Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Thursday – St. Andrew       Gospel – Matthew 4: 18-22 What’s Your Excuse? “Jesus Boat”, Sea of Galilee If you’re like me, your cellphone is permanently attached at the hip and you never go anywhere without it.   It’s our calendar, our camera, our documents and apps; it’s our email lifeline to the world. But in all its complexity, it is still plainly and simply a phone.    And every day it presents us with choices – do we answer the phone, do we recognize the number! It’s a process we are all familiar with.   The phone rings; is the number familiar?   If it isn’t, I regularly ignore and decline the call.   If I recognize the number, then it’s more complicated.   I can choose to answer it or I can deliberately decide I don’t want to talk to this person.   A simple call but so many options! We commemorate today the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, brother of Peter, patron saint of fishermen and singers, of Scotland and Russia.   He was martyred on an X-shaped cross kn

  Wednesday – 34 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 21:12-19 It Ain’t Easy Being Christian Mass before Rock of Agony, Gethsemane Ever tried out for a basketball team?   Or that part in the play?   Or that entrance exam for nursing or law school?   Or that interview for your dream job?   In the end, the tryout or the exam was nothing!   It was all the time and effort, all the prep work, the sweat and the practice you put in!   It was not, in any way, easy!   And then there were the nay-sayers.   All those people who thought you would fail and should give up even trying.   He’ll never make it!   Do you think he will go through with it?   You’ll never amount to anything!   You’re wasting your time!   Get a real job; make some real money!   And yet you persevered! Jesus makes it clear in today’s Gospel that the disciples (us) will face much worse because of their faith!   He reminds us all that, to be true believers, it takes constant time and effort.   It’s not a given

  Tuesday – 34 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 21:5-11 It’s The End of the World and We Know It! Praying, Church of Holy Sepulchre Ever notice how many songs there are about the end of the world?   Skeeter Davis, REM, Phil Collins and Genesis!   Sad songs about the end of a relationship, someone hitting that nuclear red button, or the feeling of just giving up!   Moments in time where we were convinced that the end was near!   And we have certainly had our moments as well – terrifying storms that shook the house and made us run for the basement.   Or maybe it was that moment of family tragedy or personal crisis, that moment that we thought we would never survive.   Add to that what we are experiencing today: winter storm alerts this weekend from Texas to New York, suffering and death from wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the threat of a volcanic eruption in Iceland, wildfires throughout the Tennessee Valley, and the continuing plight of the homeless and migrant families as w

  Monday – 34 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 21:1-4 Giving All They Had Woodworker Shop, Bethlehem There’s a story about a little boy whose older sister was seriously ill; she desperately needed a blood transfusion but she had a rare blood type.   Luckily the boy had the same type.   So his parents asked if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.   He thought about it for a minute or so and then said “yes”. The next day the nurse began to hook up the IV to his arm and the blood slowly started to through the tubing.   The boy then looked up at the nurse and he asked “When will I start to die?” He thought he had been asked to give, not just his blood, but his life for his sister.   And he said YES!   He was willing to give his ‘all’, to give his life out of love for his sister.   What courage!   What faith!   What love! We read in today’s Gospel of a poor widow dropping 2 small coins into the Treasury in the Temple.   Like the boy, she gave all

  Sunday – Feast of Christ the King   Gospel – Matthew 25:31-46 Sheep or Goat? Judaean Desert Some of my fondest memories as a father and grandfather are going to the zoo or a petting zoo with Jaime, our daughter, or our grandsons Tyler and Nate.   I remember how often I would dig through my pockets looking for spare change to buy a handful of grain so the kids could feed the animals.   Ducks, geese, chickens, sheep, you name it!   So cute and cuddly!   And then there were the goats – all of them coming at you all at once, pushing & shoving, every goat for themselves!   It was a mad house and you could easily find yourself getting tripped and knocked to the ground in their mad rush for the grain! We celebrate today the Feast of Christ the King, the official end of Ordinary Time.   I imagine our image of a king involves ornate robes, a crown and a throne with the loyal subjects kneeling before him, a king coming in majesty at the end of time to judge the world! An