Category: Uncategorized

***

Gospel: Luke 4: 31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, 
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Today we celebrate a modern-day hero. 

Not because she was the Wolf of Wall Street. Not because she became the world’s wealthiest woman. Not because she was highly educated or cured cancer.

In fact, she did none of these things.

We celebrate a woman who learned how to persevere in doing ordinary things – chasing after children abandoned by their parents and offering them a home, feeding the hungry, bathing dirty feet, and picking up people who otherwise would’ve died on the streets.

For seventy years, she did ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta, affectionately known as “Mother Teresa,” became a global phenomenon, bringing poverty onto the world stage simply by being a Christian – doing the things that Christ commanded her to do.

***

“Why do you do these things day after day?” She was once asked by an interviewer. “Don’t you ever tire of it all?”

Mother Teresa responded, “I’m not called to feed hungry people. I’m called to love Jesus.” Then she reached out, grabbed the interviewer’s hand, and on each of his five fingers, she repeated the words of Jesus: You – did – it – to – me.

***

Much could be said about Mother Teresa – her history, her spirituality, her inexhaustible charity for the poor. But it was her love for Christ – and her knack for seeing him in her neighbor – that inspired her life and mission.

There’s a word in that for all of us.

Though we may not be surrounded by the sick, the hungry, the naked, the “losers” in this world, we are all invited to see Christ in our neighbor.

That doesn’t only include our family, our friends, and people whom we love. But also, those we’d rather avoid, those whom we disagree with, those who are different from ourselves.

Whatever we do to one another today, we do to Christ.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Mother Teresa: The Life of a Saint, The New York Times (2) The Collector (3) The Collector

***

Gospel: Luke 4: 16-30

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'”
And he said,
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Today’s Gospel passage comes at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and he’s already starting to experience both rejection and wonder from the crowds. 

For these three precious, and final, years of his life, Jesus will go public: he will cure the sick, give sight to the blind, forgive sins, and even raise a few people from the dead – all things the prophet Isaiah foretold.

We might summarize his works in three words: 

Jesus lifted burdens.

***

By the power of the Holy Spirit, that is what every Christian is called to do.

We lift people’s burdens, setting them free.

***

I think of all who cook in our parish soup kitchen, preparing fresh pasta for the hungry in Newark. And the Missionaries of Charity who feed, clothe, and shelter them.

Those who visit our sick and homebound parishioners; who drive them to chemo and doctor’s appointments; who tidy their homes; who bring them communion; who sit and have a conversation, lifting their burden of loneliness. 

Those who organize parish outings and events; who teach our children our faith; who work on staff; who intercede on our behalf.

Here we lift burdens.

It’s what the Catholic Church does around the world – and has done since the time of our Lord.

***

Following Christ’s example, how might I lift someone’s burden today?

***

***

Image credits: (1) Medium (2) Got Questions (3) Undefined, alyssajhoward.com

***

Gospel: Matthew 16: 21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised. 
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. 
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me. 
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life? 
Or what can one give in exchange for his life? 
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

I spent the last year promoting World Youth Day, trying to convince young adults to join me in a pilgrimage to Portugal. I told them we’d celebrate Mass with Pope Francis and stay at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. It’d be an opportunity of a lifetime!

Once we landed in Portugal, the forty pilgrims who joined us were eager to know the details about what each day held. But we gave them one simple rule:

“Participate. Don’t anticipate.”

Had they known from the beginning that we’d be averaging 20,000 steps a day – and one day over 30,000, that some nights we’d only get a few precious hours of sleep, that one night we’d sleep outside on hard, rocky ground, and be eating hot dogs out of a can, then many of them might have said, “No way!”

Yet, in the end, every one of them said they’d do it all over again in a heartbeat; it was a life-changing experience. They just needed to follow the rule:

“Participate. Don’t anticipate.”

***

In last week’s Gospel, Peter professed his faith in Jesus, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” To which Jesus responded, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”

However, just a few verses after Peter is declared the foundation of the Church, Jesus finds cause to rebuke him as we hear in today’s Gospel, “Get behind me, Satan!” 

How does Peter go from being “rock” to “Satan”?

He was thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.

After Jesus reveals that he’s headed to Jerusalem where he’ll be crucified, Peter protests, saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!”

I suspect Peter was not only afraid of losing his Lord; he was also afraid of losing his own life. “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you… or to me!”

That is what elicits such a harsh response from Jesus – Peter tries controlling the future.

***

Christ’s command for Peter to, “get behind” him does not mean that Jesus wants him to leave; rather, he’s telling Peter to reassume the role of a disciple.

Disciples follow their Master. They don’t tell the Master where to go or what to do; they wait for instruction, ready to follow.

Much like we taught our pilgrims at World Youth Day, “Participate. Don’t anticipate.”

Peter learned his lesson. Humbled, he reassumes his role as disciple and gets behind the Lord. 

Something tells me that also might’ve been the moment when Judas developed a plan-B. If Jesus’ words were true – if he really is going to be crucified – then he isn’t turning out to be the type of savior Judas had hoped for.

Judas saw influence, power, and riches in his future. Not a cross.

Secretly, Judas begins crafting alternative plans for the moment he reaches Jerusalem. He doesn’t get behind the Lord at all; mistakenly, he believes he’s two steps ahead.

***

How often does this happen to us?

We shadowbox with the future. We make our own plan-B. We try controlling our destiny by getting two steps ahead.

“Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus says, “tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day are its own troubles” (Matthew 6:34).

***

When they finally reach Jerusalem, the Lord is crucified as he predicted. But there were many things in store for Peter, which he never could have imagined.

Peter would become part of that circle of disciples to encounter the Risen Christ. That set his heart aflame. In fact, he was so transformed by that post-Cross experience that he’d spend the rest of his life telling the world!

Peter preached to thousands. He converted and baptized entire crowds on the spot. He led the Church on earth for three decades before being faced with his own cross.

And when it came, he saw it with different eyes; he wasn’t the same man who feared his future thirty years earlier. He was ready to follow the Lord wherever he went because Peter knew where it all ended – in eternal life. 

Saint Paul distills this lesson into a single sentence, “I consider the sufferings of this present age as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

***

Looking back, I’m sure Peter would encourage us with the same words we used to inspire our pilgrims: “Participate. Don’t anticipate.”

Follow the Lord wherever he may go.

Step by step, day by day.

Get behind him.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Pocket Mindfulness (2) Life Skills Resource Group (3) The Center for Advancement of Christian Education