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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Jesus | Learn more about our faith | faithfulness
Jesus presents us with two parables to illustrate the nature and growth of the Kingdom of God. He compares the Kingdom of God to a tiny seed that grows into a large tree where birds can build nests in its branches, showing us that the Kingdom has humble, insignificant beginnings yet expands into something that impacts many people. Jesus also compares the Kingdom of God to yeast mixed into dough that works its way into a loaf of bread, enjoyed by those who eat it. Jesus uses these two parables to highlight the subtle, internal, and pervasive influence of Jesus' teaching in our lives. God's Grace Works from Within We just had ordinations of nine young men in the Province of East Africa two weeks ago. I lived with them for the last four years as their director in a formation house. One of them, when he was being vested with the chasuble, just started crying, with tears streaming profusely down his face.
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Jesus | Learn more about our faith | faithfulness
Charity and love are core virtues of our Christian faith. They are foundational in helping us noticing those who tend to be invisible in society. Through kindness and love we can see and acknowledge individuals with whom society, daily routines or systematic prejudices routinely overlook. In today’s gospel, we have a woman described as having a spirit that crippled her for 18 years, leaving her bent over and unable to stand up right. Jesus notices her in the middle of teaching, interrupts himself, calls her to him, and lays hand on her and heals her. This woman was invisible to the religious structure around her, and yet Jesus stopped his teaching to see her, call her forward and even addressed her a daughter of Abraham in a way of restoring her dignity. Jesus’s love for this woman in her disability led him to heal her, setting her free from her infirmity, even when he knew that would make the religious leaders indignant, mad at him for breaking the sabbath law. While others walked past her or looked down, Jesus was able to notice her predicament.
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Gospel Reflection | Jesus | Learn more about our faith
We hear Jesus tell Peter and the disciples today to be prepared for an hour when they do not expect the Son of Man to come. Peter asks, “Jesus, does what you are saying apply to us or to everyone?” Jesus replies, “Peter, what I just said applies to everyone.” Jesus proceeds to tell a story about those who are prepared and those who are not, those who have oil in their flasks as they await the arrival of the master, and those who allowed the oil to run out and missed his coming. Faithfulness in Our Daily Responsibilities In telling us this story about the servants and their attitude toward the responsibilities entrusted to them, Jesus is actually moving us away from predicting when the Lord will come to considering how we live as we wait. The good news today is that if we are doing all that we can possibly do and are doing it faithfully, then we will be prepared. For some, it will be the daily responsibilities we have of raising a family, caring for elderly parents, or caring for a sick spouse. For others, more may be required of us if we have been blessed with more.
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Jesus | Learn more about our faith | faithfulness
“Faithfulness is not doing something right once but doing something right over and over and over and over.” — Joyce Meyer We all appreciate people who offer genuine, consistent support and prove themselves worthy of our trust. These are the people who keep their promises and fulfill their responsibilities. Perhaps many of us, if not all, have experienced the heartbreak of discovering that someone we depended on was unfaithful. When faithfulness is lacking in a marriage, a family, a friendship, or a relationship between an employer and an employee, the pain can be profound, and the damage can be widespread and long-lasting. Why begin with this? Because faithfulness is essential to our relationships. It gives us a sense of security, confidence, stability, and comfort. Like an anchor, it helps us remain steadfast through the challenges and uncertainties of life.
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Gospel Reflection | Jesus | Learn more about our faith
It is a question posed in today's gospel to Jesus by an expert in religious laws. Probably you have come across or heard people share about their encounters with everyday interventions; people who extend acts of kindness to strangers, like staying with an unhoused person in medical emergency until paramedics arrive, or people who open their home as foster parent for a child in crisis, churches or organizations that attend to or shield people from socially targeted groups who are in distress. We have fire fighters who risk their lives while pulling injured strangers from burning houses or cars. From the context of today’s gospel, we can probably say that those instances depict the essence of neighborliness. The parable of Good Samaritan takes us beyond the question “who is my neighbor?” to “What does it mean to be a neighbor” and definitely that is the question Jesus asked at the end of the parable,which of these three (Priest, Levite and Samaritan) proved himself a neighbor?”
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Gospel Reflection | Jesus | Learn more about our faith
Back in East Africa people in the village always tease Holy Cross members, that you took the vow of poverty, but it is we ourselves who live it and not you. Why? You are driving a car, and you seem not to lack anything. Of course, the vow of poverty is a voluntary promise made to God by members of religious orders to renounce the independent ownership of material goods and live simply in imitation of Jesus Christ. It involves sharing everything within the religious community. In that sense, we do share one car with three to four members. They have the wrong assumption.
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