Category: Catholic

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 18:1-6; Psalm 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6ab; Matthew 13:47-53

Summary

Open our heart, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son (Acts 16:14).

Reflection

In our Gospel portion today, we hear the third of Matthew 13’s triplet of parables: the buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net of fish.

Not to put a too fine a point to it but:

• Not everyone searches for treasure
• Not everyone searches for pearls
• But everyone gets caught in the Net of the End Times.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects (every) fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away (MT 13:47-48).

It doesn’t matter if you do or do not have a burning need to answer the big questions:

• Who am I?
• Why am I?
• What is my final end?

The good news is the Lord doesn’t stop trying to communicate with us and help us form our questions and seek our answers.

Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel (Jer 18:6b). Whether clay in the potter’s hand or fish in the sea, our freedom exists within a life that belongs finally to God.

Eventually, life presses each of us toward the same question: who shouldn’t I trust?

Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish (PS 146:3-4).

So whom shall we trust?

Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them (PS 146:5-6ab).

Personal Reflection

So I’m a fish in this parable. I am free to swim in schools and go anywhere the ocean waters go.
It’s a great life. We can go anywhere and do anything that fish can do – even fishy things (doh! – still a fish in this sentence).

But in all the going and doing let us not fail to search for the treasure and the pearl – relationship with the Lord.
The net will find everyone; wisdom is allowing the treasure to find us first.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/073026.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Readings: 1 John 4:7-16; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11; John 11:19-27

Summary

In using the lectionary, Wednesdays can often be referred to as Hinge Day. Hinge as in Turning Point. In this case, our daily reading focus shifts from parables to the end goals (Love, Life Now, and Life Forever).

Love

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God (1 Jn 4:7).

The NABRE commentary on the First Letter of John says: Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can “see” the invisible God. (See https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/4?7=#70004007)

Life Now

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” (In the larger story) And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice,* “Lazarus, come out!” (Jn 11:21-22, 43).

Noting that for Martha everything is refactored (life, grief, hope).

Life Forever

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Reflection

The parables help us think differently. The turning point is encountering the big questions and listening carefully to the Lord’s response to them.

• Love is the only rational way to live.
• We will die.
• We have hope for the quality of our life now and for the beauty of our life after this life.

I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.
This hinge changes everything.

Martha and Mary encounter the questions in one big event, Lazarus’ ‘untimely’ death (probably a young guy). For most of us these things happen over an extended period of time but still – same!

Personal Reflection

I was helping someone with investment goals yesterday and again today. It’s an involved process.

So many questions!

• What do you have?
• What are your goals and needs?
• How much time do you have?
• What can you use to prepare for the future?

Not to mix these things together (finance and spirituality) but to use it to help us make the turning point.

• We have love that is from God.
• We have a life worthy of honest living.
• We have the promise of the Resurrection.

Every investment reveals what future we believe is worth preparing for.
So how do I invest my life?

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/0729-memorial-martha.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 14:17-22; Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13; Matthew 13:36-43

Summary

The Great Drought.

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: Judah mourns. Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest. Is it not you, LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone do all these things. (Jer 14:1-2a, 17, 22).

Although this OT scripture passage is slightly larger than today’s reading it frames the Old Testament reading with the gospel portion.

The Explanation of the Parable of the Weeds.

He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. So will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear (MT 13:37-38a, 40b-41, 43).

The Earth is the Lord’s and all it contains (PS 24:1).

How broad the meaning of that Scripture truly is!

Calamity will come, to be sure:

• Natural phenomena such as storms.
• Man-made miseries such as war.
• Personal mistakes and errors, both sinful and coincidental.

But in all of this the Lord is patiently present and helping every day, all day, 24/7/365. Sometimes we can see his answer and sometimes he just helps us one step at a time.

Matthew answers Jeremiah’s anguish indirectly: The wounded field is not a forgotten field.

Jeremiah asks, in effect:

• Has God rejected us completely?
• Is there no healing?
• Can the heavens give rain?

Jesus’ explanation answers:

• The field still belongs to the Son of Man.
• The good seed remains his.
• Evil has not become indistinguishable from good.
• Judgment is delayed, not denied.
• The harvest still belongs to God.

Reflection

Premature Judgment

In the first reading the people may be falling into the ‘all is lost’ mindset. God has abandoned us, there is no hope. In the gospel portion, in the parable itself, and later, the disciples are falling into the ‘we can fix this on our own’ mindset. Man rushing the conclusion by pulling the weeds.

The drought brings the question as to whether the field has been abandoned.
The parable answers: No—the field still belongs to the Son of Man.

Personal Reflection

We often interpret suffering as proof that God has withdrawn, or we attempt to remove evil with such force that we damage the good. Jeremiah teaches us to confess and plead. Jesus teaches us to wait without surrendering moral clarity. The psalmist combines the supplications help in misfortune and help in our sinfulness.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us (PS 79:9 compressed)

Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake (PS 79:9).

Waiting is not abandonment. As Habakkuk reminds us:

If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late (Hab 2:3b).

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072826.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 13:1-11; Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21; Matthew 13:31-35

Summary

What does the Lord want? For us to understand that we are to be his people, his renown, his praise, his beauty.

I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

Do you remember the first time you heard the words: I love you?

Go far enough back and you may remember Mom and Dad.
Or perhaps the first time you heard it from your first love—even puppy love.
Or the enduring love promised and witnessed in holy matrimony.

And all of them carry the blessed words: I love you.
From the first time you heard them to the most recent, they still gladden the heart.

Reflection

Love is like the mustard seed – once planted – grows to be comfort for all in its vicinity.
Love is like the yeast – silently spreading, expressing and maturing – to become nourishment for everyone.

Even when we are disconnected and radically apart from one another, love continues to seek, remember, and claim us: https://www.diocesepb.org/news/news-and-notes.html/article/2025/01/11/no-one-is-forgotten

Personal Reflection

The Lord loves us and claims us in love, to be his people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.
I love you and name you in fraternal embrace.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072726.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52

Summary

The reflections these past days often start and end with a question. The titles of these reflections were:

• What do you wish?
• Why?
• What do you want to say?
• Who Are You Today?

Today our gospel ends with a question: Do you understand all these things?

The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered:… Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?

Solomon answered the Lord’s question with a question.

The perfect dialog. A dialog of understanding. A dialog of earnest communication. The Divine understanding a man. A man understanding the Divine.

Reflection

In our gospel portion today, Jesus is preparing the disciples to continue the quest of Solomon on the broadest possible scale – the human family.

I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.
I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,
a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.

So God said to him:
“Because you have asked for this—… understanding so that you may know what is right—I do as you requested.

I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.

This wisdom is fulfilled perfectly in Jesus and entrusted through his disciples to the Church.

The journey turns next week toward deeper understanding, deeper mission, and deeper commitment—the offering of the very self.

Personal Reflection

So today I invite you to enter into the journey anew.

Do you want to understand? Yes, Lord, I do.
What do you wish? – To love and serve you.
Why? – Because you have the words of everlasting life.
What do you want to say? – Be my Shepherd.
Who Are You Today? – Let your seed grow in me.

It’s a dialog.
Yes. The answer brings us back to today’s Gospel. To understand the Kingdom is not merely to comprehend Jesus’ parables, but to allow them to question and reorder the whole self.

• a treasure buried in a field – ready for you to take ownership.
• a pearl of great price – ready for you to possess it and be possessed by it.
• a net thrown into the sea -give me wisdom to distinguish what leads to life from what draws me away from you.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072626.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Feast of Saint James, Apostle
Readings: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 126:1bc-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6; Matthew 20:20-28

The Way of Saint James

Photo memory of the Camino de Santiago de Francee https://deacongerrypalermo.blog/category/frenchway/

Summary

Brothers and sisters:
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.

Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.

What do you wish?

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.

Reflection

• Thanksgiving is a product of reception.
• Treasure is delivered in vessels.
• Service is the immediate motivation.
• Ransom is the ultimate gift.

Personal Reflection

What do you wish? For you, your family, your community and your nation?

I am thankful for being ransomed, a treasure delivered in human vessels, offered with a servant’s heart, mirrored from and a part of the life of Jesus.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072526.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 3:14-17; Jeremiah 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13; Matthew 13:18-23

Summary

Today’s reflection is brief as I am headed to a conference today.
See image above.

In regard to today’s gospel portion, the reflection is brief and specific.

But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

You are not a potted plant. If the seed of the Gospel is not taking root in you for any of the reasons Jesus outlines in the parable….

MOVE.

You got legs. Find the place that allows the seed to grow.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072426.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Psalm 36:6-7ab, 8-9, 10-11; Matthew 13:10-17

Summary

Why do you speak to the crowd in parables (Mt 13:10b)?

There are several answers that speak to the divine prerogative, the progressively elaborated divine plan of revelation and the necessity of using the right method at the right time.

It is better to ask the Lord than to not ask the Lord.

The priests asked not, “Where is the LORD?” (Jer 2:6a and 8).
They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jer 2:13b).

Reflection

It is good to ask the Lord questions. If we don’t seek divine guidance, we will write our own.
We will dig our own cisterns that give a vague promise of water but have none to give.

Personal Reflection

Start each day in prayer.
Thanksgiving.
Supplication.
and the Whys of our heart.

Come to the Living Water.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072326.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Readings: Song of Songs 3:1-4b; Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9; John 20:1-2, 11-18

Summary

From the preface SAINT MARY MAGDALENE, Apostle to the Apostles.

He appeared in the garden
and revealed himself to Mary Magdalene,
who had loved him in life,
witnessed him dying on the Cross,
sought him as he lay in the tomb,
and was the first to adore him, newly risen from the dead.
He honored her with the office of being an apostle to the Apostles,
so that the good news of new life
might reach the ends of the earth.
And so, Lord, with all the Angels and Saints,
we, too, give you thanks, as in exultation we acclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts…

Reflection

Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me” (Jn 20:17a).

Our walk with Jesus is a faith in motion. We are constantly reminded to stop holding on to things that limit our faith and relationship with the Lord. Thousands of years of faithful worship strengthen us and reassure us of our common destiny. Jesus’ words to Mary remind us to keep moving forward. Gently release the form of faith that once helped us but now keeps us from following where the risen Lord is leading.

What might this contain?

1. Memory of sin. When sin is confessed and forgiven it has only one role remaining. To remind us of the danger and pain that comes from sin. Think of sin memory as a new traffic sign erected at the location of a bad accident. A traffic sign that says “Full Stop” or “No Left Turn” these are the gifts of sin-memory and forgiveness.
2. I no longer call you slaves the Lord said. You are Son and Daughter and Brother and Sister. Peacefully enjoy the presence of the Lord.
3. Evangelize. If Jesus has helped you, tell someone, anyone. I found him whom my heart loves.

Personal Reflection

Happy Feast Day!

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072226.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry