Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time_C_ Happily Ever After Begins Here_013022

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Happily Ever After Starts Here!”

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

How easy it is to say, “I love you.” How easy it was for the people of Nazareth “to speak highly of Jesus” and to render a favorable opinion of him upon his returning home. It’s quite a different matter altogether to act with love toward the people we say we love or to take to heart what those we speak highly of are telling us, especially when what they are saying rubs us the wrong way. Jesus is the Poster Child par excellent when it comes to how things change when the message you are speaking is rejected and resented by your audience. Our world is challenge by this new reality tin which we only listen to those with whom we agree. The gospels tell us that Jesus experienced this same attitude one that eventually led him to the cross. Are we here in our time now at some new frontier in interpersonal relationships where we circle ourselves exclusively with like-minded people? Are we now going to sever our relationship with organizations because they don’t hold fast to our perspective? Cut off those family members who have a different political, economic or religious belief than we do? A different sexual orientation, racial or ethnic heritage? Who could ever have imagined that you could start a near riot simply by mentioning the word “mask” or announce at a school board meeting that “vaccines are mandated”? The cartoon character Pogo was right when he said, “We have met the enemy and he is us! Welcome to the new world, everyone!

Such division and bitterness stands contrary to what St. Paul writes to the Corinthians about the virtue of love. Couples often chose these words for their wedding ritual because they capture our heart’s desire for genuine, selfless love. “Love is patient, love is kind” Paul says. If he were to stop there, we would struggle mightily to put just those words into practice. We would have to work very hard day and night to show those we say we love a patient love, a kind love. But Paul doesn’t stop with those two qualities. He goes on to say that there is much more to love than patience and kindness. He probes the very essence of love to reveal that at its very core, to love means to surrender oneself completely to the other; to put the will and happiness of the other before our very own. Love, Paul says, “is not pompous or rude; is not inflated and doesn’t seek its own interest; it is not quick-tempered nor does it brood over injury. Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Love, then, is so much more than simply saying, “I love you.” It is the journey of a lifetime to a place we nearly always choose not to go: it is a place of complete surrender. It is diametrically opposed to the notion of personal freedom. One does not get there simply by saying “I love you.” Rather it is the work of a lifetime; it is a slow process of letting go, of dying to self, of subjecting our very self-will to the will of others. And, should we really give some thought to this, we can’t love to the depth that Paul describes by ourselves. We need God’s grace to make any progress at all; left to ourselves, we could easily act like the people of Jesus’ hometown who hear his “gracious” words and then, moments later, try to push him over the cliff. They just weren’t prepared to hear how abundant and liberating God’s love is and that his love goes out to all who search for him. Nor are those, I’m afraid, who praise God on Sunday and ignore his call to love one another Monday through Saturday.

There is little doubt that God’s love remains a mystery. We will never completely understand the depth of divine love in this life, but we can experience a glimmer of it through the love of others. The deeper our love becomes, the more selfless our love will be and the closer we will come to the source of that love who is God and the better we will be at sharing that love with one another.


Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Image credit: Tom Casey - Words of Wisdom to Bride and Groom, Corolla, N.C.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time_B - Words..."Spoken With Authority_013121

Deacon Tom Writes,

Words… “Spoken With Authority”

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 

Casting out the demons from the man in the Synagogue in Capernaum is the first cure Mark recounts as Jesus begins his ministry. Do you suspect there is a message here? I do! Jesus serves notice that the days of darkness are over. While the people in the synagogue may not have realized that at the time, they were quick to realize this event as a sign of Jesus’ authority. 

Today our world is still plagued by demons seemingly have imbedded themselves into the fabric of our daily lives. Unfortunately they are just as real and destructive and pathetic today as they were in Jesus’ time. We know them by the fruit of their works: hunger, poverty, war, ignorance, their empty promises and lying tongues, the division and chaos  that we see around us. They continue to raise havoc with many of our brothers and sisters, keeping them wrapped up in fear and seizing them with a perpetual sense of hopelessness. 

Mark wastes no time telling of Jesus miraculous power as He liberates a man bound up and tormented by some terrible affliction described only as “an unclean spirit”. Whatever that condition was, it sounds horrible. What people saw, what made them marvel was that Jesus had amazing power and that He used that power for the well-being of one of His neighbors who was longsuffering. They ask the question, “What is this, a new teaching with authority?” Yes, it is, one that we continue to spread nearly 2,000 years later. It is the quintessential teaching not only of one man’s liberation; it is our story too, of our struggle to get free from all that imprisons us, from all that has hardened our hearts and blinded us to the sorrows and sufferings of those around us. It is a new teaching which calls us to be like the Master, to imitate Him by helping others break free from whatever shackles them, diminishes their dignity and self-worth, exploits their labor, or impoverishes them. 

How do we who claim to be disciples of Jesus respond to the evils we witness as we go about our daily activities? Does the evil we see or experience motivate us to action or to prayer? Are we minimalists, adhering to the practice of attending Mass once on week on Sunday, dropping our envelope in the collection basket and getting our ticket punched? Or, do we go above and beyond the minimum by engaging in the corporal works of mercy – you remember them, don’t you? … feeding the hungry; giving drink to the thirsty; clothing the naked; sheltering the homeless; visiting the sick; ransoming the captive, burying the dead on the corporal side. Or, perhaps we prefer helping others on their spiritual journey by teaching them our faith, counseling them through their doubts; warning them they have wondered of the straight and narrow; bearing wrongs patiently; forgiving offences willingly; comforting the afflicted; praying for the living and the dead. St. Thomas Aquinas regarded the works of mercy as various forms of almsgiving. Furthermore, he considered these works to be a duty, an obligation we owe to one another predicated on the golden rule to do to others, as we would have them due to us. 

There are many ways in which followers of Jesus can respond in a positive way to the evils we see and experience in our daily life. What is important is that we do something to respond to the many faces of evil in our world. Doing nothing is not an option! We know the scriptures. We know what Jesus asks of us. AND, we know the consequences of choosing to turn our heads. We find them spelled out clearly in Matthew 25:41: “Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, in everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me not in; naked, and you covered me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me", etc.

It is easy to be overwhelmed with all the evil that we see or personally experience on a daily basis. It is easy to think that there is nothing we can do to change it… that the problem is too big and we don’t have the means to stop it. That way of thinking perpetuates the work of the devil. Apathy, indifference, inactivity, feelings of hopelessness, inadequacy, or that we are too old, or too young and similar thoughts on our part tip the scales even more in favor of the evil one. There is a saying that we should call to mind should such thinking enter our minds… “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” As friends of Jesus nothing could be more truthful. Christ is the light of the world who came to chase away the darkness, the chaos, the division and chaos and the evil in the world. By His life and His ministry, by His Death and Resurrection,  He set the example that we are to be lights to those around us too, to cast away the darkness and to resist the evils in our world, little by little, each and every day.  May we always be faithful in following his example and true to His Word. 

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom