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05 Jun 2011 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

What's our goal in life? Ease and comfort? Jesus invites us to a higher goal-faithfulness. And as Saint Paul and the first Christians discovered, faithfulness will often entail insult and suffering. There are many aspects of our faith that bring comfort-but they do so even in the midst of difficulty and suffering and not instead of difficulty and suffering.

faithfulness

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Homily themes

15 Nov 2009 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Daniel 10-12 continues this prophetic book’s condemnation of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV with three visions. After Antiochus assumed power over Judea, he forbade Jews from observing the Torah and installed a pagan cult in the Jerusalem Temple, a sacrilege so bad Jewish tradition called it a “desolation.” In today’s first reading, the vision encourages those in Judea to remain faithful and lead one another in fidelity. God’s vindication is near. Even those who died before this vindication will arise and live forever. Such hope permeates the other readings as well. The promise of Christ’s forgiving victory over sin encourages steadfastness. God will be victorious. Jesus’ words will not pass away. In the end, God will preserve the lives of the righteous and the just. Homily points Nature is a great teacher. If we pay attention to the creation around us, we can acquire much wisdom. Jesus appreciated the wisdom inherent in the natural order and employed it in his teaching. Jesus also demonstrated that there is something greater than the created world, and that power can subordinate nature at will. If we want to learn the lessons of mortality and also glimpse the revelations of divinity, we might take the lesson of the fig tree to heart.

Authors Joel Schorn

Fidelity faithfulness nature

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Who's listening?

08 Mar 2009 - Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

The readings this week start with the author of Genesis saying that God put Abraham to the test. There will be many people in the pews this weekend who feel as though they are being put to the test—with chronic and serious health problems, with family turmoil, with job troubles, with loneliness, etc. And though suffering seems to play a role in everyone’s life, God seeks not our suffering but rather our faithfulness.

Abraham faithfulness Suffering

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