Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Thursday - Second Week of Lent   Gospel – Luke 16:19-31 If I Were A Rich Man… Homeless Sculpture, Capernaum When we first got married, we lived in a very tiny studio apartment.   We used wooden nail kegs as chairs and a cable reel as our table.   We made our own Christmas ornaments that first year and still have some of them to this day.   We would spend some cold days at the Library because the apartment was too cold.   Our one luxury was a sofa sleeper!   Were we rich?   By any economic standard, definitely not!   Were we happy? Absolutely!   Granted, we look back on that time with a touch of nostalgia but, all in all, we made do with what we had!   We didn’t really focus on what we didn’t have or couldn’t afford!   We just made good use of what we had! The Rich Man in today’s Gospel just doesn’t get it!   It’s not that Jesus is condemning everyone who is rich. I think it’s more about what are you doing ...

  Wednesday - Second Week of Lent Gospel – Matthew 20:17-28 Are Ya Listening? Church of Holy Sepulchre One day a very wealthy father took his son on a trip to the country for the sole purpose of showing his son how it was to be poor. They spent a few days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. After their return from the trip, the father asked his son how he liked the trip. “It was great, Dad,” the son replied. “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh Yeah,” said the son.   “So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our s...

  Tuesday – 2 nd Week of Lent      Gospel – Matthew 23:1-12 Walking the Walk Pistachio and Me   You can talk the talk but can you walk the walk?   Practice what you preach?   Put your money where your mouth is?   You talk a good game but…… Put up or shut up!   We hear it all the time!   We probably say it all the time!   And in today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus calling out the Pharisees for preaching the teachings of Moses but failing to act on their own words.   There is a moment during the Ordination Rite for Deacons when the Bishop places the Book of the Gospels in the hands of the Deacon and says: Receive the Book of the Gospel whose herald you have become .  Believe what you read. Teach what you believe. Practise what you teach."   We are called to not merely read or teach!   We are called to believe!   We are called to practice what we believe and teach!   Even in today’s Gospel, ...

Monday - Second Week of Lent Gospel – Luke 6:36-38 Mercy Me! Spice Market, Jerusalem If there is one upside to the mess and stress of these past 6 months, it’s that I continue to   sharpen (hopefully) and increase my baking skills.   Unfortunately my waist-line seems to have also proportionally increased as well; but that’s another story. With some of my baked items, like my super-fudgy brownies, I’ve had to work with brown sugar.   Invariably the recipe calls for me to pour it in, pack it down, and repeat as often as necessary until you get a really full jam-packed cup of brown sugar.   I have to admit I am grateful that those directions aren’t used for flour.   Can you imagine the cloud I could create?   Anyway, the result is a lot of brown sugar, way more than I could have imagined.   You think you know how much you will use and then you get surprised at how much more there is when you keep packing it down- or how quickly you run out o...

  Second Sunday of Lent Gospel – Mark 9:2-10 Climb Every Mountain Mt. Tabor, Galilee Back in high school, the seminary where we lived and studied and prayed was essentially in the middle of nowhere, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. And right behind the seminary, about a mile away, was one particular mountain, Tobacco Row Mountain.   For all of us, it represented a rite of passage, a coming of age event that tested your physical endurance and patience.   On Saturday mornings, you would leave right after breakfast, hike to the mountain base, climb it, come back down and hike back to the seminary.   And do it all without being late for 6pm dinner.   It was not easy and many never met the challenge.   For those of us who did, there was a sense of accomplishment and pride, not to mention that exhilarating view you got when you reached the summit – breathtaking!   But you couldn’t stay long; you didn’t want to risk...