Graphic Novel on "The Big Questions"

I have to give a plug for a great new book released by Catholic Answers called "The Truth is Out There".  It's a graphic novel that follows the adventures of two eccentric characters, Brendan and Erc, as they travel space while debating fundamental philosophical and theological issues: why do we exist?  Is there a God?  Is there any right or wrong? 

I gave it to my teenage boys, and they were through with it in 24 hours and loved it.  It's a great book to share with teens, especially in this culture of "New Atheism" that thinks Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were just "idiots."

Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner? The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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In 2005, a quasi-remake of the famous 1967 movie “Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner” was released.  Entitled “Guess Who?” it starred Bernie Mac as an African-American father who struggled to deal with his daughter’s Caucasian fiancé (played by Ashton Kutcher).  Much of the comedy of the film revolved around the clash of cultures at the dinner table.  Usually we only share meals with people like us, family members or friends from our own “circle.”  When someone from “outside” comes in, it upsets the our balance. 

If anything, Jews of Jesus day were even more careful than contemporary Americans about who they invited around their table.  The Readings for this Lord’s Day are going to conclude with Jesus calling his followers to invite people from “outside”—the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind—to dine with us.  This takes humility, for it requires us to recognize we are not “too good” to share as equals with those people overlooked by the rest of society.  Thus, we also observe a strong theme of humility running through the Readings.

1. Our First Reading is Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29:

Will Many Be Saved? The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

If Jesus was walking through your town and you had ten seconds as he passed to ask any question you wished, what would it be?  “Why is there evil in the world?” “How can I be saved?” “What is heaven like?”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, an anonymous bystander gets his chance to ask Jesus one of the “big questions”: “Will only a few people be saved?”  Jesus’ answer is complex, indirect, and very well worth examining!  The Readings leading up to the Gospel help prepare us to understand Jesus’ response.

1.  The First Reading is Is 66:18-21:

Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.

“Family Values”: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In recent decades, the term “family values” has almost become a code word for “Christian culture” in American society.  Influential Christian organizations have adopted names like “Focus on the Family” and the “Family Research Council,” and on the Catholic side of things we have “Catholic Family Land” or The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, better known as “C-FAM.”  The natural family unit—based on a husband and wife who have made an exclusive, permanent, public commitment to share a common life and raise children together—has been under such political and social pressure that at times we almost identify Christianity as a social movement to promote family life.

In this context, this Sunday’s Mass Readings can be unsettling.  Jesus says he has “not come to bring peace but division.”  Come again?  Lord, with due respect, isn’t one of your messianic titles “Prince of Peace?”  Then again, the Lord speaks of causing division and struggle within families—strife in the family unit caused by Jesus!  How can this be?  Doesn’t Jesus believe in “family values”?

1.  Our First Reading is Jer 38:4-6, 8-10:

Apologies for Technical Difficulties

Last week I went on vacation with my wife and eight kids to Pennsylvania's "Dark Area," a remote region in north central PA noted for excellent star-gazing due to lack of light pollution.  Knowing that I would be without internet access for the week, I actually wrote the reflection on the Readings for Week 19 of Ordinary Time on Friday August 2 and set blogger to publish it last Tuesday morning (Aug. 6).  Unfortunately, something didn't work right, because when I returned to the online universe today (Mon. Aug. 12) I realized it had never posted.  I apologize to our faithful blog readers for the mishap. 

Staying Vigilant: The 19th Sunday in OT

[Technical difficulties prevented this post from appearing as planned last Tuesday, while I was on vacation.  I apologize for the confusion.  See post above.]

My father once served as the chaplain for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.  (U.S. Navy chaplains also serve the Marines and the Coast Guard).  I have fond memories of that beautiful seaside city.  In any event, perhaps the only bit of Coast Guard culture that I absorbed during my dad’s tour of duty was the motto: Semper Paratus, “Always Prepared,” which seems an appropriate summation of the theme of this Sunday’s Readings, which stress vigilance in the Christian life.  In fact, these Readings feel like something we might get in November, closer to Christ the King, but here they are coming to us in the middle of Ordinary Time.  Yet perhaps that’s appropriate, because it is not just at the end of our lives (or the liturgical year) that we need to be vigilant, but at all times—even and especially when its literally or metaphorically “summertime, and the livin’ is easy …”

1.  Our First Reading is Wisdom 18:6-9:

Church of the Poor: The 18th Week of OT

“How I long for a poor Church for the poor!”

These were some of the first words of Pope Francis’ pontificate, and the Readings this week seem providentially to support our new pontiff’s emphasis on the spiritual value of poverty.  Texts from the Old and New Testaments remind us that human happiness is not to be found in the accumulation of material goods.  Riches are fleeting and empty.  We are called instead to “store up treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal.”

1.  Our First Reading is Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23:

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!

Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill,
and yet to another who has not labored over it,
he must leave property.
This also is vanity and a great misfortune.
For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.

Bargaining With God: The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

With the Bible Conference going on at Franciscan this week, I have to offer a shorter reflection on the Readings:

Who has the guts to bargain with the Divinity?  Abraham, our Father in , does.  In the Readings for this Sunday, we find united several themes: persistence in prayer, the justice and mercy of God, the generosity of God.

1.  Our First Reading is Gn 18:20-3:

Entertaining God: The 16th Sunday of OT

This Sunday, as we continue to accompany Jesus on his fateful journey to Jerusalem in the Gospel of Luke, we are confronted with a pair of Readings in which human beings host a meal for God: Abraham for the LORD in the First Reading; Martha and Mary for Jesus in the Gospel.  But is it really possible for us to “do God a favor” by giving him a nice meal?  We are going to discover that, while God graciously accepts our services, it’s really about what God does for us, not what we can do for him.

1.  The First Reading is Gn 18:1-10a:

A Palace of King David Found?

The Israel Antiquities Authority is reporting the finding of a palace probably built by and for King David in the hill country of Judah, in a location known as Khirbet Qeiyafah, identified as the biblical city Sha'arayim.  One of the articles announcing the discovery can be read here.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? The 15th Sunday of OT

Fred Rogers used to sing at the opening of his classic children’s show:

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood

A beautiful day for a neighbor

Would you be mine? Could you be mine? …

Won't you be my neighbor?

Won't you please, won't you please?

 Please won't you be my neighbor?

Fred Rogers was a highly theological educated man, an ordained Presbyterian minister who also gave generous grants to St. Vincent’s College and Seminary (Roman Catholic) in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  I think he was well aware of the theological significance of the concept of “neighbor,” which we will explore through the Readings for this Sunday.

This Sunday Jesus issues us a strong challenge to break down the barriers and prejudices that prevent us from showing love to other human beings.  Jesus’ teaching is in continuity with the best synthesis of the moral instruction of the Old Testament and Judaism, which views every human being as a “neighbor.”

1.  The First Reading is Dt 30:10-14:

Gathering the New Jerusalem: 14th Sunday of O.T.

 
In the Readings for this Sunday, Jesus continues his final journey, his fateful "death march" toward Jerusalem (Luke 9–19, the "Travel Narrative") that began formally in Luke 9:51.  The past several Sundays have foreshadowed Jesus' coming suffering and death, but this Sunday we get a reprieve as themes of suffering recede into the background.  We are temporarily caught up in the joy of Jesus' ministry, as he assembles around himself a congregation of disciples who constitute a spiritual "Jerusalem."  In the healing ministry of Jesus and his disciples, we see a fulfillment of certain prophecies of peace and restoration to the "holy city" of the LORD.

1. The First Reading is Is 66:10-14c:

The Radical Call to Discipleship: The 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Readings for this upcoming Sunday continue the strong call to discipleship issued in last Sunday's Readings.  Jesus stresses that following him must be an immediate and complete commitment of one's entire person.  As someone once said, "Jesus did not come to suffer, die and rise from the dead in order to create 'cultural Catholics.'"

1.  Our First Reading is from 1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21:

The LORD said to Elijah:
“You shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah,
as prophet to succeed you.”

Join us in Austin, July 12-13!

Dr. Hahn, Michael Barber, and I will be leading a weekend conference on the New Evangelization in Buda, TX (near Austin) next month.  If you are in driving distance of Austin, fill your van with friends and family and come on out!  Info and registration is here.

A Turn Toward the Passion: The 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time

As the Church reads through the Gospel of Luke this year, we reach a transition point in this Sunday's text (Luke 9:18-24) where the focus of the Gospel begins to shift toward Christ's coming passion and death.  Sorrowful though his suffering will be, ironically it shall serve as the source of the life-giving "water" about which the other Readings speak.

1.  Our First Reading is from Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1:

Thus says the LORD:
I will pour out on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace and petition;
and they shall look on him whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son,
and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.

On that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be as great
as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

On that day there shall be open to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.

Faith, Love, and Forgiveness: The 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time C

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The Readings for this Sunday revolve around a constellation of fundamental issues in our relationship with God: sin, repentance, forgiveness, faith, and love.  Two of the passages used in this liturgy have been battlegrounds in the theological polemic between Protestants and Catholics, but ought not to be so.

1.  Our First Reading is 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13:

Nathan said to David:

“Thus says the LORD God of Israel:

‘I anointed you king of Israel.

I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own.

I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.

Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight?

You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword;

you took his wife as your own,

and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,

The Logic of Biblical Scholarship

(1) If a biblical book presents a clear structure and literary elegance (e.g. Ruth): "This composition is obviously the product of a long history of redaction during which original traditional material was shaped into the elegant structure we now observe in the final form of the text."

(2) If a biblical book presents an obscure structure or signs of disorganization (e.g. Micah): "This composition is obviously the product of a long history of redaction during with original traditional material was interpolated and supplemented with later additions, thus disrupting the structure and resulting in apparent disorganization."

How about this alternative hypothesis for "untidy" biblical books? "This composition was thrown together overnight from oral tradition and fragments of written oracles by a scribe fleeing for his life from Babylonian soldiers."

Just kidding, of course.  : )

Fr. Spitzer on Atheism and Education

A friend sent me this link to a video of Fr. Robert Spitzer, whose masterpiece New Proofs for the Existence of God (Ignatius Press) I have been reading for the past month.  I think Spitzer is excellent and want to share his insights.  His talk really starts at 10:10:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWiggyq1NMw

Hallelujah Chorus in Haitian Creole

I didn't finish my commentary on this Sunday's readings because I'm still recovering/catching up from a week long trip to Haiti, where I spoke at the first Eucharistic Congress of the Diocese of Anse-a-Veau et Miragoane, and at various parishes and missions of the diocese.  It was an incredible experience.  There is much I could say, but for now I just want to post one of my favorite experiences: the Hallelujah Chorus sung by about a hundred teens of the diocese, just after communion (with about 2000 people) during the outdoor mass to close the Congress.  The teens are singing in Haitian Creole.  All parts were learned by ear, as written music is unavailable.

The teen choir isn't visible in the recording, unfortunately.  They are hidden behind the band and a wall.

If the link doesn't work for you, try this You Tube link.

VIDEO: Curtis Mitch on the Four Marks of the Church in Ephesians

One of my favorite people on the planet--and one of the finest biblical commentators I know--is Curtis Mitch, co-editor (with Scott Hahn) of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. Curtis is known mainly for his work on the Study Bible.

I just ran into this video of Curtis presenting at the Institute of Applied Biblical Studies Conference in Steubenville, a conference I look forward to speaking at myself each Summer.

It is wonderful to find a video of him online. I hope you enjoy it!

Eucharist and Priesthood: The Readings for Corpus Christi

I'm blogging to you from Miragaone, Haiti, this weekend, where I'm participating in the diocesan Eucharistic Congress.  Say a prayer for us!  Now to the readings:

I love the early summer liturgical "trifecta" of Pentecost, Trinity, and Corpus Christi, forming a kind of "encore" to the joyful Easter Season focusing in succession on three fundamental realities of the Christian life: the Church, the Triune Godhead, and the Eucharist.  This "trifecta" comes to an end this week with the celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Readings for this Solemnity obviously focus on types and descriptions of the Eucharist, but there is a notably priestly theme that also runs through them.  In this way, we observe the connection between priesthood and Eucharist.  This connection first dawned on me personally in the fall of 1999, when I was first exposed to the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.  Coming across St. Ignatius of Antioch's famous passage concerning the Eucharist in his Letter to the Smyrneans (ch. 7), I suddenly realized that the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was and is the constant belief of the Church from apostolic times to the present day:

No Reading Commentary This Week

I can't write a Readings commentary this week because I'm on a silent retreat without Internet. Sorry to all our faithful readers. I'll be back on it next week. Say a prayer for me.

Readings for Pentecost Sunday

Let's take a look at the Readings for Pentecost Sunday Mass during the Day.

The First Reading is, finally, the account of Pentecost itself, from Acts 2:1-11:

Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Readings for the Vigil of Pentecost

The Lectionary provides a wealth of Scriptural inspiration for this weekend’s celebration of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.

As usual, there is too much beauty and richness for us to deal with it all in depth.  Here below I've augmented commentaries I've made in previous years:

The First Reading Options for the Vigil:

1. Genesis 11:1-9:
   Reading 1 Gn 11:1-9
   The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
   While the people were migrating in the east,
   they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
   

Ascension Day Readings

 

In the Northeast and Nebraska, today is Ascension Day.  In the Diocese of Steubenville, as well as in most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this Sunday.  I wish the traditional observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is what it is.

  

This is an unusual Solemnity in which the “action” of the Feast Day actually takes place in the First Reading.  We typically think of all the narratives of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, overlooking that Acts records at least two important narratives about the activity of the Resurrected Lord (Acts 1:1-11; also 9:1-8).

In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Pope Francis on the Historicity of the Resurrection

"Transmitting this requires us to be courageous: the courage of transmitting the faith. A sometimes simple courage. I remember—excuse me—a personal story: as a child every Good Friday my grandmother took us to the Procession of Candles and at the end of the procession came the recumbent Christ and my grandmother made us kneel down and told us children, 'Look he is dead, but tomorrow he will be Risen! '. That is how the faith entered: faith in Christ Crucified and Risen. In the history of the Church there have been many, many people who have wanted to blur this strong certainty and speak of a spiritual resurrection. No, Christ is alive”.

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/03/pope:_lukewarm_christians_hurt_the_church/en1-688586
of the Vatican Radio website

Kingdom of Peace: 6th Sunday of Easter

We have arrived at the Sixth Week of Easter, and continue to bask in the glow of the story of the growth of the early Church in Acts, the vision of heaven from the Book of Revelation, and the consolation of Jesus’ words to the Apostles in the Upper Room from John.  It’s a trifecta of glory in these Readings.

If last Sunday we noted a “kingdom of love” theme, this week we notice an emphasis on the idea of the “kingdom of peace.”  In Acts (1^st Reading) we see the measures that were necessary to keep peace in the early Church.  In Revelation (2^nd Reading) we see the peace of Eden restored in the heavenly New Jerusalem.  In the Gospel we see Jesus bestowing his supernatural peace on the disciples.

Thomas Aquinas on Turning the Other Cheek

"Holy Scripture must be understood in the light of what Christ and the saints have actually practiced.  Christ did not offer His other cheek, nor Paul either.  Thus to interpret the injunction of the Sermon on the Mount literally is to misunderstand it.  This injunction signifies rather the readiness of the soul to bear, if it be necessary, such things and worse, without bitterness against the attacker.  This readiness our Lord showed, when He gave up His body to be crucified.  That response of the Lord was useful, therefore, for our instruction." (In John 18, lect. 4, 2)

Joseph Pieper comments: "The readiness to meet the supreme test by dying in patient endurance so that the good may be realized does not exclude the willingness to fight and to attack.  Indeed, it is from this readiness that the springs of action in the Christian receive that detachment and freedom which, in the last analysis, are denied to every sort of tense and strained activism." —The Four Cardinal Virtues (Notre Dame Press, 1966), 133.

Kingdom of Love: The 5th Sunday of Easter

 

The Easter Season is passing quickly.  Already it is more than half over, as we progress toward the great Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost.  We want the Season to slow down, so that we may savor the joy and consolation of these readings from Acts and John that dominate the Easter Cycle, but tempus fugit.

The Readings for this Fifth Sunday of Easter describe the growth of the Kingdom of God, which is manifested on earth as the Church.  The first two readings and the psalm are tied together with Kingdom images, and the Gospel reminds us that this Kingdom is characterized by God’s love.

1. The First Reading is Acts 14:21-27:

After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news
to that city
and made a considerable number of disciples,
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.

Both "Lamb" and "Shepherd"?: The Fourth Sunday of Easter

This upcoming Lord’s Day is often known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” since each year the Gospel reading is taken from John 10, the “Good Shepherd Discourse.”  It’s also often observed as a day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, since priests and religious are visible manifestations to us of Christ in his role as the Good Shepherd.

Most of the Readings are tied together by a shepherding theme.

1.  The First Reading continues the traditional Christian practice of reading Acts during the season of Easter.  We are up to Acts 13, the point in Acts where St. Luke begins to follow the career of St. Paul in a particular way.

There is a basic division of Acts into two parts: Acts 1-12 follows Peter's ministry and Acts 13-28 follows Paul's.

The Primacy of Peter and the Primacy of Love: 3rd Sunday of Easter

This week is the Third Sunday of Easter, and our readings highlight the primacy of Peter among the Apostles, and the primacy of love in following Jesus.

 

Just a few comments on the preliminary readings before we concentrate on the Gospel.  During the seven weeks of the Easter Season, the Lectionary reads semi-continuously through Acts in the First Reading (showing the birth of the Church on earth) and through Revelation in the Second (showing the final state of the Church in heaven). 

Divine Mercy Sunday: The Readings

This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of the Octave of Easter, also known as “Divine Mercy

Sunday.”  The theme of God’s mercy runs through the readings.

1. In the First Reading, we see an outpouring of God’s mercy through the hands of the Apostles, who are given a gift of God’s power for the healing of physical illnesses and those plagued by evil spirits:

Reading 1 Acts 5:12-16

Many signs and wonders were done among the people
at the hands of the apostles.
They were all together in Solomon’s portico.
None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.
Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord,
great numbers of men and women, were added to them.
Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets
and laid them on cots and mats
so that when Peter came by,
at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.
A large number of people from the towns
in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,
bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,
and they were all cured.

Thoughts on the Seven OT Readings for the Vigil

I've posted this in previous years, but thought I'd post it again for our newer readers:

Brant, Michael and I belong to a school of thought that sees covenant as a central concept in biblical theology, particularly Catholic biblical theology.  Such an approach has strong support in the text of Scripture and in the tradition and liturgy of the Church, and would seem to be a "no-brainer," yet there are those who oppose it and de-emphasize the significance of covenant for interpreting the Scriptures in the Church.  For that reason, it's necessary periodically to justify this approach.

Some Thoughts on the Good Friday Gospel Reading

Every year on Good Friday, we read St. John’s account of the Passion from John 18-19.

One of the themes that runs through this reading is the Priesthood of Christ.  In this post, I would like to trace that theme.

There is priestly language already in the First Reading, from Isaiah 52 & 53, the famous “Suffering Servant” Song.  It speaks of the servant “making himself an offering for sin,” “justifying many,” and “bearing their guilt.”  These were priestly roles in the Old Testament, not the duties of prophets or kings. 

Turning to the Gospel Reading in context, we note that priestly themes precede the passage we read in Mass (Jn 18-19), beginning already in the Last Supper complex (Jn 13-17).  For example, the discourse on the Holy Spirit in John 16:4-15 contains priestly concepts.  Holy Spirit is sent to empower judgment of guilt vs. innocence, which reminds us of the tribunal of confession (cf. Jn 16:7 with Jn 20:22-23).  The Holy Spirit is upon Jesus, and will be given to the apostles, for the purpose of forgiving sin and making moral judgment, which in the Old Testament was the prerogative of the priests (see Lev 4:20; Deut 17:9).