Gospel, Homily and Coffee

This Gospel challenges us. Here is how it appears:  the disciples treat an outsider, a woman with clear needs, coldly.  She is treated such because she is an outsider, and probably because she is a woman.  She annoys them. Jesus follows suit with this treatment.   Then it seems he has a change of mind. Did the Son of God change his mind?  Did he call this woman a derogatory term, then see the error and change? To be honest, I am not sure. For me, the message is not really about that, but something that points to the big picture and how have we accepted Jesus’ salvation. Salvation, to be saved, means that we have experienced God’s love, in some manner, and it changed us. God’s love, God’s grace instills a change of thought, change of heart within us. God’s love by its very nature will inspire us to change. Jesus came so that we can know of God’s infinite love, to know of the extent of that love (eternal) and to know that we can never ever...

"El Miedo sea el matador de la mente".    Este es un frase en un serie de libros, "Dune" en inglés. El miedo tiene la capacidad a matar mucho es nosotros, como individuos, como una comunidad, y como la iglesia. En Julio, los obispos de los estados unidos convocaron un reunión de los líderes, los laicos y los cleros. Convocado con el contexto de exhortación del Papa Francisco, Evangelii Gaudium, o  "La Alegria del Evangelio". Una exhortaciòn que llama todos los católicos , la iglesia entera, a ser renovado en La Misión. A ir a todo al mundo y a proclamar el Evangelio, La Buena Nueva del amor total de Dios. La Misión, es la vida de la Iglesia. la Misión, es la razón que somos Iglesia, La Misión, es a ir y proclamar el Evangelio a todos. Jesús anda sobre la agua, en medio de una tormenta. En la Escritura Sagrada Antigua, las tormentas representaron el caos y la muerte. Los discípulos estaban luchando.  No puedieron moverse adela...

“Fear is the mind killer”  Anyone who has read the Dune books will recognize that quote, and is a somewhat self-professed nerd. “Fear is the mind killer” was a mantra that permeated the books. Fear can kill a lot in us as individuals, and us as a community, and certainly as church. Recently, the United States Bishops convoked a gathering of Catholic Leaders, both Lay and Clergy, from all over the United States. Convoked, within the context Pope Francis’ encyclical “Joy of the Gospel”. An encyclical that calls all Catholics, the whole Church, to be renewed in Mission. Mission, it is the life of the Church Mission, it is the reason we are church Mission, to go and proclaim the Gospel to all people. Jesus walks on water, amidst a storm.  In Old Testament Scripture, storms over water represented chaos and death. The disciples are struggling in the storm:  they are unable to go anywhere. They see the Lord walk and they are scared. Jesus assures...

What does it mean to experience God? It's when we love someone, who then hurts us and rejects us. It's to see another person as a human person; even when they do not act like it. It's to when we return mercy and forgiveness, not vengeance. It's to welcome and heal. It's in humility, and not trying to micromanage everything and everyone.

I think our seminarians are not going to want to drive with me much.   I have a tendency to ask them questions:  such as “Explain the Trinity”, or “Succinctly explain Salvation?” and “How did Jesus’ death and resurrection save us?” However, what I like is that if they get into it, they start asking their own questions and that lets me know what they are thinking. One seminarian asked me during one such discussion, “Why did God reveals God’s self the way God did?  Why did God reveal God through Jesus Christ?  Why not just say directly who God is?” Here we are celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration, almost midway through summer. This feast celebrates God’s revelation and God’s way of revelation, and it invites us to go into the revelation. This is the Good News:  God wants us to know God.   God, Father Son and Holy Spirit wants us to enter into that mystery of who God is, and in doing so, we discover not only God, but oursel...