Author: admin

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Gospel: Matthew 12: 1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”
He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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In Jesus’ day, strict adherents to the Law followed more than 600 rules. (A small change from the 10 Commandments first given to Moses by God!) 

Many of these rules applied to the Sabbath – in particular, what was and wasn’t permitted –reaching down to the granular. 

For example, it was not only forbidden to “work” on the Sabbath; you could not even think about work. Try doing that for a day – not even thinking about returning emails, phone calls, or text messages.

For me? Impossible.

While the Jews’ intention was to set boundaries around a holy day, allowing people to rest and to worship God, many followed the Law not out of love, but out of fear that God would punish them if they didn’t.

Is fear really the best foundation for encountering God?

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In today’s Gospel, the disciples have violated the Sabbath by plucking grains of wheat, which was considered an act of work.

But Jesus defends them against the Pharisees, saying, essentially, “They’re hungry!” In the Lord’s eyes, satisfying human hunger was more important than following a set of rules. 

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What might this mean for us today?

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Many religions are built upon rules. Do this… don’t do that. While they can be helpful guidelines towards encountering the Divine, they should always lead us further along the path of mercy and love.

If they do the opposite, creating a type of fear in us, what good are they?

Secondly, it seems the Lord permits the breaking of rules – like the disciples “working” on the Sabbath – if doing so eases human suffering.

In his words, “Love (not fear) fulfills the Law.”

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Image credits: (1) Ministry of the Watchman International (2) CarelinksMinistries, YouTube (3) Portsmouth Abbey Monastery

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Gospel: Matthew 11: 28-30

Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Some years ago, a story went viral about a lost sheep named Shrek.

Shrek lived an otherwise ordinary life until he became separated from his shepherd. For six long years, he wandered the hills of New Zealand alone, often resting at night in cold, rocky caves.

Without his shepherd to shear his wool, Shrek’s coat ballooned to sixty pounds, six times the average weight a sheep normally carries. That’s enough wool to make 20 adult suits!

After he was found, it took Shrek’s shepherd about 20 minutes to shear all of that excess wool. Imagine that – six years of weight lifted in a matter of minutes.

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There’s something arrestingly human about that.

Like Shrek, how often do we carry around unnecessary weight? We hide our emotions, bottle them up, push them down. We can lug around years of unnecessary guilt, shame, grief, or fear. 

As a result, we end up carrying five or six times the weight we actually need to. Why not just let it go?

“Come to me, all of you who are heavy burdened,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “and I will give you rest.”

Like removing pounds of unnecessary wool, Jesus can shear what weighs us down.

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This is not only true in prayer, but also in confession, when the Lord forgives – and forgets – our sins.

May we allow the Shepherd to do what he does best – feed, defend, and shear his sheep.

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Image credits: (1) Bandcamp (2) Shrek the Sheep (3) Ibid.

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Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed: 
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A number of studies have suggested that the primary reason why Catholics do not share their faith is out of … fear.

There’s the fear of inability, the feeling that we do not know enough about our faith in order to explain it convincingly to others.

The fear of rejection. Deep down, aren’t we all afraid of being turned down? How much deeper does that fear run when we try sharing our faith, the deepest part of ourselves?

And the fear of failure. Such a fear leads to a variety of missed opportunities – not only in terms of relationships, our career, or life-experience, but also in bringing others to Jesus. 

Yet we all want to draw our loved ones closer to the Lord.

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So, how do we overcome this?

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While some may find it hard to understand Scripture, or difficult to explain its relevance to our daily lives, the best evangelists are the ones who simply live their faith. 

Think of people like Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day. They did nothing extraordinary in the world’s eyes – they clothed and fed the poor. Yet who has not been inspired by their example?

Or Saint John Vianney. He had to overcome multiple obstacles in order to be ordained a priest. He would’ve been the first person to tell you how difficult Latin and theology came to him.

Yet he transformed a large swath of Catholic Europe just by sitting in the confessional for 16 hours a day.

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While fear is something we all experience – certainly when trying to share our faith – some of the world’s greatest evangelists were ordinary people who changed people’s hearts, not by eloquence or persuasive arguments, but by love.

They were the “childlike,” the innocent ones, whom Jesus blesses in today’s Gospel.

This is, perhaps, what God is asking from all of us – to share the Good News by living simply and loving deeply. As the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.”

Be kind. Love your neighbor. God will do the rest.

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Image credits: (1) Inc. Magazine (2) Cato Institute (3) Linton Free Church