Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

 

Homily Cycle B 2/07/2021, Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020621.cfm

 

By many measures 2020 was “a drudgery”, the COVID Pandemic, Election turmoil, violence at home and abroad.  In 2020-21 most of us can identify with Job when he says life on earth is a drudgery.

 

Job reminds us that our time on here on earth is swift whether we live for a day, a year or 100 years. In the grand scheme of things life on earth is brief.  Job asked will we “see happiness again?”

 

In our Responsorial Psalm we are reminded that the Lord “heals the brokenhearted, binds up their wounds … and the Lord is good.”  St. Paul teaches us that we are called to preach the Gospel by our actions, by our lives.

That is the best & most important way for us to share the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

 

In today’s Gospel St. Mark tells the story of Jesus healing Peter’s Mother-in-law.

The healing gets our attention but the most important part of today’s Gospel is the call to prayer.  Mark provides an important insight into Jesus & what He calls us to do, He … “prayed.”

 

If it was important for Jesus to pray, it is even more important for us to pray.

 

The legendary Hall of Fame Hank Aaron recently died, he offered 6 Spiritual Lessons [https://aleteia.org/2021/01/31/6-spiritual-lessons-from-baseball-legend-hank-aaron] for us:

1.    Trust in God

2.    Acceptance & Self Control

3.    Spiritual Reading [Fulton’s Sheen’s The Life of Christ & Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ]

4.    Self-Sacrifice

5.    Guardian Angels

6.    Keeping The Sabbath Holy

 

Jesus came to “change” us, to help us see the obstacles that are distorting our vision.

 

He came to remind us we are made in God’s image & likeness; He showed us what the image & likeness of God is when full lived.

 

The Kingdom of God is among us & in us, we need to do our part in making the kingdom visible by our lives.

 

Maybe this story “Desert Places” can help us move toward 20-20 spiritual vision.

 

Every week she makes a list: family and friends who are ill or going through some crisis, some news story she read that moved her, a difficult situation in the community in need of God’s grace.

 

On days when she goes on a run, she takes a small piece of cord & ties a number of knots in it, each knot corresponding to one of things on her prayer list.  As she runs, she holds one knot at a time as a reminder of what to pray for, Her “spiritual run” is her “deserted place.”

 

Most mornings, he’s up first.  He makes the coffee while scrolling through his calendar. He pours his first cup of the day — & then he sits in a chair across from the window looking out over their wooded back yard, reviewing the day ahead,

with its challenges & how he will deal with them – thinks about loved ones going through a tough time & wonders how he can help.

 

Just a quiet time every morning to get his head together & let his heart ramble — that “deserted place” where God speaks to him.

[Connections - From Running: The Sacred Art — Preparing to Practice by Warren A. Kay and The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon.]

 

We need a “deserted place” in our life where we seek God & allow God to be with us.

 

Eleonore Stump wrote, “To serve God well, a person …. has to do those things that God has called him [her] to do.”

[Sunday website 2/07/2021: https://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdB020721/reflections_stump.html]

 

Prayer is how we find out what God wants us to do, St. Augustine offered this powerful insight “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

 

Reflect on your prayer life, are you finding rest in the Lord?

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

  

 

Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

 

 

 

       

 

Saint Leonie Aviat said, “When Jesus died on the cross He was thinking of you!

When He rose from the dead He was thinking of you.

Now in the Kingdom He is thinking of you! You are precious to Him!

So, ‘Let us work for the happiness of others.’”   

 

The Cross in our Bodies

 

Years ago, I was watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY!  I want to share what I learned.  Louie was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being.  Then He went on to talk about our universe creating God, Who knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder.

           

Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God, who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.

           

Laminin.

 

Here is how Wikipedia describes Laminins: 'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue' you see.... Laminins are what hold us together... LITERALLY.

           

They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what hold one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart.  I have thought about it many times since .... Below is what the structure of laminin looks like...  AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it.... If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

 

 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

(Colossians 1:15-17)

 

Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, St. Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very literal standpoint, we are held together...One cell to another.... By the cross.

 

Today reflect on the Incarnation, the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord our Jesus Christ, He was thinking of you.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

A Daily Dose of God - Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

 

Think about where, when, why & how do you encounter God?  Albert Einstein said, “There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  Francis Thompson wrote, “To most, even good people, God is a belief.  To the saints God is an embrace.”

 

Is God always speaking? 

Does God want us to listen to His voice?  Why? 

How can we be aware of God’s presence? (to listen)

How can we hear God’s voice today?

Our View of God’s Will for us sometimes gets blocked, so we must do our best and do what we know is right.  Maybe Thomas Merton “Thoughts in Solitude” can help us, spend a few minutes reading it:

            My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. 

            I do not see the road ahead of me. 

            I cannot know for certain where it will end. 

            Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will

            does not mean that I am actually doing so. 

            But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. 

            And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. 

            I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. 

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. 

Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. 

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” 

                                               

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

St. Francis de Sales gives us some wonderful advice, "If you really want to love God, keep loving Him more and more.  Never look back!  Move forward constantly!" 

 

 

"What is the prize if it is not Jesus Christ?  How can you take hold of him if you do not follow him?"

 

The DISCIPLESHIP Jesus offers is both GIFT & BURDEN.  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross & follow Me…. whoever loses his life for my sake & that of the Gospel will save it.”

 

When it is all said & done “…it is not our task to end the sin & suffering of the world….  (we are called to) follow a different way: to take the small (daily) opportunities to reduce sin & suffering, to let go fears & entrust even our poor inadequacy to the hands of God.”  (Fr. John Kavanaugh, The Center for Liturgy Sunday Web Site)

 

Are you investing in the long term with Jesus or in only in the short term on earth?  On a practical level - we must put Christ first, in our thoughts, words & actions! 

 

Today is the gift God has given you to love Him, don't waste it doing anything else.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

A Daily Dose of God - Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

Pope Francis, “The Lord looks for us where we are, he loves us as we are, and he patiently walks by our side. With his word, he wants to change us, to invite us to live fuller lives and to put out into the deep together with him.”  Jesus with His Sacraments nourishes us and strengthens us for The Journey with Him to Him.

 

 

 

In our journey here on planet earth we handle our fear and our trust at the same time.  In Mark’s Gospel, the Storm on the Lake [Mark 4:35-41], vividly articulates the daily battle between fear and trust. 

 

Bishop Barron in his reflection on that Gospel said, “… the disciples stand symbolically for all of us journeying through life. When they confront the mighty waves, they are immediately filled with terror. Similarly, when the trials and anxieties of life confront us, the first reaction is fear.  Jesus is “asleep on a cushion.” He stands for the divine power that is “asleep” within all of us…. At a spiritual level, we see that this divine power successfully calms the waves: “He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’” 

Jesus calls us to TRUST Him in the calm and in the storms of life because He is in our boat with us.   St. Boniface reminds us, "In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course."  Jesus is guiding our personal ship in the fleet of Holy Mother Church, we need to TRUST, especially when the sea of life is “a violent squall”.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God - Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord: His leader shall be from Jacob, and his ruler shall come from his kin.  When I summon him, he shall approach me.  You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  [30:21, 22]

 

St. Augustine wrote, "What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like."

 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton said that - “Our daily work is to do the will of God.”

 

Reflect on this story about “The Teddy Bear”, a six-year boy named Tony was born with an eye problem and he always had his “Teddy Bear” with him, a Teddy Bear that was very worn.  Tony took his Teddy Bear with him for each of his pre-surgery tests.

 

He was only separated from it when anesthesia was applied before his surgery.

A few days after surgery Tony saw for the first time; a few days later when he was discharged Tony’s surgeon gave him a big hug & said, “…I expect to get letters from you regularly.”

 

Tony did something totally unexpected.  He said to his surgeon friend, “I want you to have this,” and he handed him his Teddy Bear.”  The surgeon thought for a few moments, accepted Tony’s Teddy Bear and said thank you.  He said he would take good care of the Teddy Bear.

 

In fact, the surgeon placed the Teddy Bear in a glass case in Massachusetts General Hospital on the tenth floor with his business card and this written note, “This is the highest fee I have ever received for professional services rendered.”   (Bausch, Once Upon A Gospel, p.65)

 

There are many ways we can show the light of Christ to the world.  Our God is a loving God, the One who created us and wants us to be all that we can be, fully Christian and fully human.  We are called to be a light to the world, shinning the Light of Christ by how we act and how we live.

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God - Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

                    A Reflection based on Chapter 14 in St. Luke’s Gospel

“On a sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.  In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.  Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”  But they kept silent; so, he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him.  Then he said to them, “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  But they were unable to answer his question.”

Pope Francis is famous, and he openly loves Jesus Christ.  So, does God answer Pope Francis’ prayers with more yeses than our prayers?  No!  Prayer is essentially about preparing our heart to hear God’s Word and do God’s Will!  Jesus asks, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?”  The obvious answer is yes!  Why do the Pharisees remain silent?  Because they had lost the focus of the prayer life, which was not about God, but about them.

 

In the book “Chariots of Fire” - Eric Liddell’s 1924 Olympic race was scheduled for Sunday.  He would not and did not run, because of his belief in keeping holy the Lord’s Day.  Thirteen years later, as a missionary in China [1937] he was captured by the Japanese army and placed in a prison camp.  Young people, in the camp, formed a soccer league to help occupy their time.  They played their first game on a Sunday and Eric was asked to officiate – he refused because of his belief in keeping holy the Lord’s Day. 

A fight broke out during the game and the following Sunday he was there to officiate the game.  Eric learned to do God’s Will not Eric’s Will.

 

St. Francis de Sales tells us, “Live in such a manner that one will recognize clearly in you a person who loves God with his whole heart….” (Sermon in a Sentence, p. 114)

Have you learned to pray to God and to trust in God; Pope Francis learned that lesson, Eric Liddell learned that lesson, however, the Pharisees did not learn that lesson.

 

I pray that you and I strengthen our prayer life by praying more faithfully to the Lord who loves us and listening more openly to what the Lord wants us to do.  If we do that our life will be richer and more fruitful!

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

 

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised!