February 15, 1998Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time |
Queen of All Saints, Oakville, Missouri
A TREE PLANTED BY WATER
The prophet Jeremiah gives us a wonderful image of the person
firmly rooted in the love of God. Such a one is like a tree
which has been planted beside a river. The tree is always
within reach of life-giving water and so is able to stay
fruitful even in years of drought. Likewise, a person whose
hope is in God is sustained even in the tough times of life,
when others may wither in despair. Jesus, font of hope,
nourish us!
St. Wenceslaus, St. Louis, Missouri
FAITH AND TRUST
The first reading and the gospel today invite us to see
the message of behavior and reward. Those who trust in
the Lord will be rewarded with eternal life; those with
all the riches they want now will have nothing in the
afterlife. Faith and trust are the keys to unlocking
the paschal mystery for us at this time. Trust is not
an easy practice and faith is not always recognizable,
yet the readings today call for both to keep us on
track, living in the Lord.
The tree planted by the running stream in Psalm 1 is an
image of faith. Faith is like the running water, and
we are like the tree roots grasping for its
nourishment. Pray for faith and trust today.
By naming the poor, the hungry and the sorrowing as
"blessed," the Church reminds us of our responsibility
to listen to their cry and respond to it. Who in the
community is weeping; who are the ones to reach out to
them?
St. Anthony of Padua, St. Louis, Missouri
Pastor's Column
Once again, on this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary
Time, the Sacred Scripture shows us how we enflesh
or manifest or make plain-and-clear the eternal
Word, Jesus Christ, to others through our God-centered life-style.
How we live day in and day out displays what
values are important to us and what goals we want
to accomplish. Those values and goals illustrate
how intensely our lives are oriented toward God.
The prophet Jeremiah says, "Blessed is
the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in
the Lord." One of the most persuasive signs
that God is really important to us and that God
makes a difference in our lives is our willingness
to trust in his way for us, to "wear on our
sleeves" our belief that God loves us so much that
everything he does for us is for our best
advantage, whether or not we accept it at the
moment.
St. Paul says, "Christ has been raised
from the dead, the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep." An unmistakable and convincing
sign of a true God-orientation is an active faith
in the resurrection of Jesus in two senses: We
live our life now so as to prepare for the
life of resurrection in the Kingdom. We embrace
Jesus' values here in our society that set us
above and apart from the "lowest common
denominator" of feel-good, majority-rule, self-gratifying behavior.
Jesus preaches, "Blessed are you poor,
the reign of God is yours." When we free our
lives from the suffocating clutter of material
preoccupations, social standards, and selfish
pursuits, we set ourselves on a course of being
filled up with God and letting God be the primary
focus of our lives. As Jesus says in another
place, "Where your treasure is, there your
heart is also." If our treasure is the things
of this world, that's where our commitment really
is. If our wealth is intimacy with God, this will
be reflected in our life-style.
The bottom line: The way we live ordinary
life every day -- with its attitudes and
activities -- not only characterizes what we
really think about practicing the faith but also
makes God's presence -- or absence! -- apparent to
others.
--Father Benet OF
St. Pius V, St. Louis, Missouri
Dear people of St. Pius,
In what may his most enduring and radical teaching, Jesus calls "blessed"
those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated. He curses those who currently
rich, full, laughing, and of good repute. The Beatitudes, whether in Luke's
gospel or Matthew's, stand as a continual challenge to those of us who
constantly try to gratify our desires here and now.
Who likes to be poor, hungry, unfulfilled, sad, and hated by others? Not
me! But Jesus' teaching goes deeply into the heart of hunger and desire; to
be empty now makes room for the grace and initiative of God. As Jeremiah
challenged the Jewish nation centuries earlier, ultimately, only God satisfies.
In Christ, our Light,
Fr. Mike
Church of the Ascension, Chesterfield, Missouri
Celebrate 2000!...Reflections on Jesus, The
Holy Spirit, and the Father, by Pope John Paul
II... Hope for the Third
Millennium...Believers should be called to a
renewed appreciation of the theological virtue
of hope, which they have already heard
proclaimed "in the word of the truth, the
gospel" (Col 1:5). The basic attitude of hope,
on the one hand, encourages the Christian not
to lose sight of the final goal which gives
meaning and value to life; and on the other,
[it] offers solid and profound reasons for a
daily commitment to God's plan.
As the Apostle Paul reminds us: "We know
that the whole creation has been groaning in
travail together until now; and not only the
creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait
for adoption as sons, the redemption of our
bodies. For in this hope we were saved" (Rom
8:22-24). Christians are called to prepare for
the Great Jubilee of the beginning of the third
millennium by renewing their hope in the
definitive coming of the Kingdom of God,
preparing for it daily in their hearts, in the
Christian community to which they belong, in
their particular social context, and in world
history itself. [TMA n. 46]
Little Flower, Richmond Heights, Missouri
Pastor's Column
"BEYOND" is the word that comes to my mind when I think
about today's Scriptural Readings. Jeremiah pronounces as
blessed those people who trust in God rather than in their
own human devices; those who hope in God can survive any and
all difficulties. Paul today reminds his readers and us that
our hopes must stretch beyond this life with all its
problems; as believers in a risen Lord, we trust that our
life's journey will lead eventually and surely to eternity.
Luke then declares as "blessed" and "happy" the poor, the
hungry, the weeping, the ostracized, for they are the
special avenues of God's activity in the world, which the
rich, the full, the self-absorbed are to be pitied because
there is in them no room, no openness, no sense of need for
God. In other words, they have lost their contact with "the
beyond." I don't know who first made the following
observations, but they sum up well the message of today's
readings:
"I asked God for strength, that I might achieve. I was
made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked
for health, that I might do great things. I was given
infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for
riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty that
I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have
the praise of men. I was given weakness, that I might
feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I
might enjoy life. I was given Life, that I might enjoy
all things. I got nothing I asked for--but everything I
had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken words
were answered. I am most richly blessed."
Lent's upcoming regimen is a good way for us to establish
again our contact with the beyond. Even more so, may life's
ups and downs keep us focused on the beyond.
St. David, Arnold, Missouri
Stations of the Cross
During lent, we encourage people to take extra
time for prayers. One of the traditional Lenten
devotions are the stations of the cross. Like
other devotions, one may do them privately, or as
a group. Here at St. David we give the
opportunity to do the stations communally on
Friday evenings. We even have parishioners who
volunteer to lead the prayers.
Some people have asked why a priest or deacon
doesn't lead the stations. We are told that they
would somehow be more special or holier when lead
by a priest or deacon. But this is an example of
two extremes that some Christians take in their
prayer life.
I'm sure you have heard people who don't go to
church, but say that they pray regularly to God in
private. They feel that they do not need to pray
with a community, or to have a priest lead them in
prayer. But the other extreme is people who only
pray at Mass, and believe that they don't need or
have time for private prayer. Or they feel that
private prayers are better if a priest is leading
them.
A truly Catholic belief is that both private
and liturgical prayer are necessary. As a priest,
I sometimes feel that if the only thing I ever
taught a person was how to pray, it would be the
greatest gift I could give. If people would only
take more time to be with God in private prayer,
they would get so much more out of the Mass; their
desire for the Lord would grow. And the Lord they
seek in prayer, they would find in the Eucharist.
And hopefully, the Mass would lead them to find
the Lord in each other and in service to each
other. And so, getting back to the stations, we
have lay people lead them precisely to show that
the prayers of all people are effective and
important. Just as you lead your family in the
prayer before meals, so you too can pray the
stations, the rosary, the psalms, etc. and know
that your prayer is heard and is precious to God.
Father Tom
TO HELP PREPARE FOR GOD'S WORD
Readings for next week,
February 22, 1998
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Copyright © 1998 Liturgical Publications of St. Louis, Inc.
Last modified: 2/16/98 05:33:37 PM