Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Whatever we have (and all that we have) is enough for the Lord. He can take our offering, as minuscule as it may seem, and by His grace make it enough. But we have to give it…

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Ignatius Loyola

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A man finds a hidden treasure… a merchant finds a pearl of great value… Solomon asks not for riches, but wisdom. What's the connection - they all are willing to give everything else up to have what they desire. Christ asks us the same question that the Father asks Solomon. What are we truly looking for? Would we know it when we see it? That is why our prayer and discernment is so important. It purifies our desires, assuring that what we desire is truly good and beautiful, worthy of our given all to 'have' it. Unlike the rich man who ceases to follow Christ because of his wealth, can we give all to follow God?

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Evil exists... and we need no further proof than to look around. Some have difficulty reconciling this fact with belief in God. Some deny the evil, others deny that God either exists or that He is loving. But this parable of the weeds in the wheat remind us that God does love us, but that He allows evil for now because to eradicate it from our midst would take too much. God will remove evil from our world at the end times. God's apparent 'inaction' is not a lack of love, nor inaction - He is limiting evil, and preparing the world for its removal. Those who have allowed the word of God to take root in them will be left in the kingdom of God, while the evil will be thrown into the fiery furnace of Hell.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Word of God is effective, and will fulfill its purpose. But note that while the word is effective, the ground of the human heart may not allow the seed of the Word enter in and grow there. There are times when our hearts are packed down, unable to receive the seed. At times, we may have let other things fill up our lives that there is no depth to the let the seed sink in. Other times, we let the seed get choked out by the anxieties of the world. But when we have allowed Christ to prepare us, to remove our shallowness and anxiety, we can receive the word and let it grow in us, responding to the Lord's loving call for our lives.

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Come to me, and I will give you rest... Jesus invites us to take his yoke upon his shoulders and learn from Him. Two oxen, properly yoked, could do harder work longer because of the yoke, and its physics. Christ, in using this image, reminds us that He is working with us, instead of our 'going it alone'. He invites us to learn from Him, to listen to His Sacred Heart, and to know the Father. Those who discover that it is first Christ's work we do in responding to a vocation, and that Christ is working through us and with us, know that the execution of our duties is not a burden, but a source of joy.