July 28, 2012. Homily, Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Matthew 13:36-43


Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He said in reply, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil, The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wiling and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear."
The Gospel of the Lord.


Memorial of St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556.


the founder of the Society of Jesus.  vows of charity, poverty, obedience.


the youngest son of a noble family, made a cleric, or member of the clergy, at a young age, then released from his vows, became a member of the Court, then a soldier where he was grievously wounded, and in his recovery became a fervent Catholic.


The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in four weeks: contemplating sin, the life of Jesus, His Passion and His Resurrection.


with six companions including St. Francis Xavier formed the Society of Jesus. Ignatius Loyola was the first Superior General of the Society of Jesus.


It is about seeds. Seeds are the beginning of things, not the end. Good and evil will be separated out only at the end of time. That means, in practical terms, never! In the ultimate, yes, in eternity; but not in time – at no time! We have heard politicians talk about “stamping out evil.” I heard someone comment, “Jesus didn’t do it, the Buddha didn’t do it, but this politician is going to do it!” Only in the final sifting will it be done, and we don’t know anything about that. Let’s not be too surprised at evil deeds: we are part of the picture ourselves. Besides, many things that we call good today we will call evil tomorrow, and vice versa. We don’t have the full picture. Only God has. To claim to have the full picture is to claim to be God.


This thought doesn’t make evil any less evil, or less painful to its victims. But if we don’t spend all our time wondering why there is so much evil in the world, we may have a little left over for wondering why there is so much good – and even for attempting to help it.
Posted by Daniel Murphy at 6:33 AM

July 23, 2012. Prayer Service, Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Matthew 20:20-28


The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.  He said to her, "What do you wish?"  She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in  your kingdom." Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking.  Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can." He replied,  "My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give, but for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among  you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a a ransom for many."
The Gospel of the Lord.


James was the first of the apostles to be martyred. Acts 12:2.  He [King Herod] had James, the brother of John, killed with a sword. But John lived on as the guardian of Mary and as the evangelist who wrote the final gospel. John 21:20-23. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!"  So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to  him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"


Mark 3:17.  James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder). Mark 10:35. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, [made the request of Jesus].  James and John were Sons of Thunder because they were outspoken zealots.  And from that, and from this story, we get the flavor  of the zealotry of their mother.


Letter of James:


James 1:17  Every generous act of giving is from above, coming down from the  Father of lights.
James 1:20    let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
James 1:22    be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
James 1:27  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 2:8  You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
James 2:14  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you says you have faith but do not have works?  Can faith save you?  /15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, /16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? /17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
/18 But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

July 23, 2012. Homily, Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Matthew 12:46-50.


While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you." But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother."


Take that.


A parable of Jesus is a container made of words. We pour into it what we know from our life experiences and we pour our of it what we need. So here, we have our own experience of our mother and our brothers and our sisters and of those times when they have disturbed us at our work and our reactions to that.  But this is Jesus and the mother of Jesus and the reaction of Jesus to His mother, and we know that the mother of Jesus is the perfect vessel of the will of God, for when God through the archangel Gabriel asked for her obedience she said "Yes".  And we know that Jesus loved His mother and that His mother's life was to do the will of God.  We saw that at the wedding feast of Cana, when she asked the help of Jesus, and Jesus said, "Woman, my time has not yet come" and Mary said to the servants, "Do whatever he asks." And Jesus asked the servant to fill the water vessels and then performed the miracle of water into wine.  And so here, Jesus answers the messenger by elevating the disciples of Jesus, us, to the status of brother of Jesus, sister of Jesus, and even mother of Jesus.
Posted by Daniel Murphy at 3:37 PM

July 16, 2012. Homily, July 17, 2012

Mt. 11:20-24


Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For, if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell  you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment then for you. As for you, Capernaum:


   Will you be exalted to heaven?! You will go down to the netherworld.


For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."


The Gospel of the Lord.




If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.



This is the Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced [ˈgaderi degaˈgwita] in Mohawk), originally known as Catherine Tekakwitha informally known as the Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), the daughter of a Mohawk Warrior. She was an Algonquin and Iroquois Native American religious lay woman from New France and an early convert to Roman Catholicism. She was baptized at the age of 20 by the Jesuits and lived austerely in piety near Montreal caring for the sick enduring the hostility of her tribe and family, Consequently, she was shunned and exiled by her animistic tribe. She died at the age of 24 in 1680 after professing her vows of virginity.  She and her work were unrecognized by her tribe and family for the last four years of her Christian life and since then and now has been recognized by the Church for these 332 years.   Known for her chastity and corporal mortification of the flesh, she is the first Native American woman to be venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. Tekakwitha was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1980, the 300th anniversary of her death. On February 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially announced at Saint Peter's Basilica that Tekakwitha will be canonized this year of 2012 on October 21st.


If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

July 12, 2012. Homily, Saturday, July 14, 2012

Matthew 10:24-33.


Jesus said to His Apostle; "No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household.
"Therefore, do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness,  speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever who denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."
The Gospel of the Lord.


Three times in this Gospel,  near the beginning, at the middle and near the end,  Jesus tells His disciples "do not be afraid".  When Pope John Paul II was consecrated Pope, he followed John Paul I who was Pope for only thirty days, Paul VI and John XXIII, and John Paul II's first words on assuming the papacy were "Do not be afraid".  John Paul II was shot six years into his papacy and he went on to work with Solidarity to free Poland, to see the Berlin Wall fall, and to serve 26 years in the papacy. Pope John Paul II was not afraid. He lived two decades with a bullet in his abdomen and showed us how to live as witness to Jesus and, eventually, how to die in the arms of Jesus. His final words, in Polish,  were "Let me go to the house of the Father."
John Paul the Great. The crowd outside the Vatican as he died called out "Santo subito". Make him a saint now.


Today is the feast of Saint Benedict, the founder of the Benedictines famous for their abbey at Monte Cassino,and for B&B, benedictine and brandy, who wrote the rule of Saint Benedict, and the namesake of Pope Benedict XVI.  The motto, laborare est orare, to work is to pray, is at the foundation of the Rule of Saint Benedict. In modern times, it has been said, although one should not smoke while praying, one may pray while smoking.

July 11, 2012. Homily, Wednesday, July 12, 2012

Matthew 10: 1-9

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: First, Simon called Peter, and his brother, Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. 
Jesus sent out yjese Twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into any pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. A you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"
The Gospel of the Lord.

July 9, 2012. Homily, July 10, 2012

Matthew 9:32-38


A Demoniac, who could not speak, was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel."But the Pharisees said, "He drives out demons by the prince of demons."
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest."
The Gospel of the Lord.


You say that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. But if I drive out demons by the prince of demons, Beelzebub, then by whom do your children drive out demons. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God had come upon you.


The next line is a summary of the activities of Jesus over the last five chpters. He is a teacher, healer, and  a proclaimer of good news [the Gospel] for all the people.


"[S]o ask the master of the harvest, to send out laborers for the harvest." Luke 10:2 Jesus chose seventy of his disciples and sent them out two by two.


The Demoniac was brought to Jesus.
The friends of the Demoniac had not given up hope. 
THAT IS WHEN THE MIRCLE HAPPENED. 
NO ONE IS BEYOND THE HELP OF JESUS.