Living in a Type

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Hebrews 10:11-14,18. Read the other readings for this week, for a more full context.

When I was still pretty young (I don’t remember how young), I asked my parents what heaven was like. I know this question was on my mind for a good long while, because I know I got several different answers.

Give It Back to God

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Hebrews 9:24-28, but read the other readings for context.

Does it seem unfair to you that somebody else took the punishment for our sins?

Yeah, me neither. And yet, that’s the way it was under the old and the way it is under the new.

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.

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.

Choosing God's Will

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 5:15-20, but I’d strongly suggest reading the other readings. It’s lectionary # 119, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

In this section of the letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul exhorts members of the church in Ephesus to live wisely, to  make the most of opportunities, to refrain from drunkenness, and to address one another with spiritual language, and give thanks in all things.

Perhaps it is the fact that we were recently in a car accident and had a lot of things to sort out in the aftermath, but I’ve seen these very verses in my life lately.

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.

Teaching Generosity

Original Photo from Pixabay. Modified by Shannon Ball.

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 2 Corinthians 8: 7, 9, 13-15, As usual, I am going to suggest that you read more: verses 1-15, and the other readings.

So… what is “this gracious act,” that St. Paul refers to?

Be Imitators

6th Week in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Cor 10:31-11:1… but as usual, I’m going to send you to read the rest of the chapter and the other readings. It’s Lectionary # 77, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” quoth many a mother. We strive to be like the ones we love and respect. Children strive to be exactly like their parents, even when they don’t do it very well. (We’ve lost a few dishes to Pitter-Patter imitating us unloading the dishwasher!)

And Paul enjoins the church in Corinth (functionally) to the imitation of Christ. It’s a tall order - so tall that one might call it prideful to hope for success…

For that reason, it might be best for us to us to try to focus in on only one thing this week.  In the Gospel, the Lord heals a Leper and then enjoins him not to tell anybody how he was healed.

For a very long time, the fact that Jesus wanted his miracles to be kept a secret really, really confused me, until about 3 years ago, when Daniel’s pastor, Wayne King, pointed out that Jews of that day had a very large appetite for signs.

It happens a number of times in the Gospels that a sign is either called for or volunteered to confirm Jesus’ authority, which gives Wayne’s words a strong ring of truth. Their appetite for signs and miracles would have impeded the progress of the Gospel - and  we can see that after this man spread the tale about his miraculous healing, Jesus couldn’t even enter a town openly.

He certainly could have gotten a lot of popular esteem by doing lots of signs for the people, but how could he have preached if was positively tripping over people asking for signs all the time?

In much the same way, we could gain a lot of popular esteem by compromising on the Gospel. If we were just willing to pass over certain teachings that are unpopular, the gospel would be a lot more easily received.

If Jesus wasn’t willing to compromise the integrity of the Gospel for something that would be more popular, then neither should we! There are numerous places in the New Testament where serious warnings are given about modifying the Gospel message.

Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to courageously proclaim the whole Gospel in our words and our actions. Let us pray that he give us eyes to see the places in which we have not been willing to follow his example, the grace to change our hearts, and the courage to act on it.

Our Attitude Toward Evangelization

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23.

The epistle this week very much forms the bridge between the first and second readings, so I strongly recommend reading them, and go ahead and read a couple of chapters back on that first reading - just to really get the context. It’s lectionary # 74, if you’re reading from a hard copy source.

So, Job's friends see that he is miserable, and they come to comfort and counsel him about whatever his secret sin might have been, Job said all of the right things. He served the Lord, but he also complained about his burden (if you read on in Job 7 to the end of the chapter).

In the midst of his trials, Job does not serve with a willing heart, so for him, obedience is a heavy burden. Likewise, in this week’s Gospel, Jesus also serves the will of the Father. He works signs, he drives out demons, and then he gets up early enough to sneak out of town so as to ensure that the mission of the Father isn’t impeded by the townspeople’s appetite for signs.

Jesus, like Job, emptied himself to the Father’s will and placed himself at his Father’s disposal, but mark the difference between them in how they carry it out. Job patiently plods ahead, dragging one foot in front of the other, but Jesus is glad to do the work of his Father.

Paul reflects on the character of our obedience in this week’s second reading. By our condition as Christians we are made missionaries, and an obligation has been imposed on us. How do we take up this obligation?

Enthusiastically? (Jesus)

Willingly, but complaining? (Job)

Have to be dragged kicking and screaming? (Jonah) - Yeah, I know we didn’t read Jonah this week, but you know the story, right?

Paul reflects that if we are willing preachers of the gospel, the spread thereof is its own reward, and we do all we can to optimize our lives to further its ends.

We are called to be enthusiastic preachers of the Gospel. Is that what we are doing?

Do we gladly take up every opportunity we get to invite our friends and neighbors to come to knowledge of the truth? Or do we shy away from it? Would we rather send somebody “more qualified”?

Lord, help us to joyfully take up the call to make disciples of all of the nations. Show us where we are missing opportunities to grow your church. Help us to foster in ourselves and in our families a missionary outlook in our lives, so that we might always look for ways to spread the good news to those around us.

Our Imperfect Marriages

  Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Cor 7:32-35. This reading is in sequence from last week's epistle reading.

So, last week, Paul counseled the church in Corinth on the need for detachment from this world. This advice was given in the midst of his instruction for widows, virgins, and married people.

In this week’s reading, he zeroes in on one possible problem for those in married life. Paul leads off this passage by asserting that he desire that his brothers and sisters in Christ can be free of anxiety. What does this really mean?

Dictionary.com defines anxiety (in non-clinical context) in this way:

1. distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune
2. earnest but tense desire; eagerness

I think that both of these definitely apply to married life, though perhaps not in this order. I’d like to focus on the second definition.

Consider how one acts in a new relationship (either when you’re still dating, or when you’re newly married). How did you act toward your husband (or wife) in the early days? I’d be willing to bet that you were anxious to please them? Any little gift - breakfast in bed, the last chicken finger in the box, that [whatever-it-was] that they just had to have - you watched them very carefully to make sure it was everything they hoped for.

Now, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this. Marriage is a vocation of service. I should want to serve my husband, to do for him, to make him happy; I should desire that he continue to be refined to more perfectly resemble the image and likeness of God. And he should want to do the same for me.

Paul’s point is that because we are finite creatures, this eagerness that we have to please our husbands does take away from the energy we are able to put into serving Christ. We can only do so much before we collapse from exhaustion. We who are married are, in a word, “divided”.

This is not so much a fault as it is a fact of life. In married life, we do what is called for by our vocation. Paul says that there isn’t anything wrong with married life. Earlier in the chapter, Paul says that those who are married shouldn’t seek to be single, and he says that a person who marries commits no sin by doing so.

We, being fallen creatures, will not live our vocation perfectly, we will love inadequately (neglect), incorrectly (lust), or to excess (idolatry), but we are, each of us, called to love our spouses in the way that Christ loved his church - perfectly. And we are to desire one another’s spiritual perfection.

Let’s pray that God will open the eyes of our heart to show us the ways in which our love for our spouses is not in line with his plan for us. Let us also pray that he will provide for us a course correction, so that our marriages will more perfectly reflect the plan he has for our lives and what is in store for us in eternity.

Without Interference

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Cor 7:29-31. It would be helpful to also read The rest of the chapter, and the other readings for today. It's Lectionary #68, according to the USCCB, if you want to look it up offline.

Can it be that Paul is telling us that we who are married should act like we are not married? That those who weep or rejoice should pretend that their sorrows and joys simply do not exist? That we should not make use of the world that God has set before us?

Of course not! (He says this all the time. I figured it was safe for me to do it too!) To suggest that married people should act as if they were not married would be to suggest that we should neglect our loved ones, rather than teaching them to follow Christ. And to suggest that when we weep or rejoice, we should act as though we are not weeping or rejoicing is to deny a part of the humanity that God blessed us with - our human emotions.

Then what is he talking about?

It is important to note that the first reading this week recounts what the citizens of Nineveh did when warned of God’s coming wrath, and the Gospel reading this week relates the main working of Jesus’ public ministry. He went to Galilee proclaiming that, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” and the call of four of the twelve disciples. In both cases, they drop everything to respond to God.

It is also important to note that he gives this advice in the midst of a section with instructions on marriage and virginity. One of his important points not included in this section is this: an unmarried woman (or man, he says it for both) does not have a husband to draw her attention away from the Lord, as a married woman does.

Members of the early church had a much more concrete sense that they could meet Christ at any time (either at his return, or their martyrdom). That is something we - who are not missionaries in countries where you can be killed or jailed for being a Christian - have lost. It’s not hard to find them, though. Just search the web for “Christian Martyrs 2014”.

It is Paul’s first concern for the Corinthians that they be able to seek the will of the Lord without the world to interfere. His instruction, then, is not to neglect those things which God has blessed us with, but to give to them their proper station and no more.

We should love our families, and we should not allow our homes to fall into a state of disrepair, because we have no idea when Christ might return. We should not, however, allow people or things to take our eye off God. Yes, take your family on a picnic, celebrate your kids’ birthdays, repair your leaky faucet, replace the crummy awning on the back porch, but don’t let these things distract you from loving the Lord and seeking his will for your life.

Let us pray this week for God’s grace to actually see the idols we have set up in our lives in place of him, and how these things might be given their proper station. Let us ask that he take away the scales from our eyes that we might see ourselves as we truly are, rather than as we want ourselves to be. Let’s also ask that God grant us the strength to change our lives, so that we are centered on Christ, rather than on something else.

Temple of the Holy Spirit

Second Week in Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

Humbling words, right? To think that we have in our possession a dwelling place of the holy Spirit, and what do we do with it? If you read back a little in the chapter, there’s no doubting that Paul’s intention was to discuss sexual immorality, but let’s take this a step broader.

Do you really believe that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit? That it is a good and beautiful thing that you’ve been given, free of charge? (You should!)

How poorly do we maintain the temple we’ve been given? How many times this week have we skipped meals? Do we usually get ourselves to bed at a decent hour? When we’re sick, do we push ourselves, or do we stay home and look after our health until we’re better?

My parents told me a story about some neighbors they had a long time ago who were given a brand new refrigerator, for free, because they really needed it. When those neighbors moved (not long after receiving the fridge), they left behind the refrigerator and it was given to my parents. It was frankly in deplorable condition. My dad said that for months it had to be kept outside because the smell was so rank.

It’s easy to neglect the condition of things we’ve received for nothing. We’ve received our bodies and souls for nothing. Do we take care of them? Do we put them through their regular maintenance? Do we feed them right?

How ungrateful we can be in looking after the gifts received from almighty God! How could we be better about this? Think of one way, right now. I’ll wait.




It could be as simple as having more than a cup of coffee for breakfast… Or getting to bed at a decent hour, or saying a morning offering every day. Make that one small change for this week to take better care of the gift that God has given to you.

Let’s pray that God will give us the grace to recognize the ways in which we are not treating the gift of our bodies with the care they deserve. Let us pray that we might turn the one small change we’ve made into a habit of caring for ourselves better in the future.


(Full disclosure: I am 5’4”, and weight 195lbs. (That’s about 1.6m and 88kg.)  In the past week, there have been multiple days on which I have forgotten to eat one meal or another without just cause, and I am not good about remembering to exercise. I am trying to be better about these and other ways in which I have not manifested due gratitude to God for the gift of my body. I just wanted to be clear that I am not talking about “other people” when I say “we” in this post!)

No Partiality

The Baptism of the Lord

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Acts 10:34-38. I strongly recommend also reading the whole chapter for context.

If you’re a little confused by the Baptism of the Lord, you’re in good company (or at least plenty of company). Several heresies throughout the ages have denied the dual nature of Christ. The consequence of some of these heresies is the error that Jesus was “just a guy” until John baptized him, when God came upon him, and then left him at the crucifixion.

The Lord’s baptism is recorded in all four gospels, so we can be pretty sure that the first generation of apostles thought it was important. The reason why is harder. The Summa Theologica contains a question on The Baptizing of Christ. I am still working on reading it myself, and have found it enlightening so far. Dive in at your own risk, though - the Summa is not easy reading!