First Sunday of Advent_B - Rend the Heavens_12/03/23

Image Credit: A Peaceful Christmas from Charlie B, Italia, dec.2006

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Rend the Heavens”

The First Sunday of Advent, Year B

No one likes waiting! We anxiously await hearing from the doctor about the last CAT Scan; waiting for word that we were hired for that new job that will advance our career; waiting to get the acceptance letter from the college we desperately want to attend; waiting for that special “something” that will electrify our lives and elevate our spirts to grasp that happiness for which our hearts long... Yes, we don’t like it... but we wait. This Sunday we begin a New Liturgical Year, one that call us into a period of, guess what? “Waiting”, but a different quality of waiting, a waiting of the soul, an entry into a time of “holy longing” for that event that has been prophesized throughout Holy Scripture, the arrival of the Prince of Peace. We wait in expectant hope for the heavens to open and for the presence of the Lord to fill the earth. Waiting is a sign of our faith, just as it had been for the people of Israel. The waiting, longing, hoping for arrival of the Messiah was an essential mark of their faith also. They awaited the Messiah, a King, a Warrior, a Liberator who would save His people from foreign oppression, who would usher in a Kingdom of Justice, of Mercy, and Peace and restore Israel to its promised glory as the Light to the Nations. Generations lived and died without out this desperate longing being fulfilled in the fullness of time. Yet, generation after generation kept watch. And now, it’s our turn. It is our turn to keep not only the watch but the faith to believe that this ancient promise will be fulfilled… at any moment.

It is for this long-awaited Redeemer and Savior of the world that we Christians keep a vigilant watch that distinguishes these next three weeks as a most special time of the Church year. It is a time when we watch and wait in hopeful anticipation for the heavens to open and the coming of our Lord and Savior; a time of longing for His return as He promised. We wait while we seek God’s peace and consolation to come into our lives because there is so little of it in our world today. We are desperate for God’s peace. We truly hunger for His joy and consolation. There is an emptiness in our lives that cannot be filled by all the creature comforts this world has to offer. And so “we wait”.

Isaiah knew this. He begged God, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”! And, do you know what? God did just that! He became one of us in every way except sin. Jesus, Son of God, entered into the human drama as a tiny infant born into our world of material poverty, into a world at war, a world of scarcity and want, a world of fear and anxiety. Isn’t this the situation we see in much of the world around us today!

The problems of the world didn’t go away when Christ entered into it. And they still haven’t. No one person has the power to fix what is wrong with the world. The only way to fix the world is to fix ourselves. And Christ showed us how to do that.

When we were baptized, we were called by name and anointed with the Sacred Chrism to share Christ’s work. St. Luke quotes these words from the Prophet Isaiah to describe the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee:

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners”.

May this Advent season be one of joyful waiting, waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to fill us with His Presence so we may be the instruments of His peace, the bearers of His glad tidings, the healing balm for those who are brokenhearted and discouraged, and witnesses and agents of hope and encouragement for all who are bound up. And may He who came down from heaven, take away our emptiness and fill us with His Spirit of Peace and Wisdom.

Happy Beginning of Advent!
Deacon Tom  

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: A Living Gospel: Reading God's Story in Holy Lives. In his latest work, Robert Ellsberg, the author of many acclaimed works on the saints, looks on the “living gospel” that is written in human lives.

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  A Living Gospel - Reading God's Story in Holy Lives  Produced by the Henri Nouwen Society, this 5-part meditation video series is designed to offer a focused reflection on our spiritual journey. Over five weeks this summer we will release a new video on the Society’s YouTube channel. In each video, Robert Ellsberg, friend and publisher of Henri Nouwen, will share insights and practices to enrich, deepen, and strengthen your spiritual life. Reflecting on the lives of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Henri Nouwen, you will be invited to reflect more deeply on your own journey and vocation.

 

 

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe_A - Sheep to the Right; Goats on the ..._112623

 

Image credit: holytrinity-oca.com

Deacon Tom Writes,
“Sheep to the Right; Goats on the...”

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year A

 

By way of history, Pope Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 to counterbalance the growing movement toward secularism that arose in the early 20th century. In Germany there was a rise in exaggerated nationalism and the emergence of Nazism. At the same time there was a rising tide of Communism, atheism, totalitarian governments that demanded total sovereignty over people, substituting a nation or an ideology in place of God. This led Pius XI instituting today’s Feast as a way to make us aware that nations can never have complete sovereignty over what belongs to God.

Yet, we know from Sacred Scripture that Jesus rejected the notion of being a King. St. John tells us that when asked by Pilate if He was a King, Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

So, just what does Jesus’ Kingdom that is “not of this earth” look like and how do we show our fidelity to it? The answer is explicitly revealed in today’s gospel from the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew’s gospel. The image is stunning. All the people who have ever lived throughout time, the inhabitants of “all the nations”, are gathered before the “Son of Man”, that is, the King, who separates them into two groups, “the sheep on his right and the goats on his left”. Those on His right He finds favor with because they have acted justly; they have fed the hungry, given water to the thirsty, clothed their neighbor, visited the sick and imprisoned. In other words, they were able to show mercy and compassion to others during their lifetime by helping them with the necessities of life. Those on His left, however, are damned for they had no sense of the needs of the other. All their efforts were self-directed. They had no consideration for the suffering and wanton deprivation of their neighbors. They cared not for the widow and the orphan; they commoditized and victimized the weak and the vulnerable. Each group goes on to share in the joy or suffering they helped create in this life.

Given the outcome from this “judgment” scene that St. Matthew depicts, we can easily conclude that the King ruled over a kingdom that required its citizens to care for one another’s material, emotional and spiritual well-being; a kingdom whose people were instructed to see to it that no one suffered from want of food, clothing, shelter, or loneliness, or fear of being forgotten, or of being a stranger. We can deduct from Matthew’s text that the Kingdom of God favors those whose suffering and poverty go unnoticed by the world. In God’s eyes they are the “blessed” who will inherit the earth.

We do well to reflect on today’s readings, the last of our Liturgical Year. They speak of a time to come when, as we hear, all will stand in judgment and render an account for our actions and attitudes. They invite us to reflect seriously on how we have treated the poor and marginalized around us and, if needed, to make any changes the whisper of the Holy Spirit may direct. At the least, today’s readings should remind us that Christ is our King who calls us to: live the beatitudes, stand besides our brothers and sisters who suffer injustice, persecution, victimization, or deprivation, work alongside those trying to bring a sliver of hope to our world where hope is so desperately needed.

It is fitting that the Feast of Christ the King marks the end of our liturgical year. It enables us to move into the Season of Advent anticipating the day when God’s justice and peace will break forth upon the earth. That time when all the kings and prime ministers and presidents, all the rulers who have ever ruled this world, will pay homage and tribute to the one from whom they received their power and to whom they must eventually render an account.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: Laudate Deum  Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis to All People of Good Will on Climate Change.

Recommended YouTube Video:  Presentation of the Apostolic Exhortation: "Laudate Deum"  Pope Francis anticipated that he was writing this second part of his famous document on the care of the common home "to bring current problems up to date". Given in Rome, at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, in the year 2023 which also marks the close of annual “The Season of Creation”, the five weeks dedicated to care for the environment celebrated from World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1) and the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4).

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time_A - From Servants to Sons and Daughters_111923

Deacon Tom Writes,

“From Servants to Sons and Daughters”

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

The Parable of the Talents is a cautionary tale that has been appropriate for all ages and especially to our own when the common perception is, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!” Money, the economy, our social status are so very important to us that they can at times be an obstacle to our physical and spiritual well-being. That’s why Jesus frequently uses them as the subject matter for His parables. His perceptive and unique insights into wealth, possessions and our attitudes toward them captured the attention of so many of the people of His time.

Today’s story is about a man as he makes arrangements to go away on a journey. He entrusts portions of his estate to his servants to manage in his absence. He doesn’t give them any instruction on how to manage his affairs but he does allocate the amount that each will manage according to their abilities. Because of this we may conclude that the Master had some expectations about how each of his servants would manage the portion of the property he entrusted to them. It’s obvious that the Master was looking to increase his wealth by virtue of the fact that praise and more responsibility is given to those who achieved sizable returns. The thought that his money would sit idly by and not get so much as shekel’s worth of interest from the bankers was beyond his imagination.

If we are able to imagine this parable with some spiritual insight, we might easily see that we are the players in the very script we hear today. We are the servants, at least from God’s perspective. And, He has entrusted us with many talents. They are God’s gift to us. What we do with them is our gift to God. It seems from today’s lesson that God is pleased when we are willing to go all out for His kingdom; when we are willing to put the effort and energy into living those values that Christ taught us and actually incorporate them into our lives and giving good witness to those around us. As they say in the financial world… “No risk, No reward.” Make no mistake about it, trying to live the gospel values in our day is putting ourselves at great risk of rejection, humiliation, and even death in some corners of the world today.

Being timid, hording or squandering the gifts God has given us stifles the spreading of His kingdom and condemns us to a life of deprivation...we will reap what we sow! We would do a much better job of building up the kingdom if we came to see ourselves not as servants managing someone else’s property, but rather as we really are, sons and daughters of the King who one day stand to inherit the riches of His entire kingdom.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: The Contemplative Heart by James Finley recognizes the depth and range of today's spiritual yearning and refuses to settle for anything but its most profound possibilities. He opens our everyday living to the contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching that have been traditionally the preserve of the monk, and he does so without diluting them. The Contemplative Heart, enables readers to realize that wherever we live, whatever we do, the richest possibilities of a contemplative life are within our reach-that they are in fact what we have been searching for all along.

Recommended YouTube Video:  The Prophetic Path In this video, Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) faculty member James Finley explores our 2023 DM theme, The Prophetic Path, placing an emphasis on how we can heal from trauma. He reminds us that “we are the generosity of God; we are the song God sings.” Then, James invites us into a rendezvous with God — a grounding and prayerful practice.

Read the Read the Unedited Transcript

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time__A - When the Clock Strikes Zero_111223

Deacon Tom Writes,

"When the Clock Strikes Zero”

 

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Science is shedding remarkable light about the cosmos in which we live. The Hubbell telescope gives us fantastic images of worlds, stars, and galaxies hundred of million, even billions of light years away, images of universes and suns being born and dying. Scientists tell us that our solar system had a beginning and one day our sun will become a super nova that will consume our planet and the others in our universe as well.

That big picture, that notion that all existence is limited and finite escapes us for the most part as we go about our daily lives. Sure, we may watch NOVA or a science fiction movie that explores the theme of a “countdown clock”. But the thought that the days of our lives and those of our loved ones and friends are finite is something that, sadly, doesn’t change our behavior very much.

There is a commercial on TV that pictures men and women walking an eight-foot-long check on a leash as if it was a dog. The check is written out various amounts, usually in the millions. In each case the number represents how much money they will need to enjoy retirement. The commercial is presented by the financial service firm hoping to attract new clients with the hope of helping them reach that rather large retirement savings goal. This is a great marking message to encourage those watching to save for retirement.

How about a commercial like this? The Ad scans people walking alone a busy street, shopping, running for a taxi, jogging in the park, sitting at their desk at work or school. And, on their shoulder is a digital countdown clock revealing how many seconds they had remaining in this life. A person then asks, “And what are you doing with the time you have left?”

I think the Ad Execs would consider a commercial of this nature to be too dark a message for us to handle. And it would be if, shown with the frequency Ads get on TV! But what a provocative message that enables us to connect with the story of the ten virgins in today’s gospel, “Are we prepared for when the clock strikes zero?”

You see, our reading from the Book of Wisdom is our guide on how to prepare ourselves for that last moment when the clock strikes zero so that we can experience the best possible life for all the joys God desires us to enjoy on this side of paradise. By loving wisdom, by keeping vigil with her she will lead us to the object of her and our desire, “O Lord our God”, the bridegroom for whom we keep vigil, and from whom nothing can detract us, the one for whom “our soul is thirsting”.

We have incredible opportunity to accomplish so much good each and every day with Wisdom to guide us and prepare us for when our clock strikes zero.


Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: God Is All In All by Fr. Thomas Keating. God Is All in All introduces some mighty themes—including nature as revelation, mystical teachings on interdependence, new cosmologies of religion and science, and evolutionary understandings of what it means to be human—in a much-needed update to theologies Keating describes as “out of date.”

 

Outlining a three-part spiritual journey from recognizing a divine Other, to becoming the Other, to the realizing there is no other, Keating boldly states “Religion is not the only path to God.” Thoroughly Christian and fully interspiritual, this much-beloved outlier Trappist monk offers a message of “compassion, not condemnation” in a contemplative embrace of the cross as a symbol of humility, inviting those who would become co-redeemers of the world to join him in the kind of meditation and contemplative prayer that allows the transcendent self to emerge.

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  The Dimension of Listening The beloved and Reverend Joseph Boyle of St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, who was mentored by Fr. Thomas Keating, explores the dimensions of listening through a series of charming images and profound stories. A favorite prayer of his was from Dag Hammarskjold, “For all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes.”

This talk was recorded at the 2006 Contemplative Outreach Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  The theme was "Transformative Listening:  Whose Voice Are We Listening To?" For other talks from this event by Abbot Joseph and Fr. Thomas Keating, go to.   

 

 

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time_AA - That All May Be One_11/5/23

Photo Credit: Lutheran Archbishops Munib A. Younan (L) and Martin Junge (R)

October 31, 2016 at an ecumenical service in Lund cathedral, Sweden. . TT News Agency/Jonas Ekstromer)

Deacon Tom Writes, 

That We All May Be One  

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

On October 31st 1517 some 500 plus years ago, a German Augustinian monk posted his “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” on the door of the All-Saints’ church in Wittenberg, Germany. This document came to be known as Ninety-five Theses. His action followed the arrival of Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and the papal commissioner for indulgences, who was sent to Germany to raise money to raise money for rebuilding St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The monk, of course, is Martin Luther. The document that he posted began as follows:

Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

What followed were 95 theses criticizing the Catholic Church for corruption in Rome, including the buying of ecclesiastical privileges, nepotism, usury, and the selling of indulgences that would mitigate the temporal punishment that was the residual effect of sins that had been committed.

To understand the nature of the problem that troubled Luther we need to look at our Catholic teaching on indulgences. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that an indulgence is, “obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishment due for their sins." The Church does this not just to aid Christians, "but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity" (CCC 1478). So, while the Sacrament of Reconciliation enables one to be “absolved”, i.e., have one’s sins forgiven, there remains a “temporal punish” attributable to those very sins we have committed. This, of course, serves as the basis or our Catholic understanding of Purgatory as a place where that “punishment” is satisfied prior to our going to our final destination.... to join the angels and saints in the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world.

Going back to October 31, 1517 at the time Luther posted his 95 Theses, the abuse of indulgences was at its height. Yet, the selling of indulgences was never the official practice of the church. Cardinal Cajetan Tommaso de Vio wrote:

"Preachers act in the name of the Church so long as they teach the doctrines of Christ and the Church; but if they teach, guided by their own minds and arbitrariness of will, things of which they are ignorant, they cannot pass as representatives of the Church; it need not be wondered at that they go astray."

Luther Scholars believe that Martin had no intention of confronting the Catholic Church or challenging the authority of Pope Leo X. Martin Luther’s historic action was an intent to rectify a corrupt practice that had found its way into the Church. Unfortunately, history has shown all too clearly how willing we are to remain agents of sin and division by our failure to recognize the consequences of our sinfulness and our refusal to amend our ways through a spirit of repentance and reconciliation.

As we continue on our journey of faith may we pray as Jesus did:
“...so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:21

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: Living Justice by Fr. Thomas Massaro. Rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus and the message of the New Testament, the Church proclaims: "Justice is constitutive of the Gospel." Building upon the broad tradition of Catholic social teaching. Living Justice offers a fresh discussion of contemporary issues (disarmament, human rights, the option for the poor). Through Scripture, Tradition, world events, and living examples of heroism and holiness ranging from the simple to the extraordinary, Living Justice develops your understanding of Catholic social teaching and inspires you for service

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  Living a Christian Life in an Age of Distraction, a lecture by Jesuit Thomas Massaro critiques our attempt to live out our Christian vocation in the midst of all the distractions, commitments and business of our everyday lives.