First Sunday of Lent_A - An Unrequited Love _030120

Deacon Tom Writes,

Unrequited Love

First Sunday of Lent, Year A

The Prophet Hosea speaks of God’s unending love for his unfaithful  people and his desire to be reconciled with them with these words:

“I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.”  HOSEA 2:16

The season of Lent draws much from the desert imagery that is so deeply immersed throughout our Sacred Scripture. And, so at the very mention of the word “Lent”, for instance, we recall the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, a journey from slavery to freedom. And we are mindful of how Jesus withdrew to the desert to discern God’s Will for him as read in today’s gospel. 

Yet, the words from Hosea cast another light on desert experiences:  they are a time of solitude, a time of intimacy, of knowing and becoming known. God calls those he loves into a place of solitude so that we can enter into a deeper relationship with him and, through his Mystical Body, into a deeper relationship with one another.  

Yes, Lent is about discovery, an awakening of just how incomplete our lives have become separated from our Beloved. These next six weeks give us the chance to see just how far we have fallen out of relationship with God and provide us the opportunity to seek to make things right. 

But least we think that we are left on our own to do all the work, recall the beautiful words from Hosea and remember who it is who entices us into this desert journey, God himself. It is God who desires us to seek him; it is God who calls us into relationship with him; it is God who desires to be our all in all, our Beloved; and it is God who is desperate for us to love him in return.  

May God bless all your Lenten efforts to draw near to him. May he bless abundantly your Seeking Heart. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time_A - The Call to Holiness_022320

Deacon Tom Writes on….

“The Call to Holiness”

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Jesus takes the contemporary wisdom of his time and turns it upside down. The ancient patterns of behavior of seeking revenge, the old “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” order of the day mentality needs to give way to a new mindset, a new way of resolving differences. So Jesus introduces his followers to some new and innovative ways to bring about justice saying, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil” and “turn the other cheek.”

Jesus’ radical new prescription to eradicate the plagues of hatred and discrimination is to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Of course, this is much easier said than done. There is a story told about the days following the North’s victory over the South in America’s Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln was being pressured to completely destroy the Confederacy, to decimate the enemies of the Union once and for all. Lincoln’s answer was classic. He responded to those calling for the annihilation of the South with these reconciling words saying effectively:  “Don’t I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Lincoln understood very well that violence only begets more violence. The cycle never ends. How could it in the absence of a new mindset, a new vision that lifts the victim and the vanquished to a higher level of social and moral conscientiousness? This attitude perhaps helped fashion America’s treatment of our enemies in the twentieth century when, after the Second World War, the Marshall Plan sent massive humanitarian aid to Europe in order to lay the foundation for a world able to reconcile differences through mutual respect and an orderly process of dialogue rather than mutual destruction.

Embracing a new way of responding to problems that give rise to the endless cycle of violence that ravages peoples, cultures, and societies is a critical component of our faith. Through the Prophet Moses, the Lord told his people to “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” We are called to be holy as God is holy. Therefore violence and revenge are not options. There is no better advocate for this than Christ who became a victim for us all and who suffered torture and death at the hands of violent people in order to show us the way of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Let us take Christ’s words to heart and strive to put them into practice by “turning the other cheek” when others choose the way of violence and also by praying for those who do so.

I would like to recommend the book, Living Justice, by Thomas Massaro, S.J. as a great Lenten read on Catholic Social Teaching. Watching the News will never be the same!

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, A - Make the Right Choice_021620

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Make the Right Choice”

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Our readings today address the choices we have in life. Sirach seems to say that, in essence, every choice that we make comes down to this: we choose between life and death or, stated differently, between good and evil. Then the Sacred Writer cautions us further that, “whatever we choose shall be given to us”.  

It is not often we think of the choices we make throughout the day as either good or evil or between life and death. We probably make hundreds of choices over the course of an ordinary day. Yet, it shouldn’t be a surprise to us that every choice we make counts; every choice we make has us heading in one direction or another. We often find ourselves in situations where we must compromise... our faith, our values, our entire belief system. Jesus, in saying that he has come to fulfill the law, not to abolish it, reminds us that we have a reference point on how to determine if we are making good or bad choices. His focal point is … the Law, specifically, the Law God handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus expands the meaning of the Law when he interprets it in a much broader sense. He equates anger with the act of killing another person. Then again, the act of calling someone a fool and thereby diminishing their dignity as a child of God becomes punishable by eternal damnation….

I don’t think that Jesus is being overly scrupulous. He is being very cautious. He knows that it is the little things that trip us up not only in the day-to-day happenings in our material life but also on our spiritual journey as well. He knows that every choice we make is either drawing us nearer to him or has us moving further away from him. He knows that little by little we can loose the kingdom of heaven by making bad choices. 

Jesus taught us that the best choice we can make is to choose to love, to love God first and foremost, and to love others, even our enemies as well. And this happens every time we choose to put others first, and by doing so, we deepen our love of God, which is always the right choice! 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time_A - Light and Zest_020920

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Light and Zest”

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Sacred Author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote this insightful passage concerning the enduring truth about the Word of God when he penned these words, “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart”. Hebrews 4:12

It seems there is no shortage of problems in our world today. Look around and you see protesters carrying signs and placards supporting one cause or another, advocating one course of action over a different path forward, labeling one ideology good and those who stand in opposition to that way of thinking bad. We seem divided over many issues... the world seems to be in disarray. Where does one turn to find a meaningful message, one that inspires hope, gives us a path that we may follow that helps heal our social maladies? Perhaps anyone who enters any of our Catholic Churches around the world today, February 9, 2020 will find some direction in these words from the Prophet Isaiah

Thus says the LORD:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;

Isaiah goes on to say:

If you remove from your midst
oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

We don’t surrender our politics, our agendas, our experiences or hopes for the future when we enter Church to worship God. These are essential dimensions of our lives that are to be conformed and shaped by the Word and Sacrament that we receive when we participate in “the sacred mysteries” which bring us together as “the people of God” whenever we gather in his name.

We are faced with many challenges today; we have many factors dividing us into contentious fractions to put it mildly. Where to begin? In good conscience, we must not overlook the cautionary and prophetic advice we find in Sacred Scripture from those who have not only experienced similar extraordinary times but also persevered while endeavoring to remaining faithful to high moral standards.

Jesus calls his disciples “the salt of the earth”. All who heard Jesus say this understood how valuable salt was as a preservative, an antiseptic, to enhance the flavor of food. Salt was a medium of exchange from which the word “salary” is derived. If we are to be the “salt of the earth” as Jesus called us to be, we must bring to the current debates the Christian values we find in Sacred Scripture that sees us all as God’s children and not just with our words but with our actions as well by bringing light and zest to the world around us. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom