Community Posts Archive - Page 4 of 35

Week of October 29 – November 2

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

St. Peter’s Weekly Schedule October 29 – November 2, 2012 Visit www.baylorcatholic.org for more information Monday, October 29 5:30pm – Communion Service Tuesday, October 30 7:00am – 30 Minutes with Jesus 7:30am – Morning Prayer 5:30pm – Mass 7:00pm – RCIA (Dinner at 6:30pm) Wednesday, October 31 12:15pm – Mass, followed by lunch 4:00pm – 4:45pm – Confessions 5:00pm – Solemn […]

The Way Podcast with DeeAnn Smith: Annunciation Maternity Home

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

Join DeeAnn Smith on “The Way” as she looks into the recent fire at Annunciation Maternity Home in Georgetown with Executive Director Christie Aaronson, http://thematernityhome.org/. Subscribe in a reader

HOMILY 30TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE “B” October 28, 2012

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

Was Jesus right handed or left handed? Was he tall or short? What color were his eyes? Did He wear His hair long, or was Jesus fashionably bald? Was He the skinny aesthetic type, or, as I like to think of Him, was He a jolly, rotund, 280 pounder? What do you think?

There are so many details that the New Testament never bothers to tell us. We are never even directly told if Jesus was ever married or not, leaving room for all sorts of speculation. So when we read a detail in the Gospel like,“he threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus,” we have to wonder if the Gospel writer, in this case St. Mark, doesn’t mean for it to have more significance than a mere detail.

Bartimaeus, the blind man, “threw aside his cloak”. Why? What is this cloak? What does it symbolize? How does Bartimaeus cloak himself, i.e. hide his true self? It is a cloak of self-pity? “Oh, poor me, I am blind, I’m a beggar, poor me.” Did you ever cloak yourself in self-pity? Hide yourself from truly facing life and the work of relationship by cloaking yourself in self-absorption, self-pity? I certainly have.

Or maybe it is “tough man” cloak Bartimaeus had to throw off: you know, “So I’m blind. So I’m a beggar. I can handle it. I’m tough. I don’t need anyone. It’s fine.” And so he hides his weakness, his vulnerability, his need, cloaking it with false bravado. This is a cloak I think we guys like to use. “I don’t need to see a doctor. I don’t need any therapy. I don’t need anyone; I’m just fine.” Yehh, right.

Or maybe it was a cloak of anger, or of false humility, or low self-esteem, or some other persona and act that Bartimaeus adopted to cloak his true identity. He did this to protect himself, like putting on a shell, but in so doing he cut himself off from others, and so cut himself off from Jesus.

What cloaks do you have? Any personas or masks you adopt to cloak your true self, and so protect yourself, but only end up cutting yourself off from others?

We all have them. And like Bartimaeus, we need to throw these cloaks aside in order to come to Jesus. We need to come to Jesus as we truly are, not with our masks, our acts, our cloaks, but throwing all those false selves aside, come to Him with our excess flab and warts and our weaknesses, as we truly are. For that is the only person Jesus loves.

Back to the Gospel story: Jesus asked Bartimaeus a strange question. “What do you want me to do for you?” Hey, the guy is blind. Isn’t it obvious what he needs? Why does Jesus ask such a silly question?

Well, first of all, note this is the exact same question that Jesus, in last Sunday’s Gospel, put to James and John when they came with a request to Jesus. Jesus wants us to state what it is we want, because Jesus is asking about something deeper than physical needs. Jesus is pushing the issue at a much deeper, more spiritual sense of blindness than just physical eyesight.

Just a few chapters before in St Mark’s Gospel the disciples totally misunderstand Jesus when He warns them to ‘beware the yeast of the Pharisees…’ They mistakenly think it is because they forgot to bring bread. And Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see?” (Mk 8:17-18) Jesus is always asking about blindness of the heart, not of the eyes. And so Jesus says to Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus is asking if Bartimaeus really wants to see, to understand, to comprehend God’s plan for his life.

And the same is true for us. Jesus asks us, “What do you want me to do for you?” Do we really want to see? Not everyone does. Blindness is often a lot easier, a lot more comfortable. A dramatic instance of this occurred in World War II when the allies liberated concentration camps, and made the people of the towns where the camps were walk through the camps and seewhat they had spent years trying to not see.

Do you see God’s plan for you, what God wants of you in this life, and that God’s plan is far better for you than your own plan for yourself? That the most important thing you must do is love? That love is more important than money, fame, power, sex, anything? Until you truly see that, you are still blind.

Do you see the face of Jesus in every other person in this room, in every person you meet? Until you honestly see Him in every person, you are still blind.

Do you want to see that we are all brothers and sisters, regardless of our race or nationality or language or religion? Seeing all this and more makes a great difference, and it is not all easy. But it is true.

We must come to Jesus, admit our blindness, and tell Him, “Master, I want to see.” I want to see your Goodness. I want to see your Will for me.

I want to see that you are God and I am not. I want to see you in every person I meet.

“Master, I want to see.”

This is what it means to be a disciple. When Bartimaeus made this request he received his sight, “and followed Jesus on the way”. The way means more than the road, it means Jesus’ way of life. It is to be a follower of Jesus, it is to be a disciple.

The Gospel today challenges us to throw aside whatever cloaks we may be hiding under, to stand up, and come to Jesus. As today’s Gospel tells us: “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”

AMEN.

Relevant Radio’s “It’s Your Call” Podcast #30: Amber Fogarty and Billy Moyer

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

Relevant Radio 970am’s monthly mens program “It’s Your Call” with Amber Fogarty and Billy Moyer of SOS Leadership Institutehttp://www.sosleadership.com/, discussing how people become like their leader. Subscribe in a reader

“Mondays with Mary” – The Saints and Popes on the Holy Rosary

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

Since this coming Thursday is the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1), this “Mondays with Mary” will conclude this month of the Holy Rosary with a post on what the saints and Popes have said about the Rosary and the … Continue reading →

Respect (Sick) Life

Published October 29, 2012 • Written by

“The grandeur and raison d’être of each person are found in God alone. The unconditional acknowledgement of the dignity of every human being, of each one of us, and of the sacredness of human life, is linked to the responsibility which we all have before God.” (Pope Benedict XVI, quoted in the USCCB’s 2012 Respect […]

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It’s Up to Us Podcast #37: Sheila Liaugminas

Published October 28, 2012 • Written by

The latest episode of It’s Up to Us with DeeAnn Smith. In this episode DeeAnn Smith features Sheila Liaugminas, host of Relevant Radio’s A Closer Look http://www.relevantradio.com/programs/a-closer-look-with-sheila-liaugminas. Subscribe in a reader

The Way Podcast with DeeAnn Smith: Susan Eason

Published October 28, 2012 • Written by

Join DeeAnn Smith on “The Way” as she speaks with Susan Eason, Director of the Catholic Archives of Texas http://www.catholicarchivesoftx.org/index.php/about/staff/susan-eason-director. Subscribe in a reader

Splendid Sundays – October 28, 2012

Published October 28, 2012 • Written by

Let us join together, quietly reflecting on today’s readings: Follow this link to today’s readings. Heavenly Father, Today we also bring to you the Prayer Requests that are left here on our Catholic Sistas site. For all General Intentions, we pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer. For our Homeward Bound Intentions {for […]

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Bartimaeus: A Man of Courage and Stong Faith – Podcast

Published October 27, 2012 • Written by

It is very important that we know where we are going as we wade through life’s confusions. So much is going on in our world that if we are not careful and vigilant we may be drowned in the sea of this existential disorder. Let us reflect on today’s bible lesson and pray that God may heal and bless us with the spiritual sight that will lead us to salvation.

Fr. Chuck’s Column, Sunday, October 28

Published October 27, 2012 • Written by

On Wednesday, October 17, I had the pleasure of visiting the third grade at St. Austin School. The same day, Fr René Constanza visited the first grade. I had gone there to speak about the Rosary (October being the month of the Rosary) and enjoyed it very much. What surprised me was that when I asked if there were any questions, one young lady in the class asked me why girls cannot become priests. Surprisingly, on the same day Fr. René received the same question from a girl in the first grade class.

This, in my humble opinion, shows how sharp and intelligent our St. Austin students are. They are interested in the Church and the larger world around them. That is a good thing. They also are willing to ask questions and that is a very good thing.

Now I attempted to answer the third-grader by explaining that Jesus was very open to engaging women, like the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John’s Gospel, Chapter 4, and treated women respectfully (like with Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38ff) and even had women followers. (See MT 27:55-56. The women who looked on at Jesus’ crucifixion had followed Him all the way from Galilee and had been providing for Him.) Yet, in spite of Jesus’ surprising openness to and acceptance of women, Jesus never called any women to be Apostles. The teaching of the Church interprets this as an indication of Jesus’ intention that only males be ordained priests, making it impossible for the Church to ordain women. Since the Church is usually not reticent to claim powers and privileges for itself, when the Church does claim its inability to do something then I am especially prone to notice. In the case of the ordination of women the Church professes its complete lack of ability to do so. That is worth paying attention to.

Fr. René, more recently from the seminary and much more up-to-date on all things theological than myself, took a different tack in answering the first-grader’s question, arguing that since the priest represents Christ, the priest is a type of icon of Christ the High Priest, and since Jesus was a male, a male priest better represents Christ, and hence all priests are males. No doubt he expressed it much more cogently than I have. Now I know this is an argument often advanced by our Orthodox brothers, who are also opposed to the ordination of women. There are no women Orthodox priests, and the two oldest branches of Christianity are both firm on not ordaining women. Nonetheless, I find the icon argument less than convincing. When a female delivery room nurse baptizes a newborn in danger of death we say that is a real Baptism. We also believe that in all the sacraments that Christ is active. So Christ in that case must act sacramentally through a woman and hence she represents Christ the Priest. Or so it seems to me.

While the teaching of the Church is not in question, and is perfectly clear that only men can be ordained priests (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #1577), what is not clear to many are the arguments supporting this position. Fortunately, we live in a society where gender equality is growing and even assumed. Therefore we need to be able to explain why it is that the practice of not ordaining women is not an arbitrary prohibition, but is more like the case of why a man cannot be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader or why a woman cannot be a Dallas Cowboys linebacker. It is not prejudice, but rather simply they don’t have what it takes. Gender does, in some cases, make a difference. Mary could be the Mother of God (something no man could ever be), but yet could not be a priest.

Since people, even our little children, are asking about this, we owe it to them to find better arguments that are more compelling and satisfying. Pray for theologians and religious educators to frame more accessible answers.

God bless!

Catholicism 101: Creation and the Angels

Published October 27, 2012 • Written by

Creation and the Angels God is the Creator of heaven and earth because He made all things from nothing. The chief creatures of God are angels and humans. Angels are created spirits, without bodies, having understanding and free will. God created the angels to see, love, and adore (give honor to) Him in heaven. They […]

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