Greetings on this the Thursday of the Third Week of Lent Readings: Jer 7:23-28; PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Lk 11:14-23 Notes:
There are two demons in the gospel portion today.
One demon who kept a man mute.
One demon of disbelief that God loves us.
Psalm 95 is a daily psalm reading for the Church in the LOTH. It is a Call to Praise God. It the midst of all uncertainty, know you are loved and God is with you.
First reading 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 is banished from their speech.
Responsorial Psalm If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Verse Before the Gospel Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel Portion Jesus drove out a demon that was mute. Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
There’s an envelope here. Let’s take a look: And the winner is… …. It says, “Stop the steal,” Who counts the votes? Stop the steal: It demands a recount. I can’t argue with that. Frank O’Loughlin is not a prophet. On my best days, I’m a plagiarist. By the Grace of God, I hope to sometimes be a plagiarist of the Word of God. I know what a prophet is supposed to be. I read and loved Abraham Heschel; Plagiarized him constantly for homilies. If you were in a parish with me, you have a copy of Walter Brueggeman’s Prophetic Imagination. Stop the steal. What I am is an Irish Catholic. Irish Catholic, the very definition of ordinary. No WASP here. Not white, Not Anglo, No Protestant individualism. You remember how James Joyce defined Catholic, “Here comes everybody.” Whether upper or lower case C, Catholic, everybody, pluralist. In Florida we learn to say, “Y’all.” Cut me some slack, I’m in trouble if you think I’m being sectarian or nationalist. I’m no prophet, merely product of a culture, Catholic and Irish. Proud, for example, to say, “I’m Irish, not white.” When we were little schoolboys, our teachers had the wisdom to ridicule the notion of whiteness: “White, what can that mean? Take a gander at that pink mug of yours in the mirror; where is that famous white?” It isn’t that I don’t believe in prophecy I wholly believe in prophetic community, to our attending to each other’s voices in community. On Saturday the Wall Street Journal celebrated a catechism teacher, Stephen Colbert, as the adult Mister Rogers. One of our own. Listen to him.
I am of an era of peace activists. I belonged to the movements. None has had more depth and staying power than Pax Christi of the Cathedral parish. Community and culture. Never mere individual idealists. We were the parish, reading the Gospel together, receiving Communion, animated by a spirited quest for God, even reckless in pursuit of a world renewed. The Bible Girls praying for more, not less, demanding mission Barbara and Beth, liberationists in the Megan mode Phyllis and Sandy, instigators of the kingdom of peace and hope the poet Nancy, our ambassador to Haiti and to Heaven. Have you forgiven the Irish bit? I’m not promoting nationalism, but community and culture. May I plagiarize once more? This will be a reading from the gospel according to Bruce Springsteen. Describing the vocation he shares with the kids from the Dublin community, the rockers Bono and U2, he says “You want the sky to split open and God to pour out.” Does that sound like the yearning of your Pax Christi culture? About U2, Springsteen says, “Their search for God intact, laying claim not only to this world, but the next. There is a deeply held faith in the work you’re doing And its power to change the world. Before James Brown, there was Jesus. We are not ironists, we are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the Stations of the Cross. Here we are Lord, this mess in your image. Bono brought his personal faith into the real world. You find the spirituality as home, as quest. How do you find God, unless He’s in Your heart?” Within the heart and culture of your Peace community. As the Peace Activists invited me to their three-day retreat and credited me with the formation we have given each other through many years, I realized that day one was on the anniversary of the My Lai massacre. The second was the birthday of Wilfred Owen. The third was the anniversary of George Bush’s unleashing of fire and brimstone on Baghdad. And each day Putin was getting away with ravishing the Ukraine. What to say at such a date?
Mary Carter Warren brought substantial studies to nourish hope and purpose. John Frank cultivator of our beginnings and Johnny Zokovitch seeding our next generation. Father Fred, resilient graced priesthood. Sandy’s light touch direction infused a spirit of glad joy in being together among lifelong witnesses to grace and mercy. And I talked about war. A great horror of modern warfare is the calculated destruction of spirits, of culture, identity, heart and soul. American psychologists developed techniques in the war against Vietnamese nationalism which were reproduced in the war against the Maya. A European human rights study described the strategy in Guatemala as “Creating a Devastation and calling it a Peace.” Americans remember it as “We had to destroy the village to save it.” Not only were villages ravaged and massacred, but such survivors as emerged were gathered at other sites, ‘Development Poles,’ where all marks of identity were erased and a new National Security identity was offered on streets named for warriors. The Maya have twenty seven languages and many dialects. These were suppressed in the new villages. Religious expression was replaced with Southern US preaching, now called Evangelicals. But the most striking affront to the Mayan civilization was the prohibition of the people’s traditional clothing. The Maya had not only had a multiplicity of ancient cultural features evidenced in their myriad languages but every community had its own very clearly individual dress. To grasp the sacred civilization one has to imagine how the thread was first invented, a craft taught from grandmother to granddaughter, perhaps 500 years ago. The dyes that could be produced from local leaves and berries were created and the weaves and patterns that became representative of the community and culture emerged. Sticks and stones and guns and bombs, we have learned, do not win wars against such civilizations. The spirit that sustains the victims’ humanity must be undermined. At their Lake Worth Center, when Mayan women have seen the huipils, they have been carried away, recalling the grandmothers whom they saw weave and wear huipils in those very patterns. See the crafts, and weep with me for the sins of war. Lord bless the prophetic culture of your Pax Christi community.
Note: I missed the first night due to a bout of sudden onset bradycardia due to poorly controlled COPD/Apnea combination. A brief summary of the general concept of Monday is included.
Monday – The Institute for Priestly Formation’s schema of Acknowledge, Relate, Receive, Respond (ARRR) as a pattern for encountering God in prayer. Summary from link below.
Acknowledge – Acknowledging Who God Is and Who We Are.
Receive – God speaks to us in four ways in this moment: through our spiritual senses, through our imaginations, through our God-given reason, and through His silent, loving presence.
Reflect – In every mode of God’s conversation with him, the seminarian must come as he is—a poor beggar.
Respond – we release whatever it was that we acknowledged and related. At this point, the man will often sense in himself a resolution, a sense of peace.
The idea of 7 x 7 is intended to reflect infinity. We are to be infinitely merciful.
God never tires of forgiving us.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen quoted to say: Our culture permits everything but forgets/forgives nothing.
The King writing off such a large debt extraordinary. The Servant writing off the co-worker debt should have been manageable.
In philosophy it is said Action follows being.
How we act reflects who we are.
All of us have missed the mark and sinned.
Discouragement is our great weakness.
The Devil is NOT co-equal to God. He is a created being. He cannot read our minds. He looks for cracks in our wall, so to speak. He knows our weaknesses.
God knows our weaknesses too. And he works infinitely with us to deal with them and transform them into grace.
Mercy is productive. Unforgiveness is stale.
What is the Will of God? Love and Mercy. This! This is what He wills.
Detachment is not to discard but to align our will to God’s will of love and mercy. That is to care about things in the right way.
It is a discovery of essence. Like marital love:
At first you gaze into one another’s eyes.
Then you gaze together at another.
Satan lies: you are unworthy of God’s love.
There is no such thing as a private sin, only unrevealed sin. There is no place for common knowledge about sin. But there is common effects of sin.
Sin damages the person. Sin damages us all.
Story summary: Two altar servers serving at two different Masses spill the precious blood.
In the first case, the priest lovingly corrects the altar server.
In the second case, the priest shreds the altar server.
The second altar server was Joseph Stalin
The first altar server was Fulton Sheen.
Sin damages. Self examination and reflection aids us.
God asks: Will you love me even a little?
Scripture: Wedding Banquet – The Parable of the Wedding Feast.
Regarding the one without the proper wedding garment…
because everyone is not wealthy the tradition is to provide. Wedding garments are provided at the door for those without wedding garments (not unlike a fancy restaurant providing jackets for male diners).
The man refused the wedding garment. That is the not spoken truth (the not revealed).
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence (Mt 22:12).
Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent Readings: Dn 3:25, 34-43; PS 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; Mt 18:21-35 Notes: OK a twist on a commercial word: PayPal. Continue our prayers for the liberation of Ukraine from this evil of war. They are unjustly condemned. Let us help them find prayer.
(reminder: these reflections are marginally helpful unless one reads the readings of the day. It is the sacred scripture that make this midrash of any additive value. You can find the daily reading calendar here: https://bible.usccb.org/readings/calendar)
From the burning flames, a plea for divine intervention.
Jeremiah asked the Lord for deliverance and justice (revenge in a less charitable reading of it). But he stopped short and said instead “in the time of your anger“.
The Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons (2nd Maccabees) brings us the mother: Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother who, seeing her seven sons perish in a single day, bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.
The last son, obedient to God and his mother, said to Antiochus: But you, who have contrived every kind of evil for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God.
Jeremiah – presumed to be martyred later.
Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons – martyred.
Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael – saved from the flames.
All lives put to the test. All trusting in the Lord even unto death. All, in varying degrees, putting the question of vengeance to the Lord and his decision. All a part of a progressive elaboration of divine mercy.
Pointing us toward the final answer, mercy in Jesus.
Jesus, moves us to forgive not seven times, but every time. As he did on the cross.
This is impossible without prayer. Prayer for ourselves and our tormentors (or at the least ignoring the tormentor).
51 Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God.
First reading I can image in Ukraine this prayer of Azariah is most heartfelt.
But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.
Responsorial Psalm Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Verse Before the Gospel Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel Portion 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-seven times.
Greetings on this the Monday of the Third Week of Lent Readings: 2 Kgs 5:1-15ab; PS 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4; Lk 4:24-30 Notes: In our first reading and the gospel portion they share a common theme.
Just trust the Lord.
What the Lord asks of us is simple really:
to act justly.
to trust the Lord.
Naaman got it, after some prompting.
First reading But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Responsorial Psalm Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?
We really do thirst for the Lord and to be in relationship with him. Trust he feels the same way.
Verse Before Gospel I hope in the LORD, I trust in his word; with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.
Gospel Portion Jesus uses the example of two foreigners trusting the Lord.
Elijah’s widow.
Elisha’s military commander.
His purpose is to call out all of us who know something about him but really refuse to actually know him.
How do we know we are distant from the Lord?
Easily aroused to anger is a big sign of distance.
The idea of foreigners being close to the Lord instead of who ‘own’ the Lord enrages.
Yikes!
Do we sometimes do the same?
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
How do you feel when the Lord helps your enemy, your foreigner?
Saturday was a full day teen lent retreat. Beautiful. We have wonderful teenagers more than 40 attending. After a 20 minute presentation (which contained hints to most of the jeopardy questions) we gave out prizes for the best answers. A lot of fun!
Theme: Be Holy as I am Holy.
Summary of my presentation
Define Fast: discussion.
Fast has many meanings but today I will focus on the one I think you need to hear more distinctly than the others.
Fast – go rapidly. Yes, but not a Lent concept really.
Fast – refrain from unholy things and actions. This is the most common use of the word but I propose the least valuable. Yes, we must AVOID sin and we should work at not doing them but this is the over worked concept of fasting. We’ll have confession later today.
Fast – recognize the natural and supernatural good in our life and share them with others.
The third one is my focus today.
Starting with the question: Which describes God better?
God is not evil.
God is good.
I hope you picked number 2. We can train ourselves to consider the holiness of God (mercy and lovingkindness) and by extension the holiness in us as well. The potential of holiness is the focus not the existence of privation. We know we are sinners. We should know we are called to be like God – Holy.
Skit
Altitude and Attitude – short skit on pilot conversing with control tower. Attitude is the slope of rise or decline in flight-speak. Had some fun with air traffic control asking the pilot who declared an in-flight emergency, “what is your attitude?”
“Well, I’m grumpy a lot. And a little scared”
Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving
An integrated approach. A cell phone is not inherently evil. Actually it is quite naturally good. If your little sister likes the song “ABC 123 Why don’t you dance with me?”
In prayer you discovered the natural good.
In fasting you share with her the YouTube video of the song, and dance with her.
In almsgiving you take the natural and super natural good you have and be Holy.
Greetings on this the Third Sunday of Lent Year C Readings: Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15; Ps 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11; 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12; Lk 13:1-9 Notes: We have a visiting priest, Fr Steve Olds from the seminary. Fr. Olds will be our retreat master for the next three days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). I will post summaries for a shared benefit.
He will be the homilist today.
I hope your Lent is going well.
First reading God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
Holy is the Lord. Moses is asked to remove his sandals before approaching.
It is important to note my readers that the Lord is always approachable. Moses, being uncircumcised, was in grave danger by law. But not so by divine love.
On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the LORD came upon Moses and sought to put him to death. But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet, she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.” So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision (Ex 4:24-26).
But in love and mercy, just remove your sandals – that would be enough.
Responsorial Psalm The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Second reading These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.
Verse Before Gospel Repent, says the Lord; the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Gospel Portion When we speak to God we are on Holy Ground.
A place of truth, refreshment and peace.
Depending on the state of our person we may know to be joyful, reverent, holy. Depending we may be angry, resentful, demanding. Pre-judging how people are with God is always risky business. Jesus clearly states we have no idea. Galileans mistreated in blood or by accident are just people. Some approach God, others we are aren’t so sure. But its not about us anyway.
There are a lot of ways to approach the Holy Ground of God.
Be at peace most of all. Speak your truth as you know it.
The Lord is kind and merciful.
As long as you try and communicate remember the gardener: I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future.
Hint: as long as you have breath, stand on the Holy Ground listen and be heard.
Maybe a good practice is to bow one’s head or speak in whispers. Or whatever sign you choose to acknowledge the holiness before which you stand. It is enough.
Greetings on this the Thursday of the Second Week of Lent Readings: Jer 17:5-10; PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Lk 16:19-31 Notes: Appeals to reason, logic, sympathy and commonality sometimes are not enough.
A very tragic outcome indeed for the rich man in today’s gospel portion.
In life, he gave not even a drop of water. In torment, he asks for the same.
Maybe, we can change how we operate?
The highest aspirations a human can have is to be in communion with the Divine. Faith, hope and charity are the apex of human decisions and are the first three commandments.
One God, one alone – faith, he will rescue us as he did in the Exodus.
Trust, not in vain – hope, not vanity nor superficiality but genuine expectation.
Charity – to rest in the Sabbath love, to be a participant in giving Sabbath love.
First reading Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
in contrast
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night.
Verse Before Gospel Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.
Gospel Portion The verse before the gospel is a perfect setting to read the gospel portion today.
How many promises have we kept?
How many good things have we done with a generous heart?
In the parable today, Jesus uses a story of the rich man contrast to describe generosity and its benefit to benefactor and receiver alike. Such is the effects of goodness of the Lord.
Everyone’s life is better.
and the contrast.
How hardened we can become!
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? (Jn 14:2).
I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you (Jn 14:25-26).
And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe (Jn 14:29).
I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you (Jn 16:4).
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world (Jn 16:33).
Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent Readings: Jer 18:18-20; PS 31:5-6, 14, 15-16; Mt 20:17-28 Notes: It is always difficult to restrain oneself when under attack.
Especially when you know who is contriving and what they intend. It is most difficult indeed!
Who wants to live in Ukraine today given the plot against them?!
Jesus too had the problem of Jeremiah and Ukraine. His answer is to be a servant leader.
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
First reading “Come,” they said, “let us devise a plot against Jeremiah, for instruction will not perish from the priests, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. Come, let us destroy him by his own tongue. Let us pay careful attention to his every word.”
Jeremiah is stunned by the response to his intersessions on behalf of the people. Even as they conspire to kill him, he reminds the Lord how he prayed for them. This is a truly remarkable man. But still he wants justice for himself, even if this request is instinctive not intentional.
Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say. Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.
The Lord will be his justice. It is instructive to understand that Jeremiah is exposing his pain that the Lord may answer however the Lord sees fit to answer (“in the time of your anger“).
But you, LORD, know all their planning for my death. Do not forgive their crime, and their sin do not blot out from your sight! Let them stumble before you, in the time of your anger act against them.
Responsorial Psalm Save me, O Lord, in your kindness.
Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. But my trust is in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” In your hands is my destiny; rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
Death is our ultimate enemy. Death is defeated in Christ and we can count on our redemption. All other enemies are abstractions or derivations of death. Let God be our Vengeance. Let God be our salvation.
Verse before the Gospel I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.
Gospel Portion The Third Prediction of the Passion.
The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and had some ideas of how to be victorious and enjoy the fruits of success on the battle.
Jesus kindly reset the expectation.
Leadership is sacrifice in the face of oppression.
The Lord, Our God, sacrifices himself for the liberation of all people.
Defend your homeland.
Expel the aggressor.
Leave vengeance to God.
Repentance is always possible, until the last breath.
Greetings on this the Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent Readings: Is 1:10, 16-20; PS 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23; Mt 23:1-12 Notes: Psalms 50 and 51.
Psalm 50 shakes me every time I read it.
Psalm 50 is a rebuke of a hypocritical Church (not everyone, not everywhere, not all the time but…).
Psalm 51 shakes me every time I read it.
Psalm 51 it is a rebuke for my personal hypocrisy (not every time, not everywhere but…).
Jesus hits them both in today’s gospel portion!
First reading Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Responsorial Psalm To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, Though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?”
Verse before the Gospel Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
Gospel Portion In today’s gospel portion comes the most striking rebuke of fake religiosity. Hence, for many the word itself, religiosity, has taken on its only meaning in the negative. The secondary meaning: an intense, excessive, or fervent religiousness has been reduced to this: an excessive, or even hypocritical religiousness.
Eek!
Language has changed to mirror the truth in our current age.
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the 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.
Do Justice – the preaching is good, the practice of justice must be reviewed and adjusted.
Do Burden – yourself, not others. Our burden is the Cross assigned to us.
Do Lift a finger – to Help!
Do Honor – all you meet even those who have lost their sense of dignity.
Do Greet everyone – with a cheerful smile!
Do Exalt – Christ, and only him and your love for him!
Do humble yourself, not others in humiliation (this one stings me actually).
I’d rather ask the slave not the master about the rightness of slavery.
Please note Canon 1369 warning to Bishops who utter grave injury, insult, excited hatred against the Church or religion which includes the faithful. This was blocked by the site. I wonder why?
In regards to progressive people, they are attacked by the right with evocative words like “leftists”, “communists”, etc….They have used the words as political clubs for so long they have lost all real meaning and are only meant as amorphous shadows to cast over one’s opponents in order to discredit what they are saying without having to do the legitimate work of actually refuting their arguments.
A vacuum abhors fresh air.
It seems you like to insult above all things. Did you win the contest of fewest words strongest insult?
Judging me a dinner (denier) is easy prey. Do you pull the legs off of spiders too?
Interesting reply. I guess the best defense is to be offensive.
Ever hear the phrase hell bent? Be careful of misusing the faith.
You see, I have things to confess too. Lack of charity for the ill-informed, for one.
Deacon Gerry Palermo 