Sometimes I fall into my autopilot responses.  When I am in conversation with my family such as my parents, sister, aunts and uncles, I can find myself ending our conversations with “Okay. Love you, Goodbye.” But you have to be careful with these responses, as they can possibly get you into trouble.  A few years ago, at my previous parish, the church secretary reached out to me about an upcoming funeral.  As we worked out the details and we were coming to the end of our conversation, I went into my autopilot response.  “Okay. Love you, Goodbye.”  I hung up the phone and then I realized I had just professed my love to my church secretary.  What I learned that day: going into autopilot responses can be dangerous.

I hope after the reading of our Gospel this weekend you didn’t just go into autopilot and say, “Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ.”  Jesus in the Gospel brings a difficult truth to the Gospel: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Did you pause to reflect on how this is in the Gospel?  How is this Good news?

What we need to come to realize is the division isn’t from God, the division lies in our own hearts.  None of us is perfect and we all need God’s mercy.  But, to receive that mercy, we need to acknowledge the need to change.  Change can be difficult and painful.  Hence, people’s rejection of change leading to division.

Why should we truly say “Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ” for this Gospel?  We should claim it all the more because the Lord loves us so much.  God desires to not leave us where we are at.  He desires to draw us to Himself.  He calls us to become a new creation in him.  Let us ask God for the grace, as St. Paul says to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

Father Michael

We live in a culture supposedly driven by science and results. So when it comes to hearing our second reading, “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen,” it is easy to understand why some may be skeptical or quick to dismiss things of faith.  However, most people’s understanding of faith is misconstrued, not realizing that the God’s work in our lives is actually concrete and tangible.

Faith is experienced and encountered through relationships with another person.  I am able to have faith in my friends, my family, and God because I have experienced their faithfulness in my life in real and tangible ways.  Faith involves an act of trust, which is unseen, but not untested.  So, how do we come to grow in our faith and trust in the Lord?

I’d like to list just two ways. First, we look to the Incarnation; God becoming flesh.  Our Lord Jesus reveals our Fathers love for us in a physical and tangible way, as seen in his ministry ending in the cross. Coming to know Jesus allows us to have a deeper faith in God and allows us to trust in his promises of his presence in our lives and the promise of everlasting life!

Another gift as Catholics, are the Sacraments.  They allow us to experience the Lord’s love in very tangible ways.  For example, the Eucharist, his Body and Blood, allows the Lord to enter more deeply into hearts and souls as we are united into the mystery of God.  In reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we actually hear the words of absolution and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.

So even though the act of faith is invisible, the Lord’s action in our daily lives are very tangible!  Let us not be too quick to dismiss. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen!”

Father Michael

Bonus points if you can name the title of the movie from this short quote; “Squirrel!”  It’s a humorous line in reference to a short attention span of a dog.  But I also use the phrase and smile when it applies to my own life and short attention span.

Hopefully, we are all well aware that the human heart and mind can get distracted easily.  When trying to do menial tasks at home or at work, but even when we are praying, our mind wanders.  One thing that is necessary to fight the fickleness of our hearts and minds is to stay focused, or constantly draw our minds back to our ultimate goal.  This is the beautiful witnesses of the Saints and their story, on how they remained focused on Heaven and the Lord.  Even in the midst of possible distractions, they remained faithful to keeping their eyes set on the Lord.

That is what our readings are trying to do this weekend.  From Ecclesiastes to our Gospel, the readings seem grim; with vanity of vanities to the parable stating, “you fool, this night your life will be demanded of you.”  The intention of the readings is not supposed to be one of fear, but to remind us of our ultimate end. Things of this world are fleeting and what we need to do is set our sights on the Lord in Heaven, which is our final end and desire.  Hence, in the Our Father prayer we say – Our Father, who art in heaven!  It is meant to point us to heaven.

So let us be encouraged by Saint Paul in our second reading, “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”  As we come to the Eucharist, a foretaste of heaven and union with God, let us continually draw our minds and hearts to the ultimate end that we seek. Communion with God in Heaven!

Father Michael

The movie might be a bit dated, but the quote continues to pierce my heart. The movie is Gravity with the protagonist played by Sandra Bullock trying to get back to earth after being stranded in space.  Towards the end of the movie, as Sandra enters into Russian spaceship with an icon picture of St. Christopher and the Child Jesus on his shoulder, Sandra’s character comes to a vulnerable moment; “Will you say a prayer for me? Or is it too late…ah, I mean I’d say one for myself but I’ve never prayed in my life.  Nobody ever taught me how…nobody ever taught me how.”

My heart aches because of multiple reasons. First, I know this is not only true for the character in the movie, but represents many people today.  As a spiritual father and priest, my heart aches for those who desire to come to the Lord, but don’t know how.  This is why the mission of the Church is so important, people are aching to know the Lord, they just need someone to offer a guiding hand!

The second reason why this quote hits my heart is because it’s something I have felt personally.  I know where I am with my relationship with God. I also know where I want to be with God, and the two do not align.  What brings some peace to those moments is today’s Gospel.  The early disciples of Christ had that same longing when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  Christ’s response should not be easily brushed over. It is at this point Jesus teaches them (and us) the beautiful prayer, the Our Father.

There is a tremendous depth to such a simple prayer and I know I can’t do it justice in a short P.I.T article.  So I would like to encourage/suggest you to look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  If you don’t have this book, you can access it free online.  The last section of the Catechism is dedicated to prayer and within that section it ends breaking down the Our Father line by line specifically CCC 2759-2865.

So, if you happen to know someone wanting to learn how to pray, or you have a longing in your own heart for a greater relationship with God, I suggest praying the Our Father.

Father Michael

When I was a FOCUS missionary serving at CU Boulder in Colorado, I was training college students to live and share their faith with others.  One day, at a daily Mass, I recognized a new person sitting by one of our student leaders that I had trained.  After Mass, I asked our student leader if they knew the person that literally sat three feet from them.  Their response shocked me.  They had failed to notice the person who worshipped with them even though they gave each other a sign of peace.

One of the most important things in our faith life is the need to be attentive; not only to God, but as I shared in the story above, to others.  Our readings from this weekend are quite clear about this lesson.  In Genesis we begin with a story of Abraham. Despite the heat of the day, Abraham is looking outside his tent and sees three men passing by. Abraham responds by welcoming the men with hospitality and generously attending to their needs. This leads the men, who represent God (the Trinity), to bless Abraham and his wife Sarah.

In our Gospel, even though a common theme of hospitality is present, the true point of the story is Mary’s attentiveness to the Lord.  Mary sits at Jesus’ feet listening to his words while Martha is failing to notice the one true God who is in her very house! As Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Mary was receiving her blessing by being at the foot of the Lord.

If we are attentive to the Lord in our life, we can experience the joys of his presence.  Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be attentive so we can not only encounter God, but our brothers and sisters with great joy!

Father Michael