September 29, 2024: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God's Spirit is powerful, manifesting Himself even in places where we wouldn't expect it.

This power can't be contained according to our ideas.

It is at work summoning us to a new understanding of how God is active in our lives.

Joshua and John were off in their thinking when they see others acting in God's power.  Moses and Jesus respectively counter them and indicate that these "outsiders" should be encouraged to do this work in the Name of God.

Indeed, God desires for all people to be prophets through whom He speaks His word.

It happens even through the little gestures, like offering a cup of cold water, to offer refreshment in a world marred by those seeking only selfish gain.

These passages were proclaimed 9 years ago at the Concluding Mass for the World Meeting of Families along Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

In the midst of that gathering, Pope Francis talked about how little gestures are glorious ways God manifests Himself.

Through the Spirit, we can understand new ways that God presents Himself to us through others.

September 29 is normally the Feast of the Archangels, and we see how God works through them to aid us toward salvation, just as He works to advance His Kingdom in those who act by faith in His Name.

September 22, 2024: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Gospel reading is another important example of how Jesus Christ offers a countercultural idea to help us understand the way of faith in Him.

Children had no social status in His time on Earth. So while the disciples argue over who is the greatest, after Jesus predicts His Passion again, Jesus brings a child center stage to describe how we, as His disciples, are called to live our lives.  We are to embrace a sense of humility by which we focus less on enhancing ourselves and our egos, and instead focus on who God has meant us to be, in the model Christ offers us.  We recognize that living out who God has created us to be can lead us to face significant hardship, as Jesus did in His Passion.

Yet in following this humble way, we turn away from petty arguments about what will enhance ourselves, and focus on bearing fruits that will reveal God to the world.  This fruit can even appear in our sufferings as God works His power of redemption.  Indeed, in teh spirit of the Psalm, the sacrifice we offer to our God Who sustains is a life lived in a way that honors Him.

This morning at Mass, I went up to the altar with others serving in catechetical roles in the Religious Education program this year for a blessing.  I think back on my 11 years of teaching middle school RE. In doing so, I have drawn from so much faith formation I experienced growing up and all the way into college, and it has been a blessing to encounter God by giving of myself in accompanying my students to encounters with God.

September 21, 2024: Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

God has called each of us to His mission, and we fulfill it in different ways.

Indeed, God calls people from all walks of life.  He saw St. Matthew at the tax booth, not as someone working against the Jewish people, but as someone with the potential to be transformed by God's power, so Jesus called Him. Matthew recognized that power, so he left his tax collector work and followed Jesus. 

Matthew entered a new way of life by which he would be transformed to proclaim the reality of God present among us in the Flesh, as heralded by the prophets, and working in us through the power of death and resurrection to be more like God.

September 15, 2024: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

As a fitting follow-up to yesterday's Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we consider what the Cross means for us.

Jesus Christ is God's divinely Anointed One.  To fulfill God's purposes, He must suffer, which is something that doesn't make sense to the disciples, including St. Peter, who, after declaring Him Christ, rebukes Him for such an idea, maybe even recoiling at the idea that he would have to suffer with Christ.  Yet St. Peter is focused on human ways, rather than God's ways.

Following the Cross involves suffering for bearing the name of Christ.  Yet in losing ourselves, we gain the promises of God that are fulfilled in Eternity.

That reality gives us purpose now.  Indeed, we don't just claim faith, but we open ourselves to transformation by faith so that we demonstrate it with our works that make God real in the world.  Bishop Barron said it well in his homily that God doesn't want to just heal us by the Cross and Resurrection, but deify us, make us reflect God's character.

Today is Catechetical Sunday, and I have much to reflect on as I begin my 12th year of teaching Religious Education.  As I seek to hand on the faith to my students, I realize how important it is that I model what I'm imparting to them.

So we follow Christ's way to Life.  On our journey, we are transformed to show that we are bound for Eternal Life as we share, through our actions, our hope with others.

September 14, 2024: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Once a symbol of evil, God has redeemed the Holy Cross as an instrument for salvation, and the pathway to glory.

On this day 210 years ago, the US flag flew in triumph over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, and inspired the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner".  Even more so is the Cross as a triumph.

Like Jesus said, Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the desert, which brought healing when God's people went astray.  Even more so, when Jesus was lifted up, He reversed the curse of sin and brought Eternal Life to all people.

We now join with all in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth confessing Jesus as Lord, the One Who, by the Cross, is exalted.  Furthermore, we share in His victory because we have a new way of life now in the Cross.

We share in this triumph with all the saints, like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was canonized this day as the first saint born in the USA.  Indeed, the Cross gives us great hope, because through it, God conquered evil in the world and brought us the triumphant victory.

September 8, 2024: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

God has promised to unleash His mighty healing power in our world.  We are no longer afraid as God, once dead Who now truly lives, brings forth new life in our world.

Yet the physical healings are a sign of His healing might:  He removes the blindness from our eyes that prevents us from encountering Him.  He opens our eyes so that we can truly see with faith how He is at work in our world.  He furthermore helps us see the needs of the world, and urges us to act and respond to them.

Truly, the words are true of the people who see Jesus's miracles and acclaim Him for doing "all things well".  He continues to do all things well as He removes obstacles from us so that we can follow His way of identifying with the poor and lowly, acting to meet their needs, by which we recognize God present in them.

We are called to open ourselves to the voice of God and then act when He speaks as He makes HImself present in our world.

He made Himself fully present through the Blessed Mother, whose Nativity we celebrate today, when said consented to God's plan for her to bear the Son into the world.

God continues to make Himself marvelously present at each Mass, like happened in a special way on September 8, 1565, when a group of Spanish settlers participated in the first Mass celebrated in what is now the USA.

Indeed, God offers us His abundant Life so that, free from blindness and other impediments, we can actively respond to His Word taking shape in our world and our lives.

September 1, 2024: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

God builds upon the commands of the Old Testament in Jesus Christ:  He now calls us to live with a right heart that honors God.

Jesus called out the Pharisees for being so concerned about external matters, rather than the interior disposition of their hearts.

Ultimately, St. James writes is well when He says that true religion is to care for others in need and be undefiled by the world.

Conducting ourselves in this way reveals that God is present in our hearts, and reveals we are His specially chosen people.