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One Catholic Life

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by One Catholic Life

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Books and Reading • Faith and Preaching • Life and Living

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8/23/2015

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Recent Episodes

September 4, 2023

Living Lake or Stagnant Pond? Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

We are given very powerful readings today, powerful individually and powerful collectively. And at the heart of them all is a line by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans: “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” So today we’re given three challenges: transformation, renewal, and discernment. First Paul says, be transformed. This is what Jesus is trying to help Peter do in today’s Gospel. When Jesus explains what it means to be the Messiah — that it means suffering, death, and resurrection — Peter rebukes him. The fisherman rebukes the Messiah! Peter is stuck thinking as human beings do, not as God does. And Peter is arrogant enough to think that he needs to correct Jesus, the Christ. In reality, Peter is an obstacle to Jesus. In that moment, in fact, he’s just as much an obstacle as Satan. But Jesus is patient with Peter, he wants Peter to be transformed. He wants what’s best for him. He cares for him. He loves him. Peter has been raised to believe certain things about the Messiah, things that don’t match with what he is hearing from Jesus. So Jesus wants Peter to grow in his understanding of what it means to follow him. Jesus wants us, too, to grow in our understanding of what it means to be a disciple. He wants what’s best for us. He cares for us. He loves us. We can misunderstand and distort the gospel because of how we were raised, or because of what we read or see on social media, across the spectrum of ideologies. Like Peter, we can be tempted to arrogance ourselves, thinking we have the correct answer, that we know what God wants, and that everyone else needs to conform to our way of thinking about God — even the Pope! But when we do that, we become obstacles to to Jesus, thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. And we’re not only obstacles to Jesus, but we’re obstacles to other people’s relationship with Jesus. So the challenge for us is to let ourselves be transformed by Christ, just as Peter was transformed. Think of all those whose lives were transformed by Christ: Mary Magdalene, Matthew the tax collector, Nicodemus the Pharisee, etc. It’s challenging to be transformed, because transformation means change, and change is always frightening, It means leaving our comfort zone. It means temporary confusion and instability as we hover between our old self and our transformed self. And transformation is a lifelong process, so that means being uncomfortable over and over again. We would much rather stay where we are than risk transformation. There’s security in remaining where we are, but there is also stagnation and death. It’s the difference between being a living lake or a stagnant pond. Lakes benefit from water constantly coming in and going out, a steady exchange that brings life. Lakes are blue and fresh and filled with life. Stagnant ponds, on the other hand, have no life, no color, and they’re filled with the stench of decay. That’s because there is no exchange of water, the water just sits there still and unmoving. There is no renewal. And that’s our second challenge, to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. Renewal is walking in the newness of life in Christ. It’s a constant exchange between ourselves and the living water of Christ. As we prayed in today’s psalm, “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.” Our soul thirst for Jesus, the living water. Renewal is a steady drinking of the living water of Christ,

February 13, 2023

We Must Do Better! Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

It’s a sad fact of history that the largest religious community that ever lived together in the same place in the history of the Catholic Church was at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany during World War II. Over 2,500 Catholic priests became prisoners in Dachau, in Cellblock 26, known as the Priestblock. They were from 144 dioceses and 25 countries, and they made up about a third of Dachau’s total population. While they were there at Dachau, the priests ministered to the other prisoners the best they could, and they tried to strengthen each other, and give each other hope. As the days went by, they even held theological discussions to try and make sense of what was happening, not only to them, but to the world. They talked about the holocaust that was happening before their eyes, and the war raging across the world, weapons of destruction worse than any other in history; and all this coming after what had been called “The War to End All Wars.” These 2500 priests considered all of this, and as they pondered, one question kept returning to them. “How could this happen?” But that was not the complete question they asked. The complete question, the full question, included a key phrase at the end. Their full question was, “How could this happen in Christian nations?” Germany was a Christian nation. Italy, France, Great Britain, the United States; even Russia had its Christian roots. And these priests asked themselves, “How could this happen among people who professed to be followers of Christ? We must do better!” they said. We must do better. And that is what Jesus is telling his disciples in today’s gospel. He says, “your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees.” In other words, “You must do better.” The law is not simply to be observed, it is to be lived. It is not enough to merely avoid murdering someone, he says, that’s not enough. You must do better. If you have conflict, resolve it. Disciples are not to call people fools or other demeaning names. These people you try to humiliate are my brothers and sisters. Before you even approach the altar with a gift, if you have a problem with someone, go reconcile with them, and then come back. You must do better. It is not enough to avoid committing adultery. Don’t even look at someone with lust. That’s exploitation, using someone else for your own pleasure. You must do better. It is not enough to avoid false oaths. Live a life of integrity, be who you are at all times, in public and in private, so that your yes means yes and your no means no. You must do better. This is what Jesus is telling his disciples. It’s what Jesus is telling us. When we look at the world today, the escalation of conflicts between nations, the out and out war taking place, we must do better. When we look at our nation, the polarization, the name calling, the attempts to utterly humiliate opponents, we must do better. Even when we look inside our Church, we see infighting, bickering, lack of charity between fellow Christians, even, sadly, among Church leaders. Is this reconciling with our brother or sister before coming to the altar? Is this living a life of integrity where our yes means yes and our no means no? We must do better! The 2500 priests at Dachau who saw the need to do better also had discussions about how to do better. In the face of the great evil they were experiencing, they had an insight, perhaps even the grace of the Holy Spirit inspiring them.

January 8, 2023

The Story of the Other Wise Man – Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord

The feast of the Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the magi, and their journey to find Christ can inspire us to reflect on our own journey to encounter Christ in our lives. Each of our journeys is unique, and no one finds Christ in the quite the same way as anyone else. The magi in the Gospel of Matthew found Jesus in their own way. The names and numbers of the magi are not given in Matthew’s gospel, but we think of them as a group of three, probably because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Our tradition gives them the names Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. These three magi, or wise men, read and studied the signs, and when they noticed a particular star at its rising, they traveled far from their own land in the east and they found Jesus in Bethlehem. For some of us, our journey might be similar: following clear signs, point A to point B. For others of us, the path is different, a more winding road. Such was the case with the other wise man, Artaban. You won’t find Artaban in the Bible. His story is told by the author Henry van Dyke. It seems that Artaban had studied the stars with his friends Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, and he knew that a king was to be born among the Jews, a King who would change the world. So Artaban arranged to meet up with his three friends and travel with them to visit this King, once they saw his star. In preparation, Artaban sold his possessions and bought three jewels – a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl – to carry as gifts to the king. One night, Artaban looked up and said, “The star! The King is coming, and I will go to meet him.” He had ten days to get to the rendezvous and join his friends’ caravan, so Artaban immediately got on his horse and rode across fields of Concabar, past Selucia, across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and finally arrived at Babylon at nightfall on the tenth day, his horse exhausted, just three hours away from his friends. But what was this? There was a man lying across the road, a poor Hebrew exile, almost dead, in the grip of a deadly fever. Should he turn aside, if only for a moment, to help this poor man, and risk missing the caravan? He couldn’t leave the man to die, so Artaban jumped from his horse, brought the man water and cared for him until the man recovered. But, alas, he missed the caravan and his three friends. Sometimes we think we may have “missed the boat,” and we look back on the choices we have made, wondering if they were right. But Artiban was persistent. However, he couldn’t cross the desert with only a horse, so he sold the sapphire to buy the camels and supplies necessary for such a long trip. Fortunately, the Hebrew man he had saved told him that, according to the prophets, the King of the Jews would not be born in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem. So Artaban set off for Bethlehem, hoping to meet his friends there. He crossed deserts, mountain ranges, endured the fierce heat of day, and the bitter chill of night. and finally arrived in Bethlehem. As he walked through the village looking for his friends, Artaban heard a woman’s voice through a doorway, singing her baby boy to sleep. When she noticed his foreign clothing, she told Artaban of the three strangers from the far East who had appeared in the village three days ago, and how they said a star had guided them to the place where a newborn child lay. But the young mother also told Artaban that the strangers had gone, and the child and his family were gone too, rumored to have fled to Egypt.

49 total episodes available

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What is One Catholic Life?: Books and Reading • Faith and Preaching • Life and Living
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.

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