23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time B (Is 35:4-7; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37) By John H. Howard, C.J.M Although the words of Scriptures we read today were written long ago, God always speak to us in the present. When it was proclaimed by the prophets or by Jesus himself, it had an immediate application but also…
“Who is this Jesus?” Third Sunday of Lent – Fr. Howard
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Who really feels all their prayers have been answered? Nobody! How can we reconcile that with Jesus assurance in this Gospel “For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Lk 11:10). If Jesus says so it must be true. Why then…
How many times have we all said or thought: “I can’t get involved; what will everybody think?” “How is that going to be seen in the community?” And we would be right. The more we take Jesus seriously, the better chance we have not to be popular.
Whenever an urgent need comes up, inevitably someone would say, “We don’t have the money or the volunteers to do that.” The answer is always the same, “Let’s just start doing it, the Lord will provide.” One does not just stay there and expect the Lord to drop it from heaven. One needs to get to work: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be open to you” (Lk 11:9).
We hear a lot about extremes these days. There are programs like “Extreme Adventures” “Extreme Sports” “Extreme make over” for people, for houses, for cars, for gardens, you name it. The example that Jesus gives us in the Gospel can also be labeled “Extreme Love.”