27th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Monday - Asking the right questions

 Of all the questions he could have asked Jesus, the scholar in the law from the Gospel today asks Jesus a pretty good one, likely the most important of all religious questions: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

It’s one thing to be focused on worldly prosperity. What must I do to live the American dream? But this expert in the law seems to have his priorities straight. The time we spend in this earthly life is a drop in the ocean compared to eternity. It is very wise to be eternity minded, rather than earthly minded. It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul. So, this expert in the law seems to have his priorities straight. He’s turning to Jesus for answers to the ultimate question. Would more of our modern day contemporaries get into that habit, the world would be in a different shape! And perhaps, as people of faith, we would progress in the spiritual life more steadily, if we began asking the Lord the right questions. “What must I do to grow in holiness?” “What must I do to grow in patience?” “What must I do to overcome my habitual sin?”

Now, there are a lot of people who ask Jesus a lot of questions and for a lot of different reasons in the Gospel. The Lord’s disciples ask for clarification on his teachings; Pharisees and Scribes ask Jesus questions to try to trap him or discredit him. But we don’t really know the intentions of this scholar of the law, only that he rightly turns to Jesus for answers. Maybe the scholar of the law is trying to prove himself more learned than this itinerant preacher, but whatever his motives, this encounter ends with the Lord confirming that the greatest commandment is to love God with your whole mind, soul, being and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself, and that our neighbor isn’t just the person that looks like us, acts like us, believes the same thing we believe, our neighbor includes the stranger, the man in need on the side of the street, the one who has fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances, the one that every else is ignoring.

You want eternal life? You must expand your heart to love everyone. You must overcome your tunnel-vision of looking past those in need. You must eliminate the earthly-minded excuses that keep you from exercising mercy. Like the good Samaritan who pays out of his own purse for the lodging and recovery of the poor victim, eternal life will cost us something: our time, our talent, our treasure must be put at the service of our fellow man. 

“Do this and you will live” the Lord says. May we know the divine assistance that makes up for our weaknesses in striving for eternal life, in living out the Gospel mandate of mercy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - -  

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  

That during the month of October dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we may be strengthened in devotion to Our Lady and trust ever-more in her maternal intercession. 

For the priests of the Diocese of Cleveland gathering this week with the Bishop at their bi-annual Convocation, may the Holy Spirit guide their time and inspire them for their continued ministry. 

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, and those whose lives are upturned by the terrible storms in florida, for victims of 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 the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our benefit, and for N. 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.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Friday - The Greatest Commandment

 

Many of the religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their power, and so they closed their hearts to his truth, and conspired to silence him. 

The scribe in today’s reading, on the other hand, seems to approach Jesus with more noble intentions. The scribe asks a simple question, “which is the greatest commandment”. 

The scribe's desire to know the greatest commandment reflects a heart that was seeking to understand what God wants from us, so that he may respond appropriately.  He wasn't just trying to trip Jesus up like many of the Pharisees, nor did he want Jesus to tell him the bare minimum of what God expects of us. The scribe sought from Jesus a single simple principle underlying the complexity of the law—a foundational commandment that gives meaning to all of the ensuing rules and regulation of religious life.  

The command to love God and neighbor is not just an order or duty.  After all, no one can love simply because he is told to do so!  The greatest commandment impels us to align our will to God's will in everything we do; to make loving and obeying God our highest principle.  

Jesus responded to the scribe’s question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the great Israelite confession of faith known as the Shema: Shema Israel, Adonai Eluhenu, Adonai Ehad – Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God. He is Lord alone!  

By the time of Jesus, this statement was understood to mean that God of Israel is not only the one God of the Jews but the one and only God of the whole universe.  In a world of polytheism, the jews were the only people to have been granted this earth-shattering insight: there is but one God, who has created all things and who holds all things in existence by his goodness and power.  His claim on us is therefore total, calling for a total response at every level of our being.  

The Great Commandment to love God with all your strength—to make God’s will the highest and guiding principal of your life—is the only truly appropriate response to the One God and Creator of the Universe. 

The rightly ordered life seeks to love God amidst all of the other activities of life. God is not to be set aside as we engage in business, family life, leisure, or political involvement. God is to be served and sought in every dimension of life. 

St. Paul wrote, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”  Many of us glorify God before our meals, by praying, and saying grace. But we can better order all of our activities by beginning them with prayer: praying before getting in the car, praying before exercising, praying before turning on the television.  We do well to pray before meeting with the group of friends with whom we are prone to gossip, before sitting down to the computer where we are prone to waste precious time.  If we are tempted NOT to pray before any of our daily activities, perhaps we need to consider if we should be doing them in the first place, or why we are resistant to bringing them to God and under God’s sovereignty. 

God knows this commandment is not easy.  Left to our own powers it would be impossible.  But through God's grace, the grace he makes available in the Sacraments, the grace he gives in the Eucharist, he transforms our hearts to rely on his strength in order to love him with all of ours.  May we approach the Lord in the Eucharist, as the scribe in the Gospel, seeking to learn from Jesus to love as he loves, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 - - - - - - - - 

That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the Church may mark the life of every Christian. 

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated from God through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

6th Week in OT 2020 - Wednesday - Hearers and Doers of the Word

Summing up the entire spiritual life, St. Francis de Sales said: “Simply Obey. God does not ask anything else of you.”

Obedience is the fundamental disposition of the Christian disciple. The word obedience comes from the latin – oboedire which means to listen to, to give ear to, to heed, to pay attention.

The Old Testament prophets constantly remind the Jewish people to listen to the Word of God. Standing at the steps of the Jerusalem Temple, the Prophet Jeremiah instructed: “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.” Certainly we enter in through the doors of the Church, to hear the word of God, to incline our ear to God’s word. One of Israel’s most beloved Scripture passages, known as the Shema, is a command to listen: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God. Love God with your whole heart.” We find the same command on the lips of Jesus in the Gospels.

St. James is clear in our reading today, that Christians must not allowing God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other. Christian discipleship requires an obedience that hears and heeds, listens and acts.  “Be doers of the word and not hearers only”. What we hear in Church, what we read in the Scriptures must be put into practice.

One of my favorite parts of the Ordination Rites, is when the deacon kneels in front of the Bishop who hands him the Book of the Gospels and says, “receive the word of God whose herald you have become: believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” All of us are to put into practice what we read in the Scriptures.

James explains too that in order for the Word of God to really take root in us, we must put away filth—the filth and the evil excesses of the world. A degenerate lifestyle, a love of sin, blocks our ability to hear the word, it hinders the transforming power of the word.

Rather, we must cultivate our souls to be rich soil, as the Lord teaches, that the word may take deep root in our souls so that it can bear fruit.

May we be not just hearers of the word but doers of the word, acting upon God’s word by striving for virtue and living in fraternal charity for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - 
 
That the Word of God may take ever deeper root in our hearts, minds, and souls.

That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland.

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

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

31st Week in OT 2019 - Wednesday - Indebted to God's love

In this last section of the letter to the Romans, St. Paul continues to elaborate on the moral and practical implications of the Gospel for Christians. He reiterates today the teaching of the Lord in the Gospel, summing up all the commands of the law into One Great Command: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

St. Paul contextualizes this commandment as a response to what Jesus has done for us in dying for us poor sinners. We have a debt, we owe a debt to God, to love others as we’ve been loved. So not only should we follow the Great Command to love our neighbor because the command came from the lips of Jesus Himself, St. Paul is saying, we must follow it for another reason, we owe it to God. Because we have been loved so extraordinarily loved by God, our lives are to be permeated with love for one another.

So this certainly causes us to reflect, to ask ourselves, “what is the motivating factor in our life?” Self-preservation? Accumulation of comfort? The seeking of novel pleasures? Or Love? If the answer is not love, something needs to change in us.

For Paul, love for others is a response to being loved by God. Many Christians don’t realize how loved they are. They never stop to look at a crucifix. They never consider the sad state of their souls. They live the unexamined life. Many do not consider what they owe to God. Many of us fall into a routine, in which we just go from one event to another, without considering how I am called to allow God’s love to permeate me and motivate me in this moment.

Paul became such a powerful preacher of the Gospel because of his conviction that he was a sinner who was lost, who has been saved by God’s love, who was now in the debt of God. Yet this experience of indebtedness to God became the starting point for a mission of love that changed the world.

May we take this message to heart, that we may be faithful to the great command to love God and neighbor wholeheartedly, to renounce all that keeps us from this love, as our Lord teaches in the Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
- - - - - - - -

That the love of God and neighbor may permeate the life of every Christian.

For the strength to be faithful to all of the Lord’s commands and the grace and humility to repent of our failings.

That during this National Vocations Awareness Week our young people may respond generously to the call of the Lord to serve the Church.

That we may be attentive to the needs of the sick, the poor, and the despairing in our midst.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, for those whose names are written in our parish book of the names of the dead, all deceased members of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, and our deceased family members and friends, deceased clergy and religious, for the repose of the soul of Bishop Richard Lennon who will be buried today, for those who fought and died for our freedom and for X. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.