Gospel Reflections for Challenging Times

  Saturday – 27th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 11:27-28 A Little Respect Greek Orthodox Church of Annunciation, Nazareth It wasn’t that long ago that I reflected on the moment when we realized that our parents actually had a real name, not just Mom or Dad.   But God help us if we ever tried addressing them by their given name.   Talk about disrespect!   Talk about a punishment waiting to happen! And yet today’s Gospel has Jesus seemingly disrespecting His own mother.   The woman who bore Him and gave birth to Him in a stable, who encouraged Him at the wedding feast at Cana, who follows Him all the way to the foot of the Cross.   But there is a point here.   Mary is not blessed merely because she carried Him in her womb.   She is blessed because she heard the Word of God and responded to it.   It is because she said “Yes” to Gabriel and then spent her life in observance of that “Yes”. We hear a lot of things every day.   We...

Fri day – 27 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 11:15-26 Inner Demons Church of St. Joseph, Nazareth Let’s face it – we all have our inner demons – stress with illness, finances, relationships, the world – and sometimes all of them at once..   At times it has drawn out of us our worst fears and our basest instincts.   We’ve been demoralized and despondent; we’ve felt abandoned and afraid for ourselves and our loved ones.   Sometimes we have bottled up all those difficult emotions inside ourselves trying to be strong for ourselves and our family.   Other times we let those demons out and we bang our heads and our fists against the wall in anger and frustration.   And then there are the times when we feel the presence of the divine, the Spirit spreading His wings over us to protect us.   There are those days that we felt uplifted.   Those times when we looked back and realized we could not have survived the day without the grace of God. ...

  Thurs day – 27 th Week in Ordinary Time Gospel – Luke 11:5-13 A Cry in the Night Shepherds Field, Bethlehem All of us who are parents can identify!   You are asleep, deep and dream-filled sleep.   And then the quiet is broken with the sudden cries of your 5-month-old child.   No matter how tired you are, how comfy-cozy you are, you answer the call.   You get up, you go to their room and do all you can to quiet their cries and soothe their distress.   You do it out of love, out of concern for them.   Yes, there are certainly times we do it out of persistence but, in the end, we do it out of love.   And we know we would not sleep well at all until their needs are met. That is what we hear in today’s Gospel – Answer the door!   Whether it’s because of their insistence or your love for them, respond to the needs of others!   And if we don’t get the message, then look at it from the other person’s point of view.   Knock and i...