2017/02/05 — 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

We continue to hear readings from the Sermon on the Mount and passages illustrating it. In the gospel passage — Matthew 5:13-16 — Jesus calls his disciples, including us, the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Before exploring those characterizations, let's note that he doesn't say we will be salt and light to the world, but that we already are salt and light. For us, it is our baptism which gives us these qualities, which are actually our vocation. Salt enhances the flavor of things and it also preserves them. As Christians, our lives should make the world more pleasant and should inhibit decay and corruption. Light is what enables people to see what exists. We should enable people to see the reality which surrounds them — the truth about the world — even enabling them to see the reality of God, who underlies our existence and actions. Jesus realizes that we can abandon our call to be salt and light and exhorts us not to.

In the first reading —Isaiah 58:7-10 — we hear how we can be light. It is by performing works of mercy, several of which are also commanded by Jesus in his parable of the Judgment of the Nations (Matthew 25:31-46). When we do so, we continue bringing the "great light" which, according the the first reading of two weeks ago, the people who walked in darkness saw with the coming of Jesus. As Jesus says in the gospel, our good works are done so that those who see them will give glory to God. The responsorial psalm — verses of Ps 112 — reinforces the message that good deeds bring light, in this case, for their practitioner.

Finally, the second reading — 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 — tells us that we don't have to be eloquent like Bishop Sheen or Bishop Barron, we don't have to be heroic like Mother Teresa. Just as Paul evangelized in weakness, so can we, because our success as salt and light isn't ultimately dependent on our skill "but on the power of God." What is required on our part is simply that we not shirk.

2016/06/12 — 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C

Last Sunday's readings all deal with the topic of sin and forgiveness, which is appropriate in the current Jubilee Year of Mercy.


The first reading — 2 Samuel 12:7-10,13 — comes in the aftermath of David's adultery with Bathsheba and coverup by arranging for the death of her husband, Uriah. Although David's conduct merits death, his admission of guilt is sufficient for him to obtain God's forgiveness.We should note that David does not try to make excuses or minimize the wrong ("I wasn't on the prowl: if she hadn't bathed on her rooftop, I'd never done anything," or "Uriah might have been killed in battle even if I hadn't written the letter to his commander."). He knows and acknowledges his responsibility for his own actions. This is a good example for us to bear in mind. Certainly, there can be situations where our responsibility is diminished because of limits on our freedom to choose what we do or because of ignorance. But when our sin is freely and knowingly committed, like David's, our repentance should not be combined with excuses.


The responsorial psalm — verses of Ps 32, with refrain based on verse 5 — is a meditation on how good it is to receive God's forgiveness and help, punctuated by a plea for forgiveness.



In the second reading — Galatians 2:16, 19-21 — Paul insists that we are justified through faith, rather than through the "works of the law." It is clear from the rest of his writings, that Paul does not consider right conduct unnecessary or sin to be inconsequential. The Pharisees (in the gospel we'll see Jesus at a meal in a Pharisee's house) had identified 613 commands in the Law, and they believed that being a faithful Jew depended on understanding what each one required and following it exactly. Paul write to the Galatians because some Pharisaical Christians told the Christians of Galatia that  their salvation depended on their observing all these commandments — which would include circumcision and keeping kosher, among other things. Paul, himself a Pharisee, insists that if keeping those commandments could save someone, then Jesus isn't the Savior. It is faith in Jesus as Savior that unites us with God. Clearly, Paul doesn't dispute  the importance of right conduct in the life of a believer. Jesus was very clear on its necessity, but God forgives our sins because of the saving work of Jesus. We do not save ourselves.



In the gospel — Luke 7:36 - 8:3 — we hear of Jesus' encounter with a Pharisee and a notoriously sinful woman. The Pharisees would not wish to have contact with such a sinner. Jesus insists on the primacy of love. The Pharisee hasn't acted with the sort of open-hearted love as the woman who, as a prototypical Christian, recognizes in Jesus the means of her forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Like David, she offers no excuse for her behavior. Unlike David, she expresses her sorrow for her sins in actions, not in sincere words. Her love brings forgiveness; her being forgiven will increase her love. Jesus concludes the encounter with words echoed by Paul: "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

The reading concludes with a synopsis of Jesus evangelizing travels, with a note about a group of women who supported him in it. Several of those women had also been recipients of God's mercy through Jesus, like the woman in the Pharisee's house.



We must realize that we are all sinners. Thus we are all beneficiaries of the mercy of God which comes through Jesus Christ from the "Father who never gives up until he has forgiven the wrong," as Pope Francis put it in the document declaring the Jubilee Year.

2015/09/13 — 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Edited

Jesus is the Messiah, but, as such, he must suffer and die. As his disciples, as his followers, we must give up our lives too, if not in martyrdom then in active charity.


The first reading — Isaiah 50:5-9a — is the third of four Songs of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. We might wonder exactly whom Isaiah had in mind. There doesn't seem to be any history that he personally had to endure the sufferings of which he speaks. At any rate Christians have always understood this prophecy as pointing to the sufferings and glorification of Jesus. Various elements of the servant's sufferings are found in the gospel accounts of Jesus' passion; and although Isaiah seems to speak of a defense that saves the life of the servant (in terms reminiscent of Paul's assertion that no power can condemn us when God acquits us — Romans 8:31-39), with Jesus, the vindication came with his resurrection.

Edited to add: This passage is also read on Palm Sunday, at the beginning of Holy Week.


Verses of Psalm 116 put expressions of confidence in God— even in the face of death — in the mouths, and hopefully the hearts, of the congregation, as they were for the servant. With the Psalm, we make his mindset our own.


In the gospel — Mark 8:27-35 — we first hear Jesus pose the question which is of such central importance: who is he? Peter answers that he is the Christ, the Messiah. But then we once more see the messianic secret. This time Jesus shows how different his Messiahship will be from people's expectations — even from the disciples. He will suffer, like the servant in Isaiah, and he will die. But then he will rise. This must have been very difficult to comprehend — not only will he suffer and die, contrary to their expectations and sense of what is right and God's will — but then he says he will rise from the dead — whereas they didn't expect any resurrection before the end of time.

The conclusion challenges us all. Somehow we have to follow Jesus to his crucifixion. We too must accept crucifixion and death, and in that way, our lives will be saved, as his was. Clearly, we cannot hold onto our lives so as to avoid death. Clearly, also, we don't all have to undergo a literal death on a cross. But we cannot consider our lives, our persons to be simply our own. We belong to God, our lives belong to God. That is the attitude we have to cultivate as we go through life with whatever we may have or not have. It is the attitude that will give reality to the love of God and neighbor which is the greatest commandment.


When we come to the second reading — James 2:14-18 — the point is reinforced. Our attachment to God isn't real unless it leads us to act lovingly.

St. Paul tells those who think that keeping the Law, like some kind of checklist, saves us, that Jesus is the savior, and we rely on him in faith, not on our works. (Romans 3:28, 5:1; Galatians 3:15-21) James says that if we have genuine faith we will live as Jesus taught us, performing good works. The apparent contradiction between Paul and James is because they mean different things by "works" as well as because they are talking about them in different ways. Paul is talking about "works of the law," that is the specific prescriptions of Judaism: most notably circumcision, but also keeping kosher, observing the Jewish feasts, etc. He makes it clear that he is not talking about avoiding sin and acting rightly when he talks about the works of the law that do not justify us by themselves. (Romans 6-8) The works James is talking about are the works of love, which Paul also calls us to as "fruits of the Spirit." James is not saying that the good works by themselves are sufficient to save us. He says they are an inevitable corollary of true faith.

While I'm at it, I'd add that James doesn't give us a quota of works to perform. There is no reason to think, as many seem to, that "If the good you do outweighs the bad," you go to heaven. After all, there are conversions late in life. More importantly, that idea in effect makes us earn our own salvation, rather than basing it on faith in Jesus, whose saving action outweighs all our sins.