Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Luke 6: 12-19

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people 
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Growing up, I remember playing backyard sports with my brother and his friends. I was often chosen last because I was the little brother; the tag-along; the runt of the group.

Everyone else was older, taller, stronger, and more experienced than me. It hurt being the least desired, but humanly speaking, it was a fair assessment of the group.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus chooses the most unlikely men to be on his “team.”

None of them were religious scholars; none of them were wealthy, nor famous, nor influential. They were commoners with their own share of flaws, giving Jesus every reason to choose them last.

Or not to choose them at all. 

Yet, together, they changed the world.

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What impresses me the most is the fact that Jesus unites these men in a single cause. Without him, some would’ve remained bitter enemies.

Simon, for example, was called “the Zealot,” because he likely belonged to an extreme nationalist group that was fighting for Jewish independence.

Meanwhile, Matthew was sleeping with the enemy, serving the Romans as a tax collector.

No doubt, these two men didn’t see eye to eye.

But they came together for Christ and changed the world.

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Such are the possibilities when ordinary people, even polar opposites, belong to God.

We can do extraordinary things when we set aside our differences and focus on proclaiming the Gospel.

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Image credits: (1) Arelor, Polar Opposites, WordPress (2) Appearance on Lake Tiberias, Duccio (3) JW.org

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Colossians 1:24 – 2:3

Brothers and sisters:
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his Body, which is the Church,
of which I am a minister
in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me
to bring to completion for you the word of God,
the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.
But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,
to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles;
it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.
It is he whom we proclaim,
admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
For this I labor and struggle,
in accord with the exercise of his power working within me.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I am having for you
and for those in Laodicea
and all who have not seen me face to face,
that their hearts may be encouraged
as they are brought together in love,
to have all the richness of assured understanding,
for the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ,
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The Word of the Lord.

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“For I want you to know how great a struggle I am having for you,” Paul says in our first reading to the Colossians.

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What’s causing Paul such agony?

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He wants nothing more than to journey to Colossae to support these early Christians, who are struggling in their faith. 

But Paul’s stuck in prison, chained to the floor. Imagine how frustrated he must be.

He also fears his own death is near. Although he’s a heroic man, nobody looks forward to a torturous death.

There’s a chance that Paul might be spared if he renounces his faith. Certainly, Satan – and the Roman Emperor Nero – would want nothing more than that. Having Paul deny Jesus would be like breaking the end off of a spear; the early Church would’ve been devastated.

But Paul will not give up. He runs the race of life to the finish and keeps the faith. His courage and his faith – so evident in his writings – become his legacy.

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So, what can we learn from Paul’s final days?

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There are some things in life that we cannot control.

In Paul’s case, while he was imprisoned, all he could do was pray and leave the rest up to God.

At times, that’s all we can do, as well; pray and leave the rest up to God.

Secondly, Paul knew his life was bigger than himself; he shaped an entire generation of Christians. Similarly, we must see beyond ourselves, trusting that our faith influences others, whether or not we realize it.

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Saint Paul, priest and martyr, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Saint Paul in Prison, Rembrandt (2) Aleteia (3) Overwhelming Pride, WordPress

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Gospel:

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis. 
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly. 
He ordered them not to tell anyone. 
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it. 
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well. 
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A few weeks ago, I saw a delivery driver coming to drop off a package here at church.

Instead of coming to the office, however, he was heading towards the main doors of the church. So, I went outside to grab his attention.

After a few attempts of saying, “Sir! Sir! Sir!” I became increasingly frustrated, thinking he was ignoring me. So, I started walking towards him. When he turned around and saw the look on my face, he apologetically signaled that he was deaf.

My heart sank. I was quick to judge. Humbled. Embarrassed. 

That moment made me consider how difficult it must be to be deaf, because nobody can immediately recognize your condition. You have to interact with a deaf person – hopefully in a kinder manner than I did – before you realize they cannot hear you.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus does more than heal a deaf man. He shows great compassion, something this man was often denied.

To be deaf in the first century was like a scarlet letter; people associated it with sin. You were deaf because you were a sinner. God was punishing you.

Today we know that isn’t the case. But you can imagine how unfairly this man must’ve been treated by others his whole life.

While Jesus could’ve easily healed him from a distance, he pulled him aside, and touched the most wounded parts of his life, literally digging his finger into this man’s ear and spitting on his tongue.

Touching the source of this man’s pain, Jesus looks up to the heavens, groans, and cries out, “Ephphatha!” 

Be opened. 

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This is one of only three scenes in the Gospels where Jesus is recorded speaking in his native tongue, Aramaic.

The second time comes when he’s standing next to parents who’ve just lost their daughter. Moved with grief, Jesus touches the dead girl and cries out, “Talitha kum!” 

“Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

Like the deaf man, instantly, she’s healed.

These two scenes – the pain of a deaf man and the death of a little girl – struck a chord in Jesus so deeply that his words were never translated.

When is the final time we hear Jesus speaking in his native tongue?

While hanging from the Cross. There, he takes on the pain of every human being – not just the pain of a deaf man or a young girl’s family. Carrying all of this weight, he cries out:

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” 

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

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When we look at what’s happened in the world this week – from Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the wildfires, to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ida – so many have cried out with similar words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Our world is in dire need of healing.

Physically, homes, businesses, and entire communities must be rebuilt. Beneath the physical destruction, though, is the emotional pain of loss, something that everyone feels from time to time.

Yet like the man who was deaf, we can conceal what burdens us most. 

Nobody walks around with a t-shirt, saying: Deaf. Cancer. Broken inside. Difficult marriage. Addict. Frazzled. Doubting. Financially unstable. Insecure. Or, lonely.

But if we allow Jesus to pull us aside, and dig his finger into our wounds, he will surely say, “Ephphatha!”

Be opened!

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How we wish that our healing were as immediate as it was for the man in the Gospel. 

But, remember how his healing started: it was the community who brought him to Jesus. Without them, he’d be unaware that Jesus was passing by; without them, this man would still be isolated and deaf.

May we bring one another to Jesus – in prayer and through our actions – so that everyone can experience those gracious words:

“Ephphatha.”

Be opened.

Be healed.

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Image credits: (1) 121 Captions (2) Ephphatha, Thomas Davidson (3) Crucifixion, Peter Paul Rubens (4) John1010abundantlife.blogspot.com