Monthly Archives: October 2026

Church in Dialog

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Dear Folks,

This Sunday we consider that God is God over all the earth, not just those who believe in Him. We see King Cyrus (no relation to Billy Ray Cyrus) who was king of Persia and allowed the Israelites to go back to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem, healing their achy-breaky hearts.

The Second Vatican Council produced sixteen documents, the most important of those being the four constitutions. One of them is about the Church in the Modern world (known to its friends as Gaudium et Spes). It talks about the relationship between the Church and the world. It is said that before Vatican II we had more of a fortress mentality, and the less we dealt with it the better. Now there is more of a sense of engaging the world. The challenge is to be faithful to the truth while we do that and not compromise with the world.

In the early Church, Christians were good citizens. They obeyed civil law, unless following the law meant doing something contrary to the faith. Then they would stand fast, even if it was over something as small as putting a pinch of incense on the charcoal and saying “Kaiser Kurios.” They would accept torture and death rather than do that.

Bishop Barron has said that every culture is “evangelically ambiguous,” meaning that there are some values in society that are in keeping with Christian principles, and some values that are contrary to those principles. We are called to affirm what is good and challenge what is wrong. We are called to be leaven in society (Matthew 13:33), to be light to the world and salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16).

We are called to participate in our society, using our Chrisitan consciences, but never hitching our star to a particular politician or party. I have been given to understand that a great many Catholics believe in the principles of the world more than the teaching of the Catholic Church. We do not seek a theocrasy, in which the Catholic faith would be mandatory for everyone, and Catholic teaching would be mandatory. As Pope Paul VI said, “We are to propose, not impose.” But we are called to hold fast to the truths of our faith, with sometimes mandates us being active in society. We need to be careful that our ideas are shaped more by our Catholic faith than by the world.

In America that means participating as good citizens and standing up for the sanctity and dignity of life from conception to natural death. It means being concerned for everyone, and right now (I expect always) there is disagreement about how to best do that. That is part of the challenge. Of we bring Christian love to the conversation, and treat everyone with dignity, that will often be as important as the position we take. I must say that my own experience has, much of the time, been unhelpful in developing the skill of having dialog with those with other points of view. I’ve been working on it steadily, however, and I believe I have come a long way.  May we as Church, continue to develop the skill of dialog.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

We’ve Been Invited

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Dear Folks,

Wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14) challenges us in the Sunday reading. There is a vision of banquet in Isaiah, and Jesus builds on it.

The challenge is two-fold: The importance of showing up and the importance of showing up correctly. We are so busy it can be a challenge to show up to God’s invitation. It can take various forms but include Sunday worship but is not limited to that. There can be many conversations about that, but what might you do if you had more time?  How might we respond to God’s challenge?

What does it mean to show up correctly? What does it mean to have a wedding garment when one wants to come to the banquet? I’m guessing that the “wailing and gnashing of teeth” may give us a hint. This phrase is used other times in the Gospel of Matthew. 

In Matthew 8:12 Jesus contrasts the faith of the centurion with the “heirs of the kingdom” who one expects took for granted they would be among the rewarded, but are in for a surprise (See, for example Matthew 7:21-23)

In Matthew 13:42 compares the Last Judgement with separating wheat from weeds. The weeds are called “the children of the evil one” and “all who cause sin and all whose deeds are evil.”  

In Matthew 13:50 we see an image of separating good fish from “those that were worthless” and “the wicked.”

In Matthew 24:51 a master goes away and puts a faithful and wise (phronimos) servant, in charge of giving his fellow servants their food at the proper time. The quality of being wise (phronimos) is the quality that causes men to build their houses on rock (Matthew 7:24) and causes bridesmaids to bring extra oil for their oil lamps (Matthew 25:4, although now they would bring extra batteries for their smart phones).  

In Matthew 25:30 talks of a worthless servant who buries his master’s talent for fear of losing it, and gets called a “wicked and lazy servant.” Those who put their gift to work were told, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

While it is good to meditate on these stories, going over the four Gospels again and again can give us a better sense of what Jesus is calling to do and to be. God has given us all various gifts, and we shall be held accountable for how we use them. This is not earning our salvation but responding to God’s challenge with a strong enough faith to respond according to his teaching.

How might God be calling you?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

More on the Liturgy of the Hours

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Dear Folks,

A new edition of The Liturgy of the Hours is coming out. It is being put out by Ascensionpress.com and Wordonfire.org. I am so fond of both organizations so I can’t really tell you which one to choose. The full set is four volumes, but I’m told that there will be some shorter versions for those who want to get their feet wet. You can pre-order the four volume set now, but you can’t see any of it until January.  

The older (current) edition used the Grail Psalms, but tweaked the translation a bit, so there were small differences. The new edition uses the Revised Grail Psalms and also tweaks the translation a bit.  “The Abbey Psalms and Canticle” put out by Ascension press has (I’m told) the version that will be used. 

Word on Fire has come out with a monthly paperback subscription of the Liturgy of the Hours.  If you want to start now, and have no one to teach you, it is a good tool. 

The most pivotal “hours” are morning prayer and evening prayer.  Their basic structure (the wording might change with the new edition, but the structure shouldn’t):

Opening: God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me. Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen. Alleluia. 

There will be a hymn.

Then comes the Psalmody: an antiphon, the Psalm itself, Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen. Then the antiphon is repeated. There come two Psalms or portions of Psalms, then a canticle prayed the same way. 

Then there is a short Scripture reading, then a responsory.

There is a Gospel Canticle (Canticle of Zechariah in morning prayer, Canticle of Mary in evening prayer). 

Then there will be intercessions, the Our Father, and a closing prayer. 

There will be exceptions, but that can come later. 

I’m currently going through the book “The Psalms: Songs of Faith and Praise” which gives each Psalm with commentary and a short prayer after.  If you want to know more about the Psalms, this is a good tool. (It uses the Revised Grail Psalter, but doesn’t have the final changes, so it won’t match the new Breviary exactly, but I is close). 

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Failing God

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Dear Folks,

We have another parable about a vineyard (Matthew 21:33-43) in which the tenants were given a lot to work with but didn’t give the owner his share of the grapes. It is good to look at that alongside the first reading (Isaiah 5:1-7) and we see how, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jesus was clearly talking about the treatment of the prophets of the Old Testament, and also the behavior of the religious leaders at the time.  We can, of course see ourselves in the role of the tenants. 

The other text we want to look at is John 15:1-6, the part of the farewell discourse in which Jesus says that he is the vine, and we are the branches. We work by our own power, we will always fail, if not immediately, eventually. We need to emphasize this. 

Some say that Christianity is basically a call to be a good person. These people have been badly catechized.  Some say it centers around feeling close to God. I’ve heard stories of people being told in the 1970’s, “You don’t have to go to church. If you feel closer to God out in the woods, that’s where you should go.” Sadly, many Catholics have been badly catechized, so we have a lot of work to do. I’m told the notion that Christianity is basically a matter of morality started with Immanuel Kant. The notion that it centers around feeling close to God probably started in the 1960’s. 

Christianity is about a relationship with God. God wants intimacy with us and seeks to give Himself to us, and teaches us how to love Him and our neighbor. Sadly, our sins drive close ourselves to Him. Ever since the fruit incident in Genesis chapter 3, have been failing. The Scriptures (including our readings for this Sunday) show how badly God’s people have failed Him. I know I have failed many times, sometimes from my lack of skill; sometimes by my sinfulness. Because God gives us responsibility, a believe that each sin makes the world less than what God wanted. We cannot change the past (which I find really annoying, but clearly God doesn’t want me to spend all my time rewriting what has happened. That means I focus on the decisions now for the best possible future. That means how we can love God, and how we can love our neighbor. 

What we learn is that we can only bear good fruit if we are united to Him. If you want to help build a better world, the first step is to fall more deeply in love with Jesus. 

Blessing,

Fr. Jim