“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,and not to be placed on a lampstand?”
Is there any true light that is not Christ?
Christ tells us that we are the light of the world. And light is meant to be visible, to shine brightly, to banish the darkness. We are called to let our light shine brightly before men and women, that they might not dwell in darkness, but rather that they might dwell in light.
“For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”
One of the changes that we have experienced with our new translation of the Roman Missal is in the words of institution in the Eucharistic Prayer. Where we use to say that the Blood of Christ was poured out for all, now we say that this life-saving gift is shed for many. Our Gospel today sheds light on the truth behind that change.
Today, we have been asked by our Bishops to celebrate a mass for the protection of human dignity, either the Mass for Peace and Justice, or the Mass of Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life. This is of course driven by the anniversary yesterday of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion on demand in our nation. It did this by making absolute a right to privacy discovered in the “penumbra” of the rights enumerated in the Constitution, while at the same time denying personhood to the unborn child. So we find ourselves with a legal system in which the corporation is treated as a person, but the unborn baby is not.
While the focus is of course on the dignity and sanctity of unborn life, the church always speaks of life issues in terms of the dignity of all human life, rooted in the fact of being created in the image and likeness of God. We must beware the exceptions: If this or that life is not sacred (the enemy, the guilty, the dying, the handicapped, etc.) then perhaps that life (the unborn child) is not sacred either.
This week’s bulletin article is available here.
The homily for the Sunday is available in audio format.
Peter, James, Andrew, John, Bartholomew, and all the others. The names are so familiar. There were crowds of disciples (followers), but only twelve apostles (those who are sent). Our Gospel today focuses on that action of Jesus which set apart a small group of those nameless disciples, and gave them a special role.
He called them by name. He gave them authority. He invited them to share in his mission of bringing salvation to the world. All of this was done by Jesus, at his initiative, in accord with the way God works. He always speaks first.
“Saul was very angry and resentful of the song . . . “
Saul and David returned in triumph. Yet the taste of that victory soon turned bitter in Saul’s mouth. The people were praising David more than Saul. He became angry. He became resentful. Jealousy rose up in his heart. His pride has been wounded, his position and prestige were threatened. At the root of all this was certainly fear, fear that he would lose something he had, or fear that he would not get something he was convinced he needed. Anger, resentment, jealousy and pride were stirred together in Saul’s heart, such that he decided that David must die.
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”
Can law actually be life-giving? Is the law always life-giving? Or is law always just a restriction on life, on freedom, on my doing what I want to do?
Jesus talks about the law in today’s Gospel, and in particular about the sabbath. His critics once more took issue with the actions of his disciples, as they constantly sought to bring Jesus down. Jesus defends his followers, while at the same time upholding the value of the law and sabbath.
Today our nation remembers Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
We offer these words from a 1997 statement on “Racial Harmony” by the Louisiana Bishops
“The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on racism is clear. Racism is morally wrong. To persist obstinately in this stance is unchristian.
“Racism is the theory or practice which assumes that one race or ethnic stock is superior to another. It denies the equal dignity of all members of the human family.
This week’s bulletin article is available here.
The homily for the Sunday is available in audio format.
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
In the time of Jesus, lepers were the true “untouchables” of that day. They were the outcasts, banned from towns and villages, and purity laws forbid even the touching of one so afflicted.
Consider then the sequence of events in this encounter of Jesus with the leper. Having been approached by one who was not even supposed to draw near to others, Jesus heard his plea. He then reached out his hand and actually touched the untouchable one. Only after that was the man made clean.
So often we think we have to be made clean, purified, made whole, before we can approach the Lord. We think that we must make ourselves lovable before he will love us. The leper in our story knew this to be false. It is precisely in our infirmity that we come to the Lord to be healed. In that encounter he does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
