Ordinary Time Cycle A

Second Sunday of Advent-Cycle A

 

December 4, 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

We continue to wait and watch for the coming of the Lord especially this very day, at our death, and at the end of time.

But are you tired of waiting???

 

 We pray that God will help uis in a difficult situation, with a difficult or impossible person when there seems to be no answer. 

We have waited a week, even a month. 

Then we have given up.

This was just like the people of the Hebrew Scriptures that Isaiah  was addressing.     

 

They had  given up on God and turned to other gods. 

They had turned to the idols of foreign nations where they lived, not to God to solve their problems. 

To them and to all generations Isaiah gives hope of what is to come.

Don't we do the same? 

When things don't go our way is it not easy to turn to anger, or selfishness, or judgement to solve the problem when we will not wait for God.

Or when life gets really rough isn't it easy to turn to our idols, our foreign gods, especially if God has not taken the problem away.  Alcohol, drugs, sex, addictions to TV, smoking, etc. can be the foreign idols that seem to solve the problem that God has not solved in the time we gave Him.

Sometimes we give up.

In Paul's letter to the Romans  Paul tells those in that community to look at the history of the Chosen People. 

God always came to save them, time after time. 

He does not give up on that people or on us.  

Sometimes we have to pray for patience to trust and wait for God's action.

In the Gospel   John the Baptist says that the Lord is coming. 

 

Prepare!

He will come. 

Are we willing to wait and watch everyday for Him?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirty Third Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C

November 13, 2022

 

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

"By your endurance (perseverance) you will gain your lives."

 

 

 

Have you given up on looking at your spiritual life?
Have you even stopped thinking about it on a daily basis?

 

 

Many of the people in the first reading, having returned from exile in 450 BC,  failed to see what God had done for them.

They were abandoning their believe in God.  They just wanted to live the good life.  The prophet tells them the end will come.  Return to God.

 

The prophet Malachi was encouraging them to not forget how God had forgiven them and taken them out of the Exile in Babylon, and brought them back to Jerusalem. 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Paul was addressing   the same problem in the Christian Community to which he wrote .  Some were forgetting what God had call them to through their Baptism.  They were not to just sit around, as some had done, but they were to make God present in the world by their lives and actions.

 

 

At times we can see our own exile of our sins, of our dysfunctions, of our addictions and just plain give up or even worse, just ignore them.

God wants to feed us with his forgiveness, but we do have to work at continually looking deeply at ourselves, at our failures to fulfill the call we were given at our Baptism to make God present, and that can be very hard work. We may even get lazy and falsely believe that we do not sin or we do not sin very big.  What a deception!

 Just think about the following...

Love the other as yourself, every person as yourself.

 

Sin is always a tragedy and we do sin. God, again today, will bring us out of our exile, our sins. That is what Christ is about, again and again, day after day.

But we do have to look deeply at our spiritual self and not be scandalized by what we see. We will do this again and again until we die.  Don't give up.  The force of evil will always hint at us to give this up.  

Don't listen to that voice.

 

Remember God does not give up on us. 

 

 

 The last line of the Gospel this Sunday says...

"By your endurance, perseverance,

you will gain your lives."

 

 

Courage.

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Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

November 6, 2022

 

 

 

Often times we and those around us live in the world as if this is all there is, and yet this Sunday's  readings bring us a message that we all know but of which we need to be reminded.

There is an eternal life

 

 

The first reading from Maccabees it's about a mother and her seven sons who are Jewish and are being persecuted by the king. They are being force to break the laws that God had given them and that was to break from their laws and traditions.  One was to be forced to eat pork.

 

The seven sons and the mother give witness to their belief.  They knew that death was not the end and they were not afraid to die.

You and I face a kind of death everyday, not necessarily physical death, but a mental or kind of psychological death.

 

The times that bring us face to face with a kind of mental or psychological death can be those times that we are rejected, those times our ideas are not accepted, those times that we feel lonely, those times that we feel unloved, those times that we feel persecuted, and the list could go on and on.

These are all moments that we are called to face death and to realize that those things  are a part of our journey to the real lasting life.

But we live in a world that seems to react as if we must always have our way and feel great and never suffer because this life is all there is.

 

 

But we know better and today's readings are a good reminder for us.

 

 

 

 

In the Gospel Jesus reassures us that there is an afterlife; that there is a resurrection.  

 

 

Jesus in this life shows us that this is not all there is; that there is an eternal life which is the our final home; that we are called to journey to, while here on earth.

 

 

 

We hear from Paul's letter.  We know that this community of the Thessalonians, this Christian community of the Thessalonians, was certainly under a great amount of persecution and rejection.  It would have been so easy for them to think that if this is all there is then why are we putting up with these problems and persecutions and even physical death.  Let's just get all the gusto and enjoyment now while we can.  

We can find ourselves in the same mind set, especially when we may think, why me, Lord?

But they know through Paul's preaching, that it was not the end, that there was a life waiting as they made their journey toward eternal life.  Saint Paul is  aware of, not only his own struggles, but also those of his young Thessalonian community, living in the midst of the majority of people who did not believe.

 
In his letter he reminds them that they have been called by God to make God present in the world by their lives.  That is also true for us.

He tells them that the Lord is faithful and will certainly guard and strengthen them, even in those moments when they feel like is this all there is.  That is also true for us.

He reminds them that God is encouraging them and giving them the strength to continue on their journey which will always have struggles and disappointments, but it is part of the journey home.  Paul knows that God will give them endurance,  just as he was given endurance in all his sufferings, rejections, imprisonment, etc.

Perhaps it's time for us to look at our own lives. Are we caught up in this idea that this is all there is so let's just go on living our life with no concern of what God has called us to through our baptism.

 

Every day, when faced with psychological death, we are called to make God present in the world through our mercy, compassion, patience, love to the enemy, forgiveness, etc.

When we find ourselves in those moments when we are  thinking that we have to get everything in this life because that's all there is... let us pray for our own conversion, so that we more and more realize that the problems and struggles, as well as the wonderful times are all part of traveling to eternal life.

 

Be not Afraid

Go out of your way for someone today.

 Courage