On this Gaudete Sunday, we are reminded that our truest joy comes when we recognise that the greatest joy we come to know it that of the joy of Christ, which can never be taken away from us.
If you saw only what the martyrs give up, it would make no sense. Yet they hear a beautiful song of which they are but one part, and the beauty of this song makes sense of every part, even their own deaths. Can we hear that greater melody?
Jesus told Zacchaeus the tax collector that he would dine at his house, and to make himself ready, Zacchaeus gave half of what he had to the poor and promised to pay back anyone he defrauded four times over. Are there things we need to do to make ourselves ready for the Lord to come dine with us?
Jesus challenges his hearers who pretend that they cannot interpret the present times, asserting that they know what God is calling them to, but simply do not want to respond. Not at all like us.....
St. Paul asks us to become slaves to goodness. Jesus points out that this might lead to division in our home, but it is better than a fake peace which favors the status quo.
As Christians, are we to go out preach the Good News, making people listen, or do we preach with our lives, inspiring others to follow, and not worrying about those who do not want to hear?
On this memorial of the guardian angels, we acknowledge that there is much more to creation than we understand, and that part of that is that God has created an angel for each of us who knows us and individually looks out for us.
In the readings, the world seems turned upside down as St. Paul rejoices in suffering and the scribes and the Pharisees are enraged at goodness. But St. Paul is really rejoicing in how his suffering reveals God's mercy to the gentiles, and the Pharisees simply refuse to embrace God's mercy.
The prophet Ezekiel tells the son on man that he has an obligation to warn sinners of the error of their way. We have an obligation to share our knowledge of God with the spiritually poor as surely as we need to share our wealth with the financially poor.
Jesus tells us to "Be Perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP tells us this is not some impossible perfection, but to be like the sun "which rises on the bad and the good." We are to let our love and mercy shine on everyone we meet.
Fr. Dominican Holtz, OP tells us that when Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek," he is not asking us to be doormats, but to recognise our infinite worth in his eyes, and how nothing can diminish that.
Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP reminds us that none of us really know what our life is worth or what it ultimately means, because our story is never finished. It keeps going even after we die.
