Obedience Out of Fear

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Hebrews 4:12-13. I suggest reading from the beginning of the chapter, for context, and then read the other readings.

The writer to the Hebrews writes in this chapter on the Sabbath rest, though you wouldn’t know it by the brief excerpt we read today. Nowadays, Sundays are starting to look so much like every other day of the week that resting on Sundays is a hard thing for Christians to talk about seriously and really enter into.

Between the Old and New Covenants

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Hebrews 2:9-11. I would suggest beginning at verse 5 - that's where the link goes. Be sure to read the other readings for context - this reflection will not make sense without them!

On description, Daniel indicated that he thought this was a “how it happened to speak to me” type of reflection. Read with that in mind!

One Year Ago...

One year ago, yesterday, a faithful servant went to meet our Master.

This is Wayne King. He was the pastor at Daniel’s small Presbyterian church for ten years, and a very good friend of ours. And before that, he and his wife, Julie, spent 20 years doing Bible translation work in Malaysia, for a language that - I understand - previously didn’t have a written form.

Sometimes the Villain Gets One Right

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from James 3:16-4:3. I suggest reading the other readings as well, for context. It’s lectionary # 134, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

There is a Native American Fable - or maybe an adage - about a boy who talks to his grandfather about two dogs fighting inside of him. One is a good dog, who represents virtues, and the other is an evil dog, who represents vices. The boy asks his grandfather which dog will win, to which the old man replied, “the one you feed.”

The Trouble with Works

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Original image from Pixabay.

This Sunday, the second reading will be from James 2:14-18 (the link goes to a bit more). I’d strongly encourage you to read the other readings as well. It’s lectionary #131, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

I don’t think there is another issue that is as contentious between Catholics and most Protestants as that of the role of works in salvation.

On the one hand, Protestants have one strong point in their favor. We cannot earn our Salvation. Not by doing good works, not by study, not by any means. And any Catholic who is worth their salt will tell you the same thing.

Laws Given in Love

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Original Image from Pixabay.

This Sunday, the second reading will be from James 1:17-18,21-22,27, but go ahead and read the intervening verses - you’ll lose nothing by it. Also, check out the other readings - it’s Lectionary # 125, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

I’m glad the Church doesn’t ask of us a lot of ritual religious customs in our regular everyday comings and goings. I mean, as customs go, abstaining from meat on Fridays and fasting two days a year really is not that bad! Not when you consider all the religious customs the Jews were required to observe every single day.

Unity Among Christians

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 4:1-6.

In this passage in Ephesians, Paul urges the church in Ephesus to nurture and maintain their unity.

How sad it is that Christianity today is so deeply divided! Divided to the point that some Christians refuse to acknowledge one another as fellow laborers for Christ.

What we can Learn from the Early Church about Loving Other Christians

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 2:13-18. I’d suggest reading the other readings. It’s Lectionary #107, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

This section is primarily addressed to the Christians who were once Gentiles. It speaks of how the Messiah is able to reconcile all people in himself, not just the Israelites.

This was kind of a big deal in the early Christian church. The idea that God might have reconciled people from every nation was revolutionary in the Jewish community.

And in some ways we need to take a lesson from this, in the same way as the early Jewish Christians.

The Benedict Option: What We Should Do Instead

Last week, I discussed what is becoming known as “The Benedict Option”, why it’s attractive to some (myself included), and why I don’t think it’s an appropriate option for the Catholic Church.

The question of what should we do instead is a hard one to fully answer, largely because there are a lot of components to it, but we certainly can’t keep banging our heads against a wall like we have been. It leads to the kind of emotional exhaustion that led me to abandon Facebook entirely for over six months.

Something I heard on Catholic Answers recently really touched me. They were taking questions about the SCOTUS marriage decision and where we go from here, and the guest mentioned as part of an answer that before we do anything else, we first have a morale problem to handle.

I immediately knew this woman couldn’t be wrong - because I know that what I have experienced is first and foremost a morale problem.

I don’t think I can fully address the morale problem itself, as I am neither a spiritual director, nor a professional counselor. If you’re frustrated and angry, and really struggling emotionally or spiritually, I would suggest seeing a spiritual or mental health professional to help you dig out of the hole you’ve found yourself in, then I have a few practical suggestions to help keep this from happening again, in addition to whatever they suggest for you.

Unique in the World

 

Original photo from Pixabay.

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 1:3-14. I also suggest reading the other readings, but for the first reading, begin at 7:10.

In this section from the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives thanks for the blessings received from God in the community of the Ephesians, and in the Christian community at large.

God made us to be holy before him, to be adopted by him, he’s give us forgiveness of our sins, and given us rich graces by which we are able to do his will in an unfriendly world, he’s revealed to us his will, and given us knowledge of his plan for us.

Out of Love for Us, God Gave Us a Job to Do

Original photo from Pixabay.

12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 2 Corinthians 5:14-17. I would recommend reading verses 11-21, and also the other readings for this week. It's Lectionary # 95, if you're reading from a hard copy.

The first reading and Gospel speak of God’s mastery over the sea. He set their boundaries when he made them, and he can speak a word to calm a mighty storm at sea. Clearly, his power is great, and greater still is his love for us.

Two Things Love is Not

I’ve spent the last five weeks of reading reflections talking about love. What is it. How it animates our faith. How it should permeate everything that we do. Now it’s time to talk about what love is not.

It’s easy to assume that we know the full meaning of a word just because we can use it in a sentence. You can’t make that assumption with the word “love”.

And let’s exclude romantic love, and loving God, just to make the discussion simpler. Let’s just talk about loving someone as another human being.

There are two common fallacies about love that I think need addressing in light of John’s first epistle.

God Loved You First

7th Sunday of Easter

For the seventh Sunday of Easter, the second reading will be from 1 Jn 4:7-10.

So, we’ve been hitting John’s first epistle really hard this Easter season, and he wrote extensively in this letter about love. So far, since Easter, we’ve talked about:

• What it looks like when we love God back,
• how obedience of the laws of God factor into our relationship with him,
• how incredible is God’s love for us,
• the necessity of our act of trust in the context of our loving relationship with God,
• and the necessity of loving those who are not in Christ.

Love Even Those Who Are Not in Christ

6th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Jn 4:7-10. I strongly suggest that you read the other readings for this week. It’s Lectionary # 56, if you’re reading from a hard copy. I’d also recommend reading John 3:16-21.

We hear the words so often that their impact has almost become lost on us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, that the world might be saved through him.”

Too often, we forget the stern warning that comes only two verses later: “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

No, Really: Leave it in the Confessional

5th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Jn 3:18-24. Start with verse 11, just to get a little more clarity on what John is talking about.

I hope you are one of those people who has been blessed with a conscience that lets it go the moment you leave the confessional.

This is admittedly rather uncommon in Catholic circles, so if you DO suffer with a conscience that just won’t let things go (like me), then this reading is in here for you.

Incomprehensible Love

4th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Link 1 Jn 3:1-2. I’d suggest reading 2:28-3:3, for context, and the other readings for this week. It’s lectionary #50, if you’re looking at a hard copy.

So, between all of the readings for this week, we read that Jesus is the cornerstone rejected by the builders, and the good shepherd, and that we are the children of God - he is our Father.

In seeing things about God, we are also shown things about ourselves. If Jesus is the cornerstone, then we are the stones of the building; if Jesus is the Good Shepherd, then we are the sheep; if God is our Father, then we might all be called his children.

So, we have a lot of analogies this week for who God is, and by extension who we are in relation to him.

Contemplating God and our relationship to him is an area in which we need good analogies, because the mere existence of a relationship here is hard to really wrap your head around.

Love God First; Obedience Will Follow

Divine Mercy Sunday

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Jn 5:1-6.

John covers a lot - and I do mean a lot - in these six verses, and there are several correct things that one could talk about, based on them.

The sentence that jumped out at me was this one: “… The love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.”

I had a professor in college who was fond of saying, “the fear of Hell is insufficient to avoid it.” (He’s Catholic.)