4th Week of Ordinary Time 2025 - Tuesday - Fall at the feet of Jesus

 Throughout the Gospels, we read of many different reactions to Jesus:

Some, like the apostles, left everything to follow him. Some, drew near to him for miracles, but walked away when it came time to abide by his teachings. Some reacted with downright vehemence, tearing their garments in anger.

In today’s Gospel, St. Mark describes a number of reactions to Jesus. 

Jairus, a man of considerable eminence, approached Jesus and fell at His feet, asking in faith for him to heal his daughter. In the incident that followed, when Jesus asked who had touched him, the hemorrhaging woman also approached and fell at his feet, her faith a conduit for healing. Then we heard of the he servants of Jairus’ household. They approached with little faith, doubting Jesus possessed the power necessary to save the little girl. 

In highlighting these different reactions to Jesus, we are challenged to consider how we are reacting to him. Maybe there were points in our life when we’ve reacted like the people in Nazareth, wanting to silence Him by all means necessary. Maybe, now, after coming to faith, we fluctuate. There are moments where we fall down at his feet in worship like Jairus, when we reach out to the hem of his garment to be healed like the woman with the hemorrhage, but sometimes, even after encountering him over and over, working miracles, delivering souls from evil, we still doubt he has the power to save us. Our faith fluctuates. Why?

Our faith fluctuates for many reasons—perhaps because we rely too heavily on our own strength, or we fear entrusting certain areas of our lives to the Lord. But the stories of Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman show us that we do not need perfect faith to encounter Jesus; what we need is the humility and courage to turn to Him, however uncertain we may feel.

Notice that He does not scold or reject anyone who approaches Him, even with faltering faith—He responds with compassion and healing. 

Like Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage, or task is to recognize our need for Jesus, and to fall at his feet asking for help. So often, we continue to commit the same sins over and over, or we fail to see real spiritual growth because we do not ask for help. It’s okay to admit even that you are unfilled in life. Ask God for help to find fulfillment. Maybe it’s your routine that needs to change, maybe simply your outlook. But the Lord will help you find fulfillment, if you turn and ask for help.

Today, let us commit ourselves anew to drawing near to Christ, trusting that He can do what we cannot do for ourselves, and allowing His power to transform our lives for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Confident that Jesus meets us with compassion when we turn to Him in faith, let us bring our needs and the needs of the world before our loving Father:

For the Church – that all believers may draw near to Christ with humble and courageous faith, trusting in His power to guide and heal us.

For world leaders and those in authority – that they may look to the Gospel for wisdom in fulfilling their duties and serving the common good

For those struggling with doubt or wavering faith – that they may, like Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman, find the grace to place their trust in Jesus’ transforming love.

For the sick and those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit – that, by approaching the Lord in prayer, they may experience His healing presence and compassionate care.

For all who have died, especially N. that they may be welcomed into the fullness of life and peace in God’s kingdom.

Heavenly Father, receive the prayers we offer this day. May each of us, with humble hearts, draw close to Your Son for healing and deliverance. Grant us the faith to trust in His power to save us, for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 - Death, Life, and Interruptions

 Interruptions. Most of us hate to be interrupted. We’re in the middle of preparing a meal, and the phone rings; in the middle of our prayer time, and there’s a knock on the door; making good time in our commute to work or to a vacation locale, and there’s a traffic jam; we finally have time to relax after a long day or a long week, and there’s an emergency we need to attend to. Interruptions. They are so frequently inconvenient, it’s almost comical. 

Did you notice that our Lord was interrupted in our Gospel this weekend. The Lord is on his way to heal the sick daughter of Jairus when he is interrupted by the woman with a hemorrhage. This is a common feature in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is constantly being interrupted. But one might say that the intertwining of the two miracle stories, one story of Jesus being interrupted to perform a miracle, teaches us that even interruptions are part of God’s wise providential plan for our lives, even when we are interrupted by good and holy things like prayer or caregiving.

The interruption by the woman with the hemorrhage delayed the Lord’s trip to heal Jairus’ daughter. And because of the interruption it appears Jesus arrives too late. But there is never a “too late” for God. What was originally going to be a miracle of healing became something much more—a miracle of raising the dead. The interruption became an opportunity for God’s glory to shine even brighter. 

So too with the interruptions we face. In response to those forces that are beyond our control, we need to remind ourselves of the one that IS in control, and to seek God’s will in the present, without worrying so much about the future. Interruptions of our plans are part of God’s providential plan. So, we should teach ourselves to say the essential prayer, “thy will be done” to those many little interruptions we so naturally resent and even to the big ones.

For, God does not ask us to succeed in finishing and accomplishing our enterprises, only to do our duty of being faithful to him at each present moment. Our plans and God’s plan coincide only sometimes—perhaps, rarely. As one comedian put it, if you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans.

Our job is to give ourselves over more and more to God’s plan—to surrender in times when we face even tragedy and death. Death, we heard about death in our first reading today. Scripture often tackles the reality of death. 

But if the resurrection of Jesus teaches us anything, it’s that God is in control and can bring about a greater good even from something as terrible as death. 

And death is a reality that each of us grapples with. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, we die. Mindfulness of the limited time we have on earth lends urgency to our lives. Remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment. We are to make use of the time we have been given in this earthly life to work out our salvation and to seek the perfection for which we were made.

But where did death come from? Death is a consequence of sin. As we heard in our first reading today, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living…For God formed man to be imperishable” We would have been immune from death had Adam and Eve not sinned. God, in whose image we are made is the God and author of life. He is the Creator. He made us for living communion with Himself. Human death entered the world by our choosing death. God wanted life for us. God is pro-life. But we chose death, introducing death into creation. But, with the time we have on earth, we must choose life. For ourselves and others. 

You might say, “well if God didn’t make death” why do plants and animals die. Even nonliving things come to an end: rocks become sand after millennia of wind and waves. Even after eons stars and galaxies die. 

But human death is different than all other death. God did not make it. He made man to live forever. Death is a consequence of the fall of man, not a consequence of the creation of God. 

The first reading said, it was by the envy of the devil, that death entered the world. It was the plan of the devil to obscure the plans of God for us. And we bought into it. The sinful misuse of our God-given ability of choice brought death into the world to the delight of the devil. 

But again, God is greater than our plans and even the plans of the devil. For through Jesus Christ, death is transformed. Jesus, the Son of God, himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.

Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers us so as to work out our eternal destiny. Will we pursue eternal life through Christ or eternal death by turning away from Him. But again, through Jesus death is transformed. For those who die in friendship with Christ, death is a simple closing of our physical eyes, that the eyes of our soul can come to behold the face of God in eternity. 

 When we have made our peace with God, and have faith that the love of Christ is greater than death, it becomes easier to remain peaceful and trusting in God in the face of those smaller interruptions. The traffic jams, the inconvenient social calls become opportunities to turn to God, to trust God in those circumstances which are beyond our control, to deepen our conviction to pursue God over our own selfish aims, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

4th Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Tuesday - Jesus enters our misery and brings new life

 There is an old Irish saying that "old sins cast long shadows." In other words, Sin has consequences. In the readings from Samuel, we’ve been hearing about the consequences of David’s sins in his own family.

David's sins of adultery and murder reverberated beyond his relationship with Bathsheba. His sins affected his entire family as his son and heir followed his example of sexual sin by defiling his own sister, Tamar. 

David's failure to give his daughter justice created a resentment that festered in her brother Absalom until he sought revenge against both his brother and his father. Absalom murdered his brother and became next in line to the throne.

Yesterday’s reading detailed how David had to flee Jerusalem when the loyalty of the people was transferred to Absalom. The consequences of David’s sin rippled into the life of the nation, and David was cursed by his own people, they threw stones and dirt at him as he passed by.

Today, we read how David’s servants murdered Absalom. And even though Absalom was seeking to kill David, the death of his son struck him to the heart. Sin has consequences, in our families and to our nation.

In the Gospel, we read of another child who had died, not the son of a king, but the daughter of a synagogue official. At her apparent passing, there was weeping and commotion much like David’s own weeping in the first reading. And Jesus enters into this grief-filled scene, and restores the life of young girl. 

Considering these two readings side by side, we see a powerful parallel. Sin, and the consequences of sin, namely, disease and death bring us misery. But Jesus enters into this miserable state of ours and brings new life. We may not be able to avoid the misery brought about by our own sins. But Jesus enters into our misery and brings new life. 

The Gospel passage also foreshadows how those who die in Christ will be raised to new life in the resurrection. But notice, how Jesus brings healing as a result of the pleas of the synagogue official.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor. The Lord hears the prayers we offer for the sick, for family members who have gone astray. And we need to persist in our prayers for those in need. But also, recall, that we are anointed Christians, and that the Lord wishes to bring healing, relief, a new life, through us. We must respond to the cries of the poor, entering into the misery of others, as the chosen instruments the Lord wishes to use to bring about his glorious will, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

4th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - Identifying obstacles to faith

 In our Gospel passage this last Sunday, we heard of the people of Nazareth reacting with great hostility to Jesus’ proclamation. They doubt his claim to be the Messiah, minimizing the possibility by asserting that he is merely the son of a carpenter. Then when he challenged them for hardening their hearts against him, they seized him to throw him over a cliff.

Today’s Gospel contains three different reactions to Jesus.

Jairus, a man of considerable eminence in hos own town, approached Jesus and fell at His feet, asking in faith for him to heal his daughter. In the incident that followed, when Jesus asked who had touched him, the hemorrhaging woman also approached and fell at his feet, her faith a conduit for healing. The servants of Jairus’ household, on the other hand, approach Jesus, and show little faith, doubting Jesus possessed the power necessary to save the little girl. 

Hem Of His Garment is a painting by Wayne Pascall 

I think the Gospels highlight so many different reactions of Jesus to help us identify how we are reacting to him. Maybe there were points in our life when we do react to him like the people in Nazareth, wanting to silence Him by all means necessary. Maybe, now, after coming to faith, we fluctuate. There are moments where we fall down at his feet in worship like Jairus, we reach out to the hem of his garment to be healed like the woman with the hemorrhage, and maybe sometimes, even after following him, even after hearing what he has done over and over, working miracles, delivering souls from evil, we still doubt he has the power to save us. Our faith fluctuates. Why?

What did Jairus have that we do not have? That’s important to identify. Personally. If there was something keeping you from that level of faith, isn’t important to identify it? Because whatever it is, it might be hindering the healing power of Jesus to be unleashed in my family or in my life.

Is it an attachment to sin? Is it a failure to practice self-discipline in my prayer life? Is it laziness? Is it my ego that defies the need for savior, that insists on trying to save itself?

During Ordinary Time, seeking to identify the things, the attitudes, the behaviors, that keep us from perfect faith, or at least, growing in faith, is to be an ordinary part of our meditations and self-reflections. Thanks be to God, our daily scriptures, once again, help us to identify the path of life, and wholeness, and healing, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For a deeper openness to God’s will, readiness for service, attentiveness to those in need, endurance to do the will of God, and peace in our world and our hearts.  

During this Catholic Schools week, for all young people, for their teachers and catechists and parents who are the first teachers of the faith, and that the truth of the faith may be learned, cherished, and practiced in every Catholic school and Christian home.

For the discipline necessary to resist temptation and to cultivate the virtues of faith, hope, and love. 

For those who struggle because of addiction, discouragement, mental illness, chronic sickness, unemployment, or ongoing trials of any kind.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, For the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for the souls in purgatory and for…N. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

Feb 05 2019 - St. Agatha - The Powerful Faith of the Virgin Martyrs

After offering a series of parables about the Kingdom of God, St. Mark gives us series of stories of Jesus manifesting the power of God. We hear of Jesus calming the storm—showing his Divine authority over the destructive powers of nature, we heard yesterday of Jesus’ exorcism of Gerasene demoniac—showing his Divine authority over the powers of evil which seek the destruction and corruption of human nature. Today we hear two stories: the curing of the woman stricken with a hemorrhage for 12 years, and then the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Here Jesus shows his Divine authority over terrible human disease which the most learned of doctors and experts could find a cure. And he shows his Divine authority over the most terrible of human afflictions—death itself.

By stringing these stories together, St. Mark helps us to place our faith in Jesus as Lord and Son of God, who is victorious over the powers of sins and death through his own cross and resurrection.
It is this faith that gives the martyrs, like St. Agatha who we honor today, such courage and conviction in their own trials. St. Agatha is one of the great virgin martyrs of the early Roman church, who in the midst of persecution, chose to be faithful to Christ no matter what the cost. 

Saint Agatha was born in Sicily to rich and noble parents. Out of love for Christ, she consecrated herself to the Lord and His service. When a government edict called for the suppression of Christianity, St Agatha was arrested for resisting the advances of a degenerate civil official. To punish her for wishing to protect her chastity, she was sent to a brothel, a house of prostitution. When she persevered in protecting her chastity, her breasts were cut off, and she was sent to her martyrdom.

The world needs witnesses to holiness like St. Agatha. And the power and love of God shines so brightly in the witness of the virgin martyrs—that corruption, and perversion, and violence, and death do not get the last word.

Christians today are surrounded by innumerable pressures to forsake the faith, to make compromises with the world, which are repugnant to the teachings of Christ. We do well to invoke Agatha and the virgin martyrs on behalf of our young people, that they will value Christian chastity above the perversions of our culture, and all of us do well to invoke Agatha, that we may be willing to suffer in order to allow the power of Christ and love of God shine in our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Through the intercession of St. Agatha and all the holy virgin-martyrs, for an increase in chastity, purity, and modesty and for greater respect for the dignity of the human body and all human life.
That all of our young people may be kept safe from the poisonous errors and vices of our time and be kept in close friendship with the Lord Jesus through the faith of their families, daily prayer, attendance at Mass, and the practice of the virtues.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.
For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.
Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

13th Sunday of OT 2018 - Healing and Hopeless Causes

I’ve discovered that one of the beautiful traditions here at Holy Family Parish is that every Tuesday morning after the weekday mass is a special set of prayers, a perpetual Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. If you aren’t familiar with it, I invite you to visit the icon after mass today, say a prayer before this beautiful image of our Lady, tightly holding the Christ Child. Join your fellow parishioners in invoking her help for our parish, our families, our broken world. We face so many difficulties, and it is so good, to turn to Our Lady, who is united to Her Son, in bringing healing and peace to the world.

It is said that among the saints whose heavenly help and intercession is sought by the faithful, second only to Our Lady, is the apostle St. Jude.  Even many non-Catholics venerate St. Jude as the patron saint of Hopeless Causes. The patron of hopeless causes is so popular because so many of our difficulties seem hopeless: the terminal illness, the seemingly endless cycle of addiction, the corruption of government leaders, the plights of the poor—they seem hopeless.
Our readings this weekend speak to the experience of hopelessness.

Jairus, the synagogue official goes to Jesus for his very sick little twelve-year-old daughter. Is there any hopelessness like a parent who knows their child is dying? Jairus who feels he has nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to, turns to this itinerant preacher, this wandering miracle worker from Nazareth. Without saying word, at least St. Mark doesn’t record any spoken reply, Jesus begins to travel to the home of Jairus, to the bed of his dying daughter.

Jairus’ own servants emphasize the hopelessness of the situation. They meet Jesus en route, and say, “it’s no use, it’s hopeless, you are wasting your time, the little girl is dead.” And here we see the difference between Jesus Our Lord and so many of the charlatans of his day and our own. At the prospect of death, the charlatans, the fakers would find an excuse to turn away, for nothing exposes man’s limitations like death.

But Jesus brings to this hopeless situation, not the limitations of man’s science, but the grace of God. To God, death is as easy to be conquered as waking up a child from a nap. So, to this hopeless case, a dead little girl and her desperate Dad:, Jesus brings light and life.

St. Mark reports this weekend not just one hopeless case, but two. While on the way to the house of Jairus, a suffering, desperate woman, inflicted with terrible, mysterious hemorrhages, approaches Jesus. She had visited doctor after doctor, tried medicine after medicine, her savings were depleted, a truly hopeless case.  And then she hears of Jesus, who brings healing to the hopeless cases. She presses close as he is passing by, just hoping to touch his garment; and when she does, she is healed. 
It doesn’t take a great skeptic to say “well,  these stories from Jesus’ earthly ministry are fine and good, but what about my hopeless case: what about my sick child, my unemployment, the addict in my family, my broken marriage, the fallen-away Catholic, my unanswered prayers?”
So what is the Christian to do in our very own hopeless cases?

Like Jairus and the woman, we are to draw close to Jesus, in the sacraments and in prayer and ask for help. Jesus wants us to bring our needs to him.  He may not answer them in the way we want.  But God is not bothered by our prayers.  There are prayers he wishes to answer through our persistence in asking for them.

Now some of us confuse prayer with anxious worrying. Just because we are thinking about our hopeless cause, or worrying about our hopeless cause, doesn’t mean we are praying about our hopeless cause. Worry and fretting are bad, often sinful. Worry wastes time, prayer is powerful and productive.

So what do we mean by prayer? The 6th century bishop and doctor of the Church, St. John Damascene, said, “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” Prayer shifts the focus from the object of worry to God the giver of peace. St. Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Prayer is a request, not a demand. Prayer certainly does not mean telling God what to do. Jairus uses the word “please”, please help me, please help my daughter, if it pleases you, if it’s your will, if it will bring about the greatest good for my soul. Prayer does not seek to make God an instrument of our wills, but to change our wills to become instruments of his.

I think this is one reason why people don’t pray. Prayer requires surrendering control. We get our lives just like they like them, and to introduce God into the equation is to introduce an element we can’t control. Prayer requires giving up control, and such surrender is unacceptable to the willful heart.

We want healing, we want eternal life without having to change much, we want the healthy marriage and peaceful nation without having to expend too much energy, we want healing for ourselves without having to suffer for others.

You’ve probably heard it said that prayer is less about changing God than changing us. And many don’t turn to God because they know God calls them conversion. But it’s precisely through the converted heart, the surrendered heart, the obedient heart, it’s through you and me becoming saints, that God wants to bring healing into the world, into the hopeless causes.

So what is the Christian to do in the face of hopeless cases? We seek to become saints. We go to Jesus, we go to the Blessed Mother and the saints in heaven, with a truly open heart, a heart willing to be changed, to suffer for others, a heart willing to give up its vices and selfishness, a heart willing to say, “I was wrong”, “I’ve not trusted God enough”, “I’ve spent so much time on selfish pursuits rather than on your holy will, help me.”

May the Lord bring miraculous healing and peace to our hopeless cases, through our cooperation with his Holy Will, through our humble prayer and repentance and service. May he continue to shape us and form us to bring faith to the faithless, hope to the hopeless, love to the loveless, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.