Examination of Conscience

 +                2nd Sunday of Advent

                  A cycle

 

 

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, all the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading contains perhaps the most colorful and famous passage found in all of the prophetic writings. It is the story of the "peaceable kingdom" where

 

       the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

      and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...

 

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day. 

 

If we listen carefully, we can see that Isaiah is contrasting the rule of the future King with the actual state of things in his own time. He complains that people, especially those in authority, judge things solely by appearances and not by principle or justice. They make up their minds by hearsay. Neither the poor not the land's afflicted receive justice or mercy. The ruthless and the wicked prevail. If the future King will rule with justice and faithfulness, it is clear that the present rulers do just the opposite.

 

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Matthew tells us that Isaiah's famous lines refer to John.

 

      A voice of one crying out in the desert,

      Prepare the way of the Lord,

      make straight his paths.

 

Like Isaiah, John is a critic of the leaders of his own time. Although people were coming from all over to be baptized in the Jordan, John lashes out at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the leaders of the Jews, for their hypocrisy. Archaeologists tell us how important ritual bathing or baptism was to the Jews at the time of Christ. The frequent washings were not just to cleanse the body, they were also meant to purify the soul.

 

When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism, he calls them a "brood of vipers" because they have no true repentance for the wrongs they have done. They think that it's enough to go through the ritual washing of the body without a thought to a subsequent change of their behavior. He tells them that their status as leaders of the community and descendants of Abraham means nothing unless they "produce good fruit as evidence of ... repentance."

 

What is good fruit? We can go back to Isaiah's list. We should not judge others merely by appearances. We should avoid deciding merely by hearsay. We should treat those less fortunate than ourselves with fairness and compassion, and not take advantage of them because of their circumstances. We should avoid ruthless and wicked behavior. Is our society any different than Isaiah's? 

 

When John speaks of repentance, he is talking about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to  examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

 

Even though the phrase, “examination of conscience” may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

 

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life? 

 

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits? 

 

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good. In today's reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of the quality of endurance. We are in this life for the long haul and must be prepared to go the distance. 

 

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.

 ###

Reading 1. Isaiah 11: 1-10

Reading II. Romans 15: 4-9

Gospel. Matthew 3: 1-12 (John the Baptist appeared).

The Sower

                  15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                  A cycle

 

      

Today’s first reading is clearly an introduction to the famous parable recounted in today’s gospel account of the sower and the seed. Isaiah compares the word of God to the rain and snow that make everything blossom and grow. Without this moisture which comes down from above there would be no life on earth. Obviously Isaiah is talking about much more than rain and snow. For him the word of God is more real and more important than the rain and snow.

 

      My word shall not return to me void,

      But shall do my will,

      Achieving the end for which I sent it.

 

In today’s parable Jesus shares Isaiah’s view. He even quotes from Isaiah. The parable of the sower and the seed is one of the most famous but it is also the only one which Jesus bothers to explain to his puzzled disciples. In Matthew’s account the seed, that is, the word of God, falls in different places with different results. Some falls on the hardened, trodden down path and is quickly eaten by the birds. Some falls on rocky ground where there is little soil to nourish it. Some falls among thorns or weeds which choke it. Finally, the rest falls on good soil and produces a bountiful harvest.

 

What is the meaning of this parable? After telling His disciples why He uses parables, Jesus then explains to them the meaning of this one. Let’s try to put His explanation in our own words. In the first place, He equates the seed sown in the path with those who hear the word of God without understanding it. Who could that be?

 

How many people today have only the most rudimentary knowledge of their own faith? For how many of us does our religious education stop with the eighth grade? Is there any other field of endeavor in which we would be content to stay at the eighth grade level? What would we think of a job application where the candidate’s schooling stopped at the eighth grade? Why do we spend thousands of dollars trying to get a college degree? What professional athlete would be content with eighth grade skills? Even when they make the pros they have to keep acquiring new skills in order to remain competitive. Why should life be any different? 

 

The second case of the rocky ground is more difficult. We all know of people whose faith has been shaken and even lost by some setback, some sorrow, and even some tragedy. Our Lord speaks of tribulation. But today, how many people have lost their faith because of a bad marriage or a divorce? How many have lost it because of some word spoken by an insensitive priest or religious? How many have lost their faith because of the scandalous behavior of a few priests? Finally, it is so sad to see the death or illness of a loved one cause someone to question their beliefs.

 

We don’t have to work too hard to understand the third category. 

 

      The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,

      But then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word

      And it bears no fruit.

 

Worldly anxiety is something we can all relate to. It requires no dramatic event or crisis. It creeps up on us slowly and before we know it we are in its grasp. Young people know how important it is to have friends, but often the desire to be popular and well-liked can take over and ruin their lives. We all know that it is important for us to work hard in order to provide for the basic needs of our families, but how often do we see men and women so consumed by their work that their families are seriously hurt in the process of getting ahead? Even the elderly can fall into a daily routine that chokes them like the thorns in today’s gospel.

 

Life is full of snares and traps. Maybe that is what St. Paul had in mind in today’s reading from the Letter to the Romans.

 

      for creation was made subject to futility,

      not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it. 

 

There is no denying that there is pain and suffering in the world. Paul continually urges his followers to remain steadfast in their beliefs and not to turn their backs on God, or ignore the teaching of his Son, Jesus. As in any endeavor there is a reward for perseverance.

 

      I consider that the sufferings of the present time are as nothing

      Compared with the glory to be revealed.

 

The seed, the grace of God, has been given to us all. It is not just the saints and martyrs who have borne fruit. They are just the tip of a huge iceberg. God’s grace is not a pious fiction. Despite all the pain and suffering in the world today, we just have to look around us to see in a multitude of acts of kindness, generosity, and unselfish charity the bountiful harvest that the seed of God is still producing.

 

###

Reading 1. Isaiah 55: 10-11

Reading II. Romans 8:18-23

Gospel. Matthew 13: 1-23 (A sower went out to sow).

The Narrow Gate

+                21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

                  C cycle

 

In today's first reading from the prophet Isaiah we have an image of an almost limitless line of people streaming toward Jerusalem, God's "holy mountain," a symbol of Heaven. The Lord says,

 

 I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. 

 

Today's gospel reading from St. Luke gives us the same picture.

 

      And people will come from the east and the west

      and from the north and the south

      and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.

 

You may recall that we have been in the third or "C" cycle of readings since the year began. In this cycle most of the gospel readings are from St. Luke's gospel. From the beginning it has been St. Luke's intention to depict our Lord's journey to Jerusalem. All year Jesus has been preaching, teaching, healing, and working wonders on His way. Today's reading begins this way:

 

      Jesus passed through towns and villages,

      teaching as He went and making His way to Jerusalem.

 

All along the way He has been asking His people, including us, to join Him on the journey. 

 

Despite the vast numbers of those who will enter the Kingdom, there is a hint in both readings that some will not make it. There is even the strong suggestion that among those who will not make it are those who might have thought that they had it locked up. Isaiah says that the Lord will go outside the ranks of the "chosen people" to strangers in distant lands who "have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory." This reminds us of the parable where Jesus speaks of a King who, after the invited guests failed to show up, had to go out into "the highways and byways" to find guests for his banquet.

 

The message of today's gospel is equally clear. The master of the house has locked the door and some will be left out. This parable refers to the Jews, especially the Pharisees, of our Lord's time. They will see Abraham and the prophets at the great banquet but they, themselves, will fail to be admitted. Now, whenever Jesus speaks to the Jews and Pharisees we should realize that He is also speaking to us. For just like our Lord's contemporaries we also run the risk of being locked out of the banquet. 

 

Now we shouldn't get the impression that Heaven is a kind of walled fortress that is almost impossible to enter. When our Lord compares it to a banquet, He means that it is happiness. He never says that we have to wait until death to find happiness. We can start the journey right now. In fact, it will be fatal to delay.

 

      Strive to enter through the narrow gate,

      for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter

      but will not be strong enough.

 

It's hard to know exactly what He means by "narrow gate" but let's consider the words, "strive" and "strong."  As He does on so many other occasions, Jesus says that concentrated effort along with constant preparedness is necessary to find happiness.

 

His saying brings to mind the Olympic games and the athletes who compete in them. Of all the athletes how many are strong enough, fast enough, or skilled enough to reach the victor's podium? Talk about a narrow gate! Just think of all the athletes who are not even eligible for their country's Olympic trials. Think about all those who then will fail to qualify at the trials. Finally, even when they go to the Olympic games many world class favorites will falter and fail to realize their dreams.   

 

Whether winners or losers we know that all the participants will put in incredible amounts of time and effort in pursuit of their goal. Even though TV cameras will only highlight the efforts of a few favorites, all of the athletes must believe in sacrifice and self discipline. I recall one young runner who said that he had dreamt of the Olympics since he was nine years old, and had dedicated his whole life to getting there. 

 

However, when it comes to our own lives, why are so many of us couch potatoes? What do we do to prepare ourselves for the great events that we will face in life's decathlon. Today's second reading is about discipline, the constant training and practice that is required to face life's hurdles and trials.

 

      all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,

      yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness

      to those who are trained by it.

 

How many of us in our business and professional careers go to countless workshops and seminars in order to strengthen and develop our skills. We learn and practice these skills in order to improve our performance. Yet, how often do we fail to apply these skills to our own personal quest for happiness? If discipline and self-sacrifice work in sports or business, why shouldn't they work in our personal journey?

 

###

Reading 1. Isaiah 66: 18-21

Reading II. 1 Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13

Gospel. Luke 13: 22-30 (the narrow gate). 

Advent: Examination of Conscience

+                                  2nd Sunday of Advent

                                   

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, all the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading contains perhaps the most colorful and famous passage found in all of the prophetic writings. It is the story of the "peaceable kingdom" where

             the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

            and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day. 

If we listen carefully, we can see that Isaiah is contrasting the rule of the future King with the actual state of things in his own time. He complains that people, especially those in authority, judge things solely by appearances and not by principle or justice. They make up their minds by hearsay. Neither the poor not the land's afflicted receive justice or mercy. The ruthless and the wicked prevail. If the future King will rule with justice and faithfulness, it is clear that the present rulers do just the opposite.

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Matthew tells us that Isaiah's famous lines refer to John.

            A voice of one crying out in the desert,

            Prepare the way of the Lord,

            make straight his paths.

Like Isaiah, John is a critic of the leaders of his own time. Although people were coming from all over to be baptized in the Jordan, John lashes out at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the leaders of the Jews, for their hypocrisy. Archaeologists tell us how important ritual bathing or baptism was to the Jews at the time of Christ. The frequent washings were not just to cleanse the body, they were also meant to purify the soul.

When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism, he calls them a "brood of vipers" because they have no true repentance for the wrongs they have done. They think that it's enough to go through the ritual washing of the body without a thought to a subsequent change of their behavior. He tells them that their status as leaders of the community and descendants of Abraham means nothing unless they "produce good fruit as evidence of ... repentance."

What is good fruit? We can go back to Isaiah's list. We should not judge others merely by appearances. We should avoid deciding merely by hearsay. We should treat those less fortunate than ourselves with fairness and compassion, and not take advantage of them because of their circumstances. We should avoid ruthless and wicked behavior. Is our society any different than Isaiah's? 

When John speaks of repentance, he is talking about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to  examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

Even though the phrase may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life? 

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits? 

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good. In today's reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of the quality of endurance. We are in this life for the long haul and must be prepared to go the distance. 

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.

###

Reading 1. Isaiah 11: 1-10

Reading II. Romans 15: 4-9

Gospel. Matthew 3: 1-12 (John the Baptist appeared).

2nd Sunday of Advent

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, most of the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading from Isaiah has always been regarded as an introduction to the prophetic mission of John the Baptist.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day and call for a day when things would be set right.

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Mark quotes Isaiah's famous lines that refer to John.

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
He will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.

In fact Mark’s gospel which we will use throughout this liturgical year begins with the mission of John the Baptist. Unlike Luke and Matthew, Mark omits the story of the nativity and infancy of Jesus and begins with the outset of his public life. In Mark’s gospel John is portrayed as a very popular figure whose proclamation of a baptism of repentance was attracting people from the whole Judean countyside. Nevertheless, he is an unusual public figure in that he minimizes his own importance and deflects attention from himself. He proclaims:

One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John is, of course, calling attention to Jesus. What he calls a baptism of repentance is a way for all of us to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

Repentance is about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

Even though the phrase, “examination of conscience”, may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life?

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits?

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good.

In today’s second reading, St. Peter asks, “what sort of persons ought you to be,” and urges us to “be eager to be found without spot or blemish.”

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.


Reading 1. Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11
Reading II. 2 Peter 3: 8-14
Gospel. Mark 1: 1-8 (John the Baptist appeared)

Gospel: Salt of the Earth

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time: A cycle


In last week's gospel Jesus went up to a high place and preached to His disciples the now famous "Sermon on the Mount." In today's first reading the prophet Isaiah preaches a similar sermon:

Thus says the Lord:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless,
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.

Isaiah says that for those who behave in this way,

your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed.

Our Lord says the same thing in today's gospel account from St. Matthew. Today we have the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells his followers that,

your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.

But our Lord warns us that our light can flicker and grow dim. Using another metaphor He calls us the salt of the earth, but cautions that "if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?"

In the next few weeks we are going to learn just what it takes to be a “light” to the world or the ‘salt” of the earth. From now to the beginning of Lent we are going to see that the Sermon on the Mount was not just words, words, words. We are going to see that the Beatitudes require hard work on our part. To put it another way, if we really want to be happy in this life as well as in the next, we will have to work very hard at it.

Why should this be so difficult to understand? Most of us are sports fans especially today on Super Bowl Sunday. Is it possible that the two teams in today’s game got to the Super Bowl without hard work and sacrifice? We know that the best teams must have regimented work schedules. They must practice daily whether they like it or not. There is no way that a player or team can sit back and just hope to achieve success.

Some people admire Jesus because he was a great teacher. They like his sayings, the parables, and the words of wisdom found in lessons like the Sermon on the Mount. But they often fail to understand that Jesus came to suffer and die for us—to give up his life for us. Often they fail to understand that he called his disciples, including us, to a life of sacrifice and self-denial. Only if we die to self, will we find true happiness.

In today’s second reading St. Paul shows that he understood the message of the cross of Christ. He tells the Corinthians that “I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.” Instead, he says,

I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
Except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.


Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah issued a call to action that is as relevant today as it was then.

If you remove from your midst
Oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
And the gloom shall become for you like midday.

We are well into the New Year and many of us have already forgotten our resolutions. Maybe they were trivial anyway. In the year to come we might want to do some hard work if we want to get to our own Super bowl.

Reading 1 Isaiah 58: 7-10
Reading II. 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
Gospel. Matthew 5:13-16 (salt of the earth).

Advent Week Three

3rd Sunday of Advent, A cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10
Reading II. James 5: 7-10
Gospel. Matthew 11: 2-11 (none greater than John the Baptist).

In earlier times the third Sunday in Advent was known as "Gaudete Sunday" because the entrance prayer or "Introit" began with the Latin words, "gaudete in domino semper." Translated the phrase means "rejoice in the Lord always." Today, as it has always done, the Church injects an element of joy into the penitential season of Advent. In many churches the priest will put aside the purple vestments which signify sorrow and penance, and put on rose colored vestments, a symbol of joy. The Church is asking us to look ahead to the glory of the coming of the Savior on Christmas.

Certainly, the reading from the prophet Isaiah strikes an upbeat and exultant note. He sees the dry parched earth blooming with new life. He uses words like glory and splendor to describe the once barren land. Men will also be transformed by the Lord. Hands will be strengthened; and weak knees will become firm. To the fainthearted, he says, "Be strong, fear not! Then Isaiah proclaims the famous words which are echoed in today's gospel.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Isaiah and John the Baptist are the two great prophets associated with Advent. Last week we saw John in the midst of his mission to prepare the way of the Lord. John had said that, "the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals." These words were from chapter 3 of Matthew's gospel and were spoken at the beginning of our Lord's public life.

Since that time a lot has happened. By the time we get to today's reading from chapter 11 of Matthew's gospel, Jesus has himself been baptized by John, given the Sermon on the Mount, worked many miracles, and called His own disciples to His side. This is why Jesus, in answer to John's question, "are you the one who is to come?" repeats the words of Isaiah about the blind, the lame, the deaf and the poor. By this time John is in prison, his mission over, and he is soon to be executed.

John had said that he wasn't worthy to carry our Lord's sandals, but Jesus claims that John is the greatest of all the prophets. In fact, our Lord says that "among those born of woman there has been none greater than John the Baptist."

It's common for religious artists to portray John as kind of a strangely dressed wild man shouting at people in the desert. Yet a little later in this chapter of Matthew's our Lord makes the startling claim that " it was toward John that all the prophecies of the prophets and the Law were leading, and he, if you will believe Me, is the Elijah who was to return." The Jews believed that the coming of the Messiah would be preceded by the return of the great prophet, Elijah, who had been taken up into Heaven in a chariot of fire.

Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus takes time to reflect on John and his prophetic mission. After John's disciples had left to bring the good news back to him, Jesus "began to speak to the crowds about John." He asks them why they went out into the desert to see John. What did they expect to see. "A reed swayed by the wind?" "Someone dressed in fine clothing?" He asks them the same question that He asks all of us this Advent. "Then why did you go out." What are we looking for?

Here we are only two weeks before Christmas. What are we looking for this season? What do we want for ourselves and our loved ones this Christmas? Why are we going out to the malls and the shopping centers? Aren't we all trying to find happiness? Aren't we all trying to cast away fear and darkness and bring some joy and light into our lives? Look at the way we light up our houses, look at the music we hear coming over the radio.

I've just read an article by a man who is a well known lecturer, TV personality, and author. He has a beautiful wife and son and is extremely successful. Yet he wrote, "I am almost 60. Time flies and it scares me. I don't want to die. I like being in good health. I don't want to be sick and have wires and tubes and scalpels in me. I like having enough money. I don't want to be old and poor. I sat in my car...shivering in fear. And then it struck me. I spend too darned much of my life in fear. I always have. You can't imagine how much of my life I have thrown away by being a slave to fear."

Today's second reading is an excerpt from the Letter of St. James. We rarely encounter the letter of St. James in our Sunday readings but this short epistle should be required reading for all of us this season. James calls upon us to put away fear. He echoes the words of Isaiah.

Make your hearts firm,
because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

He tells us to be patient, and not to complain. This is good advice in any season. We live in the richest society on the face of the earth; even our poor are better off than billions of people on the rest of the earth. Yet our newspapers and television tell us that there is so much unhappiness and complaining in our society. Today, however, let us look forward to the coming of our Lord on Christmas and put away our fears.

Gaudete! Rejoice in the Lord always.

Advent Week Two

+ 2nd Sunday of Advent
A cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 11: 1-10
Reading II. Romans 15: 4-9
Gospel. Matthew 3: 1-12 (John the Baptist appeared).

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, all the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading contains perhaps the most colorful and famous passage found in all of the prophetic writings. It is the story of the "peaceable kingdom" where

the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day.

If we listen carefully, we can see that Isaiah is contrasting the rule of the future King with the actual state of things in his own time. He complains that people, especially those in authority, judge things solely by appearances and not by principle or justice. They make up their minds by hearsay. Neither the poor not the land's afflicted receive justice or mercy. The ruthless and the wicked prevail. If the future King will rule with justice and faithfulness, it is clear that the present rulers do just the opposite.

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Matthew tells us that Isaiah's famous lines refer to John.

A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.

Like Isaiah, John is a critic of the leaders of his own time. Although people were coming from all over to be baptized in the Jordan, John lashes out at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the leaders of the Jews, for their hypocrisy. Archaeologists tell us how important ritual bathing or baptism was to the Jews at the time of Christ. The frequent washings were not just to cleanse the body, they were also meant to purify the soul.

When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism, he calls them a "brood of vipers" because they have no true repentance for the wrongs they have done. They think that it's enough to go through the ritual washing of the body without a thought to a subsequent change of their behavior. He tells them that their status as leaders of the community and descendants of Abraham means nothing unless they "produce good fruit as evidence of ... repentance."

What is good fruit? We can go back to Isaiah's list. We should not judge others merely by appearances. We should avoid deciding merely by hearsay. We should treat those less fortunate than ourselves with fairness and compassion, and not take advantage of them because of their circumstances. We should avoid ruthless and wicked behavior. Is our society any different than Isaiah's?

When John speaks of repentance, he is talking about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

Even though the phrase may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life?

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits?

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good. In today's reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of the quality of endurance. We are in this life for the long haul and must be prepared to go the distance.

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.

5th Sunday of Lent

5th Sunday of Lent
C cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 43: 16-21
Reading II. Philippians 3: 8-14
Gospel. John 8: 1-11 (Woman caught in Adultery).

Remember last week when we read the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father said to his other son,

we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.

That same theme is continued in today's readings. Isaiah speaks of the desert coming to life again in the same way that our own streets and yards are coming to life again now that springtime is beginning to flower and the dead of winter seems to be over. Isaiah tells the people of God to forget the past for the Lord is "doing something new."

If the subject of last week's gospel was the Prodigal Son, this week's could be the Prodigal Daughter. However, the story of the woman caught in adultery is not a parable. It is a real life occurrence with life and death consequences. Jewish law required that a woman caught in adultery be stoned to death. If she was married or engaged the man involved would also be put to death. If she was unattached, the man usually got off unpunished. People in the ancient world did not think such discrimination unfair. This is one of the ways in which the teaching of Jesus represents such a break with the world before Christianity. Jesus and his followers raised women to equality with men and held men to the same standard.

In today's touching story Jesus literally saves the life of the accused woman. Next year at this time the reading for the 5th Sunday in Lent will be the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. In many ways today's story is just as miraculous. Do you recall another incident where Jesus was dealing with a paralyzed man. He told the poor man that his sins were forgiven but the onlookers murmured in disbelief. In reply, he asked them what was easier to do--to forgive sins or to work a miraculous cure? To prove that he had the power to do both he told the man to pick up his mat and walk.

Today, he saves the woman's life by freeing her from her accusers. "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Then he saves her life from her past. St. John tells us that when the crowd drifted away Jesus was left alone with the woman. This is probably one of the few times in the gospels when Jesus is left alone with anyone. Now it was a scandal in those days for a Jewish man, especially a rabbi, to converse in public with a woman. Nevertheless Jesus speaks with her.

Let's put ourselves in the picture and imagine that we are the woman. He asks, "Has no one condemned you?" We reply, "No one, sir." Then he wipes the slate clean. The past is forgotten, and a new life can begin. He says,

Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.

We live today in awe of psychology and psychoanalysis. Practically everyone who writes to Dear Abby or Ann Landers is told to see a counselor. Unfortunately too many of those counselors only encourage people to go back into the past and find the hidden causes of all their problems. Maybe you had an abusive or neglectful father, maybe a domineering mother. We are told that we cannot get on with our lives until our past life is encountered. For some people this means that they will never escape their past and the wrongs that they have committed or the wrongs that have been inflicted upon them.

This is why we should take a few moments to revisit today's difficult second reading from St. Paul. For Paul there is no looking back. All his past life, his training, his accomplishments, even his sins, he has come to regard as "so much rubbish." Like Isaiah, like the woman caught in adultery, he has been given a new life. He doesn't claim to be saved like a born again Christian. Rather, he has been given a chance to begin a new life. It will not be easy, he will have to endure suffering, he will make mistakes, and it will take a lifetime.

Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind
but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal,
the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

Christmas

Christmas
C cycle

Christmas Vigil
Reading 1. Isaiah 62: 1-5
Reading II. Acts 13: 16-17, 22-25
Gospel. Matthew 1:1-25 (Genealogy of Jesus Christ).

Christmas Midnight
Reading 1. Isaiah 9: 1-6
Reading II. Titus 2: 11-14
Gospel. Luke 2: 1-14 (she gave birth).

Christmas Dawn
Reading 1. Isaiah 62: 11-12
Reading II. Titus 3: 4-7
Gospel. Luke 2: 15-20 (the shepherds).

Christmas Day
Reading 1. Isaiah 52: 7-10
Reading II. Hebrews 1: 1-6
Gospel. John 1: 1-18 (the Word was with God).

There are four Masses that we could attend on Christmas. There is the Vigil Mass celebrated in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Then there is the Midnight Mass. There is a Mass celebrated at dawn. Finally, there is the Mass for Christmas day. Each Mass has a different set of readings and so unless we get to church real early and read them all in the missalette, we will never hear the whole story.

All of the Masses begin with a joyful, exuberant reading from the prophet Isaiah. The reading from the Midnight Mass is typical:

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.

In the gospels we hear the story of the birth of Christ as told by St. Matthew and St. Luke. Little by little the characters in the Nativity scene are introduced. In the vigil Mass on Christmas eve, Matthew presents us with Mary and Joseph and tells us of Joseph's decision to take Mary into his house after finding her pregnant. In the Midnight Mass we find the stable and the manger, and the angels appear to the shepherds. At dawn, the shepherds go down to Bethlehem to find the child "lying in the manger." Finally, the gospel on Christmas Day is the famous beginning of the gospel of John, where John tries to explain the significance of the great event.



In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

No matter what Mass we attend all the readings testify that something unique and earth shattering occurred 2000 years ago. From Isaiah to John we hear that at that moment the darkness was pierced by a shaft of light and that because this tiny shaft of light entered the world, the world would never be the same.

Years ago I remember reading a novel by a little known Russian author about a day in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet concentration or prison camp. The book was written by a man who had himself spent 20 years in camps such as the one he described. He wrote the book secretly while in prison on little scraps of paper which had to be carefully hidden from the watchful eyes of the prison guards. The book was called "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" and its author was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who would go on to become one of the greatest authors of the 20th century.

When Solzhenitsyn's book first appeared, it was like a shaft of light cutting through the darkness of the vast Soviet empire. Until that time there were still those who defended that empire as a noble undertaking, or as the dawn of a new era in human history. Once the light appeared it exposed the rottenness, corruption, and brutality of that regime. The world would never be the same. Twenty years later the whole edifice came crumbling down.

Whatever Mass we attend today the readings all say the same--the light has come into the world and the world will never be the same. For each of us this Christmas it can be the same. A light can come into our hearts and we might never be the same. In the Vigil Mass we heard how Joseph after his dream, "did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home." For each of us who will take Mary and her child into their house this Christmas there is the possibility that our world will never be the same.

In today's Masses the story begins. We'll hear the rest of the story in the weeks and months to come.

1st Sunday of Advent

1st Sunday of Advent
B cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19b; 64: 2b-7
Reading II. 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9
Gospel. Mark 13: 33-37 (Be watchful! Be alert!).

A few years ago three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story, "The Lord of the Rings," enjoyed enormous critical and popular success. Issued in three successive years around Christmas time, they were a box office smash. The third in the series, entitled, "The Return of the King," won the Academy award for "Best Picture." Most of us know by now that both the three-volume book and the films tell the story of a great journey or adventure undertaken by a group of men, elves, dwarves, and the now famous hobbits.

The adventure begins however in a smaller book of Tolkien's called "The Hobbit." In that book one particular hobbit is woken out of a quiet peaceful afternoon nap by a violent knocking on his door. To his amazement he is told that he must rouse himself out of his comfort and complacency and embark on a dangerous adventure whose end is far from certain. In the course of the adventure he will find that there is more to life than he ever dreamed, and that there is more to him than he ever dreamed.

Isn't it odd that the word "advent" is contained in the word, "adventure"? Advent is not just a time of preparation for Christmas; it is a time for all of us to consider how far we have progressed on the great adventure of life. Many of us might feel today like the people in today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. It is a story of people who have turned their backs on God and have lost their way.

Why do you let us wander, O lord, from your ways,
And harden our hearts so that we fear you not?

The result is loneliness, isolation, and unhappiness.

We have all withered like leaves,
And our guilt carries us away like the wind.

Despite the apparent joys of the Christmas season, it can be a very depressing time of year. Many of us will feel out of touch not just with God but also with friends and family; maybe even estranged from them. It doesn’t have to be that way. Even though it is a time of penitence the season of Advent is also a time of hope. Advent marks the beginning of a new year for the Church, and it can also mark a new beginning for all of us. Interestingly, today’s gospel reading does not come from the beginning of St. Mark’s account but almost from the end. The Evangelist repeats the words of Jesus right before He enters upon His Passion.

Jesus is talking to his disciples. We must remember that since Holy Scripture is the inspired word of God, whenever Jesus talks to His disciples, he is talking to each one of us. He tells them,

Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.

What is He talking about? The next verse gives the clue. When He refers to the man who goes away, He is talking about Himself right before His death. We are the servants whom He places in charge, each with our own work to do. He is telling us to act as if everyday will be our last and not waste the time we have left.

Advent has always been regarded as a season of preparation. Why is it that we prepare for everything in life but often fail to prepare for the most important thing in life? What football team would go into the weekend's big game without practicing all week? What will they practice? Why, the very same formations and plays that they expect to use when they are put to the test. During the week they will also be in the weight room preparing their bodies for the blows to come. On game day they will put on their protective gear or armor. Only a fool would go into such combat improperly equipped.

In business it's much the same thing. Salesmen practice their presentations before facing their customers. They learn how to anticipate and overcome every objection. In politics look how even the presidential candidates go through rigorous prepping and role-play before debating their opponents.

There is no better way to prepare this season than by increasing our attendance at Mass. Certainly, in this season when we should all be looking forward to the coming of Christ, he comes to us in each and every Mass. Besides Sunday Mass we will celebrate the great feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, a true Holy Day of Opportunity.

Finally, I can think of no better way to counter the stress and anxiety of this mad shopping season than to attend daily Mass during Advent. You will find a half hour of peace and tranquility every day and encounter some of the most beautiful readings in the Missal. You will get an opportunity to reconcile yourself with God and your neighbor when you recite the Kyrie Eleison, the Confiteor, the Our Father and the Agnus Dei. You can offer the kiss of peace to your friends and family. You can offer thanks to God for all the good things that have been given you, and then you can approach the altar to receive the true gift of Christmas, the gift of God's only Son.

We will not be alone on our adventure. As St. Paul says,

God is faithful,
And by Him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

3rd Sunday of Advent

3rd Sunday of Advent
A cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10
Reading II. James 5: 7-10
Gospel. Matthew 11: 2-11 (none greater than John the Baptist).

In earlier times the third Sunday in Advent was known as "Gaudete Sunday" because the entrance prayer or "Introit" began with the Latin words, "gaudete in domino semper." Translated the phrase means "rejoice in the Lord always." Today, as it has always done, the Church injects an element of joy into the penitential season of Advent. In many churches the priest will put aside the purple vestments which signify sorrow and penance, and put on rose colored vestments, a symbol of joy. The Church is asking us to look ahead to the glory of the coming of the Savior on Christmas.

Certainly, the reading from the prophet Isaiah strikes an upbeat and exultant note. He sees the dry parched earth blooming with new life. He uses words like glory and splendor to describe the once barren land. Men will also be transformed by the Lord. Hands will be strengthened; and weak knees will become firm. To the fainthearted, he says, "Be strong, fear not! Then Isaiah proclaims the famous words which are echoed in today's gospel.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Isaiah and John the Baptist are the two great prophets associated with Advent. Last week we saw John in the midst of his mission to prepare the way of the Lord. John had said that, "the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals." These words were from chapter 3 of Matthew's gospel and were spoken at the beginning of our Lord's public life.

Since that time a lot has happened. By the time we get to today's reading from chapter 11 of Matthew's gospel, Jesus has himself been baptized by John, given the Sermon on the Mount, worked many miracles, and called His own disciples to His side. This is why Jesus, in answer to John's question, "are you the one who is to come?" repeats the words of Isaiah about the blind, the lame, the deaf and the poor. By this time John is in prison, his mission over, and he is soon to be executed.

John had said that he wasn't worthy to carry our Lord's sandals, but Jesus claims that John is the greatest of all the prophets. In fact, our Lord says that "among those born of woman there has been none greater than John the Baptist."

It's common for religious artists to portray John as kind of a strangely dressed wild man shouting at people in the desert. Yet a little later in this chapter of Matthew's our Lord makes the startling claim that " it was toward John that all the prophecies of the prophets and the Law were leading, and he, if you will believe Me, is the Elijah who was to return." The Jews believed that the coming of the Messiah would be preceded by the return of the great prophet, Elijah, who had been taken up into Heaven in a chariot of fire.

Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus takes time to reflect on John and his prophetic mission. After John's disciples had left to bring the good news back to him, Jesus "began to speak to the crowds about John." He asks them why they went out into the desert to see John. What did they expect to see. "A reed swayed by the wind?" "Someone dressed in fine clothing?" He asks them the same question that He asks all of us this Advent. "Then why did you go out." What are we looking for?

Here we are only two weeks before Christmas. What are we looking for this season? What do we want for ourselves and our loved ones this Christmas? Why are we going out to the malls and the shopping centers? Aren't we all trying to find happiness? Aren't we all trying to cast away fear and darkness and bring some joy and light into our lives? Look at the way we light up our houses, look at the music we hear coming over the radio.

I've just read an article by a man who is a well known lecturer, TV personality, and author. He has a beautiful wife and son and is extremely successful. Yet he wrote, "I am almost 60. Time flies and it scares me. I don't want to die. I like being in good health. I don't want to be sick and have wires and tubes and scalpels in me. I like having enough money. I don't want to be old and poor. I sat in my car...shivering in fear. And then it struck me. I spend too darned much of my life in fear. I always have. You can't imagine how much of my life I have thrown away by being a slave to fear."

Today's second reading is an excerpt from the Letter of St. James. We rarely encounter the letter of St. James in our Sunday readings but this short epistle should be required reading for all of us this season. James calls upon us to put away fear. He echoes the words of Isaiah.

Make your hearts firm,
because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

He tells us to be patient, and not to complain. This is good advice in any season. We live in the richest society on the face of the earth; even our poor are better off than billions of people on the rest of the earth. Yet our newspapers and television tell us that there is so much unhappiness and complaining in our society. Today, however, let us look forward to the coming of our Lord on Christmas and put away our fears.

Gaudete! Rejoice in the Lord always.

2nd Sunday of Advent

2nd Sunday of Advent
A cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 11: 1-10
Reading II. Romans 15: 4-9
Gospel. Matthew 3: 1-12 (John the Baptist appeared).

Today's first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, all the Old Testament readings in Advent come from Isaiah. He along with John the Baptist are the voices of Advent. Today's reading contains perhaps the most colorful and famous passage found in all of the prophetic writings. It is the story of the "peaceable kingdom" where

the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...

Now we usually think of the prophets as foretelling the future, and it is true that Isaiah presents us with a picture of a new world to come. However, the special talent of the Old Testament prophets was their ability to describe with brutal accuracy the wrongs of their own day.

If we listen carefully, we can see that Isaiah is contrasting the rule of the future King with the actual state of things in his own time. He complains that people, especially those in authority, judge things solely by appearances and not by principle or justice. They make up their minds by hearsay. Neither the poor not the land's afflicted receive justice or mercy. The ruthless and the wicked prevail. If the future King will rule with justice and faithfulness, it is clear that the present rulers do just the opposite.

As a critic of his own times, Isaiah gives us an introduction to the great New Testament prophet, John the Baptist. In today's gospel, St. Matthew tells us that Isaiah's famous lines refer to John.

A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.

Like Isaiah, John is a critic of the leaders of his own time. Although people were coming from all over to be baptized in the Jordan, John lashes out at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the leaders of the Jews, for their hypocrisy. Archaeologists tell us how important ritual bathing or baptism was to the Jews at the time of Christ. The frequent washings were not just to cleanse the body, they were also meant to purify the soul.

When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism, he calls them a "brood of vipers" because they have no true repentance for the wrongs they have done. They think that it's enough to go through the ritual washing of the body without a thought to a subsequent change of their behavior. He tells them that their status as leaders of the community and descendants of Abraham means nothing unless they "produce good fruit as evidence of ... repentance."

What is good fruit? We can go back to Isaiah's list. We should not judge others merely by appearances. We should avoid deciding merely by hearsay. We should treat those less fortunate than ourselves with fairness and compassion, and not take advantage of them because of their circumstances. We should avoid ruthless and wicked behavior. Is our society any different than Isaiah's?

When John speaks of repentance, he is talking about looking over our lives and taking stock of who we are and where we are going. Advent is a perfect time for us to do so. It is the beginning of a new year so to speak. For centuries the Church has advised us to examine our conscience. In particular, such a review might examine a dominant fault and work on ways to correct it, or it might consider a particular strength or virtue and consider ways to increase it.

Even though the phrase may sound strange to us today, the idea is not outmoded. At the end of each year business people are advised to look back on the past year and consider what worked and what didn't work. They spend hours examining their strengths and weaknesses. For the upcoming year they are urged to prepare a business plan where they will work on developing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

Athletes do the same thing. Every week coaches spend hours examining game films to see what they did right and what they did wrong. Whole practices are devoted to making the necessary corrections and incorporating them into next weeks game plan. Why do we spend so much time preparing for games but so little time preparing for the game of life?

When it comes to the most important things in our own lives we fail to examine our conscience? As the old saying goes, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. What did we do wrong last year? How did we hurt ourselves and our loved ones? Can we begin now to rid ourselves of bad or destructive habits?

On the positive side what strengths or virtues do we possess? What can we do to build spiritual muscle memory so that good behavior becomes easy and natural to us? The word virtue merely means a good habit, while a vice is a bad habit. Now is the time to kick the bad habits and concentrate on the good. In today's reading from St. Paul's letter to the Romans he speaks of the quality of endurance. We are in this life for the long haul and must be prepared to go the distance.

The biggest criticism against Christians today is that we are no different than anyone else. Rather than being a light to the nations, the darkness in our society seems to be overwhelming us. We don't have to go about wearing our religion on our sleeve but in our homes, our schools, and in our businesses we should be producing good fruit. We don't need laws and judges to bring Christ back into Christmas. All we need is for Christians to act like Christians.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
C cycle

Reading 1. Isaiah 66: 18-21
Reading II. 1 Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13
Gospel. Luke 13: 22-30 (the narrow gate).

In today's first reading from the prophet Isaiah we have an image of an almost limitless line of people streaming toward Jerusalem, God's "holy mountain," a symbol of Heaven. The Lord says,

I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.

Today's gospel reading from St. Luke gives us the same picture.

And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.

You may recall that we have been in the third or "C" cycle of readings since the year began. In this cycle most of the gospel readings are from St. Luke's gospel. From the beginning it has been St. Luke's intention to depict our Lord's journey to Jerusalem. All year Jesus has been preaching, teaching, healing, and working wonders on His way. Today's reading begins this way:

Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as He went and making His way to Jerusalem.

All along the way He has been asking His people, including us, to join Him on the journey.

Despite the vast numbers of those who will enter the Kingdom, there is a hint in both readings that some will not make it. There is even the strong suggestion that among those who will not make it are those who might have thought that they had it locked up. Isaiah says that the Lord will go outside the ranks of the "chosen people" to strangers in distant lands who "have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory." This reminds us of the parable where Jesus speaks of a King who, after the invited guests failed to show up, had to go out into "the highways and byways" to find guests for his banquet.

The message of today's gospel is equally clear. The master of the house has locked the door and some will be left out. This parable refers to the Jews, especially the Pharisees, of our Lord's time. They will see Abraham and the prophets at the great banquet but they, themselves, will fail to be admitted. Now, whenever Jesus speaks to the Jews and Pharisees we should realize that He is also speaking to us. For just like our Lord's contemporaries we also run the risk of being locked out of the banquet.

Now we shouldn't get the impression that Heaven is a kind of walled fortress that is almost impossible to enter. When our Lord compares it to a banquet, He means that it is happiness. He never says that we have to wait until death to find happiness. We can start the journey right now. In fact, it will be fatal to delay.

Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.

It's hard to know exactly what He means by "narrow gate" but let's consider the words, "strive" and "strong." As He does on so many other occasions, Jesus says that concentrated effort along with constant preparedness is necessary to find happiness.

His saying brings to mind the Olympic games which will be taking place next year. Of all the athletes how many will be strong enough, fast enough, or skilled enough to reach the victor's podium? Talk about a narrow gate! Just think of all the athletes who will not even be eligible for their country's Olympic trials. Think about all those who will then fail to qualify at the trials. Finally, when they get to the Olympic games many world class favorites will falter and fail to realize their dream.

Whether winners or losers we know that all the participants will have put in incredible amounts of time and effort in pursuit of their goal. Even though TV cameras will only highlight the efforts of a few favorites, all of the athletes must believe in sacrifice and self discipline. At the last Olympics, for example, one young runner said that he had dreamt of the Olympics since he was nine years old, and had dedicated his whole life to getting there.

However, when it comes to our own lives, why are so many of us couch potatoes? What do we do to prepare ourselves for the great events that we will face in life's decathlon. Today's second reading is about discipline, the constant training and practice that is required to face life's hurdles and trials.

all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.

How many of us in our business and professional careers go to countless workshops and seminars in order to strengthen and develop our skills. We learn and practice these skills in order to improve our performance. Yet, how often do we fail to apply these skills to our own personal quest for happiness? If discipline and self-sacrifice work in sports or business, why shouldn't they work in our personal journey?


























































































































































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