Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend, we read of Elijah and his journey to Mount Horeb nourished by the bread of the angel. In our Gospel, we hear Jesus telling us that He is the Bread of life, that leads to eternal life. Without Christ, the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, we are bound to fail. We need the Eucharist to nourish us on our journey through life. At the end of Elijah's journey, he was assured that God had heard him and his plea. God hears us, too. We come to the Eucharist, to receive Christ.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Lord, Give us this bread always", we hear the people ask Jesus. It is a profound prayer of the heart, a prayer that both reveals that deep desire, but also betrays a certain sense of misunderstanding. Jesus is the Bread of Life, and we can receive Him in the Eucharist, but this is not simply for the feeding of our bodies. It nourishes our souls, and in the Eucharist, we are consumed to become the Body of Christ. Give us this Bread always, not our humanistic understanding, but Christ's understanding of what He offers.

To continue this reception of the Bread of Life, Christ has given to the Church priests, and in ordination configures them to offer the sacrifice that becomes the Eucharist, Christ truly present. We need the Eucharist, we need priests to confect the Eucharist.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings this weekend, we hear of the little boy who offers his lunch, but Jesus Christ accepts it, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to the crowd. It is more than enough. Without denying the miraculous multiplication of loaves, think of the generosity of that little boy, though. He must have thought, too, so little for so many. But he gives it freely and generously, and holds nothing back. Five loaves feed five thousand men (not to mention women and children).

We have been given gifts and talents. If we hoard them, focusing on our limits instead of God's generosity, we will have too little. If, instead, we return them to God, imagine the possibilities!

The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in Celibacy

In a post Ignatius Insight: The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in the Celibate Priest's Spousal and Paternal Love, the author Carl Olson writes of the role of the Blessed Mother in the celibate priesthood, based on the book of the same title by Fr. John Cihak, STD.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings this weekend tells us that the shepherd will protect his flock, not take advantage of them. The shepherd will lead to peace, seeking a refuge of rest and freedom. The Lord is our shepherd, and like a shepherd, He leads us to peace. But He also calls us yet today, like He called the apostles, to follow Him to rest and to serve. Let us follow Him, finding rest and peace.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Apostles are sent without anything that would weigh them down. That is how important the message of the Kingdom of God is - let nothing hold you back. With radical abandon, they went out to preach - fishers, tax collectors, and others. Like Amos in the Old Testament, their background did not matter. The mission was what mattered.

We are also called to a great mission. Our past does not matter (if we have sinned and sought the sacrament of Reconciliation and found forgiveness for our sins). Let nothing hold us back!

Caritas in veritate

I am slowly working my way through the new encyclical "Caritas in veritate" of His Holiness Benedict XVI. So far, it provides great fruit for reflection. Especially in light of the first paragraph:

1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

17. A vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible answer. Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility.

18. Besides requiring freedom, integral human development as a vocation also demands respect for its truth. The vocation to progress drives us to “do more, know more and have more in order to be more”