Deep Calls to Deep 27th Sunday Ordinary Time – “It is Marvelous in our Eyes!”
Hypothesis: We really have only one way of relating to God, self, and others. We employ our patterned responses to everything and everyone. Thus, “the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…” tells us that whatever and whomever we reject for whatever personal reason mirrors what we reject in Christ and in ourselves. Seems to […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Something’s Changing…
It seems to me that this homily both revealed to me and confirmed in me the changes going on in me. For about forty years, I have referred to myself as an Irish-Existentialist. And I am. No two ways about it. I have borne that mantle with an edge these decades. Yep. Grace is doing something new […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Punchline
Everyone and Everything we reject becomes our cornerstone. It is the Lord’s handiwork. It is marvelous in our eyes! Jesus is The Intruder. Here, he pokes his finger into the chests of the chief priests, the scribes, elders, and Pharisees when he cites Psalm 118. God takes what has been rejected, despised, disdained, and makes […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – “Not in Our House!”
The game and corporate industry of football gives us an insight into what Jesus is doing in this gospel. The home team protects its field, their turf, from intrusion by a foreign power. It’s fans dress up to honor their heroes. They wears their colors. One mind. One heart. One intent: Victory. You don’t come […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – Audio Reflections
One final, brief word study to offer a lovely image. Matthew makes this amazing connection with this passage and another key part of the gospel through the choice of the verb, proago, “to go into, to go before.” Matthew 21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – “I Will Not Go… I Will Go…” Part Deux
Here is the most revealing mis-translation I have yet to find… ever. The NRSV translates it thus: Matthew 21:29f 29 He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – “I will not go… I will go…” Part One
The two sons (literally, ‘children’) say what they mean, but not as translated. The first says, “I refuse / desire not.” The second says something even more amazing. The Greek, thelo, “to want, desire, wish,” creates a network of meanings in Matthew. What might “going into the vineyard” have involved in terms of discipleship? For this is […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – Context, Context, Context…
Jesus’ parable about the responsiveness of the two children whom the father sent to the vineyard is not simply about being a good Catholic boy our girl. Let’s see what happens in chapter twenty-one… Jesus enters Jerusalem like a wrecking crew! He doesn’t just step on the feet of the chief priests and scribes, rather, he […]
Deep Calls to Deep 