Tag: Social Justice

Listening to TV pundits ‘explain’ the Pope. Let’s reset.

And my own piece:

Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
Readings: Acts 5:17-26; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; John 3:16-21

Summary

They laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out. Then the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this report, they were at a loss about them, as to what this would come to (Acts 5:18-19, 24). God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

Reflection

Today’s reflection comes at the end of the day.
So brief it is.
They were at a loss. So too are the powerful in every age when confronted with the works of God.

The mission is salvation. The tools of the world are useless.
And the Lord—and those who follow him—cannot be confined:
not by prison walls,
not by ideology,
not by wealth,
not by self-interest.

Understand the reality: these are false securities.

Walls and gates do not separate you from the poor; they only keep them out of sight.
Prisons may restrain the body, but they cannot contain the truth of God at work among the lowly.
Domination—whether by force, influence, or possession—always fails in the end. We grasp at what is not ours to hold.

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.

Personal Reflection

Even if this is difficult, perhaps I can reach you this way: make peace with your enemies.

You can spend all you have and all your energy trying to control or oppose others, but whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041526.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

MESSAGE TO THE CLERGY, RELIGIOUS & FAITHFUL OF THE DIOCESE OF PALM BEACH

The Diocese of Palm Beach stands firm with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and strongly rejects the disrespectful and violent attacks that Donald J. Trump has directed against the Holy Father. These attacks also constitute a grave violation of the religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and, as such, harm the rights of the American Catholic faithful.


Please pray for the safety of the Holy Father.

+MANUEL

Greetings on this the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37

Summary

Today is Band Aid or Bandage Sunday. Why do I call it that?

Live Video from 10:30 AM.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AjECkKPsX/

Live Video from 4PM Mass.

I ask you, which do you prefer? When you take off a bandage or band aid, do you rip it off or do you gently soak it off?

There are times for one way versus the other but this morning I wish to soak it off gently. In our gospel portion today, Jesus’ corrections for us are on “full force“. Jesus today is not attacking us. He is removing infection. And he goes deeper than behavior. He touches the mind, the body, the heart, and even the will.

Brillo-pads

My arms (show them) are like Brillo-pads. Nurses when applying bandages or setting a line, usually gasp at the thought of placing and removing a bandage on a matt of hair.

Dream, goal, plan

We dream to enter into the kingdom of heaven as a key hope of the faith. When can we enter the Kingdom? Our goal is the Here and Now. The plan is to avoid the four pitfalls Jesus names. The Kingdom isn’t far off and in the distant future but in the here and now. Yet, so is Gehenna pitfall and so many live there in the here and now. Gehenna is not future punishment; it is our present disintegration.

Choosing the Quality of Life

This is the choice described by Sirach:

Whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him (Sir 15:16b-17).

Making A Life For Yourself

In our gospel portion today, Jesus gives us the distinct differences between making a prison for ourselves and being liberated in God’s love. Prison or freedom in God.

Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny (Mt 5:24b, 25-26).

If we combine the four warnings of Jesus, we can see the way of a personal prison, a personal Gehenna:

• Anger – a fiery Gehenna existence, a consuming fire with no warmth.
• Lust – is a fragmentation of our affection, shattering the crystal vase of endearment.
• Adultery – is a forgetting the treasure that is love, losing it in the fields of indifference.
• False Oaths – is a fractured trust in yourself or in others, pledging against the very vice we possess.

If we combine the four remedies of Jesus, we can see the way of of faithful liberation:

• Anger – is cooled by reconciliation with your brother, forgiving him, and seeking his forgiveness.
• Lust – evaporates in the appreciation of beauty that we don’t need to take possession of it.
• Adultery – loses its appeal by the restoring love to be given, receive anew love given.
• False Oaths – The interior resolve is beyond any oaths, restores proximity to fidelity. No more words. Do.

Reflection

Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. This God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom (1 Cor 2:6, 10; Mt 11:25).

The way of Life is not of this fiery world or of the wisdom of the Age: Anger, lust, infidelity and swearing are things that make for a firey and horrible world. The currency of the modern world is anger, deception and appropriation. It was only two weeks ago that we encountered The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, as the way of the Blessed.

Who goes to court with a complaint about another and yet you yourself are thrown into prison?

Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him… [otherwise] you will be thrown into prison (Mt 5:25).

Personal Reflection

The habits of anger, lust, infidelity and lying are the pattern we must overcome.

The habits of anger, lust, infidelity, and dishonesty do not heal themselves.
They loosen their grip when we stop pretending we can save ourselves.

This is why the Lord gives us himself.
Not as a prize for the perfect, but as nourishment for the divided heart.

In the Eucharist, Christ does not shame our weakness—
he enters it, steadies it, and teaches us how to live free.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021526.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19; Psalm 81:10-11ab, 12-13, 14-15; Mark 7:31-37

Summary

“Hear, O Israel.” Perhaps the most foundational command ever given…

What we say and what we hear matter a great deal in how we act. Tragedy comes from closed or untrained tongues. Difficulty comes from inability to hear clearly.

Israel went into rebellion against David’s house to this day. So Israel went off to their tents (1 Kgs 12:19, 16f).

Rebellion is a great word to describe the situation in Israel in those days, and even so today. If you never read the interchange between Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel and Rehoboam, you miss the political instability. If you skipped over (as our selection today does), you would be unaware of this exchange:

Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.” (1 Kgs 12:4).

From the Elders, the advice.

King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.” (1 Kgs 12:6-7).

From the young soldiers, the advice:

My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’” (1 Kgs 12:11).

Reflection

Yikes, right?!

In our gospel portion today, Jesus treats the root cause: privately, personally, specifically.

Rehoboam would not listen. The deaf man could not listen. One led to division; the other to restoration by way of the divine groan.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly (Mk 7:32-35).

I wonder what his first words were? Praise. I can only imagine praise to the Lord.

Personal Reflection

Lord, Holy Physician, open my eyes, unplug my ears, and free my tongue to praise you and live in the freedom of God’s love!

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021326.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 11:4-13; Psalm 106:3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40; Mark 7:24-30

Summary

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first (Mk 7:27).

Reflection

The gospel portion today is generally understood to be the recognition of the prior claim the Jewish people have on the relationship (time, energy, resources) with Jesus and the Gentiles are after and the Greek, a Syrophoenician, request is granted due to her faith. It is an excellent commentary on the progressive elaboration of the mission of Jesus and a recognition of the specific, unique, and long-lived divine-human relationship of the Lord and the people of Israel.

And so it is. Let us go deeper.

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter (Mk 7:25-26). The woman does not argue for rights; she appeals to mercy.

Personal Reflection

Jesus reveals how the theology unfolds. The first children are not displaced — but the vulnerable are never excluded. In our gospel portion today, Jesus asserts the vulnerable (woman, foreigner, child) as first to receive his blessing that day. It is a great warning to me and to all Christians. Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls (Jam 1:21bc).

It is NOT Christian first. It is first Christ and his mission.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021226.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry

Greetings on this the Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 10:1-10; Psalm 37:5-6, 30-31, 39-40; Mark 7:14-23

Summary

The queen of Sheba, having heard a report of Solomon’s fame, came to test him with subtle questions. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that she had on her mind. King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there was nothing so obscure that the king could not explain it to her (1 Kgs 10:1, 2b, 3).

It must have been a wonder to see and hear Queen Sheba and King Solomon discuss things. It is clear the Queen possessed a deep intelligence and inquisitiveness as well as a certain disquiet that demands answers. She brought these subtle questions forward to the King. No doubt they enjoyed word play and mutual discovery of truth (the question is a source of truth as is the answer, in ever deepening cycle of exchange). I would have loved to be in their presence and watch and listen to them talk. Happy are your servants, happy these ministers of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom (1 Kgs 10:8). The Queen is modest too. She was his equal in desire for wisdom.

The Queen came to see if the stories of wisdom are true. And she delighted in the clarity and interior resonance truth brings.

So too, and in a more substantial way, Jesus. It is fair to say many came not to be in wonder but to challenge in disbelief. Fair enough. But it does force a certain crispness and brevity in reply. Truth prefers to be delivered in soft waves but wisdom can hit quite unadorned if needed. Soft waves like Sheba’s exchange; sharp like Jesus’ correction.

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” (Mk 7:14-15).

Jesus makes clear that all these traditions disguise the most important moral understanding. What comes from within matters most.

Reflection

“But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mk 7:20-23).

I don’t know about you but I want to be somewhere in between Queen Sheba and those challenging Jesus. Our psalmist comes to our aid today. If evil comes from within, then so must holiness. The heart is not only the source of corruption — it is the sanctuary God desires. Look carefully at ‘make justice dawn for you’ – from within.

The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom. (PS 37:30a).

Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
(PS 37:5-6)

Personal Reflection

I want to approach Jesus like Queen Sheba, confident, trusting, and inquisitive. I want to come away from Jesus happy to have been in his presence. And like Sheba and Solomon, exchange priceless gifts with Jesus, love for love, honor for honor, and respect for respect. Always in response to these gifts he gives first.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021126.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry