MGC March 1 Salvation: doing good because it is good: empowered by Grace

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27th Sunday Loyalty to God brings life

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Loyalty is a virtue. We praise loyalty, whether it is loyalty from our spouse, family, friends and our dogs. Loyalty means to trust in that other. So it involves a relationship of some form or another, almost covenantal. Loyalty itself does not necessarily have a specific reward. I know companies will reward “loyalty” by giving so-called discounts for using them exclusively, but that to me seems a distortion of loyalty. That borders on manipulation. Loyalty’s reward rather is loyalty itself; that relationship, that security that comes with it. Our expectation is that the person, the other will be with us. Anger is the emotional response to when an expectation is not being fulfilled. We expected something of someone, whether another human, an institution, ourselves, God…and it does not happen. The stronger that connection with the other, and the higher the expectation, the more anger we experience.  Do we see a lot of anger right now? Within ourselves, within our world, wit...
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30th Sunday Homily Love of God=Love of Neighbor

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When we speak of Jesus and his revelation of God; there may be a temptation to think that what Jesus had to reveal of the Father was truly innovative, new, progressive. He proclaimed God that has never been hear before.  In part yes, but... Jesus was also firmly rooted in the history of his people and rooted in their Scripture. What Jesus revealed of the Father was the fullness of that Revelation that the Father had begun with the people of Israel.   To paraphrase: to be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of God. God revealed God’s self to humanity; Israel in Scripture understands God as one who loves the people and wants the people to know this and to respond to this love through their love of others. These are in the foundational stories of Genesis: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel.  It was inscribed in the law given to the people as we heard in Exodus.  Through word and deed, Israel was to show to the rest of the Nations God! The Pharisees, and the Sadducees, ...
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