Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus launches a blistering attack on the scholars of the Law.Video reflection by Deacon Clarence McDavid (U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
The Son teaches, heals, preaches to, and forgives those who feel far from the mercy of God. He is the hand that the Father stretches out to sinners and to those who are lost. And by the same token, he is the judge of a sinful world. When the light of God’s forgiving love appears, the shadows of sin become all the deeper and more obvious. In light of him, there is nowhere to hide. And Jesus, the Word of the Father, gives voice to this judgment: “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."
The Son names all those powers that are opposed to the creative and loving intentions of his Father. He speaks a word of judgment on a world grown cozy with sin. He “channels” all of the feelings of the Father toward the world: intense, forgiving love to those who are lost, and equally intense hatred for the structures of darkness.
"Hold truth in holy respect; fear to offend it, to betray it. Impose upon yourself the discipline of silence, of moderation, of pateience. Truth seeks only to be proclaimed in its entirety."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope Saint John XXIII (1881-1963, r. 1958-1963; feast: 11 October)
"Faith in action is service. We try to be holy because we believe. In most modern rooms you see an electrical light that can be turned on by a switch. But if there is no connection with the main powerhouse, then there can be no light. Faith & prayer are our connection with God, & power of that connection is service."Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
—Saint Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"One can well believe that a crown of thorns, & that steel nails were less terrible to the flesh of our Savior than our modern indifference which neither scorns nor prays to the Heart of Christ."Saint Quote o' the Day
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
"Our aim has to be the infinite & not the finite. The infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven."
—Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006, feast: 12 October)
In God we trust.The traditional motto of the United States is:
"E pluribus unum" ("From many, one").The only way we are going to be united is if we recommit ourselves to those founding priciples. We cannot cut ourselves off from the past; the concept of "Year Zero" can only ever lead to the Killing Fields of Cambodia. We are many; we are not bound by blood & soil. The only way we, as many, can ever be one, is in the One in Whom we trust. I'm not advocating, as the social media "integralists" do, for altar & throne; the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this earth. Religious pluralism is foundational to the United States of America, for good or for ill. The Bill of Rights—Amendment I to the United States Constitution—enshrines the "free exercise of religion," not as the malevolent claim, "freedom from religion."
In God we trust.The traditional motto of the United States is:
"E pluribus unum" ("From many, one").The only way we are going to be united is if we recommit ourselves to those founding priciples. We cannot cut ourselves off from the past; the concept of "Year Zero" can only ever lead to the Killing Fields of Cambodia. We are many; we are not bound by blood & soil. The only way we, as many, can ever be one, is in the One in Whom we trust. I'm not advocating, as the social media "integralists" do, for altar & throne; the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this earth. Religious pluralism is foundational to the United States of America, for good or for ill. The Bill of Rights—Amendment I to the United States Constitution—enshrines the "free exercise of religion," not as the malevolent claim, "freedom from religion."
Friends, today we hear the opening line of Mark’s Gospel: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” This can sound anodyne and harmlessly pious to us, but in the first century, those were fighting words.euangelion, which we render as “good news,” was a word that was typically used to describe an imperial victory. When the emperor won a battle or quelled a rebellion, he sent evangelists ahead with the good news.
Mark’s Greek term,
"You do sports together or go shopping together. Why not read the Bible together as well—two, three, or four of you? In nature, in the woods, on the beach, at night in the glow of a few candles… you will have a great experience!"Bonus! Papal Quote o' the Day
—Pope Francis (b. 1936, r. 2013-present)
"In Jesus Christ, God took on a human face & became our friend & brother."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope Benedict XVI (b. 1927, r. 2005-2013)
"God dwells in us. It doesn't matter where you are as long as you are clean of heart. Clean of heart means openness, that complete freedom, that detachment that allows you to love God without hinderance, without obstacles. When sin comes into our lives that is a personal obstacle between us & God. Sinis nothing but slavery. "Catholic Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"In the same way that lies have gone out from people’s hearts, penetrating throughout the world & destroying it, so should—& so will—the truth begin its healing service within our hearts."
—Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J. (1907-1945)
Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples “a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary”—the parable of the insistent and persistent widow. She keeps pressing her demand against the judge, and the judge—who is no saint—finally gives in to her persistence.Video reflection by Andrew Mercado (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
When we rely on our own powers in the spiritual struggle against darkness, hatred, and division, we fail. But when we open ourselves to the infinite power of God and we rely on the power of prayer, then the battle goes well. As the Lord says in the parable, “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?” We must channel a power that goes infinitely beyond ourselves if we are to be successful.
God wants us to persist in asking for his power, his courage, and his strength. This biblical truth is repeated over and over in the Scriptures. Persistent prayer is the key to success in our spiritual combat.
"Death can be an experience of extraordinary solidarity. Death makes us brothers & sisters. In a world that casts death aside & does everything to hide it, it is urgently necessary to recall the inevitability of an event that it part of the history of every person."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
"When you are suffering, always remember that the Passion of Christ ends always in the joy of the Resurrection. So, when you feel in your own heart the suffering of Christ, remember the Resurrection has to come. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Jesus."Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"To be assumed by the Person of Christ, to act in His Name, first of all, we have to empty ourselves. Second, we must be lifted up ourselves. In the second chapter of the letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul says of Christ that the divine nature was His from the first. He did not need to snatch at equality with God, because He was God. He made Himself a nothing, assuming the nature of a slave. He made Himself a zero. He emptied Himself. There was a human nature, but no human person in Christ. There was only the divine Person. That means that in a certain sense we no longer have a human person. Believe me, our spirituality has been ruined by the so-called philosophy of identity. I've got to be me. I've got to do my thing. Since when? Doesn't charity mean doing the other person's thing? Why this affirmation of the ego? Why do we have to act in a certain way to attract the attention of others to our human personality? There's no human personality in us. Christ is in us at all times, acting through us, using us as His instrument. "
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares the value of almsgiving: "As to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you."Video reflection by Father John M. McKenzie (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
Almsgiving is valuable because we’re members of a Mystical Body—we’re implicated in each other. I can never say that your suffering is not mine or that your neediness is not mine. All of us are co-implicated. We’re responsible for each other, and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that. When we share gifts or charity with those in need, we’re acknowledging the fact that we’re not in this alone, that the things that we own are meant for others. Almsgiving is also tied to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which every Catholic is obligated to practice every day.
Numerous spiritual masters have witnessed that belief in God is strengthened not so much from intellectual effort as from moral action. When a man asked the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins what he must do in order to believe, Hopkins replied, "Give alms."As you love through tangible acts, you will come to believe more deeply and to enter more fully into friendship with God.
"Hold truth in holy respect; fearto offend it, to betray it. Impose upon yourself the discipline of silence, of moderation, of pateience. Truth seeks only to be proclaimed in its entirety."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John XXIII (1881-1963, r. 1958-1963; feast: 11 October)
"Faith in action is service. We try to be holy because we believe. In most modern rooms we see an electrical light that can be turned on by a switch. But if there is no connection with the main powerhouse, then there can be no light. Faith & prayer are our connection with God, & [the] power of that connection is service."Saint Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"Our aim has to be the infinite & not the finite. The infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven."
—Bl. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006, feast: 12 October)
"Gifts can be transient things. That's why Saint Paul says of several of them, 'They will pass.' See how Saul lost his gift, or Samson. Samson had the charism of strength. And Samson one day said, 'I will go out & do as I've done before,' & scripture says that, 'he knew not that the Lord had left him.' He no longer had the charism. So these particular gifts can be lost. We therefore have to keep a due balance in the Church, & not be overemphatic about certain gifts, not forming elites, not allowing anyone to say, 'We have a monopoly on the Spirit. You join our group. I am of Paul; I am of Cephas; I am of Apollos.' The test is always: does it build up the Church? If it does not build up the Church, then it is not properly used."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
O God, Who manifest Your almighty powerScripture of the Week
above all by pardoning & showing mercy,
bestow, we pray, Your grace abundantly upon us
& make those hastening to attain Your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives & reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever & ever.
Friends, today’s Gospel is the parable of the two sons, a story about obedience to God. To live the good life is not finally a matter of autonomy but of obeying commandments.Video reflection by Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M. (U. S. C. of Catholic Bishops): Sunday Reflection.
The obedience that Jesus desires is a surrender to the one who wants what is best for the surrenderer. The entire to-be of the Son is a listening to the command of the Father, and the creature, consequently, is meant to be nothing but a listening to the command of the Son.
This is why Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer… I have called you friends." What was lost in the Garden of Eden was friendship with God, symbolized by the easy fellowship enjoyed by Adam and Yahweh.
The whole of the biblical revelation—culminating in Jesus—could be construed as the story of God’s attempt to restore friendship with the human race. In the Last Supper discourse we hear the conditions for this restoration: coinherence with God, which is tantamount to an insertion into the coinherence that God is.
Teach me compassion, O Lord. Make me like St. Vincent de Paul, who reached out to those most in need. Above all, let me remember what he always taught, that the poor owe us nothing when we help them, for the opporunity to help them is already our reward.Papal Quote o' the Day
"With the eyes of faith, we can see the light which the Holy Spirit always radiates in the midst of darkness."Bonus! Papal Quote o' the Day
—Pope Francis (b. 1936, r. 2013-present)
"Christ taught us not only how to suffer but also to help those who suffer. And to encourage our generosity, He identified Himself with the person who suffers."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
"God created us to love & be loved, & so we hunger for chances to love & be loved. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."Saint Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts."
—St. Vincent de Paul, C.M. (1581-1660, feast: 27 September)
O Lord, ease the pain of those who have lost children to drugs or violence. Console those whose children are rebelling & ungrateful. May they learn from Mary's trust, & share in her gentle love.'Tis also the festival of Saints Emilas, Deacon, & Jeremiah, Martyrs (died 852), martyred in the reign of the Umayyad king Abd ar-Rahman II, two of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba: Martyr-link Echo, Martyr-link Juliett, & Wikipedia-link (List); Wikipedia-link Córdoba.
Friends, we hear in today’s Gospel that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus looked to his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and he said to Mary, “Woman, behold, your son,” and then to John, “Behold, your mother.”Video reflection by Deacon Arthur L. Miller (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
We are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” This text supports an ancient tradition that the Apostle John would have taken Mary with him when he travelled to Ephesus in Asia Minor and that both ended their days in that city. Indeed, on the top of a high hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, just outside of Ephesus, there is a modest dwelling that tradition holds to be the house of Mary.
Immaculate Mary, the Mother of God, assumed body and soul into heaven, is not of merely historical or theoretical interest, nor is she simply a spiritual exemplar. Instead, as “Queen of all the saints” (another of her titles), Mary is an ongoing presence, an actor in the life of the Church.
In entrusting Mary to John, Jesus was, in a real sense, entrusting Mary to all those who would be friends of Jesus down through the ages.
"Mary not only leads us to the Mystery of the Cross like a teacher; she also participates in that Mystery. She suffers with Jesus & suffers with us. With Jesus she also confronts & defeats the powers of evil."Saint Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
"There are men who think that God is so great that He disdains to look down upon us, our doings & our fortunes. But He who did not find it beneath His Majesty to make us, does not think it beneath Him to observe & to visit us."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—St. John Henry Newman, Cong. Orat. (1801-1890, feast: 9 October)
"You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer & prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of the mind to Him: I love You God, I trust You, I believe in You, I need You now. Small things like that. These are wonderful ways to pray & wonderful prayers."Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"The Lord has His Sacrament. It's very much like marriage. The marriage act of husband & wife is a kind of sacrifice because the lover dies to himself & submits to the beloved. The beloved dies to herself & submits to the lover, & out of that mutual death there comes the ecstasy of love. That is the sacrifice. Do a husband & wife have a love that is only manifested in that sacrificial act? Are there not any courtesies of companionship which would even surpass in the quiet silence the ecstasy of two in one flesh? As Maeterlinck said: A friend is one in whose presence you can keep silence. As a matter of fact, their happiness, one with another, depends upon the deep consciousness that each one is a sacrament of the other. So our Lord has a Sacrament. He is really & truly present, Body & Blood, soul & divinity in the holy Eucharist. And if we know how to love, we become sensitive & responsive, & when we come into visit Him, He will talk to us. We take on His likeness; as Moses' face shone because He was with God. So, too, St. Paul tells us that we grow in splendor because we are in the presence of God. Moses' splendor grew as he returned again to the mountain; this splendor rises in us, because we return to Christ. We reflect, says Saint Paul, as in a mirror, the splendor of the Lord, & thus we are transfigured into His likeness, from splendor to splendor. That is what the Eucharist does"
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat without asking permission. He simply commandeers this vessel that is central to the fisherman’s life and commences to give orders. This represents something of enormous moment: the invasion of grace.Video reflection by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers (U.S.C. of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
Though God respects our relative independence, he is not the least bit content to leave us in a “natural” state. Instead, he wants to live in us, to become the Lord of our lives, moving into our minds, wills, bodies, imaginations, nerves, and bones.
This commandeering of nature by grace does not involve the compromising of nature but rather its perfection and elevation. When Jesus moves into the house of the soul, the powers of the soul are heightened and properly directed; when Jesus commands the boat of the natural human life, that life is preserved, strengthened, and given a new orientation.
This is signaled symbolically by the Lord’s directive to put out into the deep water. On our own, we can know and will within a very narrow range, seeking those goods and truths that appear within the horizon of our natural consciousness, but when grace invades us, we are enticed into far deeper waters.
"Let us at long last place human life itself among those precious assets that deserve our every protection. Doctors & social workers, lawmakers, journalists, & teachers ought to be in conscience bound to call publicly for the legal protection of human life."Saint Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
"Everything, even sweeping, scraping vegetables, weeding a garden & waiting on the sick could be a prayer, if it were offered to God."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—St. Martin de Porres, O.P. (1579-1639, feast: 3 November)
"When we speak of the poorest of the poor, who comes to mind? Who are the poorest of the poor? Nobody but you & me! We are the poorest of the poor."Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"If you expel miracles from the life of Christ, you destroy the identity of Christ & the gospels. Even a neutral attitude toward the miraculous element in the gospels is impossible. The claim to work miracles is not the least important element of our Lord's teachings. Nor are the miracles wrought by Him merely an ornament to His life. They are interwoven with His entire life. The moral integrity of our Lord's character is dependent upon the reality of His miracles, because if He were a deceiver, He would not be what He claimed to be. Therefore, we cannot put asunder two things which God has joined together, namely, the beauty of Christ's character & the reality of the miracles that He worked."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
