Presentation of the Lord
February 2nd, 2020
 
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” Very often, having more light is not something we desire as it forces us to confront something we really do not want to see. There can be comfort found in darkness. It has an eerie sense of security to it. We do not have to challenge ourselves or be challenged and can simply exist in some fabricated state of self-fabricated blissfulness. Jesus came to bring light, and it is a light that is resisted by many and hated by some. It is a light that causes us to see things as they really are and not as we would want or need them to be.
 
It is no wonder then that Simeon boldly and honestly proclaims to Mary, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” We have to take the Gospel message as it is and not just use those parts that are useful to us or more palatable. Taking Jesus at face value can and will lead to turmoil and dissention. Hearts will be pierced. Whether we like it, Jesus’ proclamation of what the world God created really ought to look like has real and absolute social implications.
 
It has a lot to say about how we treat our brothers and sisters: spiritually, personally, economically, and globally. It has everything to do with the poor, the immigrant, the scared, the unborn, the vulnerable, the sick, and the broken. The light opens us to a challenging, table-turning experience that may not be something we want to see but shows us where we need to be.
 
©LPi

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 26, 2020
 
It begins! Jesus is doing something new. “He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea.” Jesus leaves his family, his profession of carpentry, and everything he has known and loved for the previous 30 years. He goes because it is time. Something new is beginning, and Jesus will not begin it alone. “As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers … he walked along from there and saw two other brothers.” What does he say to these men? “Come after me.” These words are for Peter and Andrew, for James and for John. They are also for all of us.
 
“Come after me.” The adventure of discipleship will be strange, wild, and unexpected. The Apostles surely didn’t know what they were getting into. But the invitation is accompanied by a promise. “I will make you fishers of men,” Jesus tells the first Apostles. No more will their priorities be limited to this particular village, to the square miles of the Sea of Galilee. Their eyes will be open to the kingdom of God, and their priorities will shift.
 
Most of us will not be called to roam the countryside, but we are invited to a similar shift of priorities. “Come after me,” Jesus says. “At once they left their nets and followed him.” Drop the nets of what you’ve demanded your life to be. Drop your self-seeking priorities. Drop your concept of religion as a Sunday obligation and no more. Drop your disregard for those outside your immediate social sphere. Whatever it is that keeps you from seeing as Jesus sees, from loving as he loves, start to drop it today. Because the kingdom of God is waiting for your yes!
 
©LPi

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 19, 2020
 
On the cusp of fame, power, or influence, would you turn it down? Today’s Gospel again features John the Baptist. Controversial but popular, John has gathered quite a group of followers. He has disciples. People come from near and far to be baptized by him. Pharisees and government leaders are drawn to his preaching. If John was another man, a lesser man, he would have claimed his own greatness. Instead, John the Baptist is a witness to humility.
 
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God … he is the one of whom I said, “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me.”… the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known.’” Rather than point to himself, John points to Christ. John could have grasped at what he had accumulated. He could have seen Jesus as a Messianic competitor. Instead, John knows who he is. He knows his place as forerunner. Because John knows who Jesus is. “I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”
 
A life of humility, a life for others, can be challenging to live. So much of our culture is built around achievement and individualism. We can justify it, too, in pursuit of “greater goods” and higher ideals. In the process, however, we might miss our own participation in the kingdom of God. John, for all of his humility, was not an afterthought. In another Gospel passage, Jesus calls him “the greatest prophet,” even the greatest of men. Why? Because he fulfills the mission given to him by God: to announce the coming of the Messiah. We too are prophets and forerunners. Our witness to the Gospel is meant to point people to Jesus. Consider your own mission this week. To whom are you called to announce the good news of the Son of God?
 
©LPi

The Baptism of the Lord
January 12, 2020
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives four reasons for the Incarnation, why God became man in Jesus Christ. The third reason is “to be our model of holiness.” All of Jesus’ words and actions model for us what we ought to do. He also shows us how we’re meant to be. Jesus’ baptism ought to remind us of our own baptism and of the importance of baptism in the Christian life.
 
The Baptism of the Lord reminds us of our Trinitarian identity. When we are baptized, we stand in solidarity with Christ, bathed in the waters he sanctified. There, the Father proclaims our adoption into the family of God. “‘This is my beloved son [this is my beloved daughter], with whom I am well pleased.’” And the Spirit, too, descends. We are filled with the Spirit’s grace and power to continue Christ’s mission on earth. We received these gifts in the sacrament, and they continue to dwell within us through sanctifying grace. We can — and should — invite God to stir up these graces of our baptism and consider them in our own lives.
 
Does Christ feel like a distant relative two thousand years in the past? Or do you see him as someone who can be encountered here and now? Ask yourself where you find your sense of dignity and worth. Do you still search for it in success, social status, and selfish pursuits? Or are you able to rest in being a beloved child of God? Remember, baptism gives us a call and a charge to change the world. Do you pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you? Or are you so focused on your own life that you miss the mission? This week, let’s do as Jesus did. Let’s live in our baptism!
 
©LPi