11/17/2016 - Thursday of the 33rd week in Ordinary Time - Luke 19:41-44

       Jesus approaches the holy city of Jerusalem for the last time during his public ministry here on earth.  He is overcome with emotion.  He weeps for his city and his people, knowing in his heart that destruction and calamity will befall them very soon.  Jesus knew that the Jews of Ancient Israel struggled throughout their history to follow God, to be true to his laws and commandments, to honor their covenant with him. For the many times they’ve strayed, the Jews were often recalcitrant and willfully disobedient.  Perhaps in our journey through life and our journey through faith, we struggle with the same things that the Jews did in Ancient Israel.  I was listening to my favorite podcast while I was traveling to visit the sick the other day, produced by a high school teacher in Portland, Oregon who has become one of the people who have contributed many writings and broadcasts to promote the pilgrimage of the Way of St James in Spain, a pilgrimage that is traditionally Catholic.  I have listened to more than 25 different podcasts that this young man has produced, enjoying them immensely.  However, it shocked me when he stated in the last podcast that he considers himself a secular pilgrim and does not have an attitude of spirituality and faith when he approaches his pilgrimage walks on the Camino. That comment shocked me a bit, because he is such a big fan of the pilgrimage route and nothing he had said previously led me believe that he approached pilgrimage from a non-religious and non-spiritual perspective.  As Catholics and as disciples of Christ, we are to approach life through the lens of our faith, to be faithful witnesses to Gospel who undertake great sacrifices and hardships for the sake of the faith.  As opposed to how Jesus saw the people of Jerusalem of his day, may he be able to say to us at the end of our journey: “Well done, faithful disciple.”  

11/15/2016 - Tuesday of the 33rd week of Ordinary Time - Luke 19:1-10

How often do we go out on a limb for our faith?  Do we make an extraordinary effort to search for God in our lives and to find the ways he is present to us?  Today, in the familiar story of Zacchaeus, which we just heard in our Sunday liturgy back on October 31. We see Zacchaeus literally climb a tree and go out on a limb in order to find God in his life.  He responds to meeting Jesus, to having Jesus call after him, by conversion and repentance, by offering to give half of his possessions to the poor, by willing to make amends to those whom he extorted money from during his work as a chief tax collector. 

Zacchaeus originally just wanted to have a glimpse of Jesus, an external encounter with him.  But Zacchaeus now come to see Jesus in a much deeper profound sense.  He sees Jesus in a way that changes and transforms his own life. I bet that all of us, too, want to see Jesus in a deeper sense in our lives, just like Zacchaeus did. Only then will we know what it mean to be a true disciple of Christ. When Jesus says to each one of us, “I want to stay in your house today,” may we joyfully open our door to welcome him in.

November 16 - Reflection on the Anniversary of the Martyrs of El Salvador

         God calls us in the reality and the circumstances of our lives, just as he called the prophets of Ancient Israel and the disciples of Jesus out of the reality of their own lives.  Today, we commemorate a very stark reality that happened in our own lifetime: the anniversary of 6 Jesuit priests who were martyred in the country of El Salvador in Central America on this date in 1989 at their residence at the university.  These men gave up their lives for the faith in the midst of a revolution and the great political turmoil in this poor Latin American Country. In our own way, in the reality of our own lives, we are also called to live out our faith courageous and sincerely in order to find Jesus in our own lives and to be witnesses of the Gospel in the world around us. “The struggle against injustice and the pursuit of truth cannot be separated nor can one work for one independent of the other”: These are words spoken by Father Ignatio Ellacuria, the superior of that Jesuit community that was martyred.  His profound words challenge us to live out the justice that God’s truth calls us to, a justice that cannot be separated from our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

11/13/2016 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Luke 21:5-19

      As we approach the end of our Church’s liturgical year, we hear Jesus talk about the end times in today’s Gospel.  As Christians, we can be so tempted in putting our own interpretation on our Church’s teaching of the end times. Throughout history, there have been many different false prophets who have done this, who have been predicting when the end times were going to happen. There were the Left Behind books that were popular in the 1990s. Then there was all the histeria out there when we celebrated the new millennium, when people were stockpiling food and predicting that all the computers were going to crash.  Even though Jesus explicitly told us that we could not speculate as to when the end times would happen, so many Christians cannot resist the temptation.  

     So, in order to correctly interpret today’s message, we need to put our Gospel today into its proper context.  This Gospel passage is part of Jesus’ teachings in the Temple.  We remember that this was the Temple that was destroyed 6 centuries before Jesus birth.  All of Jerusalem was in ruins and much of the population of Ancient Israel was sent into exile in Babylonia for 70 years.  The Jews finally returned to their beloved city to rebuild the Temple, but the Temple never achieved its former glory.  Under King Herod, during the days of Jesus, a rebuilding project was undertaken to expand the Temple.  The people saw the Temple as the place where God resided.   Indeed, if a Jew in Ancient Israel wanted to encounter God, he went to the Temple.  Jesus had already had cleansed the Temple of the merchants and money changers by the time today’s Gospel takes place.  Now, he predicts the destruction of the Temple, warning that its stonework and votive offerings will come tumbling down. To the proud people of Jerusalem, Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Temple was blasphemy and an insult to God - certainly God would not allow it. Yet, within 40 year, Jesus’ words would be mostly fulfilled, with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the year 70 AD. By the time Luke’s Gospel was written, this had already occurred. The Christians of this time period had to decide: Now that the Temple and Jerusalem have been destroyed, now that we are going through a time of terrible persecutions, what is God calling us to do?  Jesus assures his followers in the Gospel today that they are to believe in his words in the face of persecutors and false prophets. We can use every circumstance for the glory of God and as an opportunity to be witnesses to Gospel message.  

      Rather than trying to predict the end times and trying to predict the future, perhaps we Christians need to be more concerned about how we live out the faith each day of our times.  It is in the everyday practice of our faith that we will be prepared and strengthen our relationship with Christ. When I was at the International Stewardship conference in New Orleans back in October, the first talk I went to was entitled: Everyday Stewardship: Spirituality for the Ordinary, Everyday Person.  The title alone intrigued me. First thing that was mentioned in the talk is that we are called to walk with Jesus each day and to live our faith in the present moment, in the here and now.  As modern Christians, we can often just focus on the future, neglecting the present. We are called to be mindful of our relationship with Jesus and mindful of our faith, seeking him out in the everyone moments in our lives. We can often put our faith into compartments, focusing it into what we do once a week when we go to Sunday mass.  Mass is very, very important, but we need to infuse our faith in our daily lives in a more focused and mindful way. Yes, this is a difficult, stern Gospel message for us to digest today.  At the heart of this Gospel message, we have a call to trust: to trust in Jesus, to trust in our faith, and to trust that we will persevere.  We are to place our hope and trust in the way that Jesus will accompany us through any trials and tribulations that come our way.  We are not to wait for the end times to come in order to find the courage we need to be disciples of Christ: we are to learn from Christ’s wisdom and teaching as we journey in faith each day. 

11/18/2016 – Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter & St. Paul – Friday of the 33rd week in Ordinary Time - Luke 19:45 - 48

          Today, we celebrate the dedication of the basilicas of St. Peter & St. Paul, two of the four major basilicas in Rome.  The other two major basilicas are St. Mary Major & St. John Lateran – our Church also celebrates the feasts of their dedications as well. In fact, we just celebrated the feast of St John Lateran on November 9.   The basilica of St. Peter is perhaps one of the most well-known places of worship in all of Christianity – the current structure began construction in the year 1506, but it was not completed until 1626 under the papacy of Urban VIII.    The Basilica of St Paul's is often referred to as "St Paul Outside the Walls," as it was built by the Emperor Constantine in 324 along the Ostiense Way about a mile outside of the Aurelian Walls that surrounded the city of Rome.  The Basilica was enlarged and renovated in the late 4th century, but was later destroyed by fire in 1823, with the new basilica built from what remained.  

            In today’s well-know Gospel story, we hear about Jesus expressing his righteous anger over what he sees going on in the Temple, how a place that is supposed to be centered on worship and prayer has become a place for its community’s business transactions and negotiations.  It makes me wonder how Jesus would view our parishes and our places of worship today in our modern world, how he would view the liturgy and the other parish activities that take place here at our humble parish in Tupelo.  The attitude of those he saw in the Temple so angered Jesus, incurring his wrath.  What would he think of our attitudes, of the way we welcome the stranger in our midst, of the way we reach out to the poor and the oppressed in our community, of the way we take care of the church and use it to lift up our Lord and our faith? 

            As we come to mass and come to church, let us examine the attitudes and actions that we bring with us.  Are they befitting of a place that is set aside for community worship & for our holy encounter with God? 

11/11/2016 - Friday of the 32nd week in Ordinary Time - Luke 17:26-37

   Will we be prepared when the Son of Man comes?  We know from the accounts of the flooding the communities around Baton Rouge experienced this summer, as well as our own experience with the tornado here in Tupelo, disaster can strike so quickly, but it’s almost impossible to be prepared ahead of time.  When the daily of the Son of Man's return is revealed to us, when he comes at the end times, it will be too late for us to take emergency measures if we have not prepared already.  But, rather than being a message that fills us with fear and foreboding, our message from the Gospel today is to encouraged us to always be vigilant and prepared.  

      As we hear about the need to be prepared in our lives of faith, perhaps the example of the saints comes to our mind.  The saints that we celebrate in the daily masses are not just an ancient part of Church history.  The saints have a great deal to teach us and they are truly among us with their prayers & intercessions: they are a part of the same Body of Christ to which we belong.  St. Martin of Tours lived in the fourth century, but he remains a very popular saint to this day.  Martin was born of pagan parents and was forced to serve in the military at a very young age.  He left the military service as an adult, hearing the call to serve Christ in a special way in service to the Church.  A famous story about Martin recounts how as a soldier, he met a beggar on the road, how all he had on him was his weapon and his cloak. Martin cut his cloak in half, giving half to this poor man.  Many who saw him laughed at this strange appearance of a man only wearing half a cloak, but Martin knew he did the right thing.  Martin later became the Bishop of Tours where he not only fought the heresies of the Church, but also tried to bring the heretics back into the flock.  

     It is certainly appropriate that we hear the story of Martin of Tours on Veterans Day. We give thanks for all of our Veterans, for their service to our country.  This day was chosen for Veterans Day because it marked the end of WWI, with the Armistice signed with Germany and its allies that went into affect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  At a time where there is a lot of tension and frustration and uncertainty in our country and in our world, we pray for peace and reconciliation today as we remember those who served in our country, both the living and the dead, and as we honor their service.   

11/10/2016 - Memorial of St Leo the Great - Pope and Doctor of the Church - Thursday of the 32nd week of Ordinary Time - Philemon 7-20

     Today’s first reading is from Paul’s letter to Philemon.  Most Christians wouldn’t even be able to name Philemon as one of the books of the New Testament.  Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters, not even organized in chapters and only 355 words longs, written originally in Greek. While Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison, he was not concerned with his own well-being, but rather the well-being of the runaway slave Onesimus,who was returning to his owner.  Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus back not as a slave or a servant, but rather as a brother in Christ, to practice God’s justice and mercy in his life. 

      It is interesting how the message of Philemon interacts with the life of the Saint we celebrate today - Leo the Great.  He was elected Pope in 440 at a time when the Church was battling several heresies. One of these heresies - Nestorianism  - held that Christ had two natures - both human and divine - but that because of these two natures, Christ was two separate persons. Another heresy was Monophysitism, which held that Jesus only had one nature, his divine nature, which had replaced his human nature.  For the eloquent defense he wrote against these heresies and his other writings, Leo was named Doctor of the Church.  Although a lot of heresies were put to rest in the Early Church, we have new heresies today, or the old ones creep up on us again in different disguises. One such heresy is Pelagianism, the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without the help of God’s divine grace working in our lives.  This heresy was named about Pelagius, an English born monk who died in the early 5th century.  Pelagianism was condemned as a heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431.  Pope Francis and many Protestant leaders have condemned what they see as a modern-day version of Pelagianism, of so many who think that by their own efforts they make everything right in their lives, as we look for the self-help course that will magically solve everything, as we try to achieve salvation on our own, in our own way.  Pope Francis called this a “spiritual worldliness.”  Leo the Great saw our salvation and our journey through life intrinsically tied to the salvation we have in Christ: “No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross.  No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.”  Pope Leo the Great, we pray for your intercession and we unite our prayers to yours.