Author: admin

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Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A few years ago, on the cover page of National Geographic there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”

More than one billion Catholics refer to her as their spiritual mother, a command first given by Jesus to John at the Cross: “Behold, your mother.” 

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Two factors that inspire Marian devotion are her relatability and her many apparitions throughout the centuries. 

Like many Christians, Mary was poor. She spent time as a refugee. She accepted God’s plan for her life while she was still a teenager, modeling the art of surrender, which she does again while standing faithfully at the foot of the Cross.

Mary is powerful because she is relatable.

Secondly, she pulls back the veil between heaven and earth. The first reported Marian apparition took place in the year 40 AD, some time after her assumption. There have been an estimated 2,000 apparitions since.

Of these, fewer than 20 have been officially approved by the Vatican because of their rigorous process of verification.

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But one of Mary’s apparitions, which we celebrate today, was her appearance as Our Lady of the Rosary to Saint Dominic in the 13^th century. Part of her message to him was that, if he spread devotion to the rosary, then his religious order – the Dominicans – would flourish. 

To this day, some 800 years later, Dominican nuns and priests minister around the world, their religious order having produced more than 70 Saints!

In several other apparitions since, Mary has continued encouraging devotion to the rosary, as we not only meditate on the life of Christ, but also seek Mary’s powerful intercession.

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May she, the most powerful woman in the world, pray for us.

Hail Mary…

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Image credits: (1) National Geographic, Mary Most Powerful Woman in the World (2) The Annunciation, Saint Louis Art Museum (3) Free Rosary Stock, StockImages

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Gospel: Luke 10: 25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Auto-immune diseases – such as type-1 diabetes and arthritis – confuse the body’s natural defense system, so that the body can no longer tell the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy cell.

Normal cells are mistaken for a threat, causing the body to attack itself, leaving a person reeling in pain.

These days, when we gaze across the world of politics, race, religion, and culture, it’s easy to see this “auto-immune” mentality at work.

People will fight against each other over just about anything. What we fail to realize is that, beneath it all, most of us are good. We’re all made in the image and likeness of God, and we all want the same basic guarantees: food, shelter, peace, security, and love.

In a word, we want to live.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives one of his most famous parables, The Good Samaritan, which challenges our understanding of what it means to be a neighbor, or a member of this world we call home.

Consider the parable through the eyes of the wounded stranger, who has been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. Unlike the other characters in the story, he is not identified by his profession, social class, religion, or ethnicity. 

He could be anyone – a Jew or a Samaritan; rich or poor; someone’s brother, a husband, a son. As he faces his death, the ethnic and religious boundaries that likely defined his life are suddenly erased.

He doesn’t care who helps him; all that matters is that someone helps him. A Jew, a Samaritan, anyone capable of compassion because that is what matters in his hour of greatest need.

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Perhaps we need to live our lives with more of that perspective.

Not with the arthritic spirit of division, rather on what unites us: the short passage of time; our ability to be compassionate; our desire to live; and our common need for a good neighbor, not only in our hour of greatest need, but everyday.

Will you be my neighbor? If so, what might that look like today?

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Image credits: (1) Won’t You Be My Neighbor Review, We Live Entertainment (2) WH Marcetson, The Cripplegate (3) Catholic Medical Mission Board

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Gospel: Luke 17: 5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord replied,
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?
Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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To some, today’s Gospel might seem a bit misleading. 

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” Jesus says, “you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and cast into the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

I’ve never wrapped my arms around a mulberry tree, but I imagine I’d look like a fool if I knelt down, said a prayer, then tried pulling it out of the earth. After a tug or two, my arms would be bleeding and my muscles burning, causing me to lose heart and give up.

Yet, how many of us have tried summoning the strength to uproot something from our lives and have failed? 

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Exasperated, we turned to prayer.

We prayed to get into a particular high school or college, but we got rejected. We’ve prayed for a job, but remain unemployed. We’ve prayed for an addiction to end, yet it still tugs at our flesh. We’ve prayed for the cancer to go away, but it hasn’t. 

It’s easy for us to reason that God hasn’t answered us because we’ve either not prayed hard enough or don’t have enough faith – not even the size of a mustard seed! – which can make us want to give up. 

That’s why today’s Gospel passage can seem puzzling.

Jesus is not guaranteeing instant results; nor is he trying to discourage our faith. Whatever trust we place in him is precious! Often, the faith we have is enough, even if it’s the size of a tiny mustard seed, but there are two reasons why the “tree” may remain rooted in our lives.

It may be difficult to uproot, or God may allow it to remain.

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The longer a tree is alive, the deeper and more widespread its roots become. And so, it is with us. If we’re struggling with a particular habit, having nurtured it for years, then the time it takes God to uproot it limb by limb can be daunting… and painful.

If we’re praying for the grace to forgive, or to have some deep seeded anger uprooted, our heart needs to soften, allowing God to gently remove the root cause of our pain.

If we’re sick and praying to be healed, God may uproot our illness immediately through the Sacraments, or through the slow drip of medicine and science. In either case, trust is needed.

So, is there a “mulberry tree” in my life, a burden I want lifted?

Even if tiny, the seed of faith you have is enough. It’s simply a matter of watering it, nurturing it, and clinging to it patiently as God works day by day. 

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Here’s another, albeit more difficult, perspective to consider. What if God does not want to remove a particular “mulberry tree” from our lives? Mysteriously, it may serve a purpose.

Saint Paul believed that all things could draw us closer to God – not only good things, but also our woes, sorrows, and trials. As he says in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:

“A thorn in my flesh was given me, an angel of Satan to beat me, to keep me from being too elated… Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

Instead of using the imagery of a mulberry tree, Paul calls it a thorn, a small speck of metaphorical wood driven into his flesh, causing him great pain.

So, what was this thorn?

We don’t know exactly, but it could’ve been a variety of things causing him to suffer.

It could’ve been the “thorn” of false preachers seeking to undo his work; the “thorn” of imprisonment; of persecution; of rejection; of physical beatings; of abandonment; or the frequent threat of death. 

Paul prayed that this thorn would be dislodged from his life, but it wasn’t. God allowed him to wrestle with it because it humbled Paul and caused him to rely not upon himself, but upon Christ. 

So much so that Paul claimed, “I have been crucified with Christ and the life I live is no longer my own. It is Christ living in me.” 

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Whether or not God uproots the “mulberry tree” from our lives, Jesus reminds us today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

May he give us the same grace he gave to Paul – to surrender, humbly accepting whatever may come.

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Image credits: (1) King David, WordPress (2) Time Out (3) Desert Streams Ministries