Free Republic

I've been involved in some form of church ministry--either training for it, practicing it, or training others for it--for over twenty years now, and I know one of the major challenges we face in ministry is burnout. At Franciscan University we train a large number of prospective youth ministers. The attrition rate in this field is very high. I don't have exact statistics but would not be surprised if half of new youth ministers leave the field for some other line of work within three to five years. Burnout is a problem for spiritual leaders, but it’s also a problem...

What does it mean to be a human being? What are we really? The answer our children are taught in school is that we are just animals, the result of a long process of accidents in which an amoeba became a fish, became a lizard, became a monkey, became us. So all we are is a material body, a fluke of the universe, a "selfish gene," and when we die, that's it. Of course, virtually no one can or does live consistently with this "materialist" view of human beings. Even radical atheists like Richard Dawkins get "mad" at Christians for...

God could have made us with solar cells in our skin, so all we would have to do is lie in the sun to get the energy we need for life. But he didn't. In his divine plan, God created us as creatures that need to eat. The first command he ever gave us concerned food: what to eat and what not to eat. We turned away from him by an act of eating. And now, since the coming of Christ, we can turn back to him by an act of eating. Our need to eat reminds us that we...

At this time in the Church year, we are working our way through the Gospel of Mark, approaching the record of the Feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6). In the next five weeks, we are going to take a break from Mark in order to meditate on John’s account of the same event (John 6), which will provide a lengthy opportunity to reflect on the theology and biblical basis for the Eucharist. This Sunday, however, we will only read the introduction of the account of the 5,000, and focus on the issue of leadership for God’s people rather than the...

The readings for this upcoming Sunday are united by the theme of God’s choice of his messengers. And, as is typical for God, he chooses some unlikely candidates. 1. Our first reading is from the prophet Amos 7:12-15: Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos, “Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying, but never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple." Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser...

This Sunday’s readings draw a comparison between three groups: (1) stiff-necked Israelites in the time of the prophets, (2) the townsfolk of Nazareth in the days of Jesus, and (3) you and I sitting in the pew. The message to us is: repent, and believe the Good News. 1. Our first reading comes from near the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, when that great prophet was receiving his initial call from God: Reading 1: Ezekiel 2:2-5As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was...

The readings for this Sunday focus on the theme of life, and God’s desire for it. They discuss God’s relationship with, and intentions for, the natural world: topics that resonate with Pope Francis’ newly-released encyclical on the environment. 1. The first reading poses some issues that have to be discussed: Reading 1: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain...

I’ve always had a bit of apprehension swimming in large bodies for water, like lakes or oceans. Especially if the water is dark and cold. I grew up in Hawaii, where there are many almost crystal-clear bays and the water is generally around eighty degrees, but even there, especially in the winter, the surf could rise and be extremely threatening. Finding out I spent half my life in the Aloha state, people ask me why I never surfed, but the reason is it is flat-out dangerous. A person can get seriously hurt surfing, and those who lived there knew it...

In this week’s Mass readings, Jesus teaches us about himself and the Church using agricultural images. It is the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time. The Gospel is moving ad seriatim (sequentially) through Mark. We are going to read virtually all of Mark this year by the end of November, with the exception of the Passion and Resurrection accounts (Mark 14-16), which were already read during the Triduum. The second reading at this time of year is moving through Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians. The first readings for the rest of the year are selections from the Old Testament chosen to...

This Sunday we pick up with the Tenth Sunday in Year B on this Lord’s Day. We are still near the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, following Our Lord’s early ministry. On this Sunday, the readings are tied together by the theme of defeating Satan. 1. Our first reading recalls the sorry introduction of Satan’s influence into human history: First Reading: Genesis 3:9-15After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the LORD God called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was...

The readings for this Sunday are wonderfully set up in such a way as to teach about covenant, sacrifice, salvation history, and divine filiation. Like last week’s celebration of the Trinity, this week again celebrates a Catholic distinctive, a doctrine taken for granted by many but which remains controversial and controverted outside the Church (and often inside the Church!). That doctrine is the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The readings show us that the Eucharistic meal is the culmination of a tradition of sacred covenant meals throughout salvation history. 1. The first reading is Exodus 24:3-8: When Moses...

This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. While the Trinity might evoke a “Ho-hum, don’t we know that already …” response from many Catholics, the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to—and distinctive of—the Christian faith and is vital to our daily prayer and walk with God. The doctrine of the Trinity touches on who God is; if one has this doctrine wrong, one has the wrong idea of God and may in fact be worshiping a god who does not exist. The Trinity is by no means a dead theological issue, either. Most obviously, Jews...

Pentecost is a very important feast in the liturgical life of the Church, and it has its own vigil. Not only so, but the Readings for the Vigil are particularly rich. I cannot think of another that has such a wide variety of options, for example, for the First Reading. Even though only one First Reading will be proclaimed in any given Mass, it is well worth pondering them all, in order to come to understand the significance of Pentecost more deeply: The First Reading Options for the Vigil: 1. Genesis 11:1-9, the Tower of Babel: The whole world spoke...

Let's discuss the Readings for Pentecost Sunday Mass during the Day.First Reading: Acts 2:1-111When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. 2And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. 3Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. 5Now there were devout Jews from...

Those of you fortunate enough to live in a diocese where the Ascension is observed on its proper Thursday will be able to hear proclaimed this Sunday the proper Readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Pre-empting this Sunday by the Solemnity of the Ascension is a bit unfortunate, because it damages the pattern of the Lectionary. During the later Sundays of Easter, we read from the Last Supper Discourse (John 13-17), culminating in the Seventh Sunday, on which we read the grande finale of the Last Supper Discourse, namely the High Priestly Prayer (John 17). Ironically, although John 17...

In most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this Sunday. I wish the traditional observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is what it is. Therefore, this weekend we will look at the powerful readings for Ascension Day. This is an unusual Lord’s Day, in which the “action” of the Feast Day actually takes place in the First Reading. We typically think of all the narratives of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, overlooking that Acts records at least two important narratives about the activity of the Resurrected Lord (Acts 1:1-11; also...

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.” It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for my high school band. It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications. In fact, they actively distorted the real implications of love by overly-eroticizing the concept. Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could...

When I was in elementary school it was still possible to watch "The Lone Ranger" re-runs on our black-and-white TV in the afternoons. This "masked man" struck unexpectedly, riding into towns in the Wild West on his trusty steed Silver, righting wrongs and correcting injustices, and disappearing as quickly as he came. "Who was that masked man?" Of course, the Lone Ranger is an icon of American culture, but it occurs to me that probably none of my seven children have any idea who he is. I'll have to see if they have reruns on Netflix. The "Lone Ranger" represents...

The readings for this Sunday’s Masses are truly “scandalous” in more ways than one. Our English word “scandal” comes ultimately from the Greek skandalon, “a stumbling block.” A “scandal” is something that causes people to “stumble,” i.e. that offends or injures them in some way. As we will see, the exclusive claims made for and by Jesus in the readings for this Sunday are scandalous to the “inclusive” and “diverse” culture we live in today, which does not recognize the possibility of a religious truth binding on all humanity. 1. The first reading is Acts 4:8-12: Peter, filled with the...

I see an analogy between Shyamalan’s [2002] film “Signs” and the convictions of the early Christians about the relationship of the Scriptures to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus was for the early Church like the final scenes of Shyamalan’s movie: all of a sudden, all sorts of diverse motifs from the Scriptures and the history of salvation made sense. They appeared unified, evidence of a strong hand of Providence that had been leading God’s people to a meaningful, climactic moment of salvation all along. Through the Readings for this Sunday’s liturgy runs...