Attitudes of Being
February 16, 2025 6th Sunday OT - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Today’s Gospel is generally known as Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” and it is Luke’s version of Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”, commonly known as “The Beatitudes”. While many think that these two are different interpretations of the same event, they are most likely two different events, as Jesus would have preached with this theme often as he journeyed throughout Judea.
So, what is a “Beatitude”?
A beatitude might be considered a definition of what God considers as the measures of holiness in His people. In his beatitudes, Jesus also tells us “how” people would be blessed if they possess this measure of holiness – their “reward”, if you will.
Now, Jews of the time believed that the measure of God’s favor was reflected primarily in earthly measures of health, wealth, and procreativity. We see this echoed throughout the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, like in Psalm 1 and Psalm 40, which make up our Responsorial Psalm for today.
But Jesus’ measure of blessedness is counter-intuitive to the Jewish belief. We see this in both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, although when we think of Jesus’ Beatitudes, we normally think of the nine from Matthew, chapter 5. They and their corresponding rewards are:
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
In today’s Gospel, however, Luke only lists 4, which correspond roughly to Matthew’s first, second, fourth and ninth ones.
1. Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
2. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
3. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
4. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
And, unlike Matthew, in addition to the blessings, Luke also includes warnings for those who fail to pursue them:
• If you are rich now, you have received your consolation.
• If you are content now, you will be hungry later.
• If you laugh now, you will grieve and weep later.
• If all speak well of you, beware! for false prophets were honored the same way.
Scholars point out there’s a difference in focus in how Luke presents his blessings and woes to those of Matthew. Matthew emphasized the religious and spiritual attitudes required for blessings in the heavenly kingdom inaugurated by Jesus (as seen in “poor in spirit,”, “meekness”, “mercy”, “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, and so on.) In all instances, there will be a reversal of fortunes as measured in the heavenly kingdom to come for those who cannot identify with those who are less fortunate.
By contrast, Luke’s blessings and woes address the real economic and social conditions of humanity (the poor vs. the rich; the hungry vs. the satisfied; those grieving vs. those laughing; the outcast vs. the socially acceptable).
Does this mean that you should not be rich, or well-fed, or happy, or thought well of? Of course not! But they do present a warning to living a life that is too comfortable and not addressing the challenges that others face in this life. (Maybe instead of saying, “… you will be …”, it should read “… you should be …”, which would better reflect how we should identify with those who are experiencing these states of life.) His “woes” identify the reversal of fortunes for those who ignore the woes of others, both in this life, and especially in the afterlife.
It also means that if you are suffering today from poverty, hunger, depression, isolation or discrimination, God still loves you and has something better in mind for you. It can be hard to feel blessed as we struggle, but God is still there for us.
And we don’t have to “earn” God’s blessings. We, through God’s Love, are already blessed spiritually. But if we are also materially blessed, then we should take to heart what can happen if we don’t appreciate His blessings, and if we don’t recognize from whom those blessings stem. Like Jeremiah: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, but blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD”. If we depend on others for our prosperity, good health, or other earthly blessings, we not only risk disappointment but we may miss out on the true blessings that only come from God.
We are all blessed. But we should never forget that true blessings do not come from what we have here on Earth, but in what we will receive in Heaven. And we don’t want to lose what God has already promised us.
A priest-friend of mine likes to ask this question of children and adults alike: What is a Beatitude? His answer: It’s an Attitude to Be. If we profess to be Christian, then others should recognize us as Christians by how we live out these beatitudes, these blessings. By our Love.
Those of you who were ever on an ACTS Retreat with Hector Cardenas before he passed away might remember one of his favorite adages: “My point to you is, Life should not be about working through your To Do List, but is all about working through your To Be List!”
Most of us, if we even made a list of New Year’s resolutions have already cast them aside, and if you’re like me you have a to-do list of tasks to accomplish at work or honey-do things at home. But it isn’t what we accomplish that is important to God. It is who we are that is.
God didn’t create Human-Doings, He created Human-Beings. Let your humanity show just how God has blessed you. And if you don’t feel blessed today, remember Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” God will bless us when it counts the most – in heaven, for all eternity.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Attitudes of Being
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Whatever He Says
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
In today’s Gospel from St. John, we see the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – and the first of the seven “signs”, or miracles, that John uses to showcase the divine nature of Jesus as the Christ.
In addition to the changing of water into wine here, the other six signs are:
1. The healing of the royal official's son in Capernaum (John 4:46-54)
2. The healing of the paralytic at Bethesda (John 5:1-15)
3. The feeding of the 5000 (John 6:5-14)
4. Jesus walking on water (John 6:16-24)
5. The healing of the man blind from birth (John 9:1-7)
and
6. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45)
Now, while John in his Gospel only emphasized these seven “signs” instead of the collection of miracles that the other Gospel list, John used each one of his to help his community understand a particular aspect of the divine nature of Jesus, and to set the stage for John’s version of the Passion of Jesus and his subsequent resurrection.
It is important to note that most scholars figure that John’s Gospel was probably the last one written, maybe somewhere in the 90’s, and so his need to portray the various “whats” of Jesus’ ministry – the many healing and other miracles which would have been fairly well known by Christian followers by then – would be of less importance to the people than the “whys” of each, which witnessed to Jesus’ divinity as the only Son of God.1
Now, I often wonder, why change water into wine as your first sign? Jesus could have just as easily raised someone from the dead, like Lazarus, which would have really gotten people’s attention. And why was this sign so important to John? I mean, this particular miracle of changing water into wine is unique to the Gospel of John – you won’t find it mentioned anywhere in any of the other Gospels.
According to the introduction to the Gospel of John in the latest revision of the New American Bible, this first sign “symbolizes the entire creative and transforming work of Jesus.”
Let’s look at this story a little closer. It begins with Mary, Jesus and some of his disciples being invited to a wedding in Cana, shortly after the calling of Jesus’ first disciples. It’s about 4 miles from Nazareth to Cana, so the wedding must have been fairly important to Mary to travel that far to attend it. It is also reasonable to assume that this would be a fairly large celebration. Mary might have even been related to the couple.
As for Jesus and his disciples, they had recently begun traveling together – the previous chapter ends with the calling of Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanial, and the beginning of this verse, although not included in today’s reading, puts this event as three days later. So, while John the Baptist has identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Son of God, these new disciples have yet to fully experience the divinity of Jesus.
The story also doesn’t say how long the party had been going on, but according to ancient Jewish wedding customs, a wedding celebration usually lasted for several days, so the fact that they ran out of wine isn’t necessarily surprising. But we can see some important symbolism in this sign:
• Weddings were communal events meant for celebration.
• Wine was a significant part of Jewish celebrations – it was meant to “gladden men’s hearts” as we hear in Psalm 104.
• Wine production was a major industry for the Jewish people, and God’s blessings were often compared to wine.
• And of course, at the Last Supper, Jesus used wine to signify His Blood.
From a theological perspective, Jesus’ creation of wine from water would have been seen by the Jewish people as a sign of the generosity of God and the amount created would show the abundance of that gift.
But before the sign itself is what might be the most important statement in this passage - Mary’s comment to the servers: "Do whatever He tells you." I’m not sure that converting water into wine was what Mary had in mind, but she had confidence in Jesus ability to come to the wedding party’s assistance.
Note:
• Mary’s intercession on behalf of the wedding party without being asked is a sign of her motherly concern for those around her. We recognize the same thing in her today when we ask her for her intercession on our behalf.
• Mary’s direction to the servers is the same to us today – if you are a disciple of her Son, you must do whatever He tells you.
And therein lies our greatest challenge: understanding what Jesus is telling us to do right now. I sometimes wonder what the servants thought when Jesus told them to fill those water jars. If it was me, I’d be wondering what jars of water had to do with the wine running out.
Kind of like someone today saying to God, “Hey, I’m out of gas” and God replying, “OK, go and get a five-gallon bucket of water.” It wouldn’t make sense to me.
Which I think may be our greatest challenge today. We face so many problems, both personally and in our communities at large, and we don’t know what we are to do. So, we turn to God for help. But what we are told doesn’t seem to make sense to us. Follow the commandments.
On the surface, the two greatest commandments sound simple: Love God, and love our neighbor. But how do we do that? If we listen to what the world says in all its fears, we may not hear what Jesus is saying to us in our hearts. Or, even if we hear, we may not trust that it will work out for the best.
Which brings us back to today’s Gospel. Once the water became wine, everyone at the celebration benefited, even without knowing how it came to be – or even knowing there was a problem in the first place. But the servants knew; and so did the disciples.
Even though they were just starting on their journey with Jesus and probably didn’t know what to expect, this first sign opened their eyes to the wonder – the mystery – of Jesus. And it says that they began to believe in Him.
We too are journeying with Jesus. And like his disciples, we too will see wonders and signs which we may not understand, and we will be called to do whatever he commands us, even if we don’t understand it or agree with it. And it will probably cost us something – maybe a lot. But if we will trust in Jesus, then we will share in the copious gifts God has in store for all of us, either in this world or in the next.
So, in the face of uncertainty or doubt – when the wine runs out – let us always do whatever Jesus commands us. And remember the simple prayer from St. Faustina Kowalska whenever we are in doubt or don't understand:
Jesus, I trust in You.
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Rejoice! God Is Here!
Rejoice! God Is Here!
December 15, 2024 Third Sunday of Advent - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Where is God?
During Advent, we are asked to reflect on the three comings of Christ: the first, the coming of Jesus in history as Man – God incarnate; the second, God with us today – the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; and the third, Jesus’ “second coming” at the End of Time - Christ in Glory. And we sort of reflect on them in reverse order, with the first part of Advent oriented to His second coming and then, as we get closer to Christmas, shifting our focus toward the celebration of Jesus’ birth in time. Of course, whether we look forward or backward, we always look through the lens of the Holy Spirit within us today.
You can see that if you pray Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. At the beginning with Advent, the antiphon for our daily Invitatory, except for feast days, becomes, “Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.” Beginning on the 17th, however, our focus changes to, “The Lord is close at hand; come, let us worship him.”
And on Christmas day, we will greet Emmanuel – God With Us.
Today we celebrate Gaudete (Gow-de-tay’) Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent. Gaudete means Rejoice!, and so we should, as we have passed the half-way mark of our journey toward Christmas. We pause in our Advent preparations to remind ourselves of the promise of joy that is to come. We light the rose-colored candle in our Advent wreath, and we don festive rose-colored vestments.
(Yes, these are ROSE, not pink. Like in that old 80’s movie, girls may be “Pretty in Pink”, but not clergy. Besides, have you ever heard of “pink” wine?)
So, this may be a good time to ask ourselves – are we still excited about the coming of Christmas? Are we joyful? Or are we being worn down by the minutiae of our preparations and the false messages of despair that seem to come to us from every direction?
If we are not careful, we can lose the joy of what we should be anticipating. After all, we are surrounded by evil in the news – so why should we rejoice? We know of friends and family members who have died and we miss those who cannot share the holidays with us – so why should we rejoice? We cannot afford to celebrate the holidays in a matter that is being emphasized in the commercials we see and hear – so why should we rejoice? We have so many things that are pressing in upon us – challenges to our health, our families, our well-being – so why rejoice?
And yet, that’s the theme of all of our readings: REJOICE! REJOICE in the Lord Always! I shall say it again: REJOICE! The LORD, our God, is in our midst even now; He has not abandoned us to our troubles and tribulations but extends His Love and Mercy with the promise of better things to come. Rejoice! Because God IS with us.
What did the messages from Zephaniah, Isaiah, and St. Paul have in common today? They all saw the bigger picture. And their message? God is Near! God is With You! God is in your Midst!
In our first reading, the prophet Zephaniah encourages Israel to sing for joy and to rejoice in anticipation of God’s mercy, for “The LORD, your God, is in your midst…” The people that Zephaniah spoke to couldn’t see what the future held for them. Written around 650 to 600 BC, the first two chapters of Zephaniah prophesied that Israel, by rejecting God, were going to suffer the Assyrian invasion, but chapter 3 concludes with God’s promise that He would remain with them and would restore their kingdom. God loved them, He would show them His mercy. And He did.
Isaiah, too, commands us to: “Shout with exultation, O city of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!” In the Responsorial for today, the prophet Isaiah spoke hope to a people in exile in Babylon. Yet Isaiah reminds the people of God’s promise that they would be restored to their land. And they were.
St. Paul is even more insistent. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! ... The Lord is near.”
I love St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and in particular this passage. He speaks of rejoicing and hope, yet he himself was in prison when he wrote this letter, either in Rome, or possibly in Caesarea. Paul is fairly certain that his execution was close at hand, yet he was at peace with the Peace of Jesus Christ, which surpasses all understanding, and that through Jesus he had no anxiety over the problems that he faced. He keeps returning to the theme of joy and rejoicing throughout the letter, because of his belief in Christ Jesus, and he lived with the hope promised for the next life, despite the trials he faced in his earthly one.
Finally, in today’s Gospel, we listen to John the Baptist tell the people – US – about how we should prepare for the presence of Christ in our lives – to continue to live our lives and to carry out our jobs in honesty and integrity, with a charitable heart. And despite his exhortations about what NOT to do, John continued to preach the “Good News” of the Christ’s coming.
All preached an attitude of joy in the LORD. The evils of this world WILL pass away. The troubles we face today we do not face alone. Emmanuel, God with Us, is here, offering us love, mercy and peace. May we accept that God loves us, cries with us, laughs with us, rejoices with us. As hard as it can be, we need to accept that God is with us. As hard as it can be, we need to share our joy with others.
I was once told that “JOY” stands for “Jesus, Others and You”. It takes all 3 to be able to truly experience joy. So, I shall say it again. Rejoice! Christ is near – let us go out and welcome him. Rejoice!
Sunday, November 3, 2024
The Greatest Commandment
November 3, 2024 31st Sunday of OT - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Ever notice how, in suspense, action or thriller movies, as the movie gets closer to the end, the music begins to pick up and there’s a sense of urgency as an unseen threat draws ever closer to the main characters? We in the audience are usually privileged to see how the action unfolds, but while we think we know how the good guys will win it isn’t much of a movie if there wasn’t some doubt as to just how it would be done. That’s why we have “spoiler alerts” – so as to not tip off the climax too soon.
But the reality of our lives is different. In life, we don’t like bad surprises. We pray that our crosses, our cups of suffering, may be taken from us. And yet, we also know that there will be times when we will face our own mortality and we pray that God will give us the strength to face whatever comes our way.
The Church understands that, and to help us as we draw near to the end of our liturgical year, our focus begins to shift towards the end of times – and what comes next. We just celebrated All Saints and All Souls days, (and of course, All Hallow’s Eve – Halloween) and they serve to remind us not only of our mortality, but our hopes for Eternity. The next few Sundays will continue to build on that end-of-times theme as we reflect on the glory of God’s Kingdom and the hope and promise of that Kingdom, which will culminate with the end of our liturgical year with celebration of Christ, the King of the Universe at the end of this month.
Now, underlying all of today’s readings is an unseen sense of urgency. The last line from today’s Gospel carries with it a sense of foreboding: And no one dared to ask him any more questions.” In previous verses from Mark’s Gospel (and echoed in Matthew and Luke), we’ve listened as the Sadducees, Pharisees, and scribes have confronted Jesus in an attempt to find an excuse to have him killed. By quoting Israel’s greatest prayer, Jesus in effect shuts them down and sets the stage for his own execution.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus quotes the first part of the Shema Yisra’el, the foundational prayer of the Jewish faith and the first of the only two prayers specifically commanded in the Torah to be recited daily – the second being the saying Grace after meals. (Interestingly, as Catholics we once stressed praying after meals too but I know I rarely think about giving thanks after eating. Probably too full.)
According to my Judaism 101 website, there’s actually two more parts to the Shema taken from Deuteronomy Chapter 11 and from the Book of Numbers Chapter 15 which expand on the details describing Part 1. But this first part is the primary part of the prayer and it is what is normally recited at least twice a day by faithful Jews.
It begins with the second part of today’s first reading from Deuteronomy – “Sh'ma Yisra'eil” – “Hear, O Israel”. By the way, I carried it with me when I was presiding at Communion Services at nursing homes so that I could pray with Jewish residents whenever I visited with them. The complete prayer begins:
Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto …
Nevermind. I’ll stick to English:
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And it shall be that these words that I command you today [shall be] in your heart.
And you shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as tefillin between your eyes.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Why is this prayer so important? Because it is more than just a prayer “to” God – it is a command to the Jewish people, and, a command to us. Unlike the Lord’s Prayer, which we consider the perfect prayer in that it acknowledges God as Our Father, His Holiness, His Will for us, and our requests, the Shema, as it is called, is a command to us to acknowledge God as God. Listen closely:
“Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
It is a command to love, and Jesus combines it with another command from Leviticus Chapter 18, verse 18, which Jesus recites: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”, it leaves no room for doubt as to what is important in the priorities of our lives.
We’ve talked many times about just how hard it is to love with the love of Christ. Especially in the world today, with wars abroad and our own political conflicts associated with the elections next week, we can find all sorts of reasons to justify not “loving our neighbor”.
And yet, we must find a way. In his first letter, St. John makes it clear – we cannot fulfill the first command, the most important one, if we cannot fulfill the second: “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20) It is more important than our comfort, our opinions, even our lives. If the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect prayer for petitioning God, it still must always be offered from the perspective of the Shema.
I’ve always said our lives are about our priorities. The command to love God AND our neighbor must be our number one priority. Is it difficult? Yes! But we can. St. Thomas Aquinas defines love as “the choice to will the good of the other.” We get to choose. WE choose. And as we heard just a couple of weeks ago, since only God is Good, when we choose the good for someone, even if we disagree with them, or even hate what they stand for, we are asking that God allows them to find Him - that God helps them find Him. That's love. That fulfills the command. And in doing so, we too can experience the goodness - the love - that is God.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Called to Mission
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi World Missions Sunday
What is your Mission in life? Do you know? Do you think that the Apostles understood their mission?
I’ve always wondered: what in the world were James and John thinking? In the verses in both Matthew and Mark immediately before this, Jesus has taken the Twelve aside from the rest of the disciples and told them plainly that not only was He going to die, but it would be a horrible death, one at the hand of the Gentiles. He said:
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”
In fact, this is the third time He tells them of His upcoming Passion and death.
And yet, I don’t think there was ever a greater misconception of what it meant to be a disciple from the Apostles than what was indicated by the story we hear today. It begins with James and John coming to Jesus and asking for seats of prestige when he comes into His glory. (I find it particularly amusing that in Matthew’s version, it is Mom that asks for them. A good Jewish mother, looking out for her ya-lah-DEEM – her children.) I wonder if they (or Mom) would have asked the same question if they had known in advance that the two who would sit at Jesus’ right and left would be convicted criminals sentenced to death, or that His glory would begin with Jesus looking down from His throne on the Cross?
And it isn’t just James and John. It says the other ten became indignant when they heard the brothers’ request. Now, granted, they’ve all seen the powerful signs that Jesus has performed and have even participated in miraculous events themselves, but are they really that clueless as to what Jesus has been telling them? I wonder.
Actually, I suppose we shouldn’t be that surprised. After all, aren’t we often a bit clueless as to the price of discipleship in our own lives? We all know, or should know, that we have a common goal in life – eternity with Jesus in Heaven. But when it comes to getting there and our individual vocations – our individual missions – things sort of break down for us.
Which brings us to today – World Mission Sunday. What is World Mission Sunday? It is a day of prayer for missionary work around the world, established by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and, as Pope St. John Paul II said on the occasion of its anniversary in 1992, is a day to make a “renewed commitment to everyone’s responsibility for the spread of the Gospel message. It is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to reflect on their own baptismal call, to think back on when they received the gift of faith, and to recommit themselves to the Church's missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice."
But it isn’t easy being a missionary, is it? James and John – indeed all of the Apostles – seemed more than willing to take leadership roles when they thought that they were going to be part of a new order that would be one of earthly glory and honor, and they wanted to be right there in the thick of it, when Jesus came into glory, one on his right, and the other on his left.
But it is one thing to proclaim the good news as a leader. It’s something quite different to do so as a servant, as a “slave to all”.
Jesus challenges them: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” In other words, will you be missionaries like me? They answered YES, but without fully understanding what it was going to mean. For when the glory of Jesus was revealed when he was lifted up on the cross, and the place of “honor” on his left and right was taken by the two criminals, the Apostles all fled.
Yet once it became clear after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension that His mission had to be carried on, Jesus’ disciples did not shrink from it. They embraced it, and the result was a world set on fire with the faith of Christ.
As Christians we too should be ready to drink the cup of sacrifice that Jesus drank on our behalf. And that sacrifice isn’t just in putting up with the crosses we carry, as heavy as they may be, but to be ready and willing to help others bear their crosses too. And to do so with love.
Too often though, when we think of mission, we think of trips filled with social service projects ministering to those less fortunate. But I was reminded by a podcast yesterday called Homeless but Human from Christ in the City that our true mission from Jesus is to bring the Good News to those who need to hear it. And in doing so, we may discover that it is those we encounter that actually minister to us. Father Tymo pointed out to me last week that those we encounter, especially the young but also any who are in need, that what they need most is to be accepted for who they are, to be recognized as human, and to be listened to. And that is true for all of us as well.
Pope Francis once said on a previous World Mission Sunday, that, “Both before and after his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, “Go!”, thus involving them in his own mission. The Church, for her part, in fidelity to the mission she has received from the Lord, will continue to go to the ends of the earth, to set out over and over again, without ever growing weary or losing heart in the face of difficulties and obstacles.” It is good for us to remember that even when we cannot go out among the people, we can still fill our baptismal call by assisting the Church in its missionary efforts through our financial contributions and, most importantly, through our prayers.
As we leave Mass today, let us embrace our mission to proclaim the Good News! Let us Go and Announce the Gospel of Our Lord!
Sunday, September 22, 2024
God-Thinking
God-Thinking
September 22, 2024 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you were trying to focus on something or get something done but kept getting interrupted or side-tracked? Of course you have. We all have. Whether it is a mother with small children who’s trying to get work done but has to stop and tend to some need of her child, or the teacher in the classroom that struggles with the different personalities and learning styles of their students, or the employee that gets pulled away from doing their job in order to attend another boring meeting, we’ve all been there. And it can be even more frustrating when we sense the urgency of what needs to be done but we can’t convey that urgency to others.
I see that in the opening of today’s Gospel. Jesus knows that his time is running out, and he needs to impress upon his disciples the urgency of his mission and to prepare them for what’s coming. He’s trying to avoid interruptions by traveling with them privately as he teaches them – and they just don’t get it. And he knows it.
If there is a common theme between all of today’s readings, it might be the emphasis on “right-thinking”. And all three readings point out our conflict between God-Thinking and Man-Thinking.
Our brief reading from the Book of Wisdom, while emphasizing what the wicked want to do to the just one, unfortunately misses the context of the verses leading up to and immediately following it – namely, that the wicked are only thinking within an earthly context. Chapter 2 opens with “For, not thinking rightly, they said among themselves: “Brief and troubled is our lifetime; there is no remedy for our dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from Hades…“
They use that earthly rationale as justification for the evil they were going to do to the just one, a prophetic message concerning Jesus.
The chapter ends with: “These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense for holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward. For God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us…”
It's the difference between Man-thinking and God-thinking.
James, too, emphasizes the struggles we cause ourselves through our earthly passions and desires without understanding that true wisdom and its fruits – the rewards – which come with it are not earthly, but spiritual. But since we do not seek Wisdom from God first, we allow the conflicts we face to come from within us, from those same passions, since they are not oriented rightly toward God.
We are still at war today with those same conflicts – and not just externally with world conflicts or our own struggle for survival. We place ourselves in conflict with ourselves and those around us when we want what we don’t have, and it often disturbs us when others have something – health, wealth, power – that we don’t. We’re frustrated when we think we’re doing everything right and we still don’t get what we think we deserve.
Even when we ask that God take away the trials we face, to intervene and take our side in our daily conflicts – we usually do so from a self-centered viewpoint. We can’t help it. We are raised and indoctrinated by society to seek “the good life” here on earth, and like the Jews of Jesus’ day, we think that any evil that befalls us, any time our prayers appear to go unanswered, it’s because we’ve done something wrong or we aren’t trying hard enough. Again, Man-thinking, not God-thinking.
Finally, we hear Jesus tell his disciples, for the second time, that he is going to be murdered in a very short time, but it won’t be the end of his mission – their mission. The Kingdom of God is coming, and it won’t be like anything they thought it would be. But they are so busy with Man-Thinking they did not understand. They just didn’t get it.
Who can blame them? Jewish beliefs of the time always talked about the coming of an earthly Messiah and the glory and majesty of God’s Kingdom and its earthly rewards. The death of Jesus would be contradictory to what they’ve been taught to believe. After all, if he was the Messiah, and the Savior had to be one who wielded great power and authority, right? And as his chosen ones, they would share in that power and authority. No wonder they were arguing about who would be in charge of what.
Jesus is blunt. He tells them that in order to be in charge they would have to be servants, and the one who would be the greatest would have to be the servant of all the rest.
We might say that he was trying to “bring the disciples down to earth”. Actually, he was trying to raise them up to a greater awareness of God-Thinking, and break them of their earthly thoughts.
To reinforce that awareness, he takes a small child and places it in the middle of the group. Now in Jewish society, a child was definitely not a sign of authority. But Jesus used the child not only as a sign of humble servitude, but by putting his arms around the child, Jesus emphasized God’s love for them.
That is God’s message to us as well. In the midst of the conflicts of our lives, we are called to be Children of God. That doesn’t mean that the conflict will leave us, only that our response to it should be to entrust it to God Himself.
It is hard to see the big picture from God’s perspective. We often can’t understand His will for us, or we don’t want to. And how often do we just ignore something that we don’t understand?
Our challenge today is the same one that faced the disciples – learning to think as God. Scriptures tell us that we cannot completely know the Mind of God, but we can always pray for that Wisdom, as St. James points out, which comes from above – from God. And despite the distractions and demands of our earthly life, with God’s help we can work to accept His Will in our lives, which through His Love is meant to orient us toward heaven. And after all, isn’t it a heavenly kingdom that we should be seeking, not an earthly one?
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Follow the Leader
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
“Who do you say that I am?”
With these seven words, Jesus puts his disciples on the spot.
Picture yourself as one of the disciples. Or better yet, picture yourself as Peter. How would you answer? You have been a follower of Jesus for some time now, and up to this point, through the first 7 chapters of Mark’s Gospel, you would have seen Jesus in action as he:
- Cured many people including YOUR (Peter's) mother-in-law, a leper, a paralytic, a man with a withered hand, a woman with hemorrhages, a Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter, a deaf man who also couldn't speak, and a blind man
- Freed men who were possessed by evil spirits
- Preached many parables and then explained them to you
- Rebuked the wind and calmed the violent sea - twice
- Walked on water
- Fed 5000 men with five loaves and two fish, then later fed another 4000 men with seven loaves and a few fish
- Raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead
- Selected you and 11 others to be his Apostles
Pretty impressive, don’t you think? Now, after all of these signs, Jesus turns to YOU, and asks, “Who do people say that I am?”
I try to imagine how he might have asked that question. I mean, you’re all walking along the road, right? Headed for another town, kind of chatting among yourselves. No cell phones or other electronics to distract you.
So, would he have asked the question in a casual sort of way? “Hey guys, what do you think – who do people say that I am? Or, would he have been more direct: “OK, tell me – who do people say that I am?”
In either case, the answers your fellow disciples give echo the same answers given to King Herod when he asked about Jesus earlier in Mark’s Gospel, shortly after he had John the Baptist executed. His counselors tell him that Jesus might be John raised up from the dead, or he was Elijah, or he was just another prophet. (Herod’s choice – Jesus was John whom he beheaded come back from the dead. From a guilty conscience, no doubt.)
But then, Jesus stops and puts you on the spot.
“But who do YOU say that I am?”
As Peter, in your usual brash and impulsive way, you jump right in. “You are the CHRIST!” Boldly! With a sense of pride, maybe? That sense of privilege that comes from being part of the elite inner circle? In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus even blesses you and promises you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You’re probably feeling pretty smug about now, right? You are Peter. The Apostle. The Rock.
But NOW, after all you’ve seen and heard, Jesus begins to teach you about how he has to suffer and die. He’s being brutally honest with you, not hiding anything or pulling any punches. He will rise again but he will be murdered. You refuse to believe it.
Who would blame you? After all, think of all the wonderful signs that you’ve seen Jesus do, what you have heard him say. How could anything happen to him? He’s the CHRIST! He can do ANYTHING!
I think Peter may even be a little bit condescending. He REBUKES Jesus! And, isn’t there times in our own lives when we are so sure that we know more than those around us, especially to those closest to us, we presume we need to help them, correct them?
But Jesus is swift to turn on Peter and condemn his attitude of arrogance. “You are thinking like a creature of earth, not of heaven. Not as God does.” Ouch.
Often, we don’t want to think like God. We tend to develop a false sense of security and confidence when everything is going so well that we believe that it won’t change, and we refuse to believe that anything could possibly go wrong. We would rather live in denial than admit that something tragic could happen to someone we know. To someone we love. To US. Jesus senses this in his followers and so he knows he must prepare them for the reality that is coming – His Passion and their own future crosses. Not a future of earthly kingdoms and treasures, but a future of heavenly promises and an eternity with God.
Jesus turned from his disciples and called the rest of the crowd to him. He challenged them - just as he challenges us – with a tough command: Whoever wishes to follow me must deny himself and take up his own cross, and bring it to me. It sometimes reminds me of the old children’s game, “Follow the Leader”, where we may not know where the leader is going, but we must do whatever the leader does, or risk losing the game.
THAT’S who Jesus is. He is our leader, and where he goes, we must follow.
One final point. When we think about what is “our cross”, we may have a tendency to assume that Jesus only means our own personal problems. That would be thinking as human beings do, but not as God does. In God’s eyes, the cross we must pick up is often the cross of another, as Jesus points out in the parable of the sheep and the goats: “Whatever you do for the least, you do for me.”
And in his message today, St. James is blunt. You cannot have faith in God if you do not act when you see someone in distress and you have the ability to do so. If we profess to be Christians - and to be a Christian is to follow Jesus our Leader - then when we see someone in distress, we must act according to our abilities. That is our Cross, and we must embrace it willingly. That is the only sure way to save our lives for eternity.
So, what is the correct answer to the question: “Who is Jesus?”
The Messiah? Our King? God?
All of the above. He is our leader. Follow Him.