These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Mt 5:24)
Most of the time when we think about reconciliation, we think about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or Confession as some call it. But the Lord is always much more interested in our reconciliation with one another . . . and that reconciliation is infinitely much harder and difficult.
Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, prayed: “Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God.” (Est C:14)
When your back’s against the wall and there’s no one to help, the anguished prayer cuts to the heart. As my grandmother used to say, “Sometimes God needs reminding!”
Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart for I am gracious and merciful. (Jl 2:12-13)
“Even now” means there’s still time no matter how late we might think it is, there’s still time for all of us. I know I’m from the South, but gracious and merciful . . . wins my heart every time.
Jesus said to his disciples: “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. (Mt 6:9-13)
The most radical two words in the prayer that Jesus gave us are the first two: Our Father. When we pray Our Father, who is not included in the “Our?” It’s a statement about our relationship with God, but even more, it’s a radical statement about our relationship with one another.
‘What you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ (Mt 25:45)
The problem of "doing things for Jesus" is that we tend to care just for the deserving poor . . . and so we miss Jesus every time.
