The Need to Pray for Each Other (17th Sunday - Cycle C)

In the First Reading for this Sunday, taken from the Book of Genesis, we see Abraham haggling with God. Anyone who has bought something from a merchant in the Middle East would know the experience. The original Middle Eastern audience of the text would no doubt have found an element of humor in Abraham presuming to haggle with God himself.

In Middle Eastern cultures, haggling was (and often still is) an everyday part of financial transactions, usually involving an element of theatricality as both sides try to prevail over the other. But we see one key difference in the interaction between Abraham and God. Unlike in traditional haggling, in this account, only Abraham is arguing, as he is trying to lower the number needed to save the city. God gives in to him each time, without a counter argument.

Read more...

The Fruit of Patient Faith (16th Sunday - Cycle C)

In the First Reading for this Sunday, we see God Himself visit Abraham. His choice to come in the form of three men points toward the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the deepest mystery of our faith, the doctrine that God is wholly one, and yet has three distinct persons. God assuming the shape of three men for visiting Abraham also points toward the mystery of the Incarnation, foreshadowing that God would take on human nature and become one of us, which we see fulfilled in the coming of Christ among us.

Many years before this visit, God had promised Abraham that he would have a son with his wife Sarah and that he would have innumerable descendants. But Sarah had proved to be barren and in time she grew too old to have children. Despite everything, however, Abraham continued to trust. God now tells him that the promise is about to be fulfilled. Within a year, his son Isaac is born. Abraham indeed becomes the father of many nations and he is the spiritual forefather of Christians.

Read more...


Photo Credit: Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary by Harold Copping, from Wikimedia Commons.

Loving Like the Samaritan (15th Sunday - Cycle C)

Today, a four-lane modern highway leads from Jericho to Jerusalem, partially following the route of the ancient road that connected the two cities at the time of Jesus. In that period, the road was known to be dangerous, with robbers often lying in wait to despoil vulnerable travelers. People often journeyed in caravans to minimize the risk, unlike the man in the parable in this Sunday's Gospel reading, who was braving the road by himself and was overcome by robbers.

The story has come to be known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. After two millennia of Christianity, the phrase "Good Samaritan" has a positive connotation for us. We even have Good Samaritan laws to protect people who help those in danger selflessly. However, the audience of Jesus would not have reacted positively to the idea of a Samaritan being the hero of the parable.

Read more...

What Does Discipleship Look Like? (14th Sunday - Cycle C)

In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Jesus sends the disciples on a training mission so that they can experience the sense of being sent out before the fullness of their mission begins. Their journey highlights a number of the characteristics of a Christian disciple. We can also learn much about discipleship from the First and Second readings.

We see in the Gospel passage that we are to focus on God rather than on our gifts. Jesus says to the disciples "do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). God gives us many gifts as a part of our spiritual journey, both for our own use and to share with others. The temptation for us is to care more about the gifts than God, the giver of the gifts, thereby developing an exaggerated sense of self-importance, as if we were the source of the gifts ourselves, rather than God himself. Some truly gifted evangelizers have fallen from grace by giving in to that temptation. Our primary focus must always be God. We should acknowledge his gifts and thank him with deep gratitude, rather than allowing pride to take hold.

Read more...

The Peace of Christ vs the Peace of the World (St. Peter and St. Paul - Cycle C)

To understand the Gospel reading for this Sunday more fully, we need to consider the geographical location where the passage takes places. Jesus goes with the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a town situated in the modern day territory of the Golan Heights in Israel. The area had many pagan temples and was notorious for the rituals practiced there.

The most horrific of these rituals was performed at the mouth of a cave known as the Gates of Hell. Here parents performed child sacrifice, killing their own children, in order to obtain favors from their gods. The very idea of visiting this area would have been shocking to the disciples.

Read more...

Self-Sacrifice is at the Heart of the Eucharist (Corpus Christi - Cycle C)

Years ago, I was teaching a class where I was discussing going on pilgrimages to Marian apparition sites, when someone asked me why we need to go to such places, since everything we need spiritually is right here in our church at home. My response was that sometimes we need to go to a faraway holy place to be open to the grace to appreciate what we have at home. Little did I know that I was talking about myself.

When I journeyed to the Marian apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time, I received the grace to see the gifts of the Church in a whole new light. I realized that God supplies us with everything we need spiritually through the day-to-day life of our parish church. The sacraments, the prayers, the devotional life - all these are there for me.

Read more...

The Holy Trinity Is Our Only Fulfillment (Trinity Sunday - Cycle C)

Catholic theology starts with the premise that God is one. God has one, indivisible nature. At the same time, we also believe that God has three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are distinct from each other and yet share that one indivisible nature. We do not have three Gods, but only one. At the same time, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are not merely modes of expression in God, but are actual persons. So God is both indivisibly one and yet has three distinct persons.

One way to try to conceptualize the mystery of the Holy Trinity is to start with the premise that God is infinite love. Love, by its very nature, requires a love dynamic. In God, there is the Father, who is the One Who Loves. His love is received and reciprocated by the Son, who is the Beloved. The love that exists between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is an eternal exchange of infinite love, which is not bound by time, but takes place in the eternal timeless now of God’s infinite nature.

Read more...