Sunday, October 11, 2009
Renewing the Earth
Although the Bishops acknowledge the scientific uncertainty and controversy surrounding concerns for accelerated rates of climate change, diminishing biodiversity, deforestation, and the implications of widespread dependencies on fossil fuels, they nonetheless identify environmental integrity as a moral imperative for today. Elsewhere, arguments for a right to development, particularly for the nations of the “third world,” have increasingly been tempered by concerns for long and short term environmental costs. Thus, Catholic social teaching increasingly promotes sustainable development, i.e., "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland Commission, 1987).
The Bishops acknowledge that Catholic social thought does not contain a fully developed ecological ethics. Still, the Judeo-Christian tradition (which they admit has sometimes been used to justify human exploitation of the earth) contains rich resources for the promotion of ecological responsibility. For example, the Hebrew Scriptures describe creation in terms which give rise to a demand for right-relation, not only between persons, but between the human and non-human in creation. The Bishops go on to identify seven core principles or themes in CST in service of ecological conversion:
a God-centered and sacramental view of the universe, which grounds human accountability for the fate of the earth;
a consistent respect for human life, which extends to respect for all creation;
a worldview affirming the ethical significance of global interdependence and the common good;
an ethics of solidarity promoting cooperation and a just structure of sharing in the world community;
an understanding of the universal purpose of created things, which requires equitable use of the earth's resources;
an option for the poor, which gives passion to the quest for an equitable and sustainable world;
a conception of authentic development, which offers a
Although the Bishops acknowledge the scientific uncertainty and controversy surrounding concerns for accelerated rates of climate change, diminishing biodiversity, deforestation, and the implications of widespread dependencies on fossil fuels, they nonetheless identify environmental integrity as a moral imperative for today. Elsewhere, arguments for a right to development, particularly for the nations of the “third world,” have increasingly been tempered by concerns for long and short term environmental costs. Thus, Catholic social teaching increasingly promotes sustainable development, i.e., "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland Commission, 1987).
The Bishops acknowledge that Catholic social thought does not contain a fully developed ecological ethics. Still, the Judeo-Christian tradition (which they admit has sometimes been used to justify human exploitation of the earth) contains rich resources for the promotion of ecological responsibility. For example, the Hebrew Scriptures describe creation in terms which give rise to a demand for right-relation, not only between persons, but between the human and non-human in creation. The Bishops go on to identify seven core principles or themes in CST in service of ecological conversion:
a God-centered and sacramental view of the universe, which grounds human accountability for the fate of the earth;
a consistent respect for human life, which extends to respect for all creation;
a worldview affirming the ethical significance of global interdependence and the common good;
an ethics of solidarity promoting cooperation and a just structure of sharing in the world community;
an understanding of the universal purpose of created things, which requires equitable use of the earth's resources;
an option for the poor, which gives passion to the quest for an equitable and sustainable world;
a conception of authentic development, which offers a
TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR
MONDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:29-3
"the sign of Jonah" the immediate reaction to this is the story of Jonah spending three days in the belly of a whale...when we read the story of Jonah, however, this is not the sign that he gave to the people to whom he preached. The sign of the book of Jonah, is the warm reception to conversion that the Ninevites gave to his preaching....the sign of Jonah is the new heart which looks to God.
Once again my thoughts are turned to listening. The people in Nineveh had to listen, their hearts had to be open. But why did they listen?
The reason I ask this question is because good old Jonah was not very convinced of what he was preaching. Scripture tells us that Nineveh was a rather large city that took about three days to get across, Jonah made the journey in one day. It seems as though Jonah went through the streets on the equivalent of an ancient bicycle. He did not really preach to the people has much as he ran through the streets trying to get the job done as quickly as possible. The impression he gave was of someone not very interested in his job.
Ordinarily these are very difficult people to listen to and practically impossible to respond to. If the messenger isn't convinced the message usually does not get through. If a car salesman had the same amount of conviction and enthusiasm about his product as Jonah did, you more than likely would not buy it.
So what we have as a sign is a weak instrument, Jonah, but pointing out that even with the weak instrument God accomplishes what He wants. Now the disciple is convinced and does have enthusiasm...but is also very weak. There are times in preaching the Gospel that we do have a headache, that our nerves are not what they should be, there are times that as we preach about charity the patience which is the mark of charity is not present. We are reminded that the sign of the power of God is the very weakness of the messengers He chooses. We should always try to be worthy messengers, this goes without saying.....but remember also that the gift is in a vessel of clay.
TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:37-41)
Do not be surprised at what happens in side the Christian community. Luke was speaking about the Christian community. The Pharisees are not the enemies of Christ who also appear in the Gospels but rather people who claim to believe in Him. The message, for most of us at least, is one of constant reflection.
We can get spiritually lazy. We do nothing bad, as a matter of fact we may be doing a lot of good things, Going to Mass, saying the Rosary, being involved all Church activities, and even have consecrated our lives to the Lord. But if we are not careful all these things, as good as they are, can become stumbling blocks. Our relationship with the Lord is measured by what we do rather than who we are. The people in today's Gospel, all did the "good things". Yet the problem is they were not being what their actions said they should be. "to be" is an attitude of the heart. Eventually, the difference between my heart and what I do will come out.
I used to be afraid of the Pharisee lurking within me. Perhaps even denying his existence...to do, to accomplish...to identify what I did with who I am. To acknowledge his existence was the first step, to trust in the healing power of the Lord was the next....the final step, to rejoice in the great things the Lord can do.
WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11: 42-46) Every year around Christmas time I become very busy. This "business" is not the result of the ordinary pressure of the season but rather because I manage to find work. The reason for this is that writing Christmas cards is a very difficult thing for me to do. I manufacture things to do just to avoid the task of sitting at my desk and doing what I am supposed to do. I hide behind the cover of "being busy." I always manage to get an exceptional amount of work done during this season, but doing what I am supposed to do escapes until the very last moment.
Simple example, but getting caught up in doing things and taking consolation in the fact of how much we are doing without every asking the question: is this what I am supposed to be doing? Sometimes the "busyness" which we get captured into can be a draw back to doing our task. To set up a list of tasks to be accomplished on a given day, to have some sort of program, is good common sense. But they are not meant to stifle but to give us freedom for the intrusion of God into our lives.
The Pharisees in today's Gospel always did more than they had to. People were probably awed at how much tax they paid. This was the manufactured work. They never got around to writing the Christmas cards (mercy and love) which they were supposed to do.
"put burdens on people" expectations are good. We have to have a goal to shoot at and we also have to have expectations of other people. To have a feeling that people do not expect anything of you is devastating. It takes the joy away from life, and leads to a state of inertia. There is a two edged sword here. We can not make the expectations "impossible"....they have to be realistic. This means whether it is the expectations we place on ourselves or on other people they must be based on acceptance of the other person. To make them too high will lead to frustration to make them to low leads to an emotional and psychological boredom.
THURSDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:47-54) Who are the prophets today? Probably never before has this question been so important. The reason for its importance is that there are so many who are being proclaimed as prophets that without a discerning eye we can be very easily led astray and what is worse we may even " kill" the real prophets. This phenomena was present right from the beginning of the Church...the false teachers were accepted and the prophets sent by God persecuted. Paul is constantly warning his people of the "false teachers". Just because something is popular, just because the majority of people believe it, just because it seems to be politically correct, is no indication that we are dealing with true prophets.
If we are to find the true prophet look to the one who says things which causes him to considered "obnoxious" by certain people, if we are to find the true prophet look for the one who says things which are not popular nor politically correct. The true prophet's voice breaks through darkness, but darkness does not give up without a fight. It is always darkest before the dawn almost like night does not want to surrender. So it is with the light of the prophet. It meets the wall of anger, fear, covered by terms such as: irrelevancy, out of date. If we are not very careful we may find ourselves also building the tombs of the prophets...but they will rise, and their voices will not be snuffed out by the darkness.
FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 12:1-7) Yeast makes things grow. A little yeast will make bread. Growth is important. If something does not grow we can say it is dead. But to grow in the correct way, that is the trick.
The human body is a good example of growth. The baby grows , the muscles become larger, the limbs extend, but the person is the same. Nothing is added are taken away...we can say that the finger on the hand of someone 60yrs.old is the same as the finger that person had when he was born.
In growing in our life of faith the same continuum must be honored. The faith we had when we were 8yrs.old must deepen, must be applied to our daily lives in a different way, the implications must become deeper, but it will still be the faith I had as an 8yr.old.
Two problems arise. One is that unlike our natural bodies which grow with or without us willing it, the relationship with Christ may stay at the level of the 8yr.old. Unfortunately, this happens many times. Our relationship with Christ (faith) stands the danger of being irrelevant because we make faith judgments on life from that perspective. Natural growth, emotional, psychological, take place but faith growth is left far behind.
The other problem is that growing in the correct way. The yeast which nourishes our relationship with the Lord must be the good yeast of the Gospel, the sacraments and the teaching of the Church. These are the hands and feet we were born into our life of faith with and they must be recognizable when we are mature or else our growth has gone amiss.
There is almost a paradox....we cannot solve the problems of a mature person with the answers we learned many years ago and at the same time we cannot solve these problems without the continuity of those answers. Those answers learned many years ago were the foundation upon which the recognizable house has been built.
SATURDAY TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 12:,8-12)
How do I acknowledge or deny the Lord? By overtly saying "I do not believe", I affirm Him by saying: I believe and by living that way. This, to use a big word, is the transcendental. In everyday life I have found that this affirmation or denial takes on different meaning.
It is the affirmation of Christ as King in all of creation, "all creation is full of your glory" it is the denial of this. It is the affirmation that each and every individual is in some way united to the Lord and must be treated as such....I deny Christ when I deny His presence in all people. I acknowledge Him when I look at history as the ongoing process of the revealing of His plan for us...I deny Him when I look at history as just a number of events with no ultimate end...I acknowledge Christ when I see Him as the center and that all things are tending towards Him. I deny Christ when the things of this world become either ends in themselves or just things to be used .
I deny the Holy Spirit when I close my heart to the need for forgiveness. It isn't that forgiveness is ever denied us it is just that we do not want it. God does not turn from us it is that we have turned from God. God always gives the gift of forgiveness but like every gift we can say no.
MONDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:29-3
"the sign of Jonah" the immediate reaction to this is the story of Jonah spending three days in the belly of a whale...when we read the story of Jonah, however, this is not the sign that he gave to the people to whom he preached. The sign of the book of Jonah, is the warm reception to conversion that the Ninevites gave to his preaching....the sign of Jonah is the new heart which looks to God.
Once again my thoughts are turned to listening. The people in Nineveh had to listen, their hearts had to be open. But why did they listen?
The reason I ask this question is because good old Jonah was not very convinced of what he was preaching. Scripture tells us that Nineveh was a rather large city that took about three days to get across, Jonah made the journey in one day. It seems as though Jonah went through the streets on the equivalent of an ancient bicycle. He did not really preach to the people has much as he ran through the streets trying to get the job done as quickly as possible. The impression he gave was of someone not very interested in his job.
Ordinarily these are very difficult people to listen to and practically impossible to respond to. If the messenger isn't convinced the message usually does not get through. If a car salesman had the same amount of conviction and enthusiasm about his product as Jonah did, you more than likely would not buy it.
So what we have as a sign is a weak instrument, Jonah, but pointing out that even with the weak instrument God accomplishes what He wants. Now the disciple is convinced and does have enthusiasm...but is also very weak. There are times in preaching the Gospel that we do have a headache, that our nerves are not what they should be, there are times that as we preach about charity the patience which is the mark of charity is not present. We are reminded that the sign of the power of God is the very weakness of the messengers He chooses. We should always try to be worthy messengers, this goes without saying.....but remember also that the gift is in a vessel of clay.
TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:37-41)
Do not be surprised at what happens in side the Christian community. Luke was speaking about the Christian community. The Pharisees are not the enemies of Christ who also appear in the Gospels but rather people who claim to believe in Him. The message, for most of us at least, is one of constant reflection.
We can get spiritually lazy. We do nothing bad, as a matter of fact we may be doing a lot of good things, Going to Mass, saying the Rosary, being involved all Church activities, and even have consecrated our lives to the Lord. But if we are not careful all these things, as good as they are, can become stumbling blocks. Our relationship with the Lord is measured by what we do rather than who we are. The people in today's Gospel, all did the "good things". Yet the problem is they were not being what their actions said they should be. "to be" is an attitude of the heart. Eventually, the difference between my heart and what I do will come out.
I used to be afraid of the Pharisee lurking within me. Perhaps even denying his existence...to do, to accomplish...to identify what I did with who I am. To acknowledge his existence was the first step, to trust in the healing power of the Lord was the next....the final step, to rejoice in the great things the Lord can do.
WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11: 42-46) Every year around Christmas time I become very busy. This "business" is not the result of the ordinary pressure of the season but rather because I manage to find work. The reason for this is that writing Christmas cards is a very difficult thing for me to do. I manufacture things to do just to avoid the task of sitting at my desk and doing what I am supposed to do. I hide behind the cover of "being busy." I always manage to get an exceptional amount of work done during this season, but doing what I am supposed to do escapes until the very last moment.
Simple example, but getting caught up in doing things and taking consolation in the fact of how much we are doing without every asking the question: is this what I am supposed to be doing? Sometimes the "busyness" which we get captured into can be a draw back to doing our task. To set up a list of tasks to be accomplished on a given day, to have some sort of program, is good common sense. But they are not meant to stifle but to give us freedom for the intrusion of God into our lives.
The Pharisees in today's Gospel always did more than they had to. People were probably awed at how much tax they paid. This was the manufactured work. They never got around to writing the Christmas cards (mercy and love) which they were supposed to do.
"put burdens on people" expectations are good. We have to have a goal to shoot at and we also have to have expectations of other people. To have a feeling that people do not expect anything of you is devastating. It takes the joy away from life, and leads to a state of inertia. There is a two edged sword here. We can not make the expectations "impossible"....they have to be realistic. This means whether it is the expectations we place on ourselves or on other people they must be based on acceptance of the other person. To make them too high will lead to frustration to make them to low leads to an emotional and psychological boredom.
THURSDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:47-54) Who are the prophets today? Probably never before has this question been so important. The reason for its importance is that there are so many who are being proclaimed as prophets that without a discerning eye we can be very easily led astray and what is worse we may even " kill" the real prophets. This phenomena was present right from the beginning of the Church...the false teachers were accepted and the prophets sent by God persecuted. Paul is constantly warning his people of the "false teachers". Just because something is popular, just because the majority of people believe it, just because it seems to be politically correct, is no indication that we are dealing with true prophets.
If we are to find the true prophet look to the one who says things which causes him to considered "obnoxious" by certain people, if we are to find the true prophet look for the one who says things which are not popular nor politically correct. The true prophet's voice breaks through darkness, but darkness does not give up without a fight. It is always darkest before the dawn almost like night does not want to surrender. So it is with the light of the prophet. It meets the wall of anger, fear, covered by terms such as: irrelevancy, out of date. If we are not very careful we may find ourselves also building the tombs of the prophets...but they will rise, and their voices will not be snuffed out by the darkness.
FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 12:1-7) Yeast makes things grow. A little yeast will make bread. Growth is important. If something does not grow we can say it is dead. But to grow in the correct way, that is the trick.
The human body is a good example of growth. The baby grows , the muscles become larger, the limbs extend, but the person is the same. Nothing is added are taken away...we can say that the finger on the hand of someone 60yrs.old is the same as the finger that person had when he was born.
In growing in our life of faith the same continuum must be honored. The faith we had when we were 8yrs.old must deepen, must be applied to our daily lives in a different way, the implications must become deeper, but it will still be the faith I had as an 8yr.old.
Two problems arise. One is that unlike our natural bodies which grow with or without us willing it, the relationship with Christ may stay at the level of the 8yr.old. Unfortunately, this happens many times. Our relationship with Christ (faith) stands the danger of being irrelevant because we make faith judgments on life from that perspective. Natural growth, emotional, psychological, take place but faith growth is left far behind.
The other problem is that growing in the correct way. The yeast which nourishes our relationship with the Lord must be the good yeast of the Gospel, the sacraments and the teaching of the Church. These are the hands and feet we were born into our life of faith with and they must be recognizable when we are mature or else our growth has gone amiss.
There is almost a paradox....we cannot solve the problems of a mature person with the answers we learned many years ago and at the same time we cannot solve these problems without the continuity of those answers. Those answers learned many years ago were the foundation upon which the recognizable house has been built.
SATURDAY TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 12:,8-12)
How do I acknowledge or deny the Lord? By overtly saying "I do not believe", I affirm Him by saying: I believe and by living that way. This, to use a big word, is the transcendental. In everyday life I have found that this affirmation or denial takes on different meaning.
It is the affirmation of Christ as King in all of creation, "all creation is full of your glory" it is the denial of this. It is the affirmation that each and every individual is in some way united to the Lord and must be treated as such....I deny Christ when I deny His presence in all people. I acknowledge Him when I look at history as the ongoing process of the revealing of His plan for us...I deny Him when I look at history as just a number of events with no ultimate end...I acknowledge Christ when I see Him as the center and that all things are tending towards Him. I deny Christ when the things of this world become either ends in themselves or just things to be used .
I deny the Holy Spirit when I close my heart to the need for forgiveness. It isn't that forgiveness is ever denied us it is just that we do not want it. God does not turn from us it is that we have turned from God. God always gives the gift of forgiveness but like every gift we can say no.
Monday, October 5, 2009
This Week
This week, once again our social justice is focused on health care...it is an obligation to know what our representatives are voting for.
This week's scripture begin with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A good parable to challenge ourselves into asking the question: do I stop along the way?
Coming up: a slide show of Assisi. This is a work in progress.
Hope you enjoy.....
This week's scripture begin with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A good parable to challenge ourselves into asking the question: do I stop along the way?
Coming up: a slide show of Assisi. This is a work in progress.
Hope you enjoy.....
Catholics mobilize to help victims of disasters in Asia, South PacificBy Catholic News ServiceJAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) -- Catholic aid agencies geared up to help victims of a series of disasters in Asia and the South Pacific as victims of quakes, tsunamis and typhoons braced themselves for more.Even as staff from Catholic charitable agencies in Indonesia were headed out to assess damage from a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit Sumatra Island Sept. 30, another quake of magnitude 6.8 hit. Similarly, in the South Pacific, residents who experienced a Sept. 29 earthquake and subsequent tsunami felt another quake Oct. 1.And in the Philippines, where more than 270 people died in and around Manila from Typhoon Ketsana, officials in the southern island of Luzon remained on alert for Typhoon Parma, expected to hit land Oct. 3 with winds of more than 125 mph.Much of the aid was being coordinated by Caritas, the Catholic Church's network of charitable aid agencies, although religious orders, lay communities and organizations, and Catholics at the parish level were doing what they could to help the victims.Indonesian government officials said Oct. 1 that more than 750 people died in the first earthquake, but they expected that casualties could surpass the 5,000 dead from a May 2006 quake.A team from Caritas Indonesia, known locally as Karina, was dispatched to assess the situation, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News."Based on their report, Karina will immediately arrange to send medical workers and volunteers and material aid," Father Paulus Sigit Pramudji, head of Caritas Indonesia, told UCA News Oct. 1.Thousands of homes, public buildings and facilities were severely damaged. UCA News reported that a multistory, Catholic-run, foreign-language school collapsed, trapping many students in the debris.The Indonesian branch of the Sant'Egidio Community, an international lay Catholic association, was collecting tents, blankets, mats, mosquito nets, medicines, generators, food, drinking water and clothes."We will immediately send a team with the aid to Padang to help the victims," Eveline Winarko, head of Sant'Egidio in Indonesia, told UCA News.In the South Pacific, nearly 140 people on Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga were killed after a magnitude 8 undersea earthquake at dawn Sept. 29 set off a series of four giant waves. Two days later, a magnitude 5.5 quake hit.Caritas Samoa collaborated with the National Disaster Team and the Red Cross to coordinate a plan for the tsunami response. It was also cooperating with a local Catholic school and other members of the community to respond to the emergency, said a statement.Earlier in September, Caritas in Samoa hosted other Caritas members from the Oceania region for a conference that included a trial run for a tsunami response. The tsunami destroyed the center on Upolu Island in which those meetings where held, Caritas said.The director of Caritas Samoa, Puletini Tuala, said the first concern was to gather the people and lead them to higher ground, then to assist with shelter and assess other needs.That's exactly what a group of Salesian nuns in Lepua, American Samoa, did after the first quake. Salesian Sister Margaret Bentley, provincial in Melbourne, Australia, which is responsible for Samoa, said the nuns sheltered and entertained about 200 preschool and elementary students for the day.In New Zealand, where Samoans form the largest Pacific ethnic group, parishes around the country held prayer services for victims and their families and friends. A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Catholic bishops' conference said its Caritas agency expected to join the wider Caritas network in Oceania to help provide relief for the tsunami victims.Caritas officials in Australia were working with the international network -- including the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services -- to coordinate aid for distribution by Caritas Samoa and Caritas Tonga.The Baltimore-based CRS also was working in the Philippines and Vietnam to help victims of Typhoon Ketsana, or Ondoy, as it was referred to in the Philippines."They're calling this the Katrina of the Philippines," Luc Picard, CRS country representative in Manila, told Catholic News Service Sept. 28.In a statement, the Caritas office in the Philippines said it was initially providing aid to a total of 10,000 families, or 50,000 people. Included in that amount was help from CRS and Development and Peace, the Canadian Catholic bishops' international aid agency.The Knights of Columbus also pledged aid to help the typhoon victims.Brian Caulfield, editor of Fathers for Good, an initiative of the Knights of Columbus, said in a blog posting that his wife's family was caught in the flood. He said his in-laws live a block from the river and said they had seen flooding that brought "8 feet of water into the house. With Ketsana, however, the water rose to 20 feet, forcing my in-laws to the second-floor bedrooms, then onto the pitched roof.""With the water now touching the roof and the rain still slashing with 50-mile-per-hour winds, they were afraid of being washed away," Caulfield said. In order to survive, his wife's family created a raft out of a rope and bamboo poles to get to a neighbor's house, which was located on higher ground, he said.END
Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
Senate Committee Addresses Some Issues On Affordability, Fails To Correct Abortion Problems And Immigration Concerns, Say Usccb Officials
WASHINGTON— Officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) saw mixed results when the Senate Finance Committee completed voting on amendment to its proposed health care reform bill this week.
In a recent letter to the Senate, the USCCB had called for improvements in the bill to meet the bishops’ key criteria for genuine health care reform: protecting life and dignity, affordability, and inclusion of immigrants. For the text of this letter see www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2009-09-30-healthcare-letter-senate.pdf.
WASHINGTON— Officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) saw mixed results when the Senate Finance Committee completed voting on amendment to its proposed health care reform bill this week.
In a recent letter to the Senate, the USCCB had called for improvements in the bill to meet the bishops’ key criteria for genuine health care reform: protecting life and dignity, affordability, and inclusion of immigrants. For the text of this letter see www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2009-09-30-healthcare-letter-senate.pdf.
Twenty Seventh Week of the Year
MONDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 10:25-37)
The parable of the Good Samaritan, is one of those passages in Scripture which are etched into the psyche of all who read the Word. There is something about this parable which touches the heart strings of all who read it...inside of it we see ourselves.
Why did the priest and Levite pass the man? Was it because they were indifferent to the suffering, was it because they felt we have nothing to do with this man, because of just cold heartiness....I think not. I think the reason they passed by was because of fear. The wounded man was bleeding. If the priest or Levite, according the law, came into contact with this blood they would become ritually unclean. This they did not want, so they chose the safe way. The Samaritan, on the other hand, did not have to worry about this, he was free. This parable is about much more than doing good, it is about the freedom we must have to do that good.
Work, things that we are responsible for, some good plans that we may be working on, an assignment given us by a superior....these are all good or at least indifferent. To be a good Samaritan does not merely mean did we help someone...this can as a matter of fact be a rather simple thing to do. A good Samaritan is one who is called on to make a judgment about the norms by which he or she acts. Is there the freedom to be present to and respond to those who are in need.
TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 10:38-42)
The story of Martha and Mary. The teaching of Our Lord on prayer begins here. We will be going , in the following days , into the Our Father , trust and some basic attitudes towards prayer. In this passage Our Lord is telling us about listening in prayer. How necessary it is just at times to sit at his feet and quietly open the ears of our hearts and let His word come in. In that silence He reveals Himself to us.
If I may there is another aspect of this story which has always attracted me. It is the fact that a teacher, Jesus, would be teaching a woman. In our day this is a part of the story which we would probably not even avert to. In Jesus' time for a teacher to have a woman sit at his feet, a sign of being a disciple, was radical. Something new which must have caused some people surprise. It was not done.
Jesus always seems to be doing things like this. It is almost like He is deliberately trying to get peoples attention. Doing good on the Sabbath, picking wheat, eating with the publicans...even the men He called to be His apostles...He challenged people to think beyond the safe, secure boundaries and to look beyond...in this simple scene of Mary at this feet Jesus is opening up a new world.
WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:1-4)
The first thing which comes to mind in praying this prayer is the absolute poverty we have before God. It is an overpowering thought that the Good God permits a weak human being to look up and say "Father". It would be so safe if all I could do would be to be able to think about God. This in itself is something to marvel at....but God is not satisfied with that. He wants a conversation with us, communion.
It is all pure gift...we use expressions such as: my prayer, I am going to pray....as though it was our work. We take possession of a gift and deny by our attitude that it is pure gift. No one can look to God except those whom He permit s. No one can enter into this conversation except those whom He invites ...we respond to this gift, to the invitation...but the initiative is from God. He, as my mother used to remind us, grabs us by the back of the neck and lifts us to Him before we can go to Him.
THURSDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:5-13)
Many years ago I worked in a small country parish in Japan. There was a kindergarten attached to the Church. During the summer months when the children were let out at 11:30AM there would be at least one child who would want ice-cream. The little shop outside the gates of the Church was the source of this temptation.
It being so close to lunch time, no matter how much the child cried the mother would not give in. However, most mothers did come prepared with some sort of little cookie. Usually this would not alleviate the child's need, the crying would continue...only ice-cream. The mother would be forced to pick the child up without ice-cream and without cookie and carry him or her away.
I often reflected on those scenes and said to myself: that is the way I act in front of God. Crying for what I think is good for me, seeing nothing else but the ice-cream, and missing the gifts which He is giving me.
FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:15-26)
To attribute to the devil the work of God....what a blasphemy
They saw marvelous things happening, things they could not explain...devils being defeated...the blind seeing what is the meaning of all this? Why didn't they say: this is the work of God....why did they have to say: the work of the devil?....fear, perhaps....maybe there is something inside of people that makes evil more comprehensible than good....isn't it true that evil, no matter what form it may take, almost captures us.
We do not have to exert too much energy, psychic or emotional to grasp the reality of evil...but good, we either let it go by like a summer breeze or else take it for granted.
Heaven and earth are indeed full of the glory of God....the disciple is asked to proclaim that glory...to announce the marvelous workings of God.
SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:27-28)
The other day I got involved in a discussion about relevancy, one of the many buzz words of this day and age. We came to the conclusion that not everything in the Gospel is relevant to " all of the people all of the time "...life cycles are different.
I need to hear different things at different times
Mary is a good example of someone who was not afraid to listen to the new things. She did not stop listening at the Annunciation, she listened to the Gloria on Christmas night, she listened to "a sword shall pierce your heart", she heard her son say " I must be about my Father's business" finally, "woman behold your son".....she listened and she came to understand and to live her vocation.
Our lives with Christ are always deepening...our lives change...Christ wants to speak to us where we are...He wants us to respond where we are...in the quiet of our hearts to listen...having heard to act on the Word.
The parable of the Good Samaritan, is one of those passages in Scripture which are etched into the psyche of all who read the Word. There is something about this parable which touches the heart strings of all who read it...inside of it we see ourselves.
Why did the priest and Levite pass the man? Was it because they were indifferent to the suffering, was it because they felt we have nothing to do with this man, because of just cold heartiness....I think not. I think the reason they passed by was because of fear. The wounded man was bleeding. If the priest or Levite, according the law, came into contact with this blood they would become ritually unclean. This they did not want, so they chose the safe way. The Samaritan, on the other hand, did not have to worry about this, he was free. This parable is about much more than doing good, it is about the freedom we must have to do that good.
Work, things that we are responsible for, some good plans that we may be working on, an assignment given us by a superior....these are all good or at least indifferent. To be a good Samaritan does not merely mean did we help someone...this can as a matter of fact be a rather simple thing to do. A good Samaritan is one who is called on to make a judgment about the norms by which he or she acts. Is there the freedom to be present to and respond to those who are in need.
TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 10:38-42)
The story of Martha and Mary. The teaching of Our Lord on prayer begins here. We will be going , in the following days , into the Our Father , trust and some basic attitudes towards prayer. In this passage Our Lord is telling us about listening in prayer. How necessary it is just at times to sit at his feet and quietly open the ears of our hearts and let His word come in. In that silence He reveals Himself to us.
If I may there is another aspect of this story which has always attracted me. It is the fact that a teacher, Jesus, would be teaching a woman. In our day this is a part of the story which we would probably not even avert to. In Jesus' time for a teacher to have a woman sit at his feet, a sign of being a disciple, was radical. Something new which must have caused some people surprise. It was not done.
Jesus always seems to be doing things like this. It is almost like He is deliberately trying to get peoples attention. Doing good on the Sabbath, picking wheat, eating with the publicans...even the men He called to be His apostles...He challenged people to think beyond the safe, secure boundaries and to look beyond...in this simple scene of Mary at this feet Jesus is opening up a new world.
WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:1-4)
The first thing which comes to mind in praying this prayer is the absolute poverty we have before God. It is an overpowering thought that the Good God permits a weak human being to look up and say "Father". It would be so safe if all I could do would be to be able to think about God. This in itself is something to marvel at....but God is not satisfied with that. He wants a conversation with us, communion.
It is all pure gift...we use expressions such as: my prayer, I am going to pray....as though it was our work. We take possession of a gift and deny by our attitude that it is pure gift. No one can look to God except those whom He permit s. No one can enter into this conversation except those whom He invites ...we respond to this gift, to the invitation...but the initiative is from God. He, as my mother used to remind us, grabs us by the back of the neck and lifts us to Him before we can go to Him.
THURSDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:5-13)
Many years ago I worked in a small country parish in Japan. There was a kindergarten attached to the Church. During the summer months when the children were let out at 11:30AM there would be at least one child who would want ice-cream. The little shop outside the gates of the Church was the source of this temptation.
It being so close to lunch time, no matter how much the child cried the mother would not give in. However, most mothers did come prepared with some sort of little cookie. Usually this would not alleviate the child's need, the crying would continue...only ice-cream. The mother would be forced to pick the child up without ice-cream and without cookie and carry him or her away.
I often reflected on those scenes and said to myself: that is the way I act in front of God. Crying for what I think is good for me, seeing nothing else but the ice-cream, and missing the gifts which He is giving me.
FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:15-26)
To attribute to the devil the work of God....what a blasphemy
They saw marvelous things happening, things they could not explain...devils being defeated...the blind seeing what is the meaning of all this? Why didn't they say: this is the work of God....why did they have to say: the work of the devil?....fear, perhaps....maybe there is something inside of people that makes evil more comprehensible than good....isn't it true that evil, no matter what form it may take, almost captures us.
We do not have to exert too much energy, psychic or emotional to grasp the reality of evil...but good, we either let it go by like a summer breeze or else take it for granted.
Heaven and earth are indeed full of the glory of God....the disciple is asked to proclaim that glory...to announce the marvelous workings of God.
SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY- SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Luke 11:27-28)
The other day I got involved in a discussion about relevancy, one of the many buzz words of this day and age. We came to the conclusion that not everything in the Gospel is relevant to " all of the people all of the time "...life cycles are different.
I need to hear different things at different times
Mary is a good example of someone who was not afraid to listen to the new things. She did not stop listening at the Annunciation, she listened to the Gloria on Christmas night, she listened to "a sword shall pierce your heart", she heard her son say " I must be about my Father's business" finally, "woman behold your son".....she listened and she came to understand and to live her vocation.
Our lives with Christ are always deepening...our lives change...Christ wants to speak to us where we are...He wants us to respond where we are...in the quiet of our hearts to listen...having heard to act on the Word.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
