Gospel, Homily and Coffee

I wonder if we over-complicate God and God’s will? Listen again to those words from Isaiah the prophet, the first reading: “The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear;...” All that God wills is that we humans be lifted up. God wills that we work with God for the good of all. God rouses us up to be all that we can be: God’s children. This is Jesus, the Son of God. This is the mission of Jesus. The Son, the humble Son who gave of himself, even unto the sinfulness of humanity, so that humanity can be raised from that sinfulness. So that we can be roused to grow, roused to take action, roused to hear God’s love.  The Passion, the whole of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery is not about how sinful we are, nor how bad we are… This is not to make us feel bad about ourselves and humanity. It is about how Good God is. It is about how in God’s grace how good we ...

St Theophilus of Antioch “God is seen by those who have the capacity to see him, provided that they keep the eyes of the mind open... ...before all faith and the fear (awe) of God must take the first place in your heart.” Notice what the religious leaders said of Jesus: He can’t be of God.   Who is God? How do I experience God? How do I grow in my relationship with God? These are Ancient and new questions and these are important questions. Because the God we know or think we know; the God we experience and see forms the person that we are, that we become... and ultimately we are either free or slaves.  For millennia, we humans struggled with who is God! We have argued and at times we have fought using words and weapons.  We have gotten it wrong at times. When we were wrong people were killed and enslaved in Africa and South Americans. And this legacy continues to this day, not only among Christians, but Muslims, Jews, Hindu, and with this come the abuse of persons, leg...

As a Midwest transplant, refugee, or whatever term we can use, I have these moments when I am up on the mountain or in the desert and am struck by an incredible view, and I say “This! This is why I don’t live in Ohio anymore.” Yet..there is another reason too. We do have incredible views here, and so much more is hidden from our sight in the back roads, off the pavement. One thing I have encountered too, is that with the magnificent views, some people say they do not need to go to church. They can find God in nature, in the huge vistas. Okay, but… A jewel of our Catholic heritage is our aesthetics, the beauty of our architecture, the rituals, the music...some 2000 years of tradition honing this, adjusting to various cultures and innovations…. And people will say amid the ritual, in the building, and in the sacrament they can only find God; no where else. Okay, but… There is truth to both, but not the whole truth.  And to grasp a larger truth, it can be necessary to grow in our w...