From Season to Season

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. —Luke 9:28-31 In her Revelations of Divine Love , the medieval mystic Blessed Julian of Norwich wrote:      I saw him and still sought him,         For we are now so blind and so unwise that we never seek God         until he of his goodness shows himself to us;      and when we see anything of him by grace, then are we moved by         the same grace to try with great desire to see him more perfectly.      And thus I saw him and I sought him,         and I possessed ...

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”… When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. —Luke 4:1-4, 13     In his novel Brighton Rock , Graham Greene wrote, “You can’t conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.” Lent is the time when the Church pauses to reflect on the reality of that mercy. And, when weighed against human standards, God’s mercy is appallingly strange because it costs us so little: God asks only that we surrender to his love and mercy. For most of us, this process of surrender is one which unfolds gradually over the course of a life of prayer, service, struggle, and even setbacks. However, the temptation to cho...

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. —Luke 1:1-4   “There are three stages of spiritual development: the carnal, the spiritual, and the divine,” an old monk once explained to a novice. “What is the carnal stage?” the novice asked. “That’s the stage,” the old monk said, “when trees are seen as trees and mountains are seen as mountains.” “And the spiritual?” the novice asked eagerly. “That’s when we look more deeply into things. Then trees are no longer trees and mountains are no longer mountains,” the old monk answered. “And the divine?” the novice asked breathlessly. “Ah,” the old monk sa...

In her book, The Jesus Wisdom , Cythia Bourgeault writes: Seeking leads to finding, yes, but the result of that finding is often to plunge you into confusion and disorientation as the new information rattles the cage of your old paradigm. Only gradually, as you can make room for what this gospel calls "wonder," does a new universe begin to knit itself together around you, and you come to rest on a new foundation. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which marks the end of the Christmas Season, is a feast that is actually part of the broader celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord. Although we in the West associate the great solemnity of the Epiphany with the three "kings" and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the Early Church saw the Epiphany as including three great mysteries in the life of Jesus: the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus, and the wedding at Cana (the occasion of Jesus' first miracle). But of these mysteries, the Baptism of ...

Below is the link to my reflection on this Sunday's Gospel and First Reading.  Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler by Heinrich Hoffman   Like Saint Francis and Blessed Teresa, the young man of today’s Gospel is faced with an opportunity and a choice. Already a righteous, faithful man, he seems to recognize that something more was being asked of him. Perhaps it was a sense that simply keeping the commandments wasn’t enough or he might have seen the joy in Jesus’ closest followers and wanted that for himself. Regardless of the reason, he approached Jesus and asked what more was required of him and Jesus clearly told him the cost of being a disciple: let go of everything that was holding him back from giving himself completely to God. We can understand the man’s frustration and confusion. Although he had always observed the commandments, “he went away sad, because he had many possessions.” Jesus was asking him to shift his focus from earthly possessions and concerns to the thin...

Although I'm taking a few days of vacation, I still wanted to share my reflection on this Sunday's Readings, especially as we enter into the Synod on the Family on October 4. The Creation of Eve by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel As Pope Francis observed in Saturday’s Festival of Families, however, “Man and woman, through the astuteness of the devil, learned to separate themselves from one another. And all the love that God gave was almost lost. In a brief period of time, the first crimes, the first fratricide, brother killed a brother; the first war.” Damage was done and the beauty and simplicity of that first relationship was lost. But that wasn’t the end of the story. To read the full reflection, click here . And don't forget that you can now follow me on Twitter .

In my commentary for this Sunday, I reflect on what it means to welcome a little child as Jesus did. Jesus and the Little Child by Carl Bloch "There is no great theological discourse or political rhetoric here. In a single gesture, Jesus summarizes the beauty and the mystery of his message: even those whom the world sees as insignificant are important in God’s eyes. To be Jesus’ follower means that we have to be willing to embrace those dismissed by the world. True greatness comes from serving others." To read the full reflection, click here .

In the latest installment in my series of reflections on the Sunday Readings , I explore the meaning of the words "Take up your cross and follow me." By telling us to “take up” our cross, Jesus isn’t saying that we have to meekly endure unfair treatment and suffering or embrace a blind, “offer it up” sort of spirituality. And, while they may be opportunities for grace, illness, sad events, and even disasters aren’t “the cross.” There is nothing particularly Christian about many of the challenges we face in daily life. Finally, we can never silently or blindly accept abuse or injustice as being the will of God. Jesus rejected these and so should we. Instead, “the cross” that we are to carry is the sacrifices, trials, and hardships that can be a consequence of placing our faith and hope in him and of living according to his teaching. To read the full reflection, click here .

In the latest installment in my series of reflections on the Sunday Readings , I explore the deeper meaning of the wonders and signs of Jesus we find in gospels. "Magic or miracles? How we understand Jesus and his wonders is essential for understanding that this Sunday’s Gospel isn’t only a story about an isolated miraculous healing. That was the mistake the crowd made: they weren’t able to look beyond the healing to see that God was doing so much more. The healing of the deaf-mute was a sign of what God could accomplish in their lives, as well." To read my reflection on Aleteia, click here .

This past week I began teaching a Lenten series at a local parish. While the 6-week program is ostensibly a study of the Ten Commandments, the series is really about how we—as believers—engage difficult moral issues. So, I suppose, it could be called “Moral Theology 101.” But, when all is said and done, the classes really come back to the basic theme of discipleship: how are we living out the faith we profess in our daily lives? We began our time together by reflecting on the importance of the season of Lent and how Lent is really a model for the Christian life because (when it is celebrated properly) Lent is always leading us somewhere—to the Cross and Empty Tomb. This is the season when we reflect on the quality of our discipleship and work on developing those virtues and habits that will enrich our faith and commitment so that, on Easter Sunday, we will be truer, holier disciples than we were on Ash Wednesday. Ideally, that forward momentum will continue through the Easter Se...

At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess That Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:10-11 Buried deep within the Catechism of the Catholic Church , in the fourth part—“Christian Prayer”—are three brief paragraphs that teach us something fundamental about prayer: 2664: There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father. 2665: The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even though her prayer is addressed above all to the Father, it includes in all the liturgical traditions forms of prayer addressed to Christ. ...

This reflection on the Holy Family is slightly adapted for one written for the community at Seaside Community Church, UCC, in Torrance, California,  for their service on the Sunday after Christmas (the Feast of the Holy Family), December 28, 2014. Merry Christmas! There’s lots of talk about family these days. And, I don’t only mean this “holiday season” of Thanksgiving and Christmas. For years now politicians, churches, and civil rights groups have been debating how we can and should define the important realities of marriage and family. These are important conversations for all of us to be having and they have to continue. But, even with these ongoing conversations about family, Christmas brings “family” into focus in a special way. Think about how many holiday movies center on family: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Story,” “The Family Stone,” “White Christmas,” and pretty much everything on the Hallmark Channel. And all of these movies celebrate some of th...

The days are coming when men will go mad; and when they meet a man who is not mad, they will rise up again him, and say, "You are not like us, you are mad." —Saint Anthony the Abbot There have been a number of things going on in the world recently that have led me to reflect on how we view other people. There are grand world events—like the Ebola crisis, the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, or this week’s elections—and myriads of little daily new items that bring into focus the divisions that exist within our communities and even our families. I don’t think it is unfair to blame some of this on the prevalence and power of social networking. And, although the internet has, in many ways, become a great equalizer because of its availability and freedom (for the time being, at least), resources like Facebook and Twitter have provided platforms to anyone who chooses to use them, including one individual who recently commented on a news article: “ebola is cool. give it to me....

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. —Ephesians 1:2-3 On December 27, 1673, a nun of the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, France, was gifted with an experience of the Divine that left an indelible mark on spirituality. Years later, remembering that vision, she wrote: “The Lord said to me, ‘My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with humanity that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent love. It must pour them out through [you], and manifest itself to them with its precious treasures, which contain all the graces which they need to be saved.” This Divine Love is what devotion...

A few days ago, I read an article about the evolution of America’s celebration of Halloween. In the article, which included statistics and stories spanning more than a century, I learned that in 1965 Americans spent $300 million on Halloween costumes, decorations, and candy. As you might imagine, that number has only increased—exponentially—in the past fifty years. But what surprised me (and, I admit, bothered me), is that of the billions spent on Halloween, Americans today are spending as much on pet costumes as we did on all Halloween items in 1965. Yes, that’s right: $300 million.   Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for celebrating holidays and I enjoy seeing a family pet dressed as a hot dog as much as the next person. But this bit of trivia says a lot about where we are placing our values as a culture. It also says much about what we view as necessity .   I’ve wondered what it would mean if, instead of buying Fluffy that clown outfit this year, the Smith family do...