Deep Calls to Deep 14th Sunday Ordinary Time – “Come to me, all who are weary…”
I’ll lead into the post of my homily by highlighting two key words that I found just fascinatingly different from what I expected. Here is the first. “Come to me…” The Greek, deuete, is most often translated, “Come!” There is one exception that seems interesting and that leads into an informed guess… Matthew 4:18f […]
Thoughts on Independence Day…
God, I’m grateful for the beautiful land, 50 states of remarkable grandeur. I thank you for our founders who established the ideals of democracy, a new impulse in human history which began to be made real in 1776. I offer thanks for the many peoples who have come to the U.S. from so many nations, […]
A Response to: “Should we hold hands or not at the Our Father?”
Oh, this is a perennial issue, isn’t it? And, as NCR points out, there are many reasons pro and con about whether a congregation ought hold hands. They are legion. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/should-we-hold-hands-or-not-during-our-father I recall this practice appearing at Jesuit College when I was a novice. Perhaps it was 1968 or 1969. Again, to many it seemed […]
4th of Easter – The Deeper Desire
We are told that the deeper or deepest human desire is for God. I have had a goodly number of moments like that. On the other side of the scale, there’s been seemingly weeks, months, and years of other than that. What might it mean to search more attentively for this desire for God? It […]
4th of Easter – Voices of Strangers and Shepherds…
Jesus made another attempt to get the attention of the Pharisees at the start of chapter ten in John. Recall he had a dust-up with them over the man born blind and then told them they were blind. Here, he tells them they are idolaters (“stranger’s voice” = “strange” gods before me…) and essentially false shepherds. Ezekiel […]
Retrospect to 2nd of Easter – Lost Audio
Yeah, I just got this audio file this week. It’s about, as you may recall, Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in what came to be the ‘safe environment’ of the room with the locked doors. It’s only within such a safe environment that we can face how we use others to shore up our fragile self-esteem. […]
3rd of Easter – Emmaus & Heartburn (4)
How might heartburn (from Jesus opening the scriptures to them) and broken bread be related? Seems to me… Heartburn revealed their experience of purification from their idolatry – their demand that Jesus be the kind of redeemer they wanted. They were choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and remained immature. Jesus […]
3rd of Easter – Emmaus & Heartburn
This is very important to answer: What did the disciples recognize? Obviously, they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:35) What else? To come to know, perceive, recognize = ginosko They knew Jesus and the Father: Luke 10:22 […]
3rd of Easter – Emmaus & Heartburn (1)
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” Whaaaa…? Christ’s gift of heartburn? What does the Greek, kaio, “to burn,” signify? Two things, the presence of God and purification. Check it out: Exodus 3:2 There the […]
2nd of Easter – Thomas & Safe Environments (1)
At Gesu this weekend, we remembered “Safe Environment Week” a week earlier than the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. (Parish schedules and all that.) And on this Sunday we contemplate Thomas, often called the Doubter. This week I wish to reflect on some ways they fit together. And the first is this: What we all have in common with […]
Deep Calls to Deep 