From Season to Season

Some weeks ago, the pastor of Seaside Community Church in Torrance, California, invited me to preach at the church's Sunday service. Here is my reflection for Sunday, June 29. The text upon which I am reflecting is Matthew 10:37-42 . Do you ever think about those first women and men who followed Jesus? We hear about them all the time in the Gospels. After all, without them, Jesus wouldn’t have had people to hear his wise words. There wouldn’t have been all those sick and broken people calling out to him for healing and wholeness. Without those women and men, we wouldn’t have the great stories of forgiveness, as Jesus reached out a loving hand and shared a meal with everyone who came to him with an open heart. They are an essential part of all the stories we know about Jesus. From the shepherds who went to the stable in Bethlehem on that first Christmas, to the disciples who stood on that mountain looking up at the sky that day Jesus ascended to heaven, to each one of us ...

How many of us were asked, when we were young, what we wanted to be when we grew up? I’m sure that of all the answers we might have given—or that we might have heard, for that matter—“I want to be like John the Baptist” was not among them. And yet, aren’t we called to be like John the Baptist, whose birthday we celebrate every June 24? Who was this John, the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah? In essence, John was simply a prophet. In fact, Jesus himself said that John was “more than a prophet,” going on to say, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11: 9-11). High praise, indeed.      Since the early days of the Christian Faith, John the Baptist has been revered as the one chosen by God to prepare the way for the long-awaited Messiah, in much the same way that Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. This is the reason why, other than the birth of Jesus at Christmas, the only birthdays celebrated i...

I first read about Aluigi Gonzaga when I was about 9 years old. Leafing through an old St. Joseph’s Daily Missal that I had found in my grandmother’s cedar chest, I saw page after page of saints’ names and the prayers assigned to various days of the year. When I turned to June 21, I came across an image of a Renaissance prince (wearing a ruffled collar, breeches, and hose) kneeling before a statue of Mary. Although the short bio that preceded the prayers of the Mass assigned for the day didn’t provide much information, something resonated within me. That was the moment when I began a relationship with the young man who is now remembered as Saint Aloysius Gonzaga . Today, when most people hear the name “Gonzaga” they think of the great Jesuit University in Spokane, Washington. For Reformation-era Europeans, the name of Gonzaga meant something very different. Distant relatives of the Holy Roman Emperors and counted among the greatest families of Italy, Spain, and all of Europe, the...

You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. —Ephesians 5:8-10  When I was actively involved in parish faith formation, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent were, in many ways, among the most important celebrations of the entire year. These are the Sundays of the Scrutinies. The Scrutinies are those ancient and meaningful rituals that are an essential part of the RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). As the Elect look forward to being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil, these Sundays provide the rest of us with a perspective on what the Season of Lent is really all about: preparing to renew our baptismal vows at Easter. Unfortunately, many of us have not been appropriately formed to see preparation for baptism and the renewal of our baptismal commitments as being the ultimate goal of our Lente...

As many of you know, the Saints of Christian history are a great source of inspiration to me. Among those who have a special place in my heart is Saint Casimir, whose memory is celebrated today.   Saint Casimir was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1458. The third of the thirteen children of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Lithuania, he was educated at court but secretly fostered habits of penance and prayer. Prince Casimi r was especially devoted to the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose honor he is said to have composed the hymn Omne die dic Mariae (“ Daily, daily sing to Mary ”).   Casimir is especially remembered for his purity and single-minded devotion to the poor of his kingdom. This model Christian ruler died of tuberculosis at Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1484, at the age of twenty-five. Saint Casimir was canonized in 1602 and his feast was extended to the Universal Church in 1621.   Today, Saint Casimir is honored as the patro...

Born to the Daju people in Western Sudan around the year 1869, Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped and sold into slavery when she was between the ages of seven and nine. Eventually purchased by an Italian consul, she was taken to Italy where she was converted to Catholicism through her contact with the Canossian Daughters of Charity in Venice. She rarely spoke of her years of enslavement, but her sufferings were so extreme that she was plagued by horrific nightmares for the rest of her life and the trauma caused her to forget the name she had received from her parents. (Her adopted name, Bakhita , means “Lucky.”) In 1893, having been baptized Giuseppina , she entered Cannosian Sisters, winning the esteem of many by her piety and charity.   She spent the remaining 54 years of her life serving the community and its students in a number of assignments, including cook, sacristan, and housekeeper. Known for her gentleness, especially her smile, she was commonly referred to as the “Little B...

Through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. – Galatians 2:19-20 When Saint Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he was reaching out to a community of Christians that he had known personally, and he offers an impassioned appeal for them to live according to the message he had preached to them. At some point, new teachers had come to their community and they had attacked Paul’s character and teachings. In no uncertain terms, Paul defends his authority as an apostle and teacher and he reminds the Galatians that Christians live only by faith in Christ, who is the centerpiece of our faith. When Paul speaks of Christ, he is rejoicing in the love that he has received from Christ. In Saint Paul and the New Evangelization , Ronald Witherup notes, “This is the kind of expe...