Being a voice isn’t bad. All of us who call ourselves Christian share this fundamental vocation. We cry out. We speak against injustice, stand with those who suffer, tell the truth in a season of easy lies.
How do you know who you are, and whom you’re called to be? It could be as simple as paying attention to your generation and its circumstances.
Watch. That’s what Jesus has to say to his disciples today. Watch! While a single word makes for a poor homily and an inferior lesson plan, it does help to ask ourselves: Are we watching for something, or guarding against it? And how will we know what it is when it arrives?
FOR 70 YEARS the National Bible Association has designated the week of Thanksgiving from Sunday to Sunday as “National Bible Week.” A movement started among secular business leaders in New York City during World War II, their signature event is this simple allotment of a week of encouraging scripture reading.
“CHILDREN LIKE OLIVE plants around your table” may sound like a modern nightmare. Who can afford to feed, house, clothe, and educate the huge Catholic families of yesteryear?
“I DON’T GET anything out of prayer”: This frequently heard lament in the world of pastoring includes many variations: “I don’t get anything out of going to Mass/going to Confession/attending parish missions/believing what my faith teaches/practicing the responsibilities of my religion.”
THE MOON IS a far cry from the Sun in more ways than one. It is not a fiery orb that emits heat and light but a cold satellite that simply reflects the light it receives from elsewhere. That’s on one side, anyway. The other side is in shadow.
Life is complicated, but religion doesn’t have to be. If you can’t recite the Ten Commandments, list the nine Choirs of Angels, explain the reason we have Octaves, name the seven Capital Sins—or the six Precepts of the Church, five books of the Pentateuch, four gospel Evangelists, three major prophets, what was made on the second day of Creation, or know why there’s a partridge in the doggone pear tree at Christmastime, it’s OK!
The media is full of it. Power, that is, demonstrated in images of clenched fists, men with guns, the natural world exploding, politicians open-mouthed with rhetoric, dollar signs gleaming, and the bragging rights of corporations.
Most of us suffer a benign tunnel vision when it comes to our priorities: my family, my town, my nation, my religion, my dog. We’re half-convinced the gospel somewhere says: “Charity begins at home.”