What God has joined together, man must not separate

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today our Lord is teaching about the true nature of marriage. The true nature of marriage is that of love between a man and a woman, which reflects the love that God has for each one of us. Our Lord clearly points out that from the beginning that man shall leave his mother and father and become one with his wife. The Pharisees were having a problem accepting the permanence of what it means to be married. They were looking at it as just a contract between two people. And if the relationship didn’t work, the husband would write a bill of divorce and move on. This always seemed to work in the favor of the man, but not for the woman being left behind.

Even in our own society we have things like “no fault divorce.” If two people feel it’s not “working out” then they just move on to divorce. Marriage and relationships in our society have become very self-centered. People don’t seem to worry about the other person in the relationship or the children that may have come because of the marriage. They seem to only worry about their own selfish needs and concerns. We’ve become a disposable society: once we’re finished with someone, it seems it’s time to move on and throw away the relationship that we feel we no longer need. What is left behind in the divorce will be broken homes and broken hearts of spouses and children. There are no winners in a divorce.

Marital love was begotten by God himself and raised to the tremendous status of a sacrament by his Son. A man and woman united in marriage are a miracle of love – two distinct persons, yet one in the creative beauty of God.

It’s important to understand why the church encourages those considering marriage to take their time during their courtship to get to know each other and to have a better understanding of the meaning of what marriage is and who each person is to the other. During the marriage ceremony, we are reminded that we will be together in good times, in bad times, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.

In the encyclical the Joy of Love, Pope Frances says, “The love they pledge is greater than any emotion, feeling or state of mind, although it may include all of these. It is a deeper love, a lifelong decision of the heart. Even amid unresolved conflicts and confused emotional situations, they daily reaffirm their decision to love, to belong to one another, to share their lives and to continue loving and forgiving.”

Let us pray for all married couples, and those considering marriage that they will understand marriage as a gift from God and that it’s meant to be a lifelong commitment.

Treasure Your Treasure in Heaven

XIX Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Submission to the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for the XIX Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved ©

 Today we have a guest blogger from Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator 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)

Although I find the common description of life being a “journey” to be quite overused and stale because so often the “journey” is emphasized over where we are going or whom to become, it is true that the life of a Christian is one of migration. To paraphrase from St. Thomas Aquinas, the Common Doctor of the Church, as he elaborated in his Summa Theologica, God has sent man to Earth so that man may return to God.  The readings for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Ordinary Form) also recall or anticipate movement over time, space, and even preparing for our accounting for ourselves to God at the end of our lives (the particular judgment) or at the end of time (the Second Coming or the Final Judgment). 

 

            Also worthy of our rumination over the readings of today is the timing of the Feast of the Transfiguration, which fell on Saturday, August 6^th (yesterday).  The Feast of the Transfiguration recalls and celebrates over time and space the manifestation of the divine glory within Jesus, Who is both God and man, a glimpse of which He allowed his companions on Mount Tabor, as attested by Mt 17:1-8, Mk 9:2-8, and Lk 9:28-36, among other sources.  Our Lord too was preparing to move, to descend from Mount Tabor to Jerusalem, where He would suffer His Passion and death on the Holy Cross.  Moreover, the Transfiguration was meant to infuse the memory of His disciples of an encounter with the divinity of Christ, which exists with His humanity in His person so that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man (human in all ways except for sinning), as reiterated to us by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and as we further profess in the Nicene Creed.

 

            “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Lk 12:34)   In light of the readings of today and the feast of yesterday, where are you going with your lifestyle in the here and now?  Do we carry out our daily lives knowing that, like the servants of today’s Gospel, we shall owe God an accounting for our choices, priorities, deeds, and words of our time here on Earth? Kyrie eleison!

 

“Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.  Because of it the ancients were well attested.” (Hb 11:1-2)   At whatever stage of life we are in and in our last days, can others around us see in Whom or in what we first place our faith concretely in good times and bad?  For those who are lukewarm in their Catholic faith or who say that they are “spiritual but not religious”: that yellow light before God, that acknowledgment of a “god” somewhere out there but without the trust to let Him truly become first in our lives sooner or later must become a green light or a red light before God.  At the hour of our death, when we have that final encounter with Christ, arguably He will reflect back to us the choice that we have been making throughout our lives to Him,   More reason, therefore, at least to seek His help to leave behind bad habits, indifference and negligence, and the chains of our attachments to sinful ways to make a “Passover” analogous to Wisdom 18:6, our first reading, to choose and live in the freedom of the children of God, to choose and share the good, the true, and the beautiful, to allow God to transform us as we seek His grace and to bear fruits of His grace in our lives and to help others to do likewise, and to show God by the end of our lives – whether it arrives tonight or thirty years from now – that we truly belong to “the people that the Lord has chosen to be His own.”  (Psalm 33, the responsorial psalm of today’s Mass in the Ordinary Form).

 

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

These are challenging words from Our Lord today: who really wants to suffer and carry his cross? And then Our Lord goes on to say if you want to save your life, you will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake finds it. It doesn’t sound too inviting being a follower of Jesus. But that is what Our Lord is calling us to do: to take up our crosses and have Him as the center of who we are.

 Jesus says that following Him is not about self-fulfilment, but self-denial. It is not getting your best life now, but about losing your best life now in order to gain eternal life! Following Jesus is not self-centred, but it is cross-centred.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ is a way of life. We are called to have Jesus as the center of all who we are. There is no one more important to who we are then the Lord. Following Jesus and the commandments of God are countercultural. We are called to do things that most everyone would turn away from. We are called to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul. We are called to do what is always right and just in all situations in our lives out of service to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This doesn’t mean that we are to turn away from this world and to live as monks or nuns in some cloistered monastery. We are called to follow Jesus and to bring the love of God into a world that is full of hatred and violence. We are called to walk the way of truth and to be a witness that Jesus is true God and true man. Many people deny this. But we are called to share this truth with everyone we meet, whether it’s family or friends. That’s where the cross comes in. Jesus is letting us know that it’s not easy being His follower, but by having Him as the center of who we are, and living out our Christian lives, we can have that peace that can only come from loving God.

By living this way as followers of the Lord, Jesus is promising us salvation and eternal life. By losing our lives and making Jesus the most important person in our lives, we are finding true life. We will always have suffering in this life, but living God centered lives, we will have that peace that comes from God alone.

Walking the path of Jesus includes the regular use of the sacrament of penance when we fall short of our Christian vocation, and we are to receive Holy Communion as often as possible. Finally, we are to love others as we love ourselves. It’s not easy, but it is what our Lord is calling us to do to gain eternal salvation. So, place Jesus in the center of all you do in your life. Lay down your life for Jesus and find eternal life instead!

XVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we have a guest blogger from Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator 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)

Although I am away on vacation, as your spiritual father I would not leave without commenting on the readings of this Sunday and our contemporary society.  I recall learning that Catholic homiletics should communicate the kerygma, that is the proclamation of the Word of God or the Good News and also paraenesis, an exhortation or application of the divine message to the lives of the listeners.  When done correctly, especially in the light of the Apostolic Tradition (i.e., what Catholics have prayed and believed across the millennia) and the Magisterium (i.e., the function of the Church as teacher, especially in matters of faith and morals), we as Church indeed can read “the sign of the times”, as exhorted by the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et spes, n. 4 and other documents of the Council so that we may live more faithfully on Earth our discipleship of Christ and so that your life and my life as Christians may serve as credible signposts and witness to the life (and eternal life) that God calls us to.

 

            In our relationship with God, do we love Him more for His gifts and His blessings than for Himself?  In other words, do we love the gifts more than the Giver?  Among the teachings of Msgr. William B. Smith, a moral theology professor of mine – may he rest in peace – decades ago while I was at St. Joseph’s Seminary at Yonkers, I recall his observation that given the many blessings America has enjoyed for many years, that it is hard for Americans to imagine what Heaven is like or that perhaps some Americans simply imagine Heaven to be the United States without problems.   If we define ourselves firstly by what job we have (or have had, in the case of retirees) or by our possessions, both material and intangible, then we lose sight of how God looks at us.  He does not regard us by our credentials or achievements (even if they may be praiseworthy), let alone by race, social class, or our possessions. 

God looks for faith in Him above all (cf. First Commandment) as He has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ and through His Church.  God also seeks a responsive receptivity from us when He challenges us through His proclaimed and perused Word to make more room for Him and His things in our lives.  When we become too attached to earthly things, even if they are good things in themselves, so that we become unwilling to let God bring us closer to Him by letting go of some of these items, whether they be material or immaterial (e.g. preferences, plans, or priorities), then we have hardened our hearts to His voice per Psalm 90, the Responsorial Psalm for today in the Ordinary Form.  When we appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ at the hour of our death – Kyrie eleison – our material and almost all of our intangible possessions will be left behind on Earth as we stand nakedly and transparently before the All-Seeing Judge.  However, may we appear before Him clothed with many moments of sincere prayers and thanksgiving, of reverent partaking of the sacraments, of moments of attentiveness and study of God’s Word and holy subjects, of sacrifices made in His name and for His causes, and many Corporal and Spiritual Works of Charity.  These are the riches “in what matters to God” (Lk 12:21) so that “when Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.” (Col 3:11).

 All Rights Reserved (c) by Fr. Arthur F. Rojas

Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.

 

The scripture readings for today can be found at Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today the disciples see how Jesus is so focused on prayer and relationship with His Heavenly Father. They wanted to share that intimacy and ask, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." They wanted that close relationship with God that they see that Jesus has with the Father. So, Jesus teaches them "Our Father" or commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer." This prayer has been translated into practically every language that Christians spoke over the last 2,000 plus years. It's central to who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. It has everything that we need in order to communicate with God our desires to be close to him.

Our Lord goes on, after teaching them to pray, that prayer is more than just speaking to God. It's about relationship with others. He is encouraging us, as His followers, to be available to our friends and neighbors in need. By responding to the needs of others, we are the conduits of how God answers the prayers of others. It is through us that God answers the prayers and needs of those who reach out to him and pray for their needs and concerns. We are called to be open to others in their needs. In helping others, we are helping the Lord. We are called to see Jesus in all people that we meet. 

Finally in today's Gospel, Our Lord is teaching us perseverance in prayer. We are to constantly reach out in prayer to the Lord. "...ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9) Do we get everything we ask or pray for? No, but we get what the Lord feels we need. "If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13) 

So be constant in prayer and know that the Lord is ever present to us in all our needs.

I have seen the Lord

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he told her.

Scripture for today's reflection can be found at Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene | USCCB

Today we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the Risen Lord. Mary was one of the original Galilean disciples of Jesus and one of the many women who followed him during his ministry around Galilee. She is known as the “woman from whom seven demons had gone out.” There has developed over the years that she was a penitent prostitute, but there’s no scriptural basis for this belief. All we know of Mary is that Jesus cured her of these issues.

Mary, being healed by Jesus, was truly grateful for the love Jesus showed her in this healing. Instead of a life of hardship and despair, she was restored to health & wellbeing by Jesus and was able to enter relationship with Heavenly Father and found the peace that can only come from her loving God. Her love for Jesus was so strong that she was the first to go to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, not really expecting anything so spectacular as Jesus risen from the dead. What she found was an empty tomb. She was fearful that someone stole the body of Jesus. So, she ran to tell Peter and the others. After they found the tomb as she described and left, she stayed there to pray. Such was her love for the Lord.

Due to her perseverance, she was blessed to be the first to encounter the risen Lord on Easter Sunday morning.  Then Jesus gives her the responsibility of sharing this good news with the apostles that the He has risen from the dead. Because of this responsibility, she came to be known as the “disciple to the disciples.” She encountered the Risen Lord and went, without fear, to the apostles to let them know that Jesus was alive.

We ourselves encounter the Risen Jesus each time we come to church, whether it’s through the sacrament of Reconciliation to receive the forgiveness and healing of our sins, or receiving our Lord: body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. We should, like Mary, be joyful at the opportunity to encounter the Risen Lord in these Sacraments. Then, after encountering Jesus in either the sacrament of Reconciliation or in Holy Communion, we should bring this Good News to all those in our lives.

Like Mary, when we meet others in our lives, we can and should say, “I have seen the Lord” and share the good news that Jesus is alive and present to all who seek him with a sincere heart.