Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: February 16, 2025
HAPPINESS MYTHS
Dr. Harold Treffert is the director of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Wisconsin. In an article entitled “The American Fairy Tale,” he discusses five dangerous ideas we have about the meaning of happiness. First, happiness is things. The more you accumulate and have, the happier you will be. Second, happiness is what you do. The more you produce and earn, the happier you will be. Third, happiness is being the same as others. The more you are fashionable and conform with the times, the happier you will be. Fourth, happiness is mental health. The fewer problems you have and the more carefree you are, the happier you will be. Fifth, happiness is communicating with electronic gadgets. The more you can communicate with a television set, a satellite, a phone, or a computer, the happier you will be. According to Dr. Treffert, these five myths about happiness are the cause of many mental health problems today. — If happiness cannot be found through these five myths of “The American Fairy Tale,” then where do we find it? Jesus gives us the answer when he outlines the beatitudes in today’s reading from Luke.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: February 09, 2025
DIVINE CALLS ANSWERED
People from all age groups and all walks of life have graciously accepted the divine call and become saints. St. Teresa of Child Jesus (the Little Flower) heard God’s call and joined the Carmelite convent when she was only 15. Agnes Bojaxhiu or Mother Teresa heard God’s call and joined the Loretto Sisters when she was 18. St. Jeanne Jugan was 47 when she heard God calling her to devote her life to the care of the sick and the elderly. St. Ignatius of Loyola heard God’s call as a wounded and recovering soldier in his late thirties. St. Francis Xavier and St. Augustine were university professors when they heard God’s call. Saints Cosmos and Damien were physicians and pharmacists. St. Cyrus Alexandrian was a doctor. St. Louis IX was a French king (1226-76). St. Thomas More held a high position in the Royal Court of Henry VIII in England. St. Isidore and Maria Cabeza were ordinary farmers. St. Gregory and his wife St. Nona were the ideal husband and wife and parents of three saints, and St. Louis Martin and his wife St. Zeelie Guerin were parents of St. Teresa of Child Jesus. Just like Isiah in the first reading, St. Paul in the second reading and St. Peter in the Gospel, all these saints acknowledged their sinfulness and limitations, and God blessed their good will with His grace and enabled them to transform the lives of many for God.
February 02, 2025
THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD
At the end of the fourth century, a woman named Etheria made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her journal, discovered in 1887, gives an unprecedented glimpse of liturgical life there. Among the celebrations she describes is the Epiphany, the observance of Christ’s birth, and the gala procession in honor of his Presentation in the Temple 40 days later. Under the Mosaic Law, a woman was ritually “unclean” for 40 days after childbirth, when she was to present herself to the priests and offer sacrifice—her “purification.” Contact with anyone who had brushed against mystery—birth or death—excluded a person from Jewish worship. This feast emphasizes Jesus’ first appearance in the Temple more than Mary’s purification. The observance spread throughout the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries. Because the Church in the West celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25, the Presentation was moved to February 2, 40 days after Christmas. At the beginning of the eighth century, Pope Sergius inaugurated a candlelight procession; at the end of the same century the blessing and distribution of candles which continues to this day became part of the celebration, giving the feast its popular name: Candlemas day.
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time: January 26, 2025
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF JESUS
The reading from Isaiah describes a kind of Messianic figure. In Isaiah 61:1-2, the prophet explicitly uses the language of “Messiah” (or “Anointing”; “Anointed One”). Jesus identifies himself as that figure and declares that the mission and ministry prophesied are his mission and his ministry. In other words, Jesus declares that Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in him, and this Scripture, about the Messiah, and the Jubilee, that they had just heard, was fulfilled. Jesus claims that his messianic mission is similar to the mission given to Moses in Exodus 3:7-10, and that Jesus has been sent to Israel: (1) to bring glad tidings to the poor; (2) to proclaim liberty to captives; (3) to give recovery of sight to the blind; (4) to free the oppressed, and (5) to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. [“An acceptable year,” in this context, suggested the ancient “Jubilee Year.”] In the book of Leviticus, chapter 25, God says that, at the end of every seven-times-seven-year cycle, [that is, after every 49th year,] the 50th year will be kept as a Jubilee year. In that Jubilee year all debts are to be forgiven, all slaves are to be set free, and any land that has been appropriated, (family land which had been lost through debt), is to be returned to the original owners. Isaiah meant that the period of the Messiah’s ministry would bring for all Israel the long-desired restoration of Zion which the Lord God Himself would accomplish, giving Israel His forgiveness and restoring her to His love and favor. In selecting this Messianic passage (“This Scripture has been fulfilled today, in your hearing”), Jesus sums up both the Source of his power and authority and the nature of his freeing and saving ministry. First, Jesus claims the power of God’s Spirit as the source of his work. Second, Jesus makes this proclamation in the context of Judaism – on the Sabbath, from the Scriptures, and in the synagogue. Third, Jesus identifies his work, the work of the Messiah, with that of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh (see Isaiah 42:1-4, in particular), who brings Good News to the poor, proclaims release to the oppressed and recovery of sight to the blind — figuratively and literally. Fourth, this agenda begun in Nazareth is to extend to all places where the Word of God will be heard and understood.