23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Cassie

In today’s Gospel there is a deaf and dumb man brought to Jesus.  Our Lord puts His finger into the man’s ears and touches his tongue with spittle.  Immediately the man is able to hear and to speak.

This same touch of our divine Master’s hand continues to transform our lives today.  Our brothers and sisters are the people who bring us into the presence of Christ so that His power can operate on us.  The sacraments are extensions of Christ’s hands reaching out to touch and heal us.   Scripture is the extension of His words of encouragement to us.

By the touch of His hand Jesus opens our eyes to the needs of others.  He opens our ears to the cries of frustration from people victimized by inflation, to the cries of loneliness from teenagers hooked on drugs, or to the cries of hurt from people we have injured.  He has loosed our tongue so that we can speak boldly in defense of the unborn and the handicapped, of honesty in government and business, and chastity in entertainment.

By the touch of His hand Jesus opens our eyes, unstops our ears and loosens our tongues.  He changes our hearts so that we can be more sensitive to the needs of others.   Under His transforming power we become His instruments to accomplish the works described in today’s Responsorial Psalm: to secure justice for the oppressed, give food to the hungry and set captives free.

Jesus not only touches us with His hands but also uses our hands to touch others, to sustain the fatherless and the widow, protect the stranger and raise up those that are bowed down.

During Mass, thank God for making the prophetic version of Isaiah a reality in us.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell

 

22nd sunday in ordinary time

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In todays Gospel Jesus teaches that true religion must first be an inward matter of the heart.  He warned against the tendency to become legalistic and hypocritical.  A legalistic person places all emphasis on performing the right actions in the right way, without regard for the inner spirit and reason for those actions.  A hypocrite is a person whose life has become insincere, whose external actions do not express what is inside.

Jesus’ point in this Gospel is that the person who is unclean before God is not the one with dirty hands but the one whose heart is full of hate.  He basically says that all external activity is empty and hypocritical unless it comes from the heart.  What use are all possible external practices if we are hollow within?

Jesus explains that it is not the appearance that counts before God, but reality; not the way someone presents himself, but what he really is.  Jesus always loved and praised what was genuine.

Our Lord tells us that evil comes from the heart.  Yet it may also have been allowed into the heart before hand.  Think about how much evil comes into our heart from malicious slander and nasty gossip if we take part in it.  Think about how many evil pictures can take root in our minds through videos, the internet, and television.  They can gradually poison our heart.  This is a new danger for our hearts in today’s world.

From our heart can come evil.  Yet, it is also true that from our heart comes everything good as well!  Things like loving thoughts and actions, those of understanding, kindness, and especially mercy.  These good gifts come into our heart as gifts from Jesus.  He gives them from His heart, which is always loving and true.  What is important is that we allow our heart to be filled with these gifts from the heart of Christ.

Jesus tells us that what makes us clean and pure is to make our heart like His.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell

21st sunday in ordinary time

Posted on by Cassie

You Have the Words of Eternal Life

As we come to the end of the “Bread of Life  Discourse” in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus’ words demand a response.  Our Lord claims to be sent by God to give us eternal life.  He demands that we believe Him if we are to receive this life.

Jesus offers us His flesh and blood as life – giving nourishment.  We have to either stake our lives on Jesus being who He says He is, able to do what He claims He can do, or dismiss Jesus as a deluded wonderworker, who came to an unfortunate end on the cross.  Many who encountered Jesus did dismiss Him because of His claims, even some who had been His disciples.

Believing in Jesus as the God- sent source of eternal life is no small act of faith.  Human eyes can look at Jesus and see only a man- an extraordinary man, certainly, but nonetheless only a man.  Jesus acknowledges this when He says “the flesh is of no avail”.  It takes more than ordinary sight to see who Jesus is.  It requires God’s help; it requires the gift of the spirit.

In the other three Gospels, Peter professes faith in Jesus as the Messiah.  (Matt 16:16; Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20).  John’s Gospel formulates Peter’s confession  in light of the particular message of this Gospel.  Peter acknowledges that Jesus has “the words of eternal life” and professes that “we have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God”.  Peter believes in Jesus as the one sent by God to bring eternal life.  John’s Gospel invites us to the same act of faith.

As we live our personal response to the message of Jesus, let us turn to Him as the one through whom we will be raised up to eternal life.  As we receive Holy Communion today let us profess our faith in Jesus, the Word made flesh, sent by the Father to bring us to Him.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell