St. Anthony & Our Lady of Fatima

A paraphrase of this week’s gospel…

“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell her – work it out between the two of you.  If she listens, you’ve made a friend.  If she won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again.  If she still won’t listen, tell the church.  If she won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront her with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s healing love.

“Take this most seriously:  a yes on earth is a yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven.  What you say to one another is eternal.  I mean this.  When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action.  And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there!”  (Matt 18: 15-20)

If we are special agents of God, then we serve as agents of grace for one another.  I am in a real sense at your service, as you are at mine.  Together we invite the Kingdom of God into our midst and it’s not the sort of commission we can achieve alone.

Of all we can do together to promote “the Kingdome already here,” the hardest may be our gentle mutual correction.  Unlike yourself, I’m sure, I dislike being told I’m wrong.  When I respond in anger and treat someone unfairly, I want to be justified, not reproved.  But some of my friends love me enough to tell me when I’m way off base and need to examine my motives.  Sometimes it’s enough to hear it from one person.  Sometimes I need to hear it from every direction before I’m ready to change.  I value this honesty in my life because I can’t always punch my own way out of ignorance.  My friends know how dearly I want to hear “yes” in heaven, so they’re willing to say “no” to me in the here and now.

Have you ever corrected one you love when they’re in error?

How do you respond to such correction?

       Have a good week!   Fr. Glenn

We must offer our bodies as sacrifices to God. We are also called to offer our “bodies to God as weapons for justice” (Rm 6:13). We must know that our bodies are temples “of the Holy Spirit, Who is within” (1 Cor 6:19). Our bodies are sacrifices, weapons, and temples. Because our bodies are sacrifices, we must deny ourselves and let God consume us (see Heb 12:29). We must give God our best so as not to offer defective sacrifices (see Mal 1:7-8).

Because our bodies are weapons, we must not be “bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares” (Lk 21:34). We should fight by wielding the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17)and the spiritual weapons of prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21, NAB). We must be in shape to “fight the good fight” of evangelization (1 Tm 1:18).

Because our bodies are temples, they should be holy, clean, peaceful, and joyous. We need to repent of our sins, go to Confession, and enthrone Jesus as Lord of our lives and our bodies. Although our bodies are weak and fragile, they are precious in God’s eyes. If we use them to glorify Him, He will glorify our bodies and raise them from the dead (see Phil 3:21). “So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20).

 

Jesus said to the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Your car’s engine has been making a strange noise.  You bring it to your mechanic.  “So, what’s wrong? you ask.

                “Well, that’s a complicated question,” the mechanic  begins.

The kitchen remodeling is already several weeks behind and living in your mother-in-law’s house has stretched everyone’s patience.  “How long? you ask.

“You see, so much depends on other people,” the contractor replies – as he replies to all his clients.

Your elderly parent has been moved to hospice.  How long does Dad have you ask.

“There’s no good answer to that question,” the physician replies.

Oh, for a straight answer!

We have mastered the “non-answer.” We’ve learned to sidestep the question that challenges us to take a stand, that compels us to commit, that forces us in a direction we’d rather not go. Alternative” facts? Certainly. Extenuating circumstances?  Absolutely.  We always seem to leave ourselves an “out” – we provide ourselves an escape hatch.

We’re committed to being noncommittal.

Let’s see how it goes.

  It’ll all work out in the end.

Don’t worry – that will never happen!

If our Baptisms have any meaning, if we seek to make the love of God a reality in our lives, we can’t dodge the answer to the question Jesus poses to Peter and the disciples – who is this Christ to us?  The Christ who preached reconciliation and forgiveness, the Christ who revealed a God of compassion and mercy, the Christ who called us to realize the “kingdom of God” here and now, the Christ who washed the feet of his followers the night before he took up the cross, the Christ whose life God vindicated by raising him from the dead?   It’s a question we are called to confront when we are least prepared to answer:  when we’re debating whether to respond to a situation with vengeance or mercy, when someone in desperate straits asks us for help that is sure to cost us dearly, when we have to decide to act for the good of the community or in our own best interests or profit.

Our answer must be the straightest answer we’ve ever given to any question.

Have a good week!  Fr. Glenn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the tables of their master.” 

                A very determined mother pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter.  It takes place in the area of Tyre and Sidon, two Gentile settlements north of the borders of Israel.  What is Jesus doing in a non-Jewish territory?  But in Matthew’s previous chapter, he has just learned of the death of his teacher/cousin, John the Baptizer and Jesus has also appeared on Herod’s radar.  Perhaps he’s getting out of Herod’s jurisdiction to lie low for a while.  He could be anonymous and regroup to strategize about how to continue his mission.

But he’s recognized.  A Canaanite woman comes pleading for her daughter and we’re asked to remember that when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land, they found it occupied by the Canaanites and under Joshua’s leadership, brutally and barbarically slaughtered every man, woman and child – along with all the livestock – to take over the land given by God to Abraham and his descendants.  Survivors migrated north to places like Tyre and Sidon.

She pleads with Jesus, using a phrase familiar to Roman Catholics: “kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy).  Uncharacteristically, Jesus seems to brush her off, declaring his mission only to the descendants of Abraham.  If this mother was asking only for herself, this encounter might have ended.  But nothing fuels a mother’s audacity like that of her child’s well-being.  Jesus gets even more insulting by calling her and her daughter “dogs” who are unworthy of receiving the food of his teaching and healing.

But this mom is crafty and doesn’t return insult for insult but redirects her rage, finding clever words while remaining respectful.  “But Lord even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the tables of their masters.”  With that, something shifts in Jesus.  She stretches Jesus to see her not as “other” or “historic enemy” but as one with whom he shares a common humanity, a common desire for the well-being of children.  He recognizes that faith and her daughter is cured, despite her pedigree!

Despite our 21^st century American philosophical, political and religious differences, we’re bound by a common humanity.  To be disciples these days demands that we listen with compassion and respect to the pleas of the “Canaanite” mothers in our midst, offering help and care because they, like we, are children of God.

Enjoy these last days of summer!  Fr. Glenn