THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 24th, 2014
Memorial of St. Francis de Sales

Liturgical texts here

WHAT the Church needs most today, said Pope Francis, “is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful… I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” ^[1]cf. americamagazine.org, Sept. 30th, 2013 Ironically, some of the first wounded rolling in since his pontificate began are casualties of confusion, mostly “conservative” Catholics bewildered by statements and actions of the Holy Father himself. ^[2]cf. Misunderstanding Francis

The truth is that Pope Francis has done and said certain things that require clarification or has left the hearer wondering, “Who was he just referring to?” ^[3]cf. “Michael O’Brien on Pope Francis and the New Phariseeism” The important question is how can and should one respond to such concerns? The answer is twofold, revealed in today’s readings: first on the level of an emotional response, and second, on the level of a faith response.

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ONE of the giants of our time whose head has grown extraordinarily large is narcissism. In a word, it is self-absorption. One could even argue that this has now become self-worship, or what I call “iWorship.”

St. Paul gives a long list of what souls will look like in the “last days.” Guess what is at the top?

There will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful… (2 Tim 3:1-2)

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St. Paul put David’s words into the contemporary light of the new covenant:

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (1 Cor 4:20)

It is the power of the Holy Spirit that converts hearts, peoples, and nations. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that illuminates minds to the truth. It is the power of the Holy Spirit so desperately needed in our times. Why do you think Jesus is sending His Mother among us? It is to form that cenacle of the Upper Room once again that a “new Pentecost” may descend upon the Church, setting her and the world aflame! ^[1]cf. Charismatic?  Part VI

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 21th, 2014
Memorial of St. Agnes

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The mustard seed grows into the largest of trees

THE Pharisees had it all wrong. They were obsessed with details, watching like hawks to find fault with this or that person, with any little thing that wasn’t according to “standard.”

The Lord is also concerned with the little things… but in a much different way.

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GOD is doing something new. And we have to pay attention to this, to what the Holy Spirit is doing. It is time to let go of our expectations, understanding, and security. The winds of change are blowing and in order to fly with them, we have to be stripped of all the heavy weights and chains that keep us tied down. We have to learn to listen intently, as it says in the first reading today, to “the voice of the Lord.” ^[1]translation in the Jerusalem Bible

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 16th, 2014

Liturgical texts here

IT looked like the perfect comeback. The Israelites had just been soundly defeated by the Philistines, and so the first reading says they came up with a brilliant idea:

Let us fetch the ark of the LORD from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies.

After all, with all that happened in Egypt and the plagues, and the reputation of the ark, the Philistines would be terrorized at the idea. And they were. So when the Israelites marched into battle, they thought they had that fight in the books. Instead…

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 11th, 2014

Liturgical texts here

MOST of the time, when we witness for Christ, we are going to be confronted with having to love the unlovable. By this I mean that we all have our “moments,” occasions when we are not very lovable at all. That is the world in which our Lord entered and the one into which Jesus now sends us.

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Artist Unknown

THERE has been a lot of teaching on evangelization in this week’s reflections, but it all comes down to this: letting the message of Christ’s love penetrate, challenge, change, and transform you. Otherwise, the imperative of evangelizing will remain but a lovely theory, a distant stranger whose name you know, but whose hand you’ve never shaken. The problem with that is every Christian is called in obedience to be an emissary for Christ. ^[1]cf. Evangelii Gaudium, n. 5 How? By first of all moving “from a pastoral ministry of mere conversation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry.” ^[2]POPE FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 15

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 9th, 2014

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JUST when you would perhaps expect God to send prophets wielding thunderbolts warning that this generation will be destroyed unless we repent… He instead raises up a young Polish nun to deliver a message, timed for this very hour:

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 8th, 2014

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Christ Walking on Water, Julius von Klever

PART of a reader’s response to yesterday’s Now Word, Love Beyond the Surface:

What you said is very true… But I think the sole focus of the Church since Vatican II has been love, love, love, love—with zero focus on the consequences of sinful actions… I think the most loving thing a person can do for an AIDS patient ( or adulterer, porn viewer, liar etc.) is tell them that they will spend eternity in the darkest abyss of hell if they do not repent. They won’t like hearing that, but it is the Word of God, and the Word of God has power to set the captive free… Sinners are pleased to hear consoling fleshy words, not realizing that soft, smooth words, tender embraces, and pleasant conversation without the hard truth is deceptive and powerless, a counterfeit Christianity, lacking power. —N.C.

Before we look at today’s Mass readings, why not look at how Jesus responded when He did “the most loving thing a person can do”:

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for January 7th, 2014

Liturgical texts here

Photo by Claudia Peri, EPA/Landov

RECENTLY, someone wrote asking advice for what to do in situations with people who reject the Faith:

I know we are to be ministering and helping our family in Christ, but when people tell me they don’t go to Mass anymore or hate the Church…I am so shocked, my mind goes blank! I beg the Holy Spirit to come upon me…but I don’t receive anything…I have no words of comfort or evangelization. —G.S.

How as Catholics are we to respond to unbelievers? To atheists? To fundamentalists? To those who disturb us? To people living in mortal sin, within and without our families? These are questions I get asked quite often. The answer to all these is to love beyond the surface.

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SAME angel. Same news: beyond all possible odds, a baby is going to be born. In yesterday’s Gospel, it would be John the Baptist; in today’s, it is Jesus Christ. But how Zechariah and the Virgin Mary responded to the news was completely different.

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 18th, 2013

Liturgical texts here

WHEN Joseph learned that Mary was “found with child”, today’s Gospel says he set about to “divorce her quietly.”

How many today quietly “divorce” themselves from the Mother of God! How many say, “I can go to straight to Jesus. Why do I need her?” Or they say, “The Rosary is too long and boring,” or, “Devotion to Mary was a pre-Vatican II thing that we no longer need to do…”, and so forth. I too pondered the question of Mary many years ago. With a sweat on my brow, I poured over the Scriptures asking “Why do we Catholics make such a big deal of Mary?”

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 14th, 2013
Memorial of St. John of the Cross

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THE most difficult and painful thing any parent can face, aside from losing their child, is their child losing their faith. I have prayed with thousands of people over the years, and the most common request, the most frequent source of tears and anguish, are for the children who have wandered away. I look into these parents’ eyes, and I can see that many of them are holy. And they feel absolutely helpless.

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IT would be easy to hear today’s Mass readings and, because it is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, apply them solely to Mary. But the Church has carefully chosen these readings because they are meant to apply to you and me. This is revealed in the second reading…

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 8th, 2013
Second Sunday of Advent

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“YES, we should love our enemies and pray for their conversions,” she agreed. “But I am angry over those who destroy innocence and goodness.” As I finished up a meal I was sharing with my hosts after a concert in the United States, she looked at me with sorrow in her eyes, “Wouldn’t Christ come running to His Bride who is increasingly abused and crying out?” ^[1]read: Does He Hear the Cry of the Poor

Perhaps we have the same reaction when we hear today’s Scriptures, which prophesy that when the Messiah comes, He shall “decide aright for the land’s afflicted” and “strike the ruthless” and that “Justice shall flower in his days.” John the Baptist even seems to announce that the “coming wrath” was near. But Jesus has come, and the world seems to go on like it always has with wars and poverty, crime and sin. And so we cry out, “Come Lord Jesus!” Yet, 2000 years have sailed by, and Jesus has not returned. And perhaps, our prayer begins to change to that of the Cross: My God, why have you forsaken us!

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 7th, 2013
Memorial of St. Ambrose

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All the Lonely People, by Emmanuel Borja

IF there were ever a time when, as we read in the Gospel, people are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd,” it is our time, on so many levels. There are many leaders today, but so few role models; many who govern, but so few who serve. Even in the Church, the sheep have wandered for decades since the confusion after Vatican II left a moral and leadership vacuum on the local level. And then there have been what Pope Francis calls “epochal” changes ^[1]cf. Evangelii Gaudium, n. 52 that have led to, among other things, a profound sense of loneliness. In the words of Benedict XVI:

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