His Word Today: Honesty

Good morning everyone,

Beginning on the day of our Baptism, when we become part of God's family, our loving God invites us to grow ever closer to Him, day by day.  This invitation presumes honesty on our part and promises enduring faithfulness on God's part.

God invites us to aim for enduring faithfulness in our own lives, but He is also aware of the fact that because of our own humanity, we will fall short in our ability to fulfill the desire to be faithful to Him at all times.  Luckily for us, our God has an infinite capacity for love, and is always willing to give us another chance.

Jesus teaches this lesson about faithfulness and honesty in today's gospel.  As was his custom, he always used stories in order to explain his lessons.  In this case, he told the story of a steward who was reported for squandering his master's property (cf Lk 16:1).  As expected, the master threatened to terminate the steward's employment, but the point of the story was the steward's change of heart.  Faced with the dire possibility of losing his position, he chose honesty instead of continuing what was most probably a life of cheating others out of their money so that he himself could grow more affluent (cf Lk 16:3-8).

As we grow closer to the Lord, and seek to follow in His footsteps, he will always call us to be honest with ourselves and with Him ... and in response to our honesty, He will reward us with his enduring faithfulness.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Find

Good morning everyone,

The parables told in today's gospel passage show us the lengths to which our God is willing to go in order to seek us out and to bring us back whenever we get lost.  Even if we have experienced the joy of being present with Jesus, even if we might resolve to always remain close to Him, it seems that we are constantly battling the temptation to distance ourselves from the grace of love itself.

How reassuring it is to know that our loving God is willing to leave every other treasure behind - like the shepherd in the parable who leaves the ninety-nine other sheep (Lk 15:4-7) - in order to come in search of us whenever we are lost.

Even if we ourselves may find it difficult to understand or to believe that our God loves us so deeply, He will never stop searching until He finds us, like the woman who searches her house untiringly until she finds her lost coin (cf Lk 15:8-10).

Today, let our prayer be simply the experience of resting in the presence of the One who loves us so deeply.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Commitment

Good morning everyone,

Today, Jesus uses a very strange turn of phrase to explain the need for us to be committed to the task of being his disciples.  Speaking to the crowds, he says: If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple (Lk 14:26).

In other words, Jesus is saying that even if we should want to be his disciples, we can be distracted by attachments to other earthly realities, but Jesus wants us to be committed to the journey of following him.  Being a disciple, learning from him and modeling our lives after his life, we need to focus on him every day.  We need to listen for his voice every day.  We need to rely on him to help us not to be distracted in our commitment.

Let us pray today for the grace to say yes to Jesus.  He can help us to remain focused on our resolve to model our lives on his life, and to always stay close to him.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Excuses

Good morning everyone,

The gospel passage for today's Mass gives us a glimpse into the generous heart of our God.  Jesus was sitting at table with others and enjoying a meal.  During that meal, one of them said to Jesus: Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God (Lk 14:15).  I can imagine that this man was impressed with the meal he was sharing, and since Jesus was perhaps speaking about the Kingdom of God, the man who heard such words, impressed those he was, was trying to picture what this Kingdom could be.

Jesus went on to explain - through the use of a parable - that many are invited to enter the Kingdom, like the many who might be invited to sit at a banquet table, but that many of them tend to come up with all kinds of excuses (cf Lk 14:18-20).

Like the invitees in Jesus' story, we too are invited to the banquet table of the Lord.  There, we have the privilege of partaking in the gifts and blessings that the Lord offers, yet many times we too find excuses to distance ourselves from the relationship that the Lord invites us to enjoy.  Thankfully, our loving God never stops looking for us, seeking us out and inviting us to come to the banquet.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Saint Charles Borromeo

Good morning everyone,

Today, the Church celebrates the liturgical Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo (2 October 1538 - 3 November 1584).  The third son of a family of six, his father was a Count and his mother was part of the Medici family.  Charles served as Archbishop of Milan from 1564 until 1584 and a Cardinal from 1560 until his death. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation against the Protestant Reformation together with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Philip Neri. In that role he was responsible for significant reforms in the Catholic Church, including the founding of seminaries for the education of priests.

Perhaps Charles drew inspiration for his courageous efforts from the example of Jesus' life.  The gospel for today's liturgy places him at table in the home of a leading Pharisee.  We do not know with certainty how comfortable Jesus was in the presence of those who held authority and power, but courage was certainly part of his makeup.  Without knowing any of the prior conversation, we are told that Jesus offered an opinion that called his host to the possibility of conversion: When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbours, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment (Lk 14:12).

It takes great courage to invite change.  If we should find ourselves in situations of living or managing change, let us invite Saint Charles Borromeo to pray with us today.

Have a great day.

To save what was lost

We have come together today to spend some time with each other.  We have come here to spend some time with Jesus.  Each of us may have a different image of who God is, but the gospel passage we have heard today gives us an idea of the image God has of us.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it (Lk 19:1).  Saint Luke wants us to believe that the encounter between Zacchaeus and Jesus was a chance happening, but there is no such thing as chance in the mind of God.  Zacchaeus was a man of some importance: he was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man.  This meant that he could have had anything he wanted, but it didn't necessarily mean that he was loved by everyone.  Yet, he was trying to see who Jesus was (Lk 19:2-3): what he truly wanted was to encounter Jesus.  Some of us might also be people of some importance ... or we were influential at some point in our lives, according to the measure of the world, but regardless of our degree influence, we are all seeking to see Jesus.  That's the reason why we gather in places like this.  That's the reason why we pray.

The key to understanding this encounter is the fact that Jesus sees Zachaeus not as a man of great influence or importance but rather as one who is aware of his own insignificance.  No matter how influential we are in this world, in the eyes of God, the whole world .. is like a speck that tips the scales (Wis 11:22).  In fact, it is only when we are aware of our own insignificance that we are able to truly appreciate the way that God sees us.  As he approached the place where Zachaeus was, Jesus looked up and said to him: 'Zachaeus, come down ... for I must stay at your house today (Lk 19:5).  Jesus was less concerned about Zachaeus' wealth than he was about Zachaeus' heart.  This is the way our God looks at each one of us.  He constantly seeks us out and calls to us ... I must stay at your house.  In other words, I want to be part of your life, and I want you to be part of my life.  Zacchaeus climbed out out of the tree quickly and received Jesus joyfully (cf Lk 19:6).  When we open our hearts to Jesus, when we welcome him in our lives, we too are filled with joy.

The reaction of the crowd also provides us with a valuable lesson.  When they saw that Jesus wanted to go to Zaccaeus' house, the others began to grumble (Lk 19:7).  Reactions based on judgement and jealousy are usually signs of a heart that is not content.  In this case, the words spoken by the crowds tell us that they are more in need of conversion than they may be willing to admit.  What about us?  Do we rejoice when we witness joy on the faces and in the hearts of our neighbours and friends, or do we more often react out of jealousy?

Jesus is here among us today.  He has come to meet us and he is calling each of us, telling us that he wants to spend time with us.  When he realized the great gift that was being offered to him, Zacchaeus' heart was truly thankful.  Knowing how small he truly was in the eyes of God, Zacchaeus wanted to make up for his wrongdoings.  Tax collectors were famous for cheating tax payers, so it is significant that he demonstrates a change of heart: half of my possessions ... I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much (Lk 19:8).

Let us pray for the grace of knowing the joy of encountering Jesus, so that we may never look to others out of jealousy or judgement, but rather with thankful hearts, hopeful that God may make us all worthy of his call and ... fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith (2 Thes 1:11).

His Word Today: All the Saints

Good morning everyone,

The Catholic Church remembers and prays with certain Saints, normally on the day when they completed their earthly pilgrimage and entered into eternal life, but today we celebrate the Solemnity of the All the Saints: those that are known, and those who are unknown.

On 13 May 609 or 610, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary; the feast of the dedication Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since. There is evidence that from the 5th to the 7th centuries there existed in certain places and at sporadic intervals a feast date on 13 May to celebrate the holy martyrs. The origin of All Saints' Day cannot be traced with certainty, however some believe that it traces its origins to the pagan observation of the Feast of Lemeures in which the malevolent and restless spirits of the dead were exorcised from people's homes.

The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III (731–741) of an oratory in Saint Peter's for the relics of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world, with the date moved to 1 November and 13 May feast suppressed.

All Saints Day thus commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in heaven: the ones who are referred to by Jesus as blessed because they have fulfilled the corporal works of mercy (cf Mt 5:1-12).  Let us pray today with all those who have preceded us in faith.  At the beginning of this month, during which we remember and pray for the repose of the souls of all those who have completed their earthly pilgrimages, we ask them to pray with us too, that we may be able to live according to the will of our heavenly Father and look forward to the day when we too will reach our eternal reward.

Have a great feast day.