Revered as the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham looms almost like a god over every figure of the ancient world. In our oldest Eucharistic prayer, we even mention him as “our father in faith” yet in the beginning he was as ordinary as anyone could be. God called him from the paganism of his homeland of Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, to take a blind step into the realm of faith in the land of Canaan. In doing so, Abraham manifested a living faith in God that the world had never seen.

His journey was never an easy one. Abraham responded imperfectly but with persistence. There were times when he wavered yet under God’s guidance, Abraham learned to pray, to trust, to persevere and to obey. He prayed that his wife, Sarah, would have the son that God promised even if the time for having a child was long past. The ultimate test of faith comes when God told him to sacrifice his son.

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2nd Sunday of LentRead More »

If God the Father Almighty, the creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? Imagine how different the world would be if there was no evil. Our nation would not be on the brink of another war in the Middle East, this time with the Islamic State. Nine-eleven would have been like any other day in Manhattan. Closer to home, we wouldn’t read headlines that speak of lives shattered or destroyed by the selfishness of others.

The Catechism tells us that like angels we are free to move toward our ultimate eternal destination: heaven or hell. God hopes that all peoples will choose to be in heaven with Him but that is a choice we have to make freely. Along the way we will have ample opportunities as Jesus and Satan did to love or not, to do good or not, and to do evil or not.

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1st Sunday of LentRead More »

I half expected to see everyone show up for Mass today in Seahawk blue, praying for the Hawks to win what is likely to be a close game against the Patriots in Superbowl XLIX.

Today’s gospel is very fitting for Super Bowl Sunday. The scene we encounter could be named the original super bowl, a contest of strength and strategy between the two most powerful opponents in the world: the Capernaum Demons, known also as the unclean spirits against the Holy Ones of Nazareth, led by Jesus and his disciples.

This spiritual super bowl began much like any super bowl does, with much jeering, hollering and screaming. The unclean spirits are shouting out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” Their aim is simple: they want to frighten and intimidate their opponent and his fans but ultimately they are unable to.

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4th Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Do you make up your mind once and for all when it comes to making commitments or do you tend to vacillate? When he was a boy, Ronald Reagan’s aunt took him to a shoe cobbler to get him a pair of custom shoes. When the cobbler asked, “Do you want square toes or round toes on the shoes?” Reagan hem-hawed around; he didn’t know what he wanted. The cobbler then said, “That’s all right, see me in a couple of days and tell me and I’ll make them for you.”

A couple of days later, the cobbler saw him and asked, “Do you want square toes or do you want round toes on your shoes?” And Ronald said, “I don’t know.” The cobbler replied, “Well, come back in a couple of days…your shoes will be ready.” When Reagan picked up his shoes, one shoe was square-toed and one was round-toed. The cobbler looked at him and said, “This will teach you never to let people make your decisions for you from this time on.”

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3rd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »

Moments ago, you either sang or heard others sing, “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.”

Did you resonate with the message of this song? Did you imagine that God is calling you? And if you did, would you reply in the same way that Samuel did? “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Don’t dismiss the notion that God is calling you. God calls every person ever created but many don’t listen. Are you willing to listen to what God has to say to you? By your presence here, I assume that like Samuel, you have responded, “Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.” After all, we make that pledge every time we say the Lord’s Prayer and say, “they kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is not just a plea; it’s a promise as well.

The sad truth is that for many Christians, these are empty promises. If they were carried out by every follower of Christ, then Paul would have had no need to speak as he did to the Christian community at Corinth. As we heard, he told them that the body isn’t for immorality but for the Lord, which makes sense for we were created in the image of God.

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2nd Sunday of Ordinary TimeRead More »