February 17
What an audience Jesus has in today's Gospel! "A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon." Disciples, pagans, and devout Jews gathered together to hear Jesus speak in the Sermon on the Mount. All of these people had something in common. God was someone to be bargained with, and if God liked you, you were rewarded with good fortune. This Sunday, Jesus tells us a different story. "Woe to you who are rich ? who are filled now ? who laugh ? when all speak well of you. Blessed are you who are poor ? you who are now hungry ? when people hate you and when they exclude you and insult you." Jesus completely flips the script on what it means to be blessed by God. What he proclaims as "woe" are states of life we often strive for, and "blessed" are the states we work hard to avoid!

Jesus is concerned with the kingdom of God and the world to come, not the typical structures of power and privilege. The word "now" appears often in these statements. Why? If you are well "now," that's beside the point. To be rich in this life has no direct bearing on your immortal soul. If you're struggling "now," that's not an indication that God has forgotten you or that - in light of eternity - you're worse off than someone else. In fact, it could be an indicator that you're enduring something that will bring you to a place of greater, eternal joy in the future.

This Sunday, consider your priorities. Who do we reject as not blessed, and thereby inflict woe upon ourselves? When we encounter difficult situations in our own lives, do we see them as opportunities to remember God and lean on His mercy and grace?

Live the Liturgy - Insipration for the Week 
Getting ahead in the world is something many see as important. Success, a comfortable life, and worldly securities are seen as what is needed to achieve happiness. Whether or not we like to admit it, these pursuits are operative in many of our lives. As much as we want to believe in the Gospel, we also find it hard not to cling to these other things. Unconditional trust in God must be first if we are going to perceive the kingdom of God. And while God does not want us to go out of our way to be miserable, Jesus clearly gives preference to those who are poor, hungry, weeping, marginalized, vulnerable, and despised. When people encounter these things, they touch God. It teaches us not to get too comfortable with our riches and that there is much more to true life than the stuff we find so important.

February 10, 2019
Do you have enough? Many of us come from a nation of material abundance. We have all the things we could possibly need not only to survive, but to thrive - food, shelter, mental ability, income, access to medical care. Most people in human history lived with far less than we. So why are we so dissatisfied? Some Christians can be drawn to the "prosperity Gospel." This is the idea that following God will bring us material abundance in this life.

That surely seems to be the story of today's Gospel! Peter and his friends chose - with some faith - to put out their nets a final time at Jesus' command. "They caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking." What gift! What abundance! What prosperity! Peter and his friends caught more fish than they'd ever seen. Yet what is their response to this material abundance, this gift from God? They leave it behind. "When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him."

Praying for God to meet our physical, material needs is not a bad thing! Jesus himself includes "give us this day our daily bread" in the prayer he teaches his disciples. The question is, how do we respond when our prayers are answered? Do we thank God briefly, or perhaps ignore Him completely and move on with our lives? Or do we respond as Peter did? "God ? You showed up in an area that has no bearing on my eternal salvation. You gave me a gift I didn't even really need. You love me! You really do love me." Is our gratitude only surface level? Or do we allow ourselves, like Peter did, to respond with wonder, awe, and deeper discipleship?

LIVE THE LITURGY - INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK
Have you ever felt a compelling urge to respond to a situation and then found yourself questioning whether you should do so? Fear often takes hold of us, and we find ourselves making excuses for why it is better to just mind our own business. There is a voice within each of us that is saying, "Follow me". What does this prompting mean? The purpose of discipleship is not to secure our own station in life and enhance our comfort zone. Discipleship is about taking risks and venturing forth into the unknown, tending to the needs of others and being prophetic voices of change. We will not drink deeply of life until we listen to the voice of God within. When God asks, "Whom shall I send?", will you reply, "Here I am, send me!"?

February 3, 2019 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Gospel is one of tension and contradiction. We enter the scene at the local synagogue. It is near the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, and he has returned home to Nazareth for a short while. There, in the midst of the men who watched him grow up and who played with him as a boy in the dusty streets, Jesus proclaims that he is the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah. The response is understandably mixed. "All spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, 'Isn't this the son of Joseph?'"

Jesus reminds them - none too gently - of the Israelites' rejection of the prophets throughout history. Not only did the people ignore Elijah and Elisha, but they worked miracles among the pagans instead. Then comes the rage. "They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong."

No one likes to be reminded of their own faults. In the deeply religious Jewish society, nobody wanted to be the unfaithful one. Jesus exposes the sins of the community, and it drives them not to conversion, but to rage. We can consider our own time. How often, when someone is contracted, do they quickly resort to anger, name-calling, and undermining the reputation of the other? How quickly we want to destroy! This Sunday, we ought to consider our own lives. Do we listen to the prophetic voices around us, even when they threaten to upturn our expectations? If we hear something difficult, something that reminds us of our own sin, do we accept the opportunity to prayerfully ponder? If we allow ourselves to be open to the prophetic voices in our own lives, we'll notice that God speaks through the unexpected, if we have ears to hear it.

LIVE THE LITURGY - INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK
No one wants to listen to a prophet, especially when the prophet is someone close to us. We have a hard time accepting that ordinary associations can develop the type and depth of wisdom that can not only positively change lives but profoundly challenge them. To many folks, Jesus was simply the son of Joseph, even though his words caught their attention and amazed them. After his words sunk in, they were infuriated and drove him out of town. Is Jesus simply the son of Joseph to us as well, or is he the God who knew us before we were formed in the womb? If he is God, then we need to heed his message and change our lives accordingly.

January 27, 2019 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
"He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up." Did you grow up in a small town? Whenever you see stories of tight-knit communities, a common refrain is that everybody knows everybody and that's very difficult to change. If you leave and return, people expect you to be and act a certain way, and it's strange for them if you do not. In today's Gospel, we see that Jesus was already moving "in the power of the Spirit and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He...was praised by all." His ministry has begun! News of his growing popularity must have proceeded him to Nazareth.

Upon his arrival, he "went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day." For the first few moments, he is what they expect - their hometown boy returning to pay his respects. As was common of men at the time, he takes a turn reading a passage of Sacred Scripture. It is a bold passage, one he selects intentionally. "He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." After reading about holy anointings, liberation for the poor and prisoners, and physical healings, Jesus does the unthinkable. "'Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.'"

We are all called to imitate Christ wherever we are. This might mean doing the unexpected! All too often we're content with the daily status quo, and so are the people around us. When we take a stand for Christian values, change our lifestyle to reflect the Gospel, and work for justice in society, we may make others uncomfortable. But Jesus doesn't call us to the same life we lived yesterday or the year before that. He is calling all of us - each and every one of us - to deeper conversion of heart. No matter what other people expect, will you love in the Spirit of the Lord today?

LIVE THE LITURGY - INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK
St. Theresa of Avila reminds us that, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people." We are, in every way shape and form, the Body of Christ. Our bodies are not just one single part but many. We are many, and we are all uniquely different. Yet each in his or her own way contributes significantly to the whole. We are all baptized in one spirit, and there are no distinctions that separate us. We must keep our eyes focused on the greater whole and not get distracted or consumed with particular parts. Everything and everyone must work together for the praise and glory of God.