" occur?  Baptism! Pure and simple!  The passages from Genesis and 1 Peter that comprise the first two scriptures for this Sunday speak of baptism as the sign of God's covenant and deliverance.  Pope Francis has challenged all of us who are baptized to be "missionary disciples."  Does this mean we have to go out on the streets and wave a bible to get attention.  That is certainly one way to do it but not likely the way of the majority of Catholics, at any rate.  I think it does mean more than passively going to Mass and the other sacraments and considering that to be all that is expected of us as disciples.  What is the connection between that observance and the rest of our daily lives?  How do we bring the covenant alive so that others may witness the "kingdom of God?"

     Jesus had to face temptation in the desert.  The Gospel According to Mark barely mentions it today.  We might have to go to Matthew 4:1-17 or Luke 4:1-13 to see that he was confronted with power, wealth and prestige to combat before he began to preach.  It was a temptation to abandon his integrity and cheapen his identity.  Our culture offers all those temptations and more.  We see it daily in political life and in the empty promises of social media and celebrity life.  Lent is a chance to confront our integrity and the needs of our neighbor that our integrity as a baptized Christian commissions us to do.  Jesus' simple message applies to each one of us and we are asked to share it.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT

[Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 and Matthew 25:31-36]

     "Then the righteous will answer him and say 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'  And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"  [Matthew]

     The scene depicted by Jesus in the parable of the Last Judgment is dramatically presented in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican on the back wall behind the altar.  It was painted by MIchelangelo between 1536 and 1541.  In the center of that scene is a naked figure who is horrified by the realization that he had not "seen" and "did."  The scene is a challenge to examine one's conscience both individually and  corporately.  Are we "seeing" the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick and the imprisoned and responding to their needs?  Do we "see" Christ in them or do we try to legislate them away.  Do we respond like the disciples to the Syro-Phoenician woman and ask Jesus to send them away because they keep calling after us?  How do the political and social responses of our nation to migrants and the homeless fit into this picture?

     If the broad picture is too much to ponder, what are WE as individuals seeing and doing?  Are we more concerned with defending and protecting our food, drink, clothing, time schedules - our standard of living?  We can put the Bible down and try to forget the parable, but the parable is living in front of us.  As the figure in the scene can tell us, "You can run but you can't hide!"  Christ stands in front of us no matter where we go.  How confidently can we approach the Last Judgment?  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT

[Isaiah 55:10-11 and Matthew 6:7-15]

     "....and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us....  If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

     The first part of the quotation will be familiar to us!  We pray it probably thousands of times.  We pray for forgiveness and we may go to the sacrament of God's mercy and forgiveness - the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  However, do we pay attention to the words that we are saying?  Are we really asking to be forgiven to the extent that WE forgive?  The second half of the quote comes right after the words "deliver us from evil."  We don't say that second half but it's right there in the same size of type.  It's not a footnote.  It reinforces the necessity to forgive others if we expect God to forgive us.  So, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is really only the first step!  Just a bit earlier in the Sermon on the Mount (before the Lord's Prayer), at 5:23-24, Jesus challenges us to reconciliation even before we go to worship!.  He even provides a parable to help us later on in the Gospel According to Matthew at 18:21-35 (the parable of the Unforgiving Servant.)  He also offers us a genuine process of reconciliation at Matthew 18:15-20. 

     All of this is more than a hint.  It goes to the heart of Jesus' teaching about love of God AND neighbor.  The season of Lent challenges us, in the words of the prophet Joel (which we heard on Ash Wednesday), to "rend your hearts and not your garments..."  The end of the parable of the Unforgiving Servant tells us we must forgive from our heart.  Can we do that?  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2024 - WEDNESDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT

[Jonah 3:1-10 and Luke 11:29-32]

     The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.....[Jonah]

     While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah."

     Jonah was familiar with signs.  When God first called him, he ran away, got in a boat and tried to get away from God.  God sent a storm, the sailors figured out what was going on and tossed Jonah overboard where the "whale" swallowed him and spit him up on the beach!  That's when God said, "Had enough?  Now go do what I tell you."  What God wanted was for Jonah to call the Ninehvites to repentance.  He became a "sign" and the Ninehvites believed and repented. [In Matthew 12:38-42, the sign would be Jonah's 3 days in the whale, which Jesus would experience in the grave before resurrection.]

     I have often heard people say to me, "I wish God would give me a sign so I would know what to do!"  I ask them to look at their own thoughts and the examples of people around them for clues.  Are you thinking things that are good and offer direction?  Jonah was a  pessimist and did not believe the Ninehvites would listen to him!  He accomplished a great thing with God's help.  Running away from God got him nowhere but in a whale!  God had to talk to him twice.  How many times does God have to talk to US?  We might need to talk to a wise counselor who can help us discern God's voice, but running away is not a good option.  Maybe a determined effort to listen during Lent can help!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2024  THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

[1 Peter 5:1-4 and Matthew 16:13-19]

     "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  [Matthew]

     According to one source I checked, this feast day originated in an early Roman Christian version of All Souls Day, which included their memory of Sts. Peter and Paul.  When their personal feast day was moved to June 29th, the idea was expanded to include anyone who had served in the role of Peter, the leader of the Church.  So, today we honor a long list of saints and scoundrels who have served as Pope.  Even a superficial study of papal history will more than justify the words "saints and scoundrels!"  The recent tendency to canonize deceased popes (Pius X, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II)  is, I'm guessing, a way of saying, "You're a saint for doing this!!!"

     Nevertheless, the job itself and the reason for its existence deserve some consideration so we can better understand the reason we honor anybody who takes on the responsibility.  The pope is not simply the spiritual and doctrinal leader of the Church, he is also a "head of state" - the Vatican City State - which is the last shred of what were the Papal States in Italy.  The Dominican nuns here at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, TX, where I serve as chaplain, receive the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and I get to see it.  The round of audiences, decisions, etc. etc. is exhausting to read, let alone to do.  I think we could include on the list for today the current occupant of the "Chair" and not require him to be dead!  It's never too early to say "Thank you!"  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT

[Ezekiel 18:21-28 and Matthew 5:20-26]

     "I  tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.  But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool," will be liable to fiery Gehenna.  Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift." [Matthew]

     These words of Jesus come from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel According to Matthew.  What Jesus does is to go beyond surface behavior toward others [scribes and Pharisees] to the very way we FEEL about others.  Forgiveness has to come from the INSIDE.

     Jesus' startling statement about reconciliation before worship is just the first mention of it.  The Lord's Prayer, which we say thousands of times in our life, asks Our Father to forgive us as we forgive others, and is followed immediately with the warning that if we do not forgive others, we cannot expect forgiveness from God.  Later on in Matthew, Jesus even provides a process for reconciliation! [Matt. 18:15-20] which is followed by the admonition to forgive "not seven times but seventy-seven times" and the parable of the Unforgiving Servant."

     What if the other person isn't open to reconciliation?  The process in 18:15-20 speaks to this.  But we are not exempt from making the attempt.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation, which aims first at our relationship to God, is just the first step.  The relationship with our neighbor remains for action!!  I have heard more than once a person, after mentioning an injury, asking "Do I HAVE TO forgive the person who caused the injury?  The answer from Jesus is YES.   This does not settle the need for justice and restoration for the damage when this can be done. But forgiveness cannot be conditioned on that, nor can anyone prevent us from forgiving.  That is totally in our control.

     If we are tempted to say to any of the Sermon on the Mount, "That's easier said than done!", we might ponder Jesus' own merciful behavior all the way to the cross and beyond.  That is our challenge as Christians.  Lent is a good time to ask ourselves how we respond to that challenge.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT

[Deuteronomy 26:16-19 and Matthew 5:43-48]

     'You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AND HATE YOUR ENEMY.  But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.....For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?  Do not the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?  Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. [Matthew]

     The Sermon on the Mount is a kind of catechism of Jesus' fundamental teachings.  It tells us what should be the essential characteristics of a Christian.  What is it that should set Christians apart from others so that our lives proclaim our faith?  Already we have heard the difficult command to forgive those who have hurt us, but now Jesus tells us we must not only forgive them, we must also love them!!  This is when the squirming begins!

     It is a well-known psychological strategy in an adversarial situation from war to football that one must not think of the adversary as human but as an object to be destroyed - i.e. "the enemy!"  So, we can fool ourselves into thinking that our "enemy" is some kind of impersonal object or "force" to be removed and made non-existent, or, at least avoided!  Violence has its roots in this kind of thinking.  Another way of putting this is to use the word, "labeling."  Once we put a "label" on someone or something, that becomes their identity to us.  When it is another human being, Jesus tells us we are straying from his path to holiness or "perfection:"  "Perfection" in today's gospel scripture means "whole and complete."  If we love only those who love us, we are less than complete Christians.  Lent offers us an opportunity to ponder Jesus' words from the cross: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."  Those words include us!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2024  2ND SUNDAY OF LENT

[Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31b-34; Mark 9:2-10]

     "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  [Mark]

     If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him.  [Romans]

     "I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."  [Genesis]

     If one journeys in Lent with the Gospel According to Mark, the ignorance of the disciples during Jesus' lifetime on earth becomes a bit frustrating.  Why couldn't they see and believe what we see and believe: JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD?  There is a voice from heaven at the Jordan when Jesus is "baptized" by John the Baptist [Mark 1:10-11]: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."   There is the voice from heaven on the mountain in today's gospel passage: "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  [Mark 9:7]  Finally, at the foot of the cross, there is the witness of the pagan centurion: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" [Mark 16:39].  What else did the disciples need?  The answer is that the evangelist wanted to point out that only at the cross was Jesus' full identity acknowledged [even then by a pagan] and that any disciple of Jesus must accept the cross and see everything Jesus did in the light of it.

     The passages from Genesis and Romans today speak to God's gift of his only Son to be handed over to human sinfulness and executed like a criminal.  Abraham was tested and passed the test:  "You did not withhold from me your own beloved Son!"]  Paul eloquently  speaks of God's gift of "his own Son." 

     Lent leads us to the cross and the empty tomb.  It is the reason for the journey.  The disciples might have been forgiven for not seeing Jesus as the Son of God in all his signs and preaching because Jesus was something entirely new in their experience.  We have the benefit of all the scriptures and Tradition.  Do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and live our lives in the light of that faith?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2024 MONDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Daniel 9:4b-10 and Luke 6:36-38]

     "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  Stop judging and you will not be judged.  Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed down together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."  [Luke]

     When I was a grade school student, attending the small Catholic elementary school in my hometown, the state of Louisiana granted a number of textbooks and school supplies on a regular basis.  One of the school supplies was a foot long ruler made of yellow pine with the "Golden Rule" printed on it: DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU!  That rule is an ancient one and it is at the center of Jesus' words to us in today's gospel scripture, which is taken from St. Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount (which in St. Luke is given on a plain!).  Jesus' admonition is to "be merciful just as your Father is merciful."  

     It is not easy to think about that admonition - that Golden Rule - in daily life.  Generally we may think if we are nice to other people, they will be nice to us.  That's the easy part.  But if we are called to discern the qualifications or skills of someone for a particular task, how do we approach that?  Do we discern them as we would want to be discerned?  The variety of circumstances is enormous.  I have had to make decisions about other peoples' lives that were very difficult.  I've been a religious superior and a formation director as well as the director of a number of Catholic student centers at universities.  I have had to pray for both mercy and wisdom many a time that I am acting toward the other as I would have them judge me.

     One thing that could escape our attention is that Jesus challenges us to unconditional mercy.  Our generosity cannot be conditioned on reciprocity.  The "I scratch your back, you scratch mine!" of political life is not Jesus' way of life.  Jesus' challenge can be an uncomfortable one, but if we want to be his disciples, we have to follow his golden rules!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2024 TUESDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 and Matthew 23:1-12]

     The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice.  They lie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.[Matthew]

     The scribes and Pharisees get a lot of bad press in the New Testament.  The reasons are complex but it is important to understand that Pharisees could be very good and dedicated people who desired to live the law of Moses as strictly as possible.  Their origins were in the reaction to the Greek cultural practices that were introduced into Israel in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East. The scribes were men who could read and write in a society that was largely illiterate. They were a classic example of the old adage, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!"  They took care of all written contracts and knew the Torah to the last letter.  But, as history teaches us, "power corrupts," and in Jesus' day and in the wake of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the Pharisees and scribes were the ones who kept the Jewish faith together in Israel.  The preaching of the early Christians was being vigorously opposed by them and naturally the resentment on both sides found its way into the gospel accounts of Jesus.

     I think of this gospel conflict when I encounter folks who are intent on observing every detail or rubric  in Catholic tradition to the point that common sense and the purpose of the particular practice is lost in the effort just to be "correct."   There is no "hierarchy" of importance for them.  All rules, laws and rubrics have the same value in their world.  This is at the center of Jesus' criticism about laying heavy burdens on people's shoulders.   The fundamental rules of sacramental practice must be observed for unity, {"matter and form"] but there are devotional and cultural and other "traditional" practices surrounding our sacramental Church that take on the level of law!  And there are laws that have long lost their original purpose but are defended and enforced in the name of "tradition." The scribes and Pharisees were "gaming the system" to benefit themselves and Jesus went after them.  Jesus' criticism still remains for us to ponder and discern in the Church of today.  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Jeremiah 18:18-20 and Matthew 20:17-28]

     "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you.  Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.  Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." [Matthew]

     The mother of the sons of Zebedee (James and John) was ambitious for her boys.  Whether they put her up to it or she did it on her own, there was a clear misunderstanding of what is meant by "the Kingdom of heaven."  No doubt mom, James and John understood kingdom as a political unit with a single ruler holding the power of life and death over all his or her subjects.  Some rulers were benign and some were cruel.  Herod fit in that second category, for sure!  Pilate was ultimately removed from his position for being cruel!  The evangelist, in recounting this incident, was simply noting something of common knowledge and showed Jesus' challenge to the kind of thinking that mom and her boys and the rest of the disciples (who were upset at this "end run for power") were demonstrating.  

     Power is like any kind of addictive substance.  The 19th century Catholic British nobleman, Lord Acton, wrote to one of the English bishops at the time of the debate over infallibility, "Power corrupts.  Absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely."  He was writing about Pius IX!!!  Yes, power is not just a secular political notion.  It gets into any organization or group.  Jesus had to confront his disciples about what power should be in the KIngdom of heaven.  It meant and still means service.  Jesus gave the best example in washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper. [John 13:1-14].  

     With power comes responsibility (and blame!).  This may be one reason in my own Dominican order why many brothers say "No way!" when the community wants to elect them as Prior (superior).  I've held that office at least three times in my own Dominican life and hope that my age [81] will protect me from ever having to do it again!  The community is usually suspicious of anyone eager for the job, like James and John!  From Pope to Sunday Mass Usher, power must be handled with a mix of gentleness and firmness that result in true leadership.  This was true for the disciples in Jesus' day and it is still true now.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2024 THURSDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Jeremiah 17:5-10 and Luke 16:19-31]

     'My child, remember that you  received what is good during your lifetime while Lazarus received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.  Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.'  [Luke]

     The Gospel According to Luke contains several parables that do not appear in the other three Among them are the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool and, for today's gospel scripture, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  It can be a very chilling thought to realize that Lazarus may be at our very threshold and we are not "seeing" him!  One might also recall in the Gospel According to Matthew [25:31-45], we read and hear the word "see:" "Lord, when did we SEE you hungry and did not feed you?"

     There is a human tendency to objectify or categorize "the poor" and somehow remove them from our "sight."  But they are there.  The media occasionally speak of them as this or that "problem" in a certain location, e.g. the " problem of the homeless in such-and-such a city."  I admire the college students I know who take part in such programs as Christ in the City that go directly to the poor in the streets to see them as fellow human beings and not as a problem to be solved.  Yes, there are groups like the Salvation Army who serve the poor and homeless and churches that sponsor housing and "soup kitchens."  All of these are wonderful, but do they have the unintentional effect of removing Lazarus from our threshold so that we do not "see" him?  Or do we think that the "problem" is too big for one person to do anything significant about?  But can we at least look outside our enclosed lives to see and respond to the needs of even one Lazarus at a time?  This might be a Lenten resolution that could change our lives and the lives of those whom we "see."  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a and Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46]

     "Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit." [Matthew]

     Each of the four gospels were composed for a particular audience and with a purpose in mind.  The Gospel According to Matthew was addressed to a predominantly Jewish Christian community which may have been wondering what would become of their way of life since the temple had been destroyed. Furthermore,  they were meeting opposition to their faith in Jesus from the scribes and Pharisees who were trying to keep Judaism alive (and they succeeded).  The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authority in his ministry and  resentment at their complicity in his death spills over into the subsequent telling of the story, but is also meant for future Christians, since Gentiles were coming to faith in Jesus.

     In today's passage, the owner of the vineyard is God.  The tenants are the Jewish religious authorities of the time  who rejected God's messengers in the past and then rejected Jesus.  They had the opportunity to show leadership and faith, but they squandered it, often in violence.  The scriptures are full of prophetic challenges to religious leadership that succumbs to the temptations of power and privilege.  In the gospels, Jesus confronted the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests and the elders of the people with their failures.  They had not produced the fruit of God's Kingdom.  However, for the future, this parable of the vineyard and tenants applies to all of us whether we be a tenant or one of the grapevines!  The Lord expects a crop!  We cannot simply point the finger at the leadership and blame them for OUR failures.  Lent might be a good time to ask ourselves if we have been prone to that temptation.  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2024 SATURDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF LENT

[Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 and Luke 15:1-3, 11-32]

     "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!.....'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.  But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."  [Luke]

     The  parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most powerful of Jesus' parables.  It is the third of three consecutive parables on mercy:  the lost sheep, the lost coin and finally, and most powerfully, the lost son!  Perhaps this third parable gets its power from the way in which it draws us into the drama and invites us to take on the various roles: the prodigal, the older resentful brother, the merciful and welcoming father and, finally, a celebrating villager.  For me, the parable gets extra power from the fact that our current pope, Pope Francis, has personified the welcoming and merciful father and has drawn the critical resentment of the "older brothers" for his efforts to welcome back lost children.

     How many times have we sung the line from the grand old hymn AMAZING GRACE: "I once was lost and now I'm found.  Was blind but now I see!"?   How many times have we applied that line to ourselves?  How many times have we resented Pope Francis' latest efforts to welcome people marginalized and excluded by excessive juridical attitudes?  The power of the parable is that BOTH sons are "lost" and in need of a merciful welcome from the Father and the village (Church?)!  Note that the Father goes out to welcome BOTH sons!!  Can we see ourselves as going to get the fatted calf, the finest robe, the ring and the sandals and joining the celebration?  Or do we fold our arms and sulk?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2024  THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

[Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians:22-25; John 2:13-25.  These are the scriptures for Cycle B.  Parishes with OCIA programs may use the ones for Cycle A]

     "What sign can you show us for doing this?" [John]

     Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  [1 Cor.]

     What does a "sign" do?  I dare to say that for most of us a sign points to something besides itself.  It can tell us about the speed limit or where the restrooms are or indicate the building we are looking for.  There is another sense we give to the word "sign" when we speak of "signing" our name to something.  Our signature is equivalent to our person. It is a word that commits us. We Catholics speak of the "Sign" of the Cross," which, in certain circumstances, identifies us as Catholics, but is also a prayer that evokes our faith and our baptism.

     The Gospel According to John treats each of Jesus' deeds as "signs" which point to Jesus' identity.  For Jews, the authenticity of a prophet  - the proof - of his identity would be the signs he could work.  For "Greeks," what would be more important would be the words and content of "wisdom" that a philosopher offered.  The cleansing of the temple in today's gospel passage was meant to point to a new temple and focus of worship - Jesus himself!!!  In short, Jesus IS the sign of God because he IS God.  His death by crucifixion would be considered shameful by Jews and make no sense to Greeks.  [cf. Acts 17:22-34].  Yet, the cross has become the universal "sign" of Christianity.  

     The cross itself is an object with a meaning that we often give to it beyond what happened on Good Friday.   Salvation, however, comes from faith in the one who died on the cross. He is himself the "Sign!"   AMEN       

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[2 Kings 5:1-15ab and Luke 4:24-30]

     "Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."  [Luke]

      Jesus spoke these words to his hometown people in criticism of their lack of faith in him.  Naaman was a pagan and his story is recounted in the first scripture for today from the Second Book of Kings!  He was the successful commander of the armies of the kingdom of Aram but his health became an issue - a "leprosy" of some kind.  Good advice can come from unexpected quarters and Naaman had enough sense (or was desperate enough) to follow the advice of a Jewish slave girl to go and find Elisha the prophet.  But his pride (and the pride of the King of Israel) nearly derailed the whole enterprise.  But Elisha intervened and the first step to healing was saved.  But there was more to come.

     The second step was to follow the advice of the prophet!  Naaman had to swallow his pride and go bathe seven times in the Jordan River and not in some mightier body of water in his own kingdom.  Again he also followed the advice of his servants who confronted him with his pride when he balked at Elisha's command.  Naaman's biggest problem wasn't his leprosy, it was his pride!

     The sequence is a familiar one to anyone in a position to counsel.  Someone finally admits they can't handle their situation (addiction, etc).  Admitting there is a problem is hard.  But the second step is also hard.  It means listening to others who are wiser, no matter who they are.  Getting help means putting faith in someone else.  In the spiritual/moral realm, that can mean turning to the Lord and then doing what we know from scripture and tradition is the way to healing.  The folks in Nazareth could not stomach the thought that the local carpenter might be the Messiah!!  Naaman becomes the example with which Jesus confronted them.  How do we respond to Jesus' offer of healing?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[Daniel 3:25, 34-43 and Matthew 18:21-35]

     Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  As many as seven times?"   Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-times seven times."  [Matthew]

     I have been a priest for nearly 53 years and have come to the conclusion that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has become more a sacrament of "guilt relief" than of reconciliation.  The parable that forms the gospel scripture for today - the parable of the Unforgiving Servant - illustrates what I mean.  The first servant receives relief from his huge debt but refuses to extend that same mercy to a fellow servant for a minor debt.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation should be the first step in a further process of forgiveness.  That is why, in preaching parish missions, on then night of the "penance service," I have used an examination of conscience that focuses not on a list of actions but on a list of persons, beginning with God, self, parents, siblings, superiors, co-workers, professional people, etc..  Whom do WE need to forgive once we have received forgiveness from God?  And FROM WHOM  do we need to ask forgiveness?  I believe that if we remember the person, we'll remember the action.  

     The parable is a reinforcement of the prayer that we say thousands of times in our Christian lives - the Lord's Prayer (or as we Catholics are fond of calling it, the "Our Father.") There is a line that says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!" [Matt. 6:12].  And right after the "deliver us from evil" words, there is an explicit warning from Jesus: "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions!" [Matt. 6:14-15]

If we ask God for forgiveness of our sins, we must be prepared to extend that same mercy to others.  Yes, it is difficult - perhaps one of the most difficult things Jesus asks of us.  A thousand "What if's" cannot erase it.  It can be a truly profound Lent to forgive for once and for all the people who have hurt us, uniting our own forgiveness to the one Jesus speaks from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 and Matthew 5:17-19]

     "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  Amen, I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."  [Matthew]

     The evangelist Matthew composed his gospel for a Jewish Christian community that was finding itself at serious odds with the  broader Jewish community, especially with people like the scribes and Pharisees.  Jesus' attitude about the Mosaic Law seemed to them to be lax or downright opposed.  Matthew presents a much broader context for the law in which Jesus' life, death and resurrection represent the whole point of the Mosaic Law to begin with!  Jesus is the center point of God's plan of salvation!  The two greatest commandments of the law, the love of God and of neighbor, are the prism through which all the rest of the law was to be read and understood. Jesus is the personification of those two commandments.  

     What happened to the Mosaic Law is that it created a juridical way of thinking because situations not explicitly mentioned in the text would arise and require interpretation.  The interpretations would then become like law themselves.  When these interpretations act as if history and human development are irrelevant  and only the law matters, the values and goals of the law to begin with are frustrated.  Jesus showed his frustration with that attitude.  He was not "above the law" so much as he was - and is - the whole point of the law and therefore, its "fulfillment."

     In our own Catholic tradition, we are experiencing that same tension.  Debates about continuity and discontinuity in regard to the Second Vatican Council have been raging ever since that council ended.  Is the medieval synthesis, represented in the Council of Trent and eventually codified in the Code of Canon Law, the final word about Jesus and the church?  Or are the teachings and vision of the Second Vatican Council a fresh development built on something broader reaching back beyond the Council of Trent?  Jesus and his teachings are the center point of it all and any attempt at human efforts to codify them will inevitably face history and human development.  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2024  THURSDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[Jeremiah 7:23-28 and Luke 11:14-23]

     I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.  Yet they have not obeyed me  nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.  When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.  Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction.  Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself has vanished from their speech. [Jeremiah]

     Jeremiah has been traditionally referred to as "the reluctant prophet."  He makes it clear from the day of his calling that he didn't want the role and felt unqualified for it. [Jer. 1:4-10]  God thought differently.  Perhaps Jeremiah knew what the usual fate of true prophets is: opposition or indifference.  The opposition can be violent, as it was in Jeremiah's case.  He was thrown at one time into a dried-up cistern.  The plain fact in the Old Testament is that Jonah was the only "successful"  prophet.  Nineveh repented.

      It can be a helpful Lenten exercise to ask oneself who the prophetic figures have been to each of us?  Was it a parent, sibling, friend, doctor, political figure/activist?   The role of a prophet is to confront people with what they believe and warn them about the consequences.  It is as if a prophet holds up the mirror of hypocrisy and forces us to look into it.

     Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic promises, but his words are also prophetic.  Can we read the Sermon on the Mount or the parables of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son or the Unforgiving Servant or Lazarus and the Rich Man or the Final Judgment without feeling confronted with our beliefs and actions as Christians?  Has faithfulness become a part time thing?  We do fail and we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us stay close to Jesus' teachings, but the idea is not simply to avoid sin but to grow closer to the Lord.  That means a change in attitude as well as behavior.  Listening alone is not enough.  The whole person will be constantly challenged to conversion.  To be a faithful Christian is to be "a work in progress."  Prophets are there to cheer and challenge.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[Hosea 14:2-10 and Mark 12:28-34]

     The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.  You are right in saying, He is one and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself  is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."  And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  [Mark]

     There were 613 recognized precepts in the Law of Moses during Jesus' time (and presumably in ours).  How could someone remember all of that legislation?  The average Jew at that time probably didn't remember all of it.  How much canon law would the average Catholic remember?!!  There are 1,752 "articles" in that code!!!  The scribes, like canon lawyers, were there to answer questions about what the Mosaic Law prescribed.  Jesus showed a remarkably casual attitude toward what would be called "kosher."  The main observances that he came into conflict with scribes about had to do with "work" on the sabbath and washing before dining and eating with people who were considered "unclean" because they didn't observe all the precepts.

     The scribe in today's gospel showed a sense of perspective.  The debate over the importance of this or that precept was settled by Jesus.  Love of God and neighbor (as oneself) come first.  Everything else is measured by those two commandments.  We cannot claim to love God if we are not showing love for our neighbor.  The Last Judgment parable in the Gospel According to Matthew [25:31-45] makes that very clear.  Our liturgical devotion is not enough.  

     I have been asked on occasion by a very well-meaning non-Catholic if Catholics are really "Christians?"  It is a startling question, but if we Catholics get too concerned with things that have little to do with love of God and neighbor, we deserve to be asked that question.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

[Hosea 6:1-6 and Luke 18:9-14]

     "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a PHarisee and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee took up disposition and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this  tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'  But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."  [Luke]

     In preaching retreats over many years, one of the principal questions I challenge the retreatants to ask themselves is: "How am I praying?"  How we pray can tell us a great deal about our real relationship to God.  I challenge them to do a history of prayer in their lives.  Do they pray now as they did as a child?   Where and how and from whom did they learn to pray?  What prayers did they learn first and commit to memory?  This last question is important because it asks us to consider how we pray?  Is it always from printed prayers, or do we speak directly to God without a text?  Both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector spoke directly to God and the contrast between the two is quite clear.  The Tax Collector's prayer has endured to the present day as the "Jesus Prayer:"  "Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  What became of the Pharisee's prayer?  Should he not be grateful to God for his blessings?  Yes, he should, but not as if these blessings made him superior to others.  

     Everything in Jesus' story about the two persons in today's gospel speaks to us as a challenge.  Note how each of the men approached God.  The Pharisee went to a position of importance.  The Tax Collector stood at the back.  Prayer involves the whole person before God.  Prayer is not a recipe but the expression of a relationship.  Do we pray in a certain way so that we keep God at a safe distance?  The Pharisee and the Tax Collector have much to teach us about the question: HOW AM I PRAYING?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2024   4TH SUNDAY OF LENT

[2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21. These are the scriptures for Cycle B.  Parishes with OCIA programs may use Cycle A.]

     Jesus said to NIcodemus: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but  might have eternal life. [John]

     There is a popular expression one may hear when someone is complaining about minor problems or even overwhelmed by circumstances.  The response is: "Get a life!" Or "I have to get a life!"  What does it really mean to be "alive?"  Great debates occur over when "life" begins or ends.  Recent controversy over in vitro fertilization is an indicator of this.  But we know that "life" is more than the minimal biological functioning of the human body or the life of animals, insects and plants.  "Life" can mean a relationship of the kind that today's gospel scripture points to: "eternal life!"

     When the Chosen People complained against Moses and God in the desert, they were punished by God with poisonous snakes.  When they begged for relief, God told Moses to make an image of the snake and put it on a pole and when anyone looked at it they would be relieved of snakebite! [Num. 21:4-6].  Nicodemus, as a Jewish leader, would have known the story well.  The evangelist John quotes Jesus referring to the life giving force of the image of the bronze serpent "lifted up" by Moses in the desert. Jesus' speaks of being "lifted up" just as Moses lifted up the serpent.  Jesus' own earthly death would be the guarantee of eternal life for all who believe in him.

     The broader context is the "life" given to us in baptism.  This is the beginning of Christian life even if we are already "alive" as human persons.  In baptism, we "get a life" that comes to us as a matter of faith in Jesus.  The season of Lent directs us toward the life that Jesus offers through his death and resurrection.  In baptism and confirmation we receive the life-giving Spirit that he promised to those who believe in him [John 14:26].  All of this comes together in Holy Week when we celebrate not only Jesus' death and resurrection, but our own!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2024  MONDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT

[Isaiah 65:17-21 and John 4:43-54]

     [Jesus] returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine.  Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death.  Jesus said to him, "Unless you people  see signs and wonders, you will not believe."   The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."  Jesus said to him, "You may  go; your son will live."  The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.  While the man was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.  He asked them when he began to recover.  They told him, "The fever left him yesterday about one in the afternoon.  The Father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live," and he and his whole household came to believe." [John]

      For the next two weeks (with the exception of the feast of St. Joseph - March 19), the gospel scripture will be taken from the Gospel According to John.  This gospel is the most dramatic of the four gospels.  Each encounter with Jesus could be acted out as an individual play.  There is also a kind of "dramatic tension" that builds toward Holy Week.  On Good Friday, the passion account is always the one from the Gospel According to John!  

     The incident recounted in today's gospel occurs shortly after Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  It may appear to be a kind of reworking of the encounter with the centurion in  Matthew and Luke but there is an important difference.  In the Gospel According to John there often seems to be a process of "coming to believe."  In the encounter with the Royal Official there is no praise of the man's faith.  We are simply told that he "believed what Jesus said to him and left."  It is when his servants told him his son would recover that "he and his whole household came to believe."  This "coming to believe" can easily be discerned, for example, in the encounters with the Samaritan Woman, the Man Born Blind, the Raising of Lazarus and Thomas the apostle after the resurrection.

     At the end of the Gospel According to John, the evangelist says, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,  and that through this belief you may have life in his name."  Where are we in  our "coming to believe?"  Can we enter into the dramatic story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection and find life?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, mARCH 12, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT

[Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 and John 5:1-16]

     Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay  a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?"  [John]

     The setting for this encounter can be visited even today in Jerusalem.  The pool of water was believed to have healing powers only when an angel would occasionally "stir" it. One can imagine the stampede and the frustration of the crippled beggar.  At the same time, one may wonder why, in thirty-eight years, he had been unsuccessful in getting there first.  Some have suggested that he had made a pretty good living at begging and that is why he gives Jesus an indirect response to the question, "Do you want to be well?"  

     The larger context is the sabbath and Jesus' conflict with the Jewish authorities.  The once-crippled beggar is walking around carrying his mat, which would  have been construed as "work," and Jesus' healing would also have been construed as "work."  The encounter is followed by a "discourse" on what Jesus calls his "work" as the work of his Father.

     The season of Lent, however, offers us a chance to ponder Jesus' question: "Do you want to be well?"  Do we have settled patterns of faults or sins that have been with us for as long as we can remember?  Are we satisfied with going to confession for "guilt relief" and not doing anything to correct the behavior, despite saying an "act of contrition" to the effect that we "firmly resolve, with the help of God's grace, to do penance and to amend our lives?"  The three "Hail Mary's" and three "Our Fathers" are not likely to address deep seated destructive patterns.  Do we really want to be well?  Addressing a bad habit takes effort that can be truly penitential, especially if that bad habit is a sinful one.  God's mercy is not a license for repetition of bad conduct.  "Giving up" that bad pattern or conduct may do more for us than the customary item we choose for Lent.  Jesus' question remains:  "Do you WANT to be well?"  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2024 WEDNESDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT

 [Isaiah 49:8-15 and John 5:17-30]

     Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life." [John]

     In the Gospel According to John, whenever we see the words, "Amen, amen, I say to you...", we can be sure that the statement is very important.  Such is the case in the quotation from today's gospel, which follows on the encounter in which Jesus heals a crippled beggar on a sabbath and draws criticism from the Jewish authorities.  The broader context is what Jesus' "works" are.  His Father is at work in him.  But then Jesus goes a step further and says that eternal life begins with faith in "the one who sent me" and in Jesus himself.  Scripture scholars refer to this as "realized eschatology," meaning that the final "judgment" takes place when we believe in Jesus and the One who sent him, and not just at death.

     This can require us to adjust our way of thinking about how salvation occurs.  Is it a reward only at the end of life?  It is that, but more than that.  It is a way of being in this life as well through faith in Jesus.  Jesus refers to both meanings in the discourse from which today's gospel is taken: "Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."  "Death" means  unbelief, but it also can also mean the state of those who have physically died because Jesus then says, "[T]he hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation."   Whether physically dead or spiritually dead, Jesus is offering life to us all provided we have faith in him.  Yes, there will be questions, as always, about how this happens, but the evangelist does not go into detail.  Right now, Jesus is "at work" in us and among us.  Can we accept that?  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2024   THURSDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT

[Exodus 32:7-14 and John 5:31-47]

     "The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,  these works that I perform  testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.  Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.  But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent." [John]

     One of the features of the Gospel According to John is its forensic language.  "Testimony" and "judgment" appear in Jesus' preaching.  Another feature of this gospel are the "discourses" in which the evangelist often combines statements made at various times into one speech.  The discourses following the multiplication of the loaves - the "Bread of Life" - and the one following the Last Supper are two of the most prominent  ones.  The healing of the crippled beggar gives rise to the one that appears in the gospel scripture this week.  

     Following the train of thought in the discourses can be a challenge.  They appear to "spiral" rather than be "linear" and the subject can shift.  The healing of the crippled beggar moves from the sign of healing to the subject of "work" because healing on the sabbath was prohibited work in the eyes of the strict Pharisees.  (The crippled beggar was even scolded for carrying the mat he sat on.)  But physical "work" moves from effort to meaning.  What is the "meaning" of the sign (work)?  To what is the healing "testifying?"  The sign has given rise to a debate with Jesus' adversaries - a forensic situation.  Jesus tells the Jewish authorities that his Father testifies on his behalf through the "works" and so does Moses in the scriptures!

     The drama of the debate should not distract us from asking ourselves about what Jesus' accomplishes in us?  What testimony do we have to offer to the challenging secular world? What "works" are we as individuals and Church communities accomplishing that will say to the world that Jesus is the one whom God has sent?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT

[Jeremiah 11:18-20 and John 7:40-53]

     I knew their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings.  Yet I, like a lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me.  [Jeremiah]

     So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"  The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."  [John]

     The "dramatic tension" between Jesus and the Jewish leadership, especially in Jerusalem, builds sharply in chapter seven in the Gospel According to John.  Guards are sent to arrest Jesus, but they return empty-handed.  When questioned as to why they didn't bring Jesus in, they replied, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."  Nicodemus, who had earlier visited Jesus at night, timidly comes to light by suggesting that Jesus should be heard before being condemned.  The Pharisees and chief priests shout him down.  They reflect the earlier skepticism of the apostle Nathaniel when he first heard that Jesus was from Nazareth: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" [John 1:46]

     The journey with Jesus into Holy Week can be very fruitful if we are able with the aid of the Gospel According to John to place ourselves in the dramatic scenes.  Jesus is in charge of whatever takes place.  We can try on various roles.  Today we might share the puzzlement of the guards who are caught between the crowd and the Pharisees!  Or we can share the various reactions of the crowd: "This is truly the Prophet." Or, "This is the Christ!" Or the ironically strange reaction: "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?  Does not scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"  Well....yes!  Or dare we speak in Jesus' defense like NIcodemus?

     What we cannot afford is blind opposition based on religious elitism like that of the Pharisees and chief priests in Jerusalem.  The story of Holy Week is the confrontation of Jesus, the one whom God has sent, with the darkness and blindness of unbelief.  Pilate will say, "What is truth?"  And the crowd will cry out: "Crucify him, crucify him!!"  How will we react?  AMEN

     

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT [St. Patrick's Day]

[Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33]

     But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer will they have need to teach their friends and  relatives how to know the Lord.  All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. [Jeremiah]

    "Sir, we should like to see Jesus." [John]

     In salvation history, God has shown a continual desire to "make a deal" - a covenant - with humanity.  God started with Adam and Eve, who broke the covenant.  Then there was the rainbow covenant with Noah.  Then there was the one with Abraham and then with Moses.  The one with Moses was put into writing on tablets of stone.  Again and again the Chosen People forgot the covenant and went their own way.  The existence of the written law - the Torah - did not guarantee compliance.  What guarantees compliance is the faithful heart, and Jeremiah promised a new covenant that would not be a written one on stone but on the heart.

     When some Greeks come to see Jesus, he tells them that, like a seed that is transformed into a plant, they have to give their whole identity to God in faith.  It is the relationship in faith that makes for fidelity to God's covenant.  Simple compliance to a written law is not enough.  There must be love of God and neighbor.  If we want to see Jesus, that love of God and neighbor is the key.  

     On Ash Wednesday, we heard God, speaking through the prophet Joel, exhort us to "rend your hearts and not your garments."  If the love of God and neighbor is not written in our hearts, then the words on the pages of the Catechism and the Code of Canon Law are just that - words!  Words can only describe love, not substitute for it.  The ultimate love of God is expressed in a person - Jesus Christ.  If his teachings are written in our hearts, then their expression in writing and print become a proclamation and not just legislation.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024  ST. JOSEPH, SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

[2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-24a, 16; Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a OR Luke 2:41-51a]

     The Lord  spoke to Nathan and said: "Go, tell my servant David, 'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm......Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'"

     "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her...."  [Matthew]

     St. Joseph has come to mean so many things to so many people it is difficult to isolate what might be more important.  Devotion to him has included the building of the mammoth Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal through the dedication of St. Andre Besette or the placing of a slip of paper beneath his statue with a particular intention by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Denver or burying a tiny plastic statuette of him in the ground of a piece of real estate someone wants to sell!!!  He is the patron saint of workers, fathers, the universal Church, numerous religious orders  and a happy death among others!

     The scriptures today focus on ancestry.  The promised Messiah was believed to come from the lineage of David, according to the promise given to David in 2 Samuel 7. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that "the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father..."  In today's gospel, Joseph is addressed as "son of David."  Joseph took the very pregnant Mary to Bethlehem, the City of David, to comply with a census law because he was of the "house and family of David [Luke 2:4]"  In the Gospel According to Matthew, addressed to a Jewish Christian  community, the annunciation is made to Joseph, son of David, and not to Mary!!!

     This is not just a matter of DNA!  It all points out to us God's plan of salvation being worked out through human history and  instruments over centuries of ups and downs.  David and his immediate heir, Solomon, were anything but perfect, and neither are we. But God is a god of promises and fulfillment.  St. Joseph, for all the various intentions we put in his care, remains a crucial figure in the fulfillment of God's promises.  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT

[Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 and John 8:31-42]

   Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him:  "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." [John]

     The discourse that follows the incident with the woman caught in adultery is presented to us in two parts today and tomorrow.  It begins with those familiar words, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."  As in much of the Gospel According to John, the audience initially misunderstands what Jesus means.  They think he is talking about slavery in the social/institutional sense.  He is speaking of faith in him, which sets us free from sin and darkness.  The audience responds with the claim of being children of Abraham and not subject to human slavery.  Jesus accuses them of being unfaithful to Abraham: If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.  But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God;  Abraham did not do this."

     The question of TRUTH will reach its climactic point in Pilate's own question:  "What is truth?"  In the Gospel According to John, truth and faith come together in the person of Jesus Christ.  Failure to believe leads to slavery to sin.  Tomorrow, the audience will be confronted with a truth that is beyond them:  "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be , I AM! "   Stay tuned!

AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2024  THURSDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT

[Genesis 17:3-9 and John 8:51-59]

     "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it  and was glad."  So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?"  Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM!"

    This is one of the most dramatic moments in a gospel filled with dramatic moments!  Abraham was and is revered by Christianity, Judaism and Islam as a "father in faith."  Scripture scholars date his lifetime around 2500 BCE.  So, Jesus' claim to have existed before Abraham seemed preposterous to the Jewish authorities.  But the Prologue to the Gospel According to John tells us that Christ is eternal.  So, Jesus was simply stating a fact with tremendous consequences both temporal and eternal.  It is temporal because God has intervened in human history by becoming human in the person of Jesus Christ.  It is  eternal because Jesus promises at the beginning of today's gospel: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps  my word will never see death!"  But he can make this promise because HE is eternal: "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."  When God spoke His name to Moses at the burning bush, he gave the name I AM! [Exodus 3:14].   To the audience, Jesus' statement seemed blasphemous!  For us today who believe in Jesus, it is the promise of eternal life.

     As a preparation for Holy Week, I could not think of a better way than to read the Gospel According to John, bearing in mind the Prologue as the "big picture."  We have been hearing gospel scriptures from John the past week or so.  On Good Friday, we will hear the passion account from John.  We are invited into every scene with every character.  The washing of the feet on Holy Thursday reminds us of Jesus' charge to all disciples and the Last Supper discourse reminds us of his command to love one another.  There is so much to fill our understanding of this holy time.  Eternal life is on offer.  Are we ready to accept it?  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

[Jeremiah 20:10-13 and John 10:31-42]

     "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.  You, a man, are making yourself God."  Jesus answered them,"...If I do not not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."  [John]

     Today's gospel scripture is the conclusion of the dramatic scene in which Jesus proclaims himself "the Son of God."  The Jewish authorities were ready to stone him or arrest him, but they do not succeed.  Jesus' words, "the Father is in me and I am in the Father..." will receive greater emphasis in the Last Supper discourse, in the prayer of Jesus on behalf of all disciples: "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." [John 17:20]

     What Jesus offers us is a participation in his relationship with his Father.  It is through faith in him as the one whom the Father has sent that we have this participation which is reinforced by the continual presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  The audience in today's gospel scripture as well as the "world" today is confronted with an incredible truth.  It was a terrible irony that the audience, who believed in God, could not believe that God could be "made flesh and dwell among us." [John 1:14]  The events of Holy Week will challenge us to a journey of faith from the gate of Jerusalem to the empty tomb.  Are we participants or are we mere spectators?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT

[Ezekiel 37:21-28 and John 11:45-56]

     I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. [Ezekiel]

     .....[Caiaphas] prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God....[John]

     The immediate problem for the Jewish Sanhedrin was the troublemaker from Nazareth.  They feared that Jesus would cause a riot or insurrection and lead to Roman intervention that would destroy Judaism.  Which is exactly what would happen as the evangelist already knew since this gospel was composed nearly 30 years after the event.  Except it would not be Jesus who would draw catastrophe, but a general rebellion in 66 AD that eventuated in Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.  However, the Christian community saw in the prophecies of Ezekiel and others the broad plan of salvation that was accomplished in Jesus.  The evangelist quotes Jesus as saying: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." [John 12:32]

     How broad IS this plan?  Some Christians see the plan as referring only to those who have an explicit faith in Jesus.  Others would include Jews and Moslems.  Still others are willing to accept the possibility that Jesus meant exactly what he said and leave the implementation to God and to faithful witness by Christians to all people of good will.  At the time of Jesus' death and resurrection the number of people who believed in him was pitifully small.  The development of the "Body of Christ" would take a long time and is still going on.  The Church is the principal leader but faith can be found in persons outside of it as the gospels attest - the Syro-phoenician woman and the Roman Centurion at the cross, for example.  We must accept mystery when it comes to claiming we know everything that God "has in mind."  [Romans 11:34]  Holy Week begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday.  Its effects are still with us in our own faith and will continue to have an impact until the Lord comes again.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2024  PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

[Procession: Mark 11:1-10; Mass: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark:14:1-15:47]

     I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.  [Isaiah]

    Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [Philippians]

     While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."  Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many." [Mark]

     Today is Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.  The whole title is important because this Sunday is the opening act of the drama of the reenactment of God's plan of salvation.  Isaiah's prophecy, known as one of the "songs of the suffering servant" alerts us to the centuries of time in which this plan has unfolded and reaches its climax in the events of Holy Week.  St. Paul's hymn from the Letter to the Philippians gives us an even broader context of eternity in speaking of Christ Jesus taking on human flesh in human history and accepting ultimate terrible death for us - "even death on a cross!"  Isaiah and Paul represent the efforts of the early Christian community to come to terms with Jesus' death and resurrection.  This reflection would take place AFTER the events which are recounted in the Passion as recorded in the four gospels.  This year, we hear the Passion According to St. Mark today and St. John on Good Friday.  

     The success of any great drama is in its ability to draw those who witness it into the drama itself and not be mere spectators.  It is not ancient history that we are celebrating today and throughout Holy Week.  The drama of salvation happens now as we are drawn into the experience, whether on Palm Sunday or in the Stations of the Cross.  Isaiah and Paul give us two ways of reflecting on these events, but ultimately we must find a meaning for ourselves in the sequence of events: anointing at Bethany, entry into Jerusalem, washing of feet, bread and wine as body and blood, betrayal by two disciples (Judas and Peter). interrogations by Jewish and political authorities, crucifixion and death, the empty tomb, the road to Emmaus, the appearances in the upper room - all of which lead us ultimately to Pentecost and our baptismal commission.  

     Some will watch the series, The Chosen.  Others may see Mel Gibson's THE PASSION.  But these cannot replace our liturgical experience which unites us with the apostles, other disciples and Christians throughout the centuries in recalling and living what Christ has done for us.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024  TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

[Isaiah 49:1-6 and John 13:21-33, 36-38]

     And I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength!  It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.  [Isaiah]

    "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once."  [John]

     The Gospel According to John is full of adversarial and conflicting images - light/darkness, sight/blindness, above/below. belief/unbelief.  These may be easier to understand than Jesus' statement that his "hour" of suffering is his hour of "glory!"  The scene today recounts Jesus' challenge to Judas: "What you are going to do, do quickly!"  It's hard to understand why Peter and the others didn't rise up and grab Judas before he could leave!  But Judas plays a role in the Johannine drama.  From the very "beginning" in the Prologue, the drama has been "scripted."  The climax is when the Son of Man is "lifted up" as Jesus' says a little earlier: "Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." [John 12:32]  Isaiah's vision foreshadows this "hour."

     The power of Holy Week is found in the movement of events in such a way that chronological time is suspended and we find ourselves part of the action, not just as passive spectators but as real characters and beneficiaries of what is to take place.  Much as we might want to, we can't stop Judas from leaving the room to go and betray Jesus.  Much as we might want otherwise, we may respond like Peter when asked if we are one of Jesus' disciples.  Our "hosannas" turn into "Crucify him!" and then into Thomas' words: "My Lord and my God!"  The whole week is a roller-coaster of emotion and action.  Jesus, the "Suffering Servant" awaits our participation.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2024  WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

[Isaiah 50:4-9a and Matthew 26:14-25]

     "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.  The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.  It would be better for that man if he had never been born."  Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"  He answered, "You have said so."  [Matthew]

     The gospel scripture yesterday from the Gospel According to John(Tuesday) featured Peter's protest that he would never  fail in his faith in Jesus.  Jesus told him that he (Peter) would deny him (Jesus) three times before the cock crowed that evening.  Today's gospel passage.  Today's gospel scripture from the Gospel According to Matthew features Judas' betrayal.  He cynically says to Jesus, "Surely it is not I, Lord?" Jesus' own reply: "You have said so" is really: "You said it, Judas!"

     Long essays have been written about Judas' possible motivation for betraying Jesus.  The money isn't the issue.  That is superficial.  The real reason lies deep in his own mind and heart.  The ministry of Jesus in the gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke lasts a year [in John, three years].  Perhaps Judas finally lost faith in the cause and was buying influence for the future by turning Jesus over to the Jewish authorities.  In the end, those authorities saw him for what he was, a betrayer, and turned their backs on him.  His very name has come to mean a betrayer.   Is Peter's denial simply one of degree?

     However we may contrast Peter and Judas, what comes through in both cases is the human mind and heart and its labyrinth of emotions, fears and rationalizations.  We can look down on Judas, but what do we say about Peter?  In the end Peter repents and remains the "rock" on which the Church was built, but can we claim innocence?  Put in the same circumstances as Peter, would we have replied the same way?  Would we have run like scared rabbits from the Garden of Gethsemane like the other disciples?

     Jesus died to offer us a path of mercy through our fickle human hearts and minds.  Perhaps we can echo, with a different mind and heart, the prophetic words of the apostle Thomas, when he heard Jesus was going to go to Lazarus' tomb, "Let us also go to die with him."  It's the only way to true resurrection.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024  MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

[Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15]

     "This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as perpetual institution." [Exodus]

     For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.  [1 Corinthians]

     "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." [John]

     More than two thousand years of faith are packed into the celebration of Holy Thursday and the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  The celebration of Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt at the Red Sea.  The celebration of the Eucharist commemorates Jesus' gift of his Body and Blood at the Last Supper AND Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples with the command to follow his example.  In the Gospel According to John, the gift of the Eucharist is presented in chapter 6, following the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but not at the Last Supper!  The other three gospels do not mention the washing of the feet.  For very practical reasons  the washing of the feet has not endured as a regular LITURGICAL practice, but it is no less asked of us by the Lord.  As an act of loving service, it is demanded of our daily lives as Christians.

     We Catholics are familiar with the holy water fonts at the entrance of our church buildings.  These are reminders to us of our baptism, which itself recalls the deliverance of the Chosen People at the Red Sea.  We touch that holy water and make the Sign of the Cross on entering and leaving.  We are reminded that everything we do INSIDE the church must be put into practice OUTSIDE the church.  Jesus' washing of the feet of the disciples AND his gift of his Body and Blood would be further expressed in the total gift of his life on the cross.  The gift of the Eucharist means COMMUNION not only with the Lord but with one another.  Holy Thursday is not simply a celebration of the past but a challenge for us NOW and until the Lord comes again.  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2024  GOOD FRIDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION

[Isaiah 52:13-53;12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 and John 18:1-19:42]

     Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.  We had all gone astray like sheep, each following in his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.  [Isaiah]

     For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way, yet without sin.  [Hebrews]

     "TAKE HIM AWAY, TAKE HIM AWAY! CRUCIFY HIM!" [John]

     The cries of "Hosanna!" (which means "Save us!) on Palm Sunday are not the cries we hear and make on Good Friday.  Now we hear, "Take him away, take him away, crucify him!"  How can this be?  How can we be so fickle?  Can we be so manipulated by "the powers that be" that we welcome a savior and then kill him?  Yes, we can!  Which is precisely the reason why all this is taking place.  It is not ancient history!  Jesus died once on the cross, but he died for all of us NOW and in the future.  That is the big theological picture.  But there is more to it than that because suffering is a universal experience.

     The isolation and pain that anyone suffering experiences is manifested in Jesus' suffering as well.  He cries out in the words of Psalm 22: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" [Ps. 22:1].   The second scripture for today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, tells us that Jesus does know and understand our suffering.  Isaiah tells us that our suffering is included in the One who suffers for us all!  We are the Body of Christ and just as his suffering includes ours, so ours includes his in the cross we venerate today!  He has given us his Body and Blood at the Last Supper and that Body and Blood suffers today. 

     Yes! There is a "tomorrow" of resurrection, but the path to it requires that we embrace the cross on the way - our very own "Way of the Cross!"  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024  HOLY SATURDAY - THE EASTER VIGIL

[Genesis 1:1-2:2, etc.; Romans 6:3-11;  Mark 16:1-7]

     We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.  As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.  Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.  [Romans]

     In parishes across our country and elsewhere, men and women who have expressed a desire to join the Catholic communion and have participated in the programs of participation popularly known as "RCIA," will become members of our Church.  Some (Catechumens) will be baptized.  Some will have come to us from other Christian traditions ("converts") and will make, along with the Catechumens, the Profession of Faith.  And some will have been baptized in our communion but never "confirmed."  All will make the Profession of Faith and "receive communion."  They are all living symbols of what the Easter Candle symbolizes: the light of the Risen Christ.

     The beauty and power of the Vigil service can be witnessed in the faces of those who are received (or even welcomed back) into our Church.  As St. Paul teaches us, they have received a new life, a new light.  Because, in large parishes, the number of those to be received into full communion can be large, the service may be long and many parishioners avoid attending it.  If they could, at least, find a televised or videotaped version of the first part - the lighting of the Easter candle, then some understanding of the power of the Vigil service can be gained.  It is a celebration of the power of faith.  Christ has conquered the power of death.  The scriptures lay out the broad plan of salvation which culminates in the death and resurrection of the Lord and his command to preach this to the whole world.  

     Easter Sunday brings the cultural fun of bunnies and eggs and even baby chicks.  But Easter Monday brings Jesus' challenge to preach to that same culture the message of his death and resurrection.  What we have received, we are challenged to share!  CHRIST IS RISEN!  ALLELUIA! AMEN!

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2024  EASTER SUNDAY - THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD

[Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4 OR 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8; John 20:1-9 or Luke 24:13-35]

     On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told then, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." [John]

     If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  [Colossians]

     And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.  With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. [Luke]

     The first Easter was a doubly shocking experience.  First, there was the shock of seeing Jesus cruelly executed like a criminal. Second, there was the shock of the empty tomb!  Mary Magdalen, Peter and the Beloved Disciple, and the disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced that double shock along with the other disciples who found it all too much!  Perhaps a third shock occurred when Jesus appeared to them at the tomb (Mary Magdalen), in the Upper Room (Thomas et al.) and on the road to Emmaus!!!  

     The question asked by the infant son of a friend of mine always hits me at Easter. My friend tried to explain about the real meaning of Easter to him.  When she said that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, her son reasonably asked: "Then where is he?"  He was in the garden and called Mary Magdalen by name.  He was in the Upper Room and challenged Thomas to see the marks of his wounds.  He was walking on the road to Emmaus, and on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and on the mountain in Galilee!  The Letter to the Colossians says he is seated at the right hand of God!  He is everywhere!

     He is in the wounds of all who suffer.  He is at the table of the Eucharist.  He is in the communion of all of us gathered in his name.  He is in his word proclaimed.  He is in the hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely and newly arrived migrant. It can all be shocking  to us, but what is most important on this day is: HE IS RISEN! ALLELUIA! HAPPY EASTER!  AMEN.

     

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2024  MONDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 2:14, 22-33 and Matthew 28:8-15]

     Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples.  And behold Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.  They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.  Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." [Matthew]

     The gospel scriptures for the next few days recount a number of "post-resurrection" encounters with the Risen Lord.  The reactions in these encounters range from fear to joy.  There is difficulty in recognizing Jesus, which seems strange given the close acquaintance that some disciples had with him!  Some of the disciples thought they were seeing a ghost.  Yet, the gospel today presumes some kind of physical presence since we are told the women embraced his feet.  In the Gospel According to John, Mary Magdalene thinks he is the gardener!  Another encounter has Jesus eating fish in the Upper Room.  And how could Jesus get into the room when it was locked by those fearful disciples?  And how could Jesus walk with those disciples on the Road to Emmaus and chat with them?  How would WE react to someone we are sure is dead in a tomb and is now talking to us, wounds and all?  Fearful yet overjoyed?

     The experiences of these encounters are an invitation to us to reflect on THE central mystery of Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus  from death in the tomb.  Is it only a PAST event in history and we are just celebrating an extended anniversary?  Were those encounters only for a privileged few?  On Wednesday this week, the experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus may offer us a response.  Stay tuned!  AMEN 

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 2:36-41 and John 20:11-18]

     "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.  But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"  Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he had told her. [John]

     The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus were a challenge to his disciples.  The empty tomb was not, in and of itself, evidence that he had risen from the dead.  It was "seeing" him that made the difference.  In the story recounted in today's gospel passage, Mary Magdalen did not, at first, recognize Jesus.  She thought he was a gardener!  It was only when he spoke her name that she understood.   In other appearances, Jesus shows his wounds or asks for something to eat in order to convince the disciples that he is truly risen.  St. Paul, in the First Letter to the Corinthians 15:36-58, speaks to the reality of a resurrected body.  "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one." [15:44]  His encounter with Christ was not with the Jesus whom the apostles and Mary Magdalene had known, but with the risen Christ, and he was temporarily blinded by the experience!  The resurrection body is a different version of the person.

     Our faith rests in no small part on the witness of the disciples, including Mary Magdalen, and their subsequent proclamation of their experience after Pentecost.  The first scriptures for Mass during this week are taken from that post-Pentecostal preaching.  It is through that preaching that we are challenged to "see" the Lord.  In our baptism, he calls us by name.  The proclamation of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead would be worth the lives of the first preachers.  Is it worth ours?  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2024 WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 3:1-10 and Luke 24:13-35]

     And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them.  With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.  Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?"   [Luke]

     By the time the gospels were composed there were many traditions about Jesus' post-resurrection appearances.  We have the accounts in the gospels, but we also have what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, which pre-dates the gospels and which speaks of appearances to "Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once....After that he appeared to James, then to all the  apostles.  Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me."

     The story of Jesus' appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is tantalizing for its references to what would later become the major elements of our Eucharistic worship - the proclamation of the Word and the Breaking of Bread.  But we should not read the present form back into the Gospel According to Luke.  What remains are the broad elements, which the evangelist Luke also refers to in the Acts of the Apostles in regard to the earliest Christian communities: "They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers." [Acts 2:42]

     What we celebrate today is rooted in the experiences of believers after Jesus' resurrection.  The plant doesn't look like the seed from which it came, but it is all one process that we continue in our day.  We gather as community, hear the "teaching of the apostles" and break the bread and recognize the real presence of Christ in our midst.  There is continuity in the  midst of change!  That's surely true of our church today! AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024 THURSDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 3:11-26 and Luke 24:35-48]

     "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things."  [Luke]

     The two disciples on the road to Emmaus returned to Jerusalem and told the disciples gathered in fear that they had seen the Lord and recognized him in the breaking of bread.  No sooner had they done this than Jesus shows up to do the same thing.  He  "opened their minds to understand the scriptures."  The evangelist Luke then has Jesus speaking a bit retrospectively because Luke is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles which is the story of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to the rest of the world as known by the early Church. "You are witnesses to these things."  The understanding of the Scriptures is crucial to the bearing of witness.

     We are not living in the times and culture of the MIddle East in the first century A.D..  We are the Body of Christ, the Church, in the second millenium A.D..  But we still have the Scriptures and the "breaking of bread."  We are still doing these things in remembrance of Jesus and bearing witness to his teachings.  This is not simply a liturgical matter of going to Mass and the other sacraments.   It is the love of God manifested in the way we treat others.  The Gospel According to Luke contains the parables of the Good Samaritan ("Go and do likewise" Luke 10:29-37), the Prodigal Son, (Luke 15:11-32), and the Rich  Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).  Are our minds open to these Scriptures and their implications for our lives as Christians?  Are we "witnesses to these things?"  Jesus is in our midst through the Holy Spirit in the breaking of bread to remind us of what we are called to do afterward!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 4:1-12 and John 21:1-14]

     Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them, "Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.  He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.  There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are saved." [Acts]

     I was once invited at one of my campus ministries to address a group of students who belonged to one of the many evangelical Christian groups that one may encounter at a large university.  The subject of my presentation was "spirituality," but when I finished, the questions that followed focused on one question: "Who can be saved?"  For many of them, the words of Peter to the Jewish authorities in the first scripture for today, along with Jesus' words: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.."[John 14:6] exclude from salvation anyone who does not explicitly, for whatever reason, believe in Jesus Christ.  When I asked them to consider why God had created so many people over so many centuries only to have them suffer eternal torment through no fault of their own,  the students were at a loss to respond.  The question still vexes Christians of all kinds.  

     Seminaries and Christian theology schools have a course called "soteriology," which means the study of "salvation." (The Greek word, "soter," means "savior.")  The subject includes the ever troubling question of predestination and other ways of understanding God's "plan of salvation" as revealed in the Bible and in Christian tradition.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church and other important documents of Church teaching reject the idea that those who by no fault of their own have no knowledge of and have never rejected Christ are destined for eternal damnation.  The importance of the Church - the Body of Christ - is that it has been commissioned to preach the saving news of Jesus Christ.  We do not determine anyone's ultimate fate.  Like Peter, our job is to preach the gospel.  AMEN

     

     

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

[Acts 4:13-21 and Mark 16:9-15]

     "Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.  It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard." [Acts]

     When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons.  She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.  When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.  After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country.  They returned and told the others, but they did not believe them either.  [Mark]

     The skepticism of the Eleven was understandable but it earned them a rebuke from Jesus for their failure to believe Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus first appeared,  and the two disciples to whom Jesus  appeared on the road to Emmaus.  There would be a vivid example of the skepticism when the apostle Thomas shows up after Jesus' first appearance to the Eleven!  Another sample of the skepticism is on display in the reaction of the Athenians to Paul's preaching. [Acts 17:32].  But once Peter and the rest of the disciples believed and received the Holy Spirit, they began preaching in Jerusalem, which got them in trouble with the Jewish religious authorities, especially the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection.  Peter's reply to them is quoted above.  Once the disciples received the Holy Spirit, it became impossible for them NOT to believe.

     The simple point is that the resurrection of the Lord is at the center of everything we believe.  Without the resurrection, the Eucharist would only be a nice memory of a great guy but not the powerful transformation that our faith proclaims.  The Sermon on the Mount would be good advice but not a matter of divine revelation.  The preaching of St. Paul would be the delusional claims of a former Pharisee.  He gave us the best statement of all of this when he wrote to the Corinthians: [I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all."   AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024  2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY)

[Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31]

     Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him.  In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.  For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.  And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.  [1 John]

     Jesus said to [Thomas]: "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.  [John]

     The importance and power of faith is on full display in the scriptures assigned for this day.  The power of faith is manifested in the love of neighbor without which faith is empty.  Faith comes from an encounter with God's love and not merely an intellectual assent to a list of dogmas printed on a page.  The scriptures from the Johannine community speak to faith as a force that overcomes "the world."  The "world" in this case is the world of non-belief that requires nothing but self-preservation.  The "commandments" of God are brought together in the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us and gave his life for us.

     The portrait of the early Christian community in the first scripture for today is a kind of snapshot of what the commandment of love meant to the earliest believers. "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common."  How does that ring in the ears of our individualistic and consumerist culture?  Faith has consequences that must be manifested in love, and the challenge comes on the level of everyday life, whether it be international or local.  

     In short, faith is more than celebrating the Eucharist in the same space with a bunch of other folks.  It is more than devotions and prayers.  It is manifested in displaying the "divine mercy" that gives this Sunday its nickname.  How merciful are we?  How loving?  The answer to those two questions will tell us a lot about how faithful we are.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024  THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD

[Isaiah 7:10-14; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38]

     "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of he Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his Father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end."  [Luke]

     Mother Nature's calendar must bend to the liturgical calendar.  The feast of the Annunciation is usually celebrated March 25th, but this year, March 25th fell in Holy Week, so the celebration was moved to the next available Monday after the Octave of Easter.  And, as is well known by Moms everywhere, pregnancies are not always respecters of the OB-GYN predictions or the nine month rule.

     The story as recounted by the evangelist Luke is carefully crafted to make a point.  Mary's free cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit is in fulfillment of the prophetic promises of God as given in Isaiah (first scripture for today) and in the Second Book of Samuel 7:11-17 (promises made to David through the prophet Nathan).  In case, like Mary, we are wondering how this can all be, the angel Gabriel sums it up wonderfully: "[F]or nothing will be impossible for God."

    So, for now, time is suspended and we celebrate the beginning of Jesus' life on earth as well as the end of that earthly life and the beginning of new life for all of us in his resurrection from the dead.  We still have his Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit to celebrate.  The liturgical calendar is still in charge!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 4:32-37 and John 3:7b-15]

     "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.  And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." [John]

     For at least the next several weeks, the scriptures for daily Eucharist will be taken from the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel According to John.  These are two very different pieces of scripture and represent two different stages of the development of Christianity in the years following the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Acts of the Apostles, basically the second "volume" of the Gospel According to Luke, is like a broad narrative of the spread of Christianity from a frightened group of disciples in a room somewhere in Jerusalem to the center of the Roman Empire.  The Gospel According to John is like a dramatic presentation of the state of theological reflection in a particular community or strand of Christianity - the Johannine community.  It is so different from the other three gospels that there was some debate about including it in the canon of scripture.  Neither the Acts nor John should be considered as historical journalism.  They are masterpieces of story-telling directed to particular audiences at the time, but bearing meaning for all time as the Holy Spirit inspired the authors.  All of it is true but told from different perspectives at different stages to different audiences.

     The encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus today speaks of baptism, the Holy Spirit and the broad meaning of Jesus' mission.  Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will hear that very familiar line, "God so loved the world...." [John 3:16].  The Acts of the Apostles speaks of the first Christian community acting in accord with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  There is much ahead of us to consider!  Stay tuned!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 5:17-26 and John 3:16-21]

     God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  [John]

     One of the more intrepid forms of preaching that I have witnessed over a number of years was the strategically placed banner at large athletic events with JOHN 3:16 emblazoned on it.  At football games one could see it between the goal posts.  At baseball games one could see it in the bleachers in the outfield!  If a single sentence could sum up the entire Gospel According to John (and maybe the whole New Testament), the first sentence of the quote above is it!  Jesus is the one whom God has sent.

     Over and over again [at least 53 times] in the Gospel According to John, the word "sent" appears to remind us of Jesus' mission [and ours].  And, in Jesus' post-resurrection appearance to the disciples, he "sends' the disciples on mission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." [John 20:21]  The folks with the banners took that charge seriously!  That charge is easily forgotten because most of us are baptized as infants.  We don't often think of ourselves as "sent" to preach the gospel, but only to "believe."  The connection between faith and mission gets lost.  The words in John 3:16 are of a piece with the words in John 20:21.  By virtue of our baptism we are "sent."  Where do we go? Wherever we are!!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024  ST. STANISLAUS, bishop and martyr

[Acts 5:27-33 and John 3:31-36]

     "We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.  God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.  We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."  

     The one who comes from above is above all.  The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.  But the one who comes from heaven is above all.  He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts nis testimony. [John]

     Both passages of scripture assigned for today refer to testimony and witnessing.  The apostles are speaking to the highest Jewish authority, the Sanhedrin.  In the gospel passage, the evangelist reflects on the "testimony" of Jesus (and of those who believe in him.).  The liturgical calendar also celebrates the memory of St. Stanislaus, a martyr bishop in Poland in the 11th century A.D..  The statement, "We must obey God rather than men." is at the foundation of martyrdom.  The very word, "martyr" is derived from a Greek word meaning "witness" and is used in a forensic or adversarial context.  

     I have referred in the past to a poster I once had with the words, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"  The earliest (and subsequent) martyrs were killed not just because they believed in Jesus but because their belief was seen to be inimical to good public order!!!  They refused to participate in idolatry which was the civil religion of the Roman Empire.  

       Martyrs can seem to be heroic figures of the past or at least in missionary territory and not here in the USA.  But we are familiar with "civil disobedience" and the actions of government in responding to it.  Christian faith does not demand martyrdom nor condone violence, despite terrifying examples to the contrary throughout history.  But when someone like St. Stanislaus from the 11th century or St. Oscar Romero or the Maryknoll sisters in El Salvador and Bl Stanley Rother in Guatemala in modern times exemplifies the cost of bearing witness, we are challenged to ask ourselves whether we would have the courage they displayed in bearing witness.  The early Church father, Tertullian, wrote, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."  Where do we fit in?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 5:34-42 and John 6:1-15]

     When Jesus saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to  Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"  He said this to test him because he himself knew what he was going to do.  [John]

     The gospel scripture for the next few daily Masses will be coming from the sixth chapter of the Gospel According to John.  In a very dramatic gospel, this chapter is one of the most dramatic in terms of what we Catholics believe about the Eucharist.  That will develop after the incident of the multiplication of the loaves and fish, which sets the stage for what follows.

     This incident is reported in all four gospels, which is an indication of its importance in telling the story of Jesus.  But there are differences in the one in the gospel according to John.  The initiative here is taken by Jesus and not by the disciples coming to him with a logistical feeding problem ("[H]e himself knew what he was going to do."]    Secondly, it is Jesus who distributes the bread and fish and not the disciples!  Third, the people misunderstand what Jesus is doing, which sets the stage for the discourse that follows - the "Bread of Life" discourse.  The teaching in that discourse is at the center of Catholic worship - the Eucharist!  The "sign" that Jesus works is not the point of the story.  Jesus is the point.  Stay tuned!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024  SATURDAY IN THE 2ND WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 6:1-7 and John 6:16-21]

     As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.  So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.  Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." [Acts]

     Although chapters 2 and 4 of the Acts of the Apostles speak to the unity and charity of the initial Christian community [2:42-47 and 4:32-37], we learn today that there were "growing pains" in the process of charity which threatened the unity of the disciples.  The food pantry appears to have shown some bias in favor of Hebrew-speaking widows over Greek-speaking widows.  The Greek-speakers were the result of the long Greek domination of Palestine after Alexander the Great conquered much of the area.  Like many pastors I have known, the Apostles felt they didn't need the headache of administration that included fighting factions in the parish.  The roots of the permanent diaconate are found in the solution the Apostles adopted.

     Those of us who remember Catholic parish life prior to the  Second Vatican Council can testify that one of the lasting and remarkable results of the council was the restoration of the permanent diaconate, which had fallen into disuse over the centuries and had become simply a brief step before ordination to the priesthood.  Historically, however, for a long time the administration of the church was Bishop-Deacon.  The middle order of presbyter (priest) developed in a similar way when bishops couldn't get to all the  communities to baptize and confirm. So they delegated these tasks to some of the deacons, which led to a change in status for those deacons and the  gradual development of the presbyterate in distinction  from  the diaconate.  By the middle of the second century, the structure of bishop-priest-deacon was fairly common, as we learn from the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, written on his way to Rome to be martyred early in the 2nd century AD.  None of this happened in a neat orderly way, but it did happen. and was the result of efforts to meet the needs of the growing Christian community.

     Because ecclesiastical power became so concentrated in bishops  and priests over the centuries, the order of the permanent diaconate fell into disuse.  Its restoration has not been without "growing pains" as permanent deacons have struggled to develop a distinct identity.  They  are not simply "almost-priests."  Some parts of the church have still not accepted them as a regular part of Catholic ministry.  The Acts of the Apostles today remind us, however, that they have an apostolic origin.  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER

[Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48]

     "But God has brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer."  [Acts]

     "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of MOses and in the prophets and and psalms must be fulfilled."  Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things."  [Luke]

     There are many ways to "witness" to something.  We may be an eye witness or someone repeating the testimony of an eye witness.  The latter form may be oral or written.  In biblical times, the majority of the people in the area of what we call the Holy Land were illiterate.  Communication was oral and tradition was memorized from oral proclamation.  This explains the power of the scribes that Jesus criticized for abuses.  They could read and write.  It also explains the amazement some people had about Jesus, when he visited Nazareth.  He actually read to them from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue.  Respect for the scriptures as a written testimony, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has its roots in the respect shown to the Law of Moses in Jewish synagogues.  It is almost like our respect for the Eucharist which we keep in a tabernacle.  The scroll of the Torah is kept in an "ark" in the synagogue.  But that respect is one thing, understanding the content is another.  This requires faith, study and thought.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus had already had their minds opened to understand the scriptures. They returned to Jerusalem to bear witness to this.   In today's gospel it is the turn of the disciples in the upper room.  What the evangelist Luke does is to establish the broad narrative of salvation to which the disciples would bear witness throughout the Roman Empire, beginning from Jerusalem.

     The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), in contrast to Catholic practice dating from the Council of Trent and earlier, encouraged all of us Catholics to read and study the scriptures.  Previously, this task was left to church authority and clergy.  Our minds are capable of understanding the scriptures on a level that we can bear powerful witness to if we undertake the task of reading and meditating on it.  Our Protestant brothers and sisters have been way ahead of us on this.  There are many resources available now that did not exist prior to Vatican II.  If we are to be capable witnesses to Christ, we have to know the testimony of the scriptures.  We don't have to be scholars, but we can read from a good "study bible" all that we need ordinarily to communicate the "Good News" of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can open our minds to understand the scriptures so that we can be effective disciples.  AMEN

      

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2024 MONDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 6:8-15 and John 6:22-29]

     "Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.  Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."  So they said to him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"  Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."  [John]

     The multiplication of the loaves and fishes sets the scene for what will provide the gospel scriptures for this whole week.  The "Bread of Life discourse" will take us to the unique center of Catholic faith and theology - the Eucharist.  

     The action begins with Jesus confronting his questioners with their misunderstanding of what happened with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.  He is not some kind of walking bakery!  The focus in the Gospel According to John is not on the multiplication itself but on the one who performs it.  It is a "sign" that points to him.  The goal of the sign is faith in Jesus.  He is the food of eternal life.  The dialogue with the audience (which could include us as well) will move step by step to a remarkable and challenging truth.  

     The ultimate goal of the Gospel According to John is to awaken faith in the one whom God has sent. [John 20:30-31].   Today we are told that to "do the works of God" we must "believe in the one he sent."  At the end of the week [Saturday], Jesus will ask his disciples [and us], "Does this shock you?" and "Do you also want to leave?"  It is a life and death decision. Do we really want to do the works of God?   Stay tuned!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 8:1b-8 and John 6:

     "And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."  [John]

     The Gospel According to John tends to cram a lot of theology into all the "discourses" that are a feature of Jesus' "signs."  The Bread of Life discourse that follows the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is no exception.  Into the context of Jesus' statement that he is "the bread of life" the evangelist also includes the impact of faith in Jesus as the source of eternal life and that he will raise those who believe in him on the last day.  However, this will expand tomorrow [Thursday] into eternal life while one is still alive, what scripture scholars and theologians call "realized eschatology."  Jesus promises that he will not allow anyone who believes in him to perish.  In the discourse at the Last Supper, he will return to this theme and speak of his disciples as the Father's gift to him. [John 17:24]

     The discourse is moving toward the depth of the gift that Jesus is giving not simply on the level of eternal life, which may seem somewhat intangible, but on the level of his Body and Blood, which are quite tangible in the Eucharist.  Again, it is a step by step presentation that demands faith in the words of the gospel as presented to us by the evangelist John.  Stay tuned!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024  THURSDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 8:26-40 and John 6:44-51]

     "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world."  [John]

     The Bread of Life discourse up to now has focused on bread as both a historical feature (the Manna in the desert) and an analogy of Jesus as the "bread of life," along with the idea that faith in Jesus is the beginning of eternal life in the present as well as on the "last day."  But the last line in today's passage opens the door to a reality that challenges our faith and is at the root of our Eucharistic worship: "[A]nd the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world."

     A survey by the respected Pew Research Center in 2019 purported to show that only a third of practicing Catholics really believe in the Eucharist as traditionally taught by the Church.  The belief that the bread and wine at the celebration of the Eucharist are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ is at the center of all Catholic worship.  The Second Vatican Council refers to it as the "source and summit" of all Catholic faith.  Tomorrow (Friday) we will have before us Jesus' words in response to the question asked by the crowd: "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?"  All of us who are baptized Catholics as well as anyone interested in the teachings of Christ can join in that question and its implications for the world.  Stay tuned!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024  FRIDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 9:1-20 and John 6:52-59]

     The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.  This is the bread of heaven.  Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."  [John]

     At the beginning of this passage, the Jews ask an important question, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Is he advocating a form of cannibalism?  At the beginning of tomorrow's passage, Jesus' disciples will be asking a similar question, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?"  By the time the Gospel According to John was composed [between 90-110 AD], the Christian community had been proclaiming the meaning of Jesus' words at the Last Supper.  St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 shows how early on the community proclaimed those words as part of faith in Jesus: "For I received from the Lord what I handed on to you..." [circa 56 AD].  The three synoptic gospels all report those words with slight variations.  

     The Eucharist is more than a symbol.  It is the very person of Jesus Christ.  The traditional formula, "body and blood, soul and divinity," captures the meaning.  But this can have meaning only if it is accepted as a matter of faith.  It is the gift of God, "[F]or nothing will be impossible for God." [Luke 1:37].   We will see tomorrow [Saturday], that even the disciples, let alone the Jews, had to struggle with Jesus' teaching.  The Pew survey that I mentioned earlier indicates that in our own time, Catholics are letting the full meaning of the Eucharist to slip away.  But tomorrow we will have Peter's response to challenge us.  Stay tuned!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SATURDAY, APRIL 20 SATURDAY IN THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 9:31-42 and John 6:60-69]

     Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?".....As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.  Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"  Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."  [John]

     I have mentioned before, when reflecting on the Bread of Life discourse, the story of a young woman whom I instructed for admission to the church at the Easter Vigil.  After we had covered the materials about Catholic faith and she had indicated that she wanted to go forward, I asked her what had been the most difficult part of the teachings for her.  She responded right away and said, "The Eucharist.  If you can accept that, the rest is easy."  Her experience seems to have had precedent in the early Christian community.  Some were willing to be disciples until they learned about the Eucharist.  The Catholic church has a lot of devotions and practices and doctrines, but what is truly unique about us is our belief in the Eucharist.  It seems to some that this is "impossible for God."

     The Pew survey in 2019  purported to show that nearly 60% of Catholics in varying degrees did not believe that the bread and wine offered at Mass are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.  The traditional term for this transformation - transubstantiation - simply did not have any meaning for many of those surveyed.  This survey galvanized the American bishops to initiate a nationwide program of "Eucharistic revival" to help recover and renew faith in the Eucharist as taught from the beginning of the church.  This program is in progress now.  I'm sure there will be another survey after the program is concluded to see if there has been any  change!  What we may need is to find a new way of conveying this truth of our faith that speaks to the modern age.  I doubt the majority of Catholics are acquainted with the Aristotelian Greek philosophy that underlies the term "transubstantiation."   Ultimately it is a matter of faith, as Simon Peter proclaimed.  If Jesus has the "words of eternal life," it behooves us to take him at his word! AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024  4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER

[Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; and John 10:11-18]

     "I am the good shepherd.  A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.....I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.  [John]

     The image of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" is one of the most beloved in Christianity.  Stained glass windows depict Jesus with a lamb in his arms and a ewe standing at his feet looking up at him adoringly.  It is altogether a comforting and caring image.  The image of the Good Shepherd is taken from the Gospel According to John and today's passage is taken from the middle of the discourse.  The discourse begins with Jesus comparing himself to the gate of the corral which governs who or what gets in and out.  Then Jesus turns the image a bit and becomes the shepherd. Then the image focuses on one aspect of the shepherd - his voice!

     The whole image is taken from actual herding practice in Palestine then and now.  A village would have one corral with one gate.  At night all the sheep from all the different flocks are put in the corral.  The shepherd on watch would lie down at the gate!!!  In the morning, each shepherd would come and give a distinct call.  His sheep, and only his sheep, would hear the call and separate themselves to follow him to pasture.  That "call" is the call to the faith of the one who believes in Jesus.  And we are told that there is another flock somewhere that Jesus must tend to.  This could be a caution against smugness in thinking that anyone not in our particular flock is doomed.

     Sheep are not the most intelligent members of the animal world, so the image should not be pressed too hard!  The focus is on the gate and the shepherd and his voice.  Following the shepherd is a matter of life and death for the sheep, and the sheep are the reason for the life of the shepherd.  The relationship is the point of the image.  If we consider ourselves a member of Jesus' flock, we may ask ourselves how attentive we are to his call?  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024 MONDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 11:1-18 and John 10:1-10]

     "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and robber.  But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.... Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep....Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."  [John]

     Today's gospel passage from the Gospel According to John, in contrast with Sunday's gospel, which comes from the middle of chapter 10, takes us back to the beginning of the chapter and the image of the shepherd, sheep and sheepfold (corral).  Jesus identifies himself with both the gate to the corral and with the shepherd.  He is both the means and the end.  For the sheep, the task is to hear and recognize the unique call of their particular shepherd since all the sheep belonging to all the shepherds in the village are put in one corral (sheepfold) and there is no color coding in the wool or computer chips in their ears!!  At the end of the passage, Jesus speaks words that are very familiar to most Christians: "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."  

     The task of the sheep - not the most intelligent of animals - is to hear, recognize and follow the shepherd.  The disciples as well as the Jewish authorities of Jesus' time were at various points in that process.  So are we.  Some hear but do not recognize and so do not follow.  Others hear and recognize but still do not follow.  Some do all three but stray along the way in varying degrees.  I suspect most of us are in the latter group.  At least we have assurance from the Gospel According to Luke [15:4-6] that if we do stray, Jesus will come looking for us!  AMEN

     

[RB Williams, OP]

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024  TUESDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK IN EASTER

[Acts 11:19-26 and John 10:22-30]

     Those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews.  There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus......[And] sit was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.  [Acts]

     The Acts of the Apostles is widely considered to be the second volume of the Gospel According to Luke because it is attributed to him. [Acts 1:1-2]  It is basically the story of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to the rest of the Roman Empire.  But it is also, in a sense, the story of the spread of the gospel beyond and to the present day.  How did Christian faith get as far as where you and I are living?  It was through preaching first and foremost!  Word of mouth and pen!

     Ironically, the efforts of Jewish and Roman authorities to suppress the preaching of the apostles and other disciples in Jerusalem that led to the spread of the faith!!  The disciples fled the persecution and headed for other places for safety.  These other places included people who were not Jews - "Greeks."  In a move that would have far reaching consequences, Barnabus recalled a certain recent convert named Saul and went to find him, making a living in his hometown as a tentmaker.  That tentmaker - former Pharisee and bounty hunter - would spread the faith all over the Mediterranean world in his mission trips.  Again, all of this was accomplished through preaching - through word of mouth and through letters to new communities.

     The popular notion of preaching as a pulpit-in-a-church-by-a-priest-or-deacon is unfortunate.  It is also counterproductive.  All Christians are called by baptism to be preachers and the internet has made this possible by just about anyone.  The role of the Pope and bishops is to make sure the preaching is "on message."  Each of us can begin with a few friends and see our efforts grow, as I have since August 2003.  We don't have to wait for persecution to start preaching!  Although martyrdom still occurs and courageous preachers suffer in places like Nicaragua or China, it is not likely for most of us.  Fear is the enemy of the gospel.  St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, but we are not a monopoly!!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024  WEDNESDAY IN THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER

[Acts 12:24-13:5a ane John 12:44-50]

     Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.  I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.." [John]

     There are many ways of studying the Gospel According to John.  Large and detailed studies by such eminent scholars as Fr. Raymond Brown, SS (dec.) are available to anyone wishing to dive in deeply.  Those who are less equipped to do this can obtain a good "study bible."  We bring to our study all that we know as a matter of faith about Jesus and our own ways of looking at life in general.  I have come to view this gospel as a kind of drama in four acts: Prologue, Book of Signs, Book of Glory and Epilogue.  Those divisions are common and some authors have commented on the dramatic qualities of the scenes in this gospel when compared with rules and customs of secular dramatic presentations in Jesus' time.  Greco-Roman culture produced a lot of it.

     With that in mind, the words of Jesus in today's passage are "cried out" and come at the end of the "Book of Signs."  They are a kind of summary of Jesus' mission as first presented in the Prologue (light/darkness) and then in the "signs."  Each sign points to Jesus' identity and his relationship to his Father and to his being SENT.  The response throughout is presented as the difference between belief and non-belief in Jesus as the one whom God has sent.  The use of light/darkness, above/below, seeing/blindness and belief/non-belief helps to set the stage for the Book of Glory that begins with the Washing of the Feet of the disciples, the Last Supper discourse, the trial before Pilate, and the resurrection scenes.  In the days ahead, the gospel scriptures will come from the Last Supper discourse and invite us to consider deeply Jesus' identity and mission and the challenges of discipleship!  Stay tuned!  AMEN

[RB Williams, OP]

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024  ST. MARK, evangelist

[1 Peter 5:5b-14 and Mark 16:15-20]

     Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."

     The Gospel According to Mark is the earliest and shortest of the four gospels, but it served as an important resource to the evangelists Matthew and Luke because about 80% or so of Mark's work shows up in the other two.  This may explain why the three are referred to as the synoptic gospels, i.e. they bear resemblance to each other in many ways.  Mark may be the one whom Paul and Barnabus recruited to join them and is also traditionally associated with St. Peter in Rome, from whom he presumably got a lot of his information about Jesus' ministry.  [St. Paul has very little to say in his letters about Jesus' life before his Passion.]  

      In general, the gospels were composed to meet the needs of a particular community.  I think the evangelists would be amazed at the way they have influenced the course of Christianity around the world.  But, as the quotation from the "longer ending" of Mark indicates, the task is to go out and preach the gospel to "every creature." [Other translations say, "all creation."]  Scripture scholars opine that Mark was meant as a kind of manual for early preachers to keep them "on message" about Jesus. 

     The straightforward and simple (and also blunt) quality of the Gospel According to Mark makes for easy and also uncomfortable reading at times because it has a kind of "in your face" attitude.  "Every creature" can lead to some amusing thoughts, as well.  But "it is what it is" and the challenge remains not just for "the Eleven" but for all of us now!  AMEN