13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: God Resolves Our Impossible Situations

The Gospel reading for this Sunday deals with two seemingly impossible situation. The woman afflicted with hemorrhages has struggled with her condition for twelve years. She has given all her money to doctors, who have not only not helped her, but her illness has gotten worse. In the context of Israelite culture, her situation would also result in social isolation. Israelites were very cautious when the membrane between the body and the external world was compromised or when people had discharges of blood or uncontrolled flow of bodily fluids. In those situations, the Mosaic Law would require that the person suffering from the condition be considered ritually impure and the person in question would have to isolate from the community for certain periods of time.

Since the woman in today’s Gospel passage has had the condition for twelve years, she has not had any respite from her social seclusion. Nevertheless, she braves going among people despite the rules in order to find healing. She believes that if she could at least touch even the garment of Jesus, she would be cured. Her decision to touch Jesus is, in her cultural context, a very bold choice. She is considered ritually unclean, and by touching Jesus, she would make him ritually unclean too, just when he is on the way to the house of the synagogue official to tend to his sick daughter. If her action were to be found out and Jesus would share in her ritual uncleanness, he would, according to the law, not be allowed to enter the house of the official himself.

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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Today's Faithful Might Miss About the Calming of the Storm

When Jesus preforms miracles involving water in the New Testament, today's audiences are likely to miss the true import of his acts. We need the context of the Old Testament to get a more complete picture. As God revealed himself more and more throughout Old Testament history, the Israelites came to a deeper and deeper understanding of who God is and how he interacts with his creation.

One such development was the question of how God created the world. Early on, the Israelites conceptualized the creation of the world as God subduing the forces of chaos, which were represented by water. In this understanding, God defeated chaos and pushed back the waters to make room for the dry land. Only much later, toward the end of the Old Testament period, did the Israelites come to the full understanding that God created the world out of nothing.

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11th Sunday in Ordinary Time: How Our Labors Come to Fruition

In the Middle Ages, some cathedrals took centuries to build. Most of the people who worked on them never saw the completed edifice. But they labored on tirelessly to do their part. So must we keep working as we build the Kingdom of God.

As Catholics, we believe that Christ founded the Church and sent the Holy Spirit to empower the members of the Church to continue his mission. The Church exits to share the Gospel of Christ with all of humanity, both geographically and generationally. Our task is to take the Good News to every single person in the world.

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10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Spiritual Trap of Self-Sufficiency

Once when I was a young adult, I told my father that I wanted to be self-sufficient. He responded rather harshly: "That is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that will not be forgiven in this life or the next." Needless to say, I was taken aback. But after reflecting on his response, I came to appreciate the wisdom of his words.

At the heart of Catholic theology is the concept that God is love and that he created us out of love in order to share his love with us. As human beings, we are fundamentally incomplete on our own. We have an inner hunger that nothing and no one in the created realm can fully satisfy. The deep spiritual hunger that is in all of us can only be satisfied by God's infinite, eternal love. Only when we accept God's love for us and give ourselves in love to him can we find true peace and fulfillment.

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Corpus Christi: What Is the Eucharist?

Trinity Sunday: Who Is the Holy Trinity?

The Holy Trinity is the most difficult subject in Catholic theology. According to an ancient story, St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians of Church history, was one day walking along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea contemplating the question of the Holy Trinity, when he saw a child playing on the seashore. The boy had dug a hole in the sand and then was carrying buckets of water from the sea, pouring them into the hole. St. Augustine asked him what he was doing. The boy replied that he was going to put the sea into the hole. The saint replied that the boy would never be able to put the whole sea into that small hole. To which the boy replied, “Neither will you ever be able to understand the Trinity.”

Indeed, our finite minds can never fully comprehend the inscrutable mystery of the Holy Trinity, because we can never fully understand the infinite mystery of God. All we can do is formulate some thoughts that point toward the reality of who God is. But we have to bear in mind that all human thought is finite, and therefore no human words can capture the fullness of God. Anything we say about God, even if it is true, will fall short. Imagine going to a place of great natural beauty, like the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rainier, or the ocean. If you take a picture with your phone, then post it to social media, will your followers be able to experience through the pictures what you are experiencing in person? No, they will only get a small inkling of the grandeur of what you are beholding. Our words about God are similar. They only give us a small inkling of the inexpressible wonder of God’s being. Let us bear that in mind as we contemplate who the Holy Trinity is.

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Pentecost: The Holy Spirit Is the Animating Principle of the Church

After Jesus rose from the dead and revealed himself to his followers, the disciples came to believe. But they were still afraid. We see them hiding behind locked doors, afraid that they too might be arrested and killed, as the Lord had been. But after Pentecost, we see them out in public, preaching at the Temple, willing to risk arrest and execution in order to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. Indeed, eleven out of the twelves apostles were martyred for their faith. What made the difference in their disposition?

The difference was the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples. Before receiving the Holy Spirit, the disciples could do nothing. But once they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were ready to go forth and undertake the work Christ had entrusted to them. The Holy Spirit is the animating principle that makes the Church live and thrive in the world. That is why we consider Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was given to us, the birthday of the Church.

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