Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest | USCCB

In our gospel for today, the Lord is putting his disciples to the test. “Who do people say that I am?” Their response is, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then Jesus asks a more direct question: “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answers correctly, “The Christ of God.” Then Jesus says something that I find a bit odd: he directed them not to tell anyone. Then he went on to indicate that he will be killed by the chief priests and scribes and rise on the third day. This was his reason for being here: to suffer and die for our sins. Then rise on Easter Sunday morning.

My take on the part of not telling anyone at that time is that his mission wasn’t quite finished yet. He still had things to do before going to Calvery to fulfill what his Father had called him to do. It was after he rose on Easter Sunday, once He was facing his disciples and they were experiencing the risen Lord, that he would tell them to go and make believers of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In our relationship with the Lord, we know full well that Jesus is the Christ of God. We are called to develop that relationship with him by our daily prayers, our daily meditation on scripture, our regular reception of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and confession and doing our works of mercy and charity towards others. We are called to bring Christ into the world by how we live our lives in loving God and loving others. We are to be a visible sign of Christ’s presence in the world.

Let us always remember to keep Christ in the center of who you are and when approaching the Lord in Holy Communion, let us silently say to him, “You are the Christ of God.”

Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our first reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians we hear of the many ways we can serve the Lord. We are all united in the fact that we have been baptized into the faith and have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we all have different talents serving God. Some are called to be leaders, some teachers, and so on. We are all called to bring the Love and Healing of Christ in different ways to the people around us.

As important as our leaders in the Catholic faith are, all of us are not called to be priests, deacon or nuns. Most of us are called to follow Christ in married life and are to witness our faith in Jesus Christ by how we love and care for our spouses and children. By loving and serving our spouses and children in our lives, we are reflecting the love of Christ has for each of us. As spouses and parents, our Lord is calling us to bring our faith into our families and to help our family be God centered. We are called to lead our families towards heaven by teaching them about the love and mercy of God and to be obedient to the commandments of God as taught by the Catholic Church.

Further, many of us are called to be witnesses of the faith in Jesus Christ in the workplace. We are called to live out our faith as examples of what it means to be a Christian in a world that may not know what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. By showing love and kindness to those we work with reflects what it means to be a Christian. By bringing Christ’s love into the workplace, we are acting as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is through this love and respect for others that we can proclaim the gospel.

Pope St. John Paul 2 is quoted as saying, “This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops. Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living, in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern 'metropolis'… The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference.”

So, preach the gospel always. When necessary, use words.

Can a blind person guide a blind person?

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church | USCCB

In our gospel for today, our Lord continues his teaching that we should not be so much worried about the sinfulness of other people we know but in how we are living out our call to be His followers as Christians. We all know and deal with people that appear to be not living out their lives in relationship with God. Our Lord is teaching us that we should worry about our own relationship with Him, whether it’s good or bad, rather than worrying about other people and their relationship with God. We are all sinners. Worrying about other people and their sins, while not worrying about our own sinfulness is being hypocritical.

Our Lord in today’s gospel asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” (Luke 6:41) We’re so caught up in seeing the sinfulness in other people that we fail to see our own sinfulness.

We are called to live out our lives in loving service to God and to love our neighbors (even those people we consider our enemies) as we love ourselves. In yesterday’s gospel reading from Mass our Lord taught us, “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Pretty tough words from our Lord, but words we are called, as Christians, to follow.

In chapter 6 of the gospel of St. Luke, the Lord is teaching us to focus on the love God has for everyone, including those people we may not like. Further he’s calling us to a better relationship with Him through how we live out our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The whole message of Jesus Christ is that of LOVE. Love not only for God, but also for us to love everyone in our lives, whether we like them or not. We are called to be loving and forgiving with everyone as we expect God to be loving and forgiving with us. It’s not easy to love those we don’t like, but the call of Christ is to love them, regardless of whether we like them or not.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta is quoted as saying, “It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

Let’s bring that love of God to all we meet today! This way people will know we are Christians by our love.

We Proclaim Christ Crucified

 

The Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our readings for today we hear from St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians and from the Gospel of Matthew about two things we need to be: followers of Jesus Christ and to be God centered people.

In the first reading from St. Paul, we hear Paul talk about the challenges of being a follower of Christ. Most people do not understand why we follow Jesus. All they see is someone who was crucified on the cross on Good Friday more than 2,000 years ago. Paul says, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” These are people who have rejected belief in God and are living out their lives with no thought of finding salvation in Jesus Christ. They are centered on themselves and have no concern for anyone else. They feel that it’s foolish to believe in the Lord and to believe that he not only died on Good Friday but rose on Easter Sunday. To them it’s a “stumbling block” and “foolishness.” They continue to live out their lives rejecting salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the gospel we hear of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The wise virgins were always ready for the “Bridegroom” and focused on when it was time for him to call them to the banquet. The foolish ones were too distracted by other things rather than on being ready for when the Lord comes to call them to the banquet. Do we live our lives focused on being ready for the time when we meet the Lord at the banquet in heaven? Or do we just live out our lives by ignoring the eventual time when we will meet the Lord face to face?

As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to always live out our lives as God centered Christians by receiving our Lord in the Eucharist often and by the regular use of confession when we fall short of our call to love God and to love our neighbor.

The people in our lives may think we’re foolish for our faith in the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ. But we are always to remain focused on the Lord in our lives and pray for the conversion of those we hold dear in our lives that they, too, may turn to the Lord to seek salvation and forgiveness of their sins.

XXI Sunday of Ord. Time

  

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

Submission to the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for XXI Sunday of Ord. Time

© All Rights Reserved personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, August 21, 2024 ©

 

            As a pastor, I know well the temptation to water down the hard truths of the Gospel in my preaching and teaching to keep people coming to Mass and our other rites and further to sustain our parish practically and prayerfully.  I can only imagine how this temptation besets my fellow pastors as we all try to keep our parishes going in body and soul whilst the Catholic Church and other faith communities are still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and even worse, from the blithe disregard of the needs of the human soul as well as our constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion, freedom of assembly, and free speech by various public authorities, leaders of public opinion, and corporate bigwigs – among others - as they mismanaged the pandemic and its aftermath.  Luke 12:48.

 

            I wonder if Our Lord Jesus was tempted to some linguistic sleight of hand regarding His assertions of His Real Presence in the Eucharist, per John 6, the source of our Gospel readings in the Ordinary Form these last five weeks and concluding today in Jn 6:60-69.  Although we Roman Catholic priests promise celibacy before receiving Holy Orders, that does not mean that we let go of wanting to love or wanting to be loved (and liked), including by our parishioners.  As almost all His followers deserted Jesus in John 6, I can imagine the heaviness in Our Lord’s question to St. Peter and the other Apostles, “Do you want to leave?”  Heaviness, I dare to imagine.  But He did not change His teachings. 

 

            Consider St. Peter’s response in Jn 6:68, “Master, to Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  What a choice His Eminence, Cardinal Dolan, made when he chose “Ad quem ibimus” (Latin for “To whom shall we go?”) as his episcopal motto!  Our Lord not only probes the faith of the Apostles in Jn 6 but also asks how much faith will be on Earth when He returns.  Cf. Luke 18:8 (“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on Earth?”).  When encountering the preaching and teaching of the hard truths of the Gospel, especially on the controversies of today, and not getting hung up on how - or for how long - the message is made, may we strive to answer Our Lord’s question made to you and me while the Gospel today is proclaimed or sung at Mass, as St. Peter replied in Jn 6:68.  May Our Lord’s questions meet your response and mine that Jesus will find your living faith (and mine), even if that entails trial and tribulation on Earth, so that we may attain holiness in this life and then our eternal salvation.

Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today, we hear the very familiar “golden rule” from the Lord: Love of God with your whole heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37)

It doesn’t get any more basic than that: we, who call ourselves Christian, are called to love. To love God and to love neighbor. It’s not always an easy rule to follow, but if we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, follow it we must.

The Lord concludes in today’s gospel, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 23:40) How much clearer can we get?

Central in our faith in Jesus Christ, we need to give God all glory, honor and love. We are called to have God as the center of who we are. We are to make time during our days to pray and give thanks to the Lord God to show that we indeed love Him as our Creator. We show Him this by our daily time in prayer. From the time we wake in the morning to the time we end our day; we are to remember that our time here in this life is a precious gift from God. We should make time every day to pray and give thanksgiving to God for this gift of life. Even if it at short periods of time throughout the day, we should take time to read scripture and to give thanks and glory to God. Even during the busiest times of day, by just taking a moment to say, “Thank you, Lord, for being with me throughout this day” we are showing God the love that we have for him.

The second part of this golden rule is the hardest: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39) First, we need to have a healthy love for ourselves. We can’t truly love others if we don’t have that healthy love of ourselves.

Further, it’s not always easy to love those around us as God expects us to. We need to remember that all people are made in the image of God and are loved by God. We, in turn, are to love them as we love ourselves. That’s not always easy, and there may be times when we need to distance ourselves from these people that we find it hard to get along with. It’s okay to keep our distance from them to protect our own spiritual & emotional wellbeing, but we are called to love them and to pray for them and their welfare.

As we go through our days, let us always try to love God with our whole minds, heart and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And when we fall short of these goals, let us turn back to God to seek forgiveness for the times we fall short.

 

Ep 41 An Intentional Crisis