Category: love

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The COVID-19 Zone

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How We Learn To Stop Worrying and Surrender to Love

 

We are about to begin Holy Week.

April is Autism Awareness Month.

We are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All three realities converge for us now.  What do they have to do with one another? Nothing… and everything.   The pandemic, and our responses to it, have brought us to a crisis moment as the People of God.  There is hope on the horizon – an immense, brilliant hope, hidden in Christ but offered to us now.  Before we can perceive this hope, we must acknowledge our situation as it is. This will be very difficult for many.  It entails seeing things in a manner differently than the world as a whole sees things.  That is why we need to look to autistic people – people who habitually see things differently; people who are not fooled by ‘spin’ – as an example of what this means and how it can work.  It is the hour when people who appear to be of no use – such as autistic people and contemplatives – may have something valuable to share with everyone else.

Let us begin. Continue reading “The COVID-19 Zone”

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The Number One Answer

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) – Luke 12: 49-53

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.  – Ecclesiastes 3:1

You are undoubtedly familiar with the TV game show Family Feud. This popular show has been on the air almost continuously since 1976. In it, two families square off in an attempt to win the most money.  They do this by trying to guess the most popular responses to the questions the host asks.  The family member who comes up with the number one answer gives the family control of the round and a better chance to win.  The family that wins the game then has a chance to win more money in the Fast Money round.  The key to winning that round and the cash prize is to come up with as many number one answers as possible. Continue reading “The Number One Answer”

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Freedom, Love and Commitment

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather serve one another through love.  –  Galatians 5:13

In a few days, we in the United States will celebrate the Fourth of July, our Independence Day. It is a day when Americans celebrate the freedom that was won for us by our ancestors. Freedom is a very important value for Americans.  But how often do we ask ourselves what freedom really is? Why do we have freedom? How should we live this freedom that is ours? Continue reading “Freedom, Love and Commitment”

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“Stop Holding On To Me!”

Tuesday of the Octave of Easter: John 20:11-18

 

It is easy for us to sympathize with Mary Magdalene in this Gospel story today.

From the time she first encountered Jesus – when He freed her from those seven demons that tormented her (Luke 8:2) – she loved Him with a love that was at once chaste and passionate. A combination that people, past and present, would dismiss as impossible – which is why rumors persist in some quarters about Mary Magdalene and Jesus having had some form of relationship, perhaps marriage.

It was her love for Our Lord – at once chaste, passionate, and insatiable – which led her to follow Him all the way to Calvary, to be near the Cross with Him, to see where He was buried, and then to come with two other women on that first day of the week to finish anointing His body. Even when they encountered an empty tomb and were filled with amazement, not knowing what to make of it, Mary Magdalene remained. Peter and John came and went, but she remained. She would not stop looking until she had found Him. Continue reading ““Stop Holding On To Me!””

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From Anxiety to Love

Third Sunday of Lent (C): Luke 13:1-9

Perfect love drives out fear. – 1 John 4:18

As we pick up the story of Jesus as told by St. Luke, Jesus and His disciples are making their way through Galilee and headed for Jerusalem. Jesus has been telling His disciples that, in Jerusalem, He will suffer, die, and rise again, in order to bring repentance, forgiveness, and salvation to all who will believe in Him.

On the way, they meet people who tell Jesus how Pilate, the Roman governor, had butchered some Galilean pilgrims as they were offering sacrifice in the very Temple itself. Why did these people say this to Jesus? Were they troubled by His preaching about being reconciled with one’s enemies, and so brought up this atrocity, as if to say, “What about this? How can we be reconciled with people who would do such things?” Were these people trying to warn Jesus that this might not be the best time for a Galilean rabbi who had attained some notoriety to appear in Jerusalem? Or, was it the age-old question of why such atrocities happen – and why did they happen to these people? Were they somehow being punished for some serious sin? Or, if this was “just one of those things”, where was God in all this? Continue reading “From Anxiety to Love”