Bruce's Notes for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week’s Gospel reading (Mark 10-17-27) is about more than just money and wealth; it is about attachment and the kingdom of God:

Jesus, looking at him [the wealthy man] , loved him and said to him…, "Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples…, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They…said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."

First, what is this “kingdom of God” Jesus always talks about? It is much more than some place that we may go when we die. It exists now, and always. We enter it whenever we are in communion, “in sync,” with God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), whenever we are true to God’s Two Great Commandments (love God, love your neighbor/God’s creation as you love yourself). In that very moment, we are in the kingdom of God and at peace, at one with God and God’s intentions. And as soon as we slide out of sync with those commandments, we slide out of the kingdom back into the “vale of tears” that human life can often feel like.

But let us be clear. When Jesus talks about “one who is rich,” he is talking about anyone who gets attached to the possessions and beliefs of the material world and then becomes distracted from keeping God’s intentions in their thoughts, words, and deeds. But isn’t that all of us?! Yes, indeed. That is why Jesus says that “for human beings it is impossible, but not for God.” That is why we need to pray, to examine our consciences, confess, repent, and go forth to do good deeds. These are not meant to be hardships; they are meant to be healings, ways to get back to the kingdom of God, where God wants us, where we belong.

Bruce's Notes for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week, Jesus (in Matthew 10:2-16) deals with a challenging yet integral part of our human lives, both in ancient and modern times: marriage. When the Pharisees ask him whether it is lawful for a husband to divorce his wife, Jesus states plainly:

“From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall…be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." 

But, you may say, we live in such a different time from Jesus’s. Over 40% of American marriages end in divorce—even among Catholics, 28%—and who knows how many more separations. Those of us who have been married for a long time, or know others who have, know very well how enriching and challenging marriage can be. It is not like any other relationship: two different people, committing to a lifelong bonding relationship that can be deeply rewarding, difficult, complex, satisfying, frustrating, perplexing, joyful—on occasion all at the same time!

In the United States, the most common reason given for dissolution of a marriage is lack of commitment by one or both marriage partners. This reason includes: domestic violence, infidelity/adultery, too much arguing, lack of equality, lack of preparation for marriage, marrying too young, and unrealistic expectations. So, given all these challenges, does what Jesus says no longer apply? What are we to do? What is the Church supposed to do? 

Our Code of Canon Law points out that from a marriage “arises a bond” between the spouses that strengthens and consecrates them. But what about when a marriage becomes so toxic to one or both of the spouses that they feel that they just cannot go on? Canon Law can be helpful, often both wise and realistic in its reasoning:

• “Spouses have the duty and right to preserve conjugal living unless a legitimate cause excuses them.” 

• “If either…causes grave mental or physical danger to the other…or to the offspring or…renders common life too difficult, that [is] a legitimate cause for leaving.”

• “Although it is earnestly recommended that a spouse, moved by Christian charity and concerned for the good of the family, not refuse forgiveness to an adulterous partner and not disrupt conjugal life…the spouse has the right to sever conjugal living,” unless the spouse consented to the adultery, gave cause for it, or also committed adultery. 

• At a later time, “the innocent spouse can, laudably, readmit the other spouse to conjugal life.”

• “When the cause for the separation ceases, conjugal living must be restored.”

There are sources of help and support available for married couples: dialogue, counseling, Marriage Encounter, Marriage Retrouvaille, Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession), Novena for Reconciliation in Marriage, and more. Our task, as couples or friends and family of couples, is to do whatever we can to maintain and strengthen healthy conjugal marital relations. Very challenging, especially in our times, but well worth the effort, for ourselves, our children, and our society!

Bruce's Notes for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

In this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48), we see Jesus’ disciples struggling with questions of inclusion and exclusion, just as we disciples do today. Who is part of our group, our faith, our church, and who is not? Whom should we trust, or not? How are we to know, in this world of conflicting news stories, conflicting statements and claims, from religious leaders to political leaders, what we can rely on to make the “right choice”?

In response to John’s telling him, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us," Jesus replies: “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” In other words, those who are acting Christ-like in their deeds, loving and helping others, are (while they are doing those loving actions our friends, our comrades, “for us.” 

Now let us be clear. Someone can be performing mighty, caring deeds, in the name (and spirit) of Jesus, helping others in all kinds of ways, and then can “fall off the wagon,” so to speak: that is, can turn around and start doing things that are harmful, even rotten. (That is our human condition, our human inconsistence and fallibility, the reason that we need to pray, go to church, go to confession.) We do need to evaluate others (and ourselves) by actions, not just by words. But when someone does do something good, we are not to deny that person’s good deeds just because they may belong to a different religion or political party. In that moment of doing good, they are one with us. 

Jesus also refers to people “who give you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ.” We need to be clear about this, too. We are not part of some exclusive, privileged club called “Belongs to Christ.” Belonging to Christ means following his example and his commandments, so anyone who gives us “a drink of water” (helps us) has to be someone who appreciates those Two Great Commandments and who also appreciates us for trying to live by them. We need to understand that that person, too, belongs to Christ, whether or not he or she has even ever heard of Christ. And we should treat that person as our brother or sister, as one of us.

Bruce's Notes for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

As we read and ponder this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 7:31-37), it is helpful to remember that all the readings in the Gospel are more than just accounts of what happened; they are also Jesus’ teaching lessons for his disciples, for us.

This month’s reading is no exception. It is the story of Jesus healing the deaf and speech-impaired man. Once again, Jesus performs what we call a miracle, an act of healing that seems beyond what we normal human beings can do. But, to become better disciples, we need to look beyond what Jesus is doing. We need to explore why he is doing it and what he expects us to learn in order to follow him. Clearly, most of us cannot heal someone’s ears and tongue with just our hands. Jesus knows that, so what, then, is he asking us to observe and follow in his conduct?

Right after Jesus touches the man, he looks up to heaven and groans. Jesus groans! Our Messiah groans! Why?! Pope Francis, in his recent message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, explains, “Salvation embraces creation as an “earthly paradise,” meant to be a place of joy and a promise of happiness for all….Nonetheless, we are not exempt from pain and suffering: the whole creation groans, we Christians groan, and the Spirit himself groans.” 

Bruce's Notes for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week’s Gospel passage (Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23) dramatizes a dilemma that all of us must face often in our lives: when do we hold onto rules, tradition, stability, and when do we follow our hearts and embrace change? 

A group of Pharisees come from Jerusalem and confront Jesus. "Why,” they demand, “do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" This is certainly not the first time that the Pharisees and Jesus have disagreed about Jewish sacramental rules and regulations and when and how to follow them. (Think, for example, about the times that the Pharisees have been outraged when Jesus has healed people on the Sabbath.)

But be careful. Before we just casually label the Pharisees as the “bad guys,” it helps to know something more about them. By the time Jesus was born, the Pharisees had been the most important reformers in Judaism for more than a century. Their hard work to strengthen their fellow Jews’ faithfulness and build a more flexible interpretation of Jewish scripture led to the rabbinic movement that ultimately saved the religion and gave us the Judaism we know today. 

Yet, despite this, Jesus calls them “hypocrites.” He accuses them of honoring God with their lips but not their hearts. “You disregard God’s commandments but cling to human tradition,” he says.  And we know from Jesus’ teaching (the parables about the good Samaritan and about the rich man and Lazarus, for example) that heartfelt acts of love and charity are to Jesus—and, he tells us, to the Father—more important than any rules or “tradition.”

So, then, the dilemma. Our logic and common sense tell us that rules, regulations, tradition, stability; all these are all essential elements of a healthy society (and a healthy faith community).  But we also can feel in our hearts the rightness of Jesus’ teaching that love, compassion, and forgiveness are God’s precious gifts to us, gifts we should, we must, share with others. How do we reconcile these conflicting choices?

We do what we can: we pray; we ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit; we think hard and often about how to apply Jesus’ Second Great Commandment (love your neighbor as yourself) and how not to judge others. We try with all our might not to be hypocrites. We do the best we can, offering our weakness and confusion up to God. And, because that is all we can do, it is enough. 

Bruce's Notes for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week’s Gospel passage (John 6:60-69) beckons us to follow Jesus on the path to a better, truer life, the life of Spirit, the life that does not die.

In this Gospel story we have been hearing over the last few weeks, Jesus has told his large group of disciples: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” But as Jesus continues to try to get them to understand, it is all just too hard for most of them. They simply give up, stop accompanying him, and return to their former ways of life. When Jesus asks the few remaining disciples whether they want to leave, too, Peter answers: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 

So what is it that Peter knows and believes—and we know and believe—that the disciples who leave Jesus do not? It is this: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” And this: “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” The flesh (the body) presents us with a very strong illusion that this is what life is all about: pain, pleasure, fear, hunger, anger, failure, success, winning, losing…. But Jesus is talking about another, very different level and quality of life. Real life, life with God, eternal life: life of the Spirit, not of the flesh. It is why he later sends us the Holy Spirit, so that our lives can be invested with Spirit, not just with this outward physical husk.

Time after time, we, like the disciples who leave Jesus, return to—fall back into—our former ways of life. But time after time, Jesus and the Holy Spirit call us back to a better, truer life that never dies. And so we pick ourselves up and say, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” And try again.

Bruce's Notes for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Some of what Jesus tells us in this week’s Gospel passage (John 6:51-58) can be very challenging to us, just as it was to his disciples back then. Exactly what Jesus means by “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” has been challenging Christians for two thousand years. But our task, as disciples, is less to try to nail down the one and only meaning than it is to try to receive the greatest possible benefit of Jesus’ amazing gift.

Put simply, whatever our belief about the Real Presence, when we partake of the Eucharist we do receive Christ into ourselves, whether physically or spiritually or both, and this certainly nourishes our souls, strengthens our unity with Him, and provides us with spiritual sustenance. On a number of vital levels, the Eucharist is a profound means of grace, which deepens our relationship with Christ and with the Church community.

Jesus tells us: Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. On whatever level we take this, when we open ourselves to Jesus, especially during and right after communion, we can feel renewed strength and hope and joy within ourselves. It feels as if we have accomplished something important—or perhaps something important has been accomplished through and in us. 

And yes, of course, five minutes later we may feel all our worries or disappointments or grievances try to come flooding back, but now something is different in us. Something is living in us that wasn’t there as strongly before communion: a flame of faith and hope. And our task is to try, with all our strength, to keep that flame burning and bright, and for that task Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit, who will help us mightily, if we only ask.

Bruce's Notes for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

In this week’s Gospel reading (John 6:41-51), if we carefully study the language that is used, it will help us take in the whole, deeper message that God is sending us. 

There is so much of God's power and love through Jesus in this Gospel reading, and certainly one of the most memorable passages is this: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

God draws us to Jesus, to his strength, his goodness, his love, his message, and his mission, and we are indeed properly very grateful. But it is this next part of Jesus’ statement that is so often remembered and repeated: …and I will raise him up on the last day. While this is often interpreted as a reference to the end of the world, the end of days, it has much broader, deeper meanings than just that one. 

The Greek word ἀναστήσω used in the Gospel passage does indeed mean “to raise up,” and the words ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ do mean “last day,” but Jesus, our teacher, our savior, our healer, and our friend, is talking about more than what happens on the last day of the world. When I reach the “end of my rope,” the “last day” of my hope and strength and resolve, at that moment, right then, Jesus is there to raise me up. On the “last day” of my physical, earthly life, when I am dying, Jesus is right there to raise me up. Jesus raises us up now, not just later.

When, in this Gospel passage, Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will have eternal life,” he is not just talking about the future; he is talking about now, the Eternal Now, the kind of “time” (kairos)  that exists only in the kingdom of God, which cannot be measured in seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, or years. Every moment we spend with Jesus is the Eternal Now; every moment we believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus, follow Jesus, is a moment of eternal life (and a level of life we never knew before we found Jesus and what he offers).

There may be an end of days, but there is no end to Jesus. 

Bruce's Notes for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

To grasp what Jesus is saying in this week’s Gospel passage (John 6:24-35) about himself and our relationship with him, we need to be clear about the words he uses and what they mean. And to do this, once again we need to turn to the original Greek.

In our Bible translation, the crowd asks Jesus, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" And Jesus replies, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." But the word Jesus uses, in the Greek John used to write the Gospel, is πιστεύητε, which means not only “to believe in'' but also “to entrust or to trust in.” So Jesus is not only saying “believe that I am the one God sent" but also “trust in me as the one God sent.” That means our trusting Jesus’ teaching and ministry and following his example, rather than just revering him as the son of God.

Jesus also tells us in this Gospel passage, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." We hunger and thirst for so much in our lives: for love, for security, for comfort, for joy, for peace. And Jesus, who loves us so much, asks us only that we come to him and let him hold us, heal us. And he asks that we join with him, right here and right now, to build that “kingdom of heaven” (or “kingdom of God”) that he talks about so often in the Gospel readings.  

Let us πιστεύητε: believe in Jesus, trust in him, follow him, and in doing so, make our own lives better as we work to improve the lives of others. Amen.

Bruce's Notes for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

In this week’s Gospel passage (John 6:1-15), about Jesus feeding the crowd of 5000, Jesus carries out God’s wish that His children live in abundance. And in the course of doing that, Jesus also takes one of the devil’s temptations in the desert and transforms it into an act of God’s love and mercy.

God’s only wish for His children is that we live in joy, love, and abundance. (His rules/commandments for us are solely for that purpose.) In the kingdom of heaven that Jesus often talks about, all have more than enough, and all share freely. There is no want, no death, no sorrow or suffering. Jesus’ goal was, and is, to establish that kingdom of heaven on earth.

When, after crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus sees the great crowd that has followed him and, as is his nature, is moved with pity for them, he decides to open a piece of this kingdom to them.

In the desert, the devil challenges Jesus to command stones to turn into bread. But here, instead, Jesus turns this around. He gratefully accepts a gift (of barley loaves and fish) from a child. (Remember how much Jesus loves children and how important he thinks they are in establishing God’s kingdom.) Then he prays over the two loaves and five fish and transforms that hillside where the 5000 hungry people recline into a “kingdom of heaven” where all are fed, all are satisfied, all have more than enough.

And that is what we are called to do. In any way we can, through our love of God and service to one another, we are to create as much heaven on earth as possible, to bring God’s kingdom about here and now. Just smile at someone who seems down. Hold the hand of someone in pain. Listen—really listen—to someone else’s story (and maybe share your own). And watch as the transformation takes place, as a little piece of the kingdom is created between the two of you. It is a kingdom that invites you back again and again, until that is where you want to be, with others, all the time.

Bruce's Notes for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week’s Gospel passage (Mark 6:30-34) has deep meaning, both spiritually and practically, for all of us disciples who try to follow the teachings and example of our Lord by caring for others. Whether we help others personally, in the course of our daily lives, or professionally—EMTs, firefighters, nurses, social workers, home health aides, teachers, and so many others—this passage is worth pondering and taking to heart.

The disciples return from their mission—their pastoral care ministry—and report to Jesus what they have been doing. Jesus observes the throngs of people coming and going, constantly asking for help and healing, so many of them that Jesus and the disciples do not even have a chance to eat. So, telling the disciples, “Come away to a deserted place and rest awhile,” Jesus takes them in a boat for some rest and recreation (refreshment of their strength and spirit). But the crowds of petitioners see this and follow them, and Jesus, finally, “moved with pity for them,” resumes the ministry. 

This, indeed, is the story of us Christian disciples, constantly torn between other people’s needs and our own. We do our best to find a proper balance, but it is always a challenge, because, as caring human beings, as Christians, we are moved with pity for others. Perhaps the best we can do is to follow as carefully as possible the second great commandment of Jesus: Love your neighbor as yourself: as yourself, not more than or less than. 

But how can we know what that proper balance is? My brothers and sisters, we do what we always do: we ask for guidance from “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, who will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

Bruce's Notes for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

When we read this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 6:7-13), about Jesus sending the Twelve out two by two, instructing them to take “nothing for the journey but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no money in their belts,” it is easy for us to say, “Well, maybe the disciples could do that then, but that's not feasible today!” But, in fact, we do have, in our own lifetimes, disciples who have done exactly what Jesus instructed. I want to mention one: Peace Pilgrim.

For 28 years, Peace Pilgrim walked across the United States, crossing the country seven times. She stopped counting miles after she reached 25,000 in 1964! When she began her pilgrimage, she took a vow “to remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.” Walking out on faith, she often went hungry and often slept outside on the ground, though she never got sick and was never attacked. She would accept car rides to speaking engagements but would insist on being dropped back where she had been picked up. (Ironically, in 1981 Peace Pilgrim was killed in an automobile accident while being driven to a speaking engagement.)

An amazing story, an amazing person. But the question is, for me and, I hope, for you: what is our pilgrimage, our mission? What is Jesus sending us out to do to help heal the world—and to be healed in the process? I think if we listen hard enough, carefully enough, we will know, and each of us, in our own way, will be our own version of Peace Pilgrim.

Bruce's Notes for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

There is an old expression, which unfortunately often prove to be true: “familiarity breeds contempt.” In this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 6:1-6), we see a sad example of this, which is a reminder to us of the importance of always approaching others with openness and love.

Jesus returns to Nazareth, his home town, teaches in the synagogue, and is met with hostility and contempt. Why is this? It is because instead of seeing and hearing Jesus as he is, those who used to know him can see and hear only the person they think they remember. They are offended, concluding that he is putting on airs, pretending to be more than he used to be. Contempt is blinding them.

An experienced marriage counselor once wrote that he could always tell which marriages were in serious jeopardy of failing by the contempt that one or both partners had for the other. Contempt eats at relationships and mutual understanding. It should be regarded as the eighth deadly sin for all the harm it causes. 

When Jesus told us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, he was not giving us some abstract, arbitrary commandments. He was passing on holy wisdom, the essence of what can make our lives beautiful and fulfilling. If we work at seeing everyone as the child of God that they are, and look for that divine spark that lives in each of us, we can often avoid the judgment, the contempt,  the serious mistake the Nazareans made with Jesus, and in doing so have better, happier lives. And when we forget and lapse into judgment, we can always take a deep breath and ask for divine assistance.

Bruce's Notes for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our Jesus is a man of both great power and great wisdom and insight. He understands us and, especially when we have faith, helps us heal and grow strong, as illustrated in the two stories in this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 5:21-42).

The woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years has heard of Jesus’ healing power, and she approaches him with full faith that touching his clothes will be enough to cure her. She is correct, and she is cured, but Jesus, always perceiving all that is in him and around him, senses some power going out of himself and wants to know more. When the woman fearfully approaches him and admits what she has done, Jesus, instead of being indignant or disapproving, calls her ”daughter,” confirms that it is her faith that has healed her, and tells her to go in peace. One faith-based healing down, another coming: at this point in his life and ministry, just a normal day for Jesus.

Jairus, a synagogue official, has a 12-year-old daughter who is dying. Jesus tells him not to be afraid but just to have faith. When Jesus arrives at Jairus’ house, he discerns, once again with his extraordinary ability to  perceive accurately, that the daughter is not dead, as those around him claim. He takes her by the hand and tells her to “arise.” When she does, he instructs those in the family to feed her (and for them to keep this just among themselves). 

In both of these cases, Jesus restores situations that are extraordinarily stressful and painful to their proper normal, healthy state, and that is his message to us, his assignment for us: that bringing healing and peace to those in need should be a normal part of our daily lives and that faith can bring extraordinary results. Let us go forth and make it so.

Bruce's Notes for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

In this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 4:35-41), we have the well-known story of Jesus stilling the waters when the disciples and he are in a boat in a raging storm. But with Jesus, there is always much to the story than what meets the eye. In our English version of this passage, Jesus says to his disciples: “Let us cross to the other side.“ But the Greek word for “the other side,” πέραν, has several meanings, one of which is “beyond.” 

Not only is Jesus always careful with his choice of words; he often uses them to broaden and deepen our understanding of God’s ways. So, here Jesus is not just taking his disciples to the other side of the water; he is also taking them into the “beyond,” much as, in the story of the Transfiguration, he led Peter, James, and John up a mountain that was much more than just a “mountain,” but instead a holy place, a place “beyond” the physical world we think we see. 

So, here too, Jesus leads us beyond the world that we see on the surface to the God-imbued world that underlies it all, the “kingdom of God.” This is the meaning of the words in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Jesus, and his ministry, are about the joining of these two worlds. They are the evidence that our entire existence is touched by God and that we are called to help build a world in which, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we still the storms in our own souls, and in the souls of others. In other words, to bring about as much of a heaven on earth as we can.  

Bruce's Notes for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This week’s Gospel passage (Mark 4:26-34) describes two different ways we learn about God’s Word (God’s Truth):

With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
 Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

Our ways of taking in and imparting ideas/truths are widely varied; each of us is truly unique in the complex way we learn and teach. And if we are able and willing to be observant, of ourselves and others—as Jesus was to an extraordinary degree—over time we can figure out the best ways to receive and offer insight and wisdom about God and God’s love.

Bruce's Notes for Corpus Christi

In this week’s Gospel passage (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26), Jesus, at what we know as the Last Supper, the night before his sacrifice of love for us, promises us all something new, extraordinary, and truly life changing in its implications:

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant….”

Bruce's Notes for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

In this week’s Gospel passage (Matthew 28:16-21), Jesus takes the disciples--including us--through a process that all of us need to repeat in our faith lives, again and again, as believers striving to follow our Lord. And as always, Jesus is there with the assurance and instructions that give us the strength we need to carry on.

Bruce's Notes for Pentecost Sunday

Every year at our celebration of Pentecost, right after the second reading, we do what is known as The Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit). There are different versions of this sequence, but I want to offer here the one we have used at our church for many years, because of the rich and various ways it describes the Holy Spirit, the gifts the Holy Spirit brings, and the requests we make of the Spirit. In this sequence is so much of our faith, of our needs, and of the bounteous gifts God offers us out of pure Goodness and Love. 

The Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit)

Cantor: 

1. Come, Holy Spirit, from heaven shine forth, with your glorious light, Veni Sancte Spiritus.

2. Come, Father/Mother of the poor, come generous Spirit, come light of our hearts, Veni Sancte Spiritus.

3. Come from the four winds, O Spirit, come, breath of God; disperse the shadows over us, renew and strengthen your people, Veni Sancte Spiritus.

4. Most kindly warming light! Enter the inmost depths of our hearts, for we are faithful to you. Without your presence, we have nothing worthy, nothing pure. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

5. You are our only comforter, peace of the soul. In the heat you shade us; in our labor you refresh us. And in trouble, you are our strength. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

6. On all who put their trust in you and receive you in faith, shower all your gifts. Grant that they may grow in you and persevere to the end. Give them lasting joy! Veni Sancte Spiritus. 

For the Seventh Sunday of Easter

This week’s Gospel passage (John 17:11b-19) consists of a long prayer Jesus makes to God the Father about caring for us, his disciples. In his prayer, he talks about us in relation to the world.

So we are in the world but not of the world. Part of us will always be confused and perplexed by the contradiction and evil in the world, but at the same time, the veil has been parted and we see the greater truth. And Jesus tells us that because he has spoken all this in the world, “they may share my joy completely.” Imagine that: sharing God’s joy completely! It is that bright flame of joy and light and love that will sustain us in any darkness the world may seem to throw over us.

For the Sixth Sunday of Easter

In this week’s Gospel passage (John 15:9-17), Jesus tells us (his disciples):

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

We have read and heard these words so many times. But what does “lay down one’s life for one’s friends” mean? What does it teach us about how to live our lives as Christians?

And, as we keep laying down our lives to help others (our new “friends”), something strange and wonderful happens: as we love one another as Jesus loves us, thus fulfilling his commandment, we become happier and more fulfilled. Those old lives we have laid down become renewed, resurrected, transformed into something greater than they were before. Amen.

For the Fifth Sunday of Easter

In this week’s Gospel passage (John 15:1-8), the phrase “remain in” appears seven times in eight lines:

• Remain in me, as I remain in you.
• Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
• Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
• Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
• If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

 Clearly, Jesus isn't giving us a physical description here. We all know that in the world we see and touch, one object cannot be inside another object at the same time that the other object is inside the first object. Simple logic and physics tells us that that is not possible. There must be something else, something greater and more mysterious at work here. What, then, does Jesus really mean?

Now it begins to make sense. Jesus is calling us to push past our physical, worldly conceptions and find union with Him on another level. Jesus wants us to live in his world of love, compassion, and service to God. And he will live in us, in our hearts and souls and minds, through his holy love, his teaching, his example.

For the Fourth Sunday of Easter

In John’s Gospel passage about the Good Shepherd (John 10-11-18), Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. How are we to understand Jesus’ words here and what they mean for us today? These words operate on more than one level. On the one hand, some Christians believe that Jesus is saying that someday everyone will be a member of the worldwide Christian Church, acknowledging Jesus Christ in more or less the same way. But there is another level of meaning, at least equally important.

What can we do? Resist “us” and “them” thinking. Try, in every way possible, to picture the “one flock” in our minds and hearts and treat others as if they and we are part of the same flock. (Practice “One Love,” as reggae singer Bob Marley put it.) And have faith in Jesus’ promise that “they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock.”


For the Third Sunday of Easter

In this week’s Gospel passage (Luke 24:35-48), Jesus opens our minds to understand the Scriptures, and he says to us:

"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations.” 

For the Second Sunday of Easter

Last week, on Easter Sunday, we heard about how “the disciple whom Jesus loved” entered the tomb, saw what he saw, and believed. This week, in John 20:19-31, “Doubting Thomas” sees what he sees, and believes. And then Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Let us study this word “belief” and see where it leads us.

The Greek word for “believe” is pisteuo, and it has a number of meanings and shadings. It can mean to be of an opinion. (The beloved disciple comes to have the opinion that Jesus has left the tomb. Thomas comes to have the opinion that it is really Jesus standing before him.) But Thomas’s belief, as expressed in “My Lord and my God!” contains more than just an opinion. Pisteuo also means to trust, to put one’s faith in. And that is what Thomas is expressing. He has faith in Jesus. He trusts him. He believes in him. His deepest desire is to follow him, even to death. (Remember that when Jesus decides to go back to Judea, facing almost certain persecution and death, Thomas is the one who says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”) 

So, when Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” he is talking about faith in something, trust in something, not just about an opinion that something is true. But what is that something that we have faith in, that we trust? It is not just that someone in the Bible named Jesus is the Lord, is God. We also trust and put our faith in the whole idea of living as Jesus lived: loving God and neighbor with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. 

And it is important for us to remember that it is not just we Christian disciples who are deeply committed to this “Jesus way of living.” There are many, many non-Christians, some of whom have never heard of Jesus, for whom commitment to this way of living forms their deepest core beliefs. They also have not seen and yet do believe that the Law of Living is one of love, non judgment, and forgiveness.
 

For Easter Sunday 2024

The Easter Sunday Gospel passage (John 20:1-9) is not just a recounting of events at the tomb on Easter morning. It is also a description of the progression of our human consciousness, from direct experience to belief. To follow this progression, we need to see the characters in the story as aspects of ourselves.

First, we (as Mary) come to the tomb and observe that the stone is removed from the opening. That is our direct experience. We react with surprise, confusion, and alarm.

Next, we (as Peter and “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) go to the tomb and look around. We (as the beloved disciple) see the burial cloth but hesitate to investigate further. Then, we (as Peter) decide to enter the tomb and look more closely, and so we notice details (such as the burial cloths in different places). 

Finally, we (as the beloved disciple) study the whole scene…and suddenly, we believe! (Believe that the Lord has really left the tomb!)

But, as John tells us, we believe but do not yet understand. We still have to come to another level of consciousness to understand that it was as Jesus had said, that he had to die in order to rise from the dead.

This is how our human consciousness works: from experience to belief to understanding. But there is an important caveat here. We have to be very careful that our experience, belief, and understanding, which are living, vital parts of us, do not turn into dogma, which can quickly become dry and dead. That is why we revisit and relive this Gospel story year after year: to keep our flame of faith renewed and alive. 

Strive to keep this Easter, and every Easter, joyous and ever new in your heart!

For Passion Sunday 2024

When I read this week’s Gospel passage for Palm Sunday, I am struck by how far our Judeo-Christian faith has come, and yet how far we still have to go.

For what crimes did the Jewish authorities condemn Jesus to die two thousand years ago? For blasphemy, heresy, for—supposedly—breaking Mosaic law. In actuality: for saying what he believed to be true. But before we get too self-righteous about the Jewish authorities being the ones doing this to Jesus, we would do well to remember the many, many “heretics” our own Church condemned to painful death for centuries before, during, and long after the infamous Inquisition (which itself lasted for centuries). Yes, over the last two millennia, Jews and Christians—and Muslims, too, who believe in the same God we do—put many people to death simply for saying what they believed. 
 Today, in much of the world, people are not condemned to death just for speaking what they believe to be true (although we certainly read about brutal exceptions.) This is certainly a sign of progress, of growing openness and tolerance in us human beings, flawed though we remain.
 On the other hand, we are all painfully aware of the persistence of intolerance, tribalism, hatred of “the other,” which we hear about every day in the news and which, to be truthful, we sometimes let fester in our own hearts. As soon as we decide that others who believe differently are the “they” instead of part of the “we,” it is relatively easy to cry our own version of, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” 

 We may not be demanding that someone suffer a gruesome form of execution, but in our minds and hearts, we are judging that person, or that group, to be less worthy of love and respect than we are, often not based on their actions but rather solely on their beliefs. And as much as we may try to justify this to ourselves and others—and we do!—such thinking and behavior certainly does not conform to “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Jesus’ second great commandment to us, which God wants and expects us to follow. 
 As always, when we catch ourselves straying into that kind of judgment, that kind of sin, all that we can do is pray, ask for forgiveness and help, and try, try, try to be more loving, more like Jesus, our Lord and guide.


For the Fifth Sunday of Lent 2024

In this week’s Gospel passage (John 12:20-33), Jesus teaches us important lessons about our relationship with him and how the purpose of our lives is connected with his:

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me. 
 I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
What does it mean to follow Jesus? Jesus is our great example of someone who follows God’s Truth, wherever it may lead. Every time he is tempted to turn aside, he instead remains steadfast and moves forward, remaining faithful to God and to God’s mission for him. We must do the same. First, of course, we must keep asking, in prayerful questioning, what God’s mission for us may be. But when, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we discern the next step of that mission, we need to stay on the path where it leads us. “The Father will honor whoever serves me” is another way of saying that by staying on the path, we will be operating in accord with the intentions and purpose of the universe, and what could be better than that?! 

Jesus, like us, is sometimes troubled by what is being asked of him. But he realizes that asking to be relieved of his mission from God makes no sense, for his mission is his purpose for being here. As is ours. We have been given this gift of life in order to serve the greater good, in order to, with Jesus, with God, move the world—Creation—forward, in the direction in which it should go. Sometimes that feels easy; sometimes it feels hard, even impossible. But God does not assign the impossible. So we gird our loins—roll up our sleeves, if you prefer—and follow Jesus, step by step, wherever God leads us.
 

For the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2024

In this week’s Gospel passage (John 3:14-21), John writes: 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life….And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

This is yet another example of how we need not only to read a passage but also to interpret it in the light of God’s Love and Jesus’ mission to spread that Love to us. And the key here is that though it sounds as if the passage is talking about different individual people, it is actually describing different, conflicting parts of each of us.

This is what it means to “believe” in Jesus. This is why God gave us His son: so that by following him, by living the truth, our “works may be clearly seen as done in God.” In this way we can have real life. In this way we will never die, but rather will live in the light, in the kingdom of God, now and forever. 

For the Third Sunday of Lent 2024

We are all familiar with this Gospel passage (John 2:18-25), in which Jesus drives the money changers from the temple and then declares, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” But it is the short section at the end of this passage that I want to focus on, because it tells us so much about Jesus’ depth of understanding and about our human condition:

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name hen they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

Jesus will not trust himself to us, but he lets us know that we can always trust ourselves to him. And that is a bulwark, a foundation, a solid support that we can always count on, can always lean against, whenever our lives feel rocky, shaky, unstable. How lucky we are to have such a source of strength and love always there for us!

For the Second Sunday of Lent 2024

Ths week’s Gospel passage (Mark 9:2-10) tells us about Jesus’ Transfiguration. As always, the question is: what does this have to do with us, today? What is the Gospel trying to teach us?

Can we, in fact, learn to see the world—the whole world, the universe, all of Creation—for what it really is, a vast, incomprehensible, wondrous All? Can we learn to see all our fellow creatures for what they really are: complex, incomprehensible, lovable, wonderful beyond belief? And then can we learn to treat them that way, with nothing but love and respect and awe for the wonders of creation that they are? What a world that would be, if we all did that?!

For the First Sunday of Lent 2024

To get the deep significance of this Gospel passage (of Jesus in the desert, Mark 1:12-15) for ourselves, we will do well to change the story from being about Jesus to being about ourselves. In that case, this powerful, life-changing passage reads like this:

After the period of purification, we then return to our “normal” lives, purged and refreshed and prepared to proclaim—in deed as well as in word—that this is the time of fulfillment (of converting ideas into action, of making real what until now has just been thought or imagined). We proclaim that the kingdom of God—that part of Being in which we abide purely in God’s love—is now, not some vague time in the future. We call on ourselves and each other to rethink the whole situation (the truth about Creation and about our place in the world), and believe in—act in—the world the way that God sees it: loving God (with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength) and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves; that is, as God loves us and our neighbor.

When we approach this Gospel passage this way, we go forward into Lent hand in hand with Jesus, carrying our cross and our mission as He carries His.