Why We Clean Our Room
I don’t know if you’ve ever visited a seminary. The closest thing I can compare it to is, “It’s like boarding school.” Each seminarian is assigned a room that we’re encouraged to keep as clean as possible. This shouldn’t come as a surprise for you to learn that I, for the most part, always kept my room tidy…except towards the end of each semester. Like clockwork, when final exams came around, the floor of my room became the canvas for me to spread the piles of my class notes and study guides in preparation for the grueling exam marathon of finals week.
For My Yoke is Easy and My Burden Light
I don’t know about you, but every time I hear the Gospel reading1 that promises us that His yoke is easy and His burden light, I find myself a little skeptical. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Jesus when he says this. I’m just not sure if I know what he means…because from my experience, when I’m in trouble or when I’ve witness illness in others, the burden neither seems easy nor light.
Change of Heart
On Palm Sunday, it always bothered me how quickly the crowd went from one day welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, ushering him in with palm branches while chanting “Hosanna,” then mere days later, the crowd, shouting “Crucify him!” How could the crowd have such a dramatic change of heart so fast, so soon?
Why We Make Sacrifices
Have you ever noticed that when Hollywood makes a movie that is based on a book, they have to streamline the narrative into a two-hour running time? And in the process, they have to cut out a lot of the rich details from the original text that gave the story so much meaning and depth. Well, that’s how I feel about what the secular world has done to the whole practice of making sacrifices during Lent. The world has somehow watered down the practice of Lenten sacrifices into giving up soft drinks, our favorite television show, or that iced venti green tea latte.
Chair of St. Peter
Have you ever wondered why the center of the Church is geographically located in Rome instead of maybe Jerusalem, which was the center of the events of Jesus’ life? Well, it has to do with the Feast we celebrate today and the Gospel reading we heard just read.1
The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter commemorates Jesus choosing Peter (and his successors) as the pastor of the whole Church when Jesus says: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”2 We associate Rome with St. Peter because Scripture tells us that after the angel helps Peter escape from prison in Jerusalem, Peter travels to the West where he eventually establishes the Church in Rome.
What do St. John the Baptist and St. Agatha have in common?
It might sound a little morbid, but every time I hear the story of the beheading of St. John the Baptist1, it always fills me with a certain hope, a sense of joy even…because the story reveals the stark difference between how the world treats you when you break its laws versus how God treats us when we commit an offense. Think about it: when you break a law, how does the world respond? Well, you either receive a fine, get thrown into prison, or, if the offense is serious enough, the world might find “just cause” to execute you. That’s what King Herod did to St. John the Baptist. Herod put John to death—just for speaking the truth…which goes to show that some people will manipulate, misrepresent, or spin the truth anyway they want to get the desired result.
Cliff’s Notes to the Gospel
They say, “Confession is good for the soul.” And being that this is a new year, I don’t really mind confessing that when I was in high school, I used to use Cliff’s Notes. Those were the days before the internet. We now have access to so much information at your fingertips. But back when I was in high school, you could rely on these nifty, concise black and yellow cover booklets that gave summaries of long novels that we were supposed to read from cover to cover in high school English class. And if I were brutally honest, I would admit that I sometimes found even the Cliff’s Notes much too long in its literary analysis. I just wanted the short, straightforward summary of the book. So most of the time, I would look for the synopsis at the beginning of the Cliff’s Notes and rely on that to give me a preview of what the rest of the book had in store for the reader.
The Scope of Christmas
Christmastime is a time when, as you know, a great many people, myself included, spontaneously wander through our memories. We remember what it was like at Christmas when we were little. The memories of the frenetic unwrapping of presents, the surprise look on the face of the recipient of a gift, the bated-breath hope of receiving the toy you had hinted for to your parents.
Light Friday
You don’t have to be a blind man like the ones Jesus healed in the Gospels to experience blindness in life…because there are different types of blindness. In fact, there are three main types. The first is physical blindness. Believe it or not, we have all experienced physical blindness. That is what happens when we walk in the dark and cannot see our way. You see, it is light that allows us to overcome darkness. And this Advent season, we are asked to seek the Light that banishes all forms of darkness that we can encounter in the world.
Fr. Tom’s “An Advent Carol”
Growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was the kickoff to one of my favorite Christmas traditions. It was the day when all of the classic Christmas specials began playing on TV. My three sisters and I would look through the listings of the TV Guide to see when they would air, lest we miss their broadcast and have to wait an entire year to catch it again on TV. You know the ones: Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Then there’re the many versions of the timeless tale, A Christmas Carol. There’s the one starring Bill Murray called Scrooged and Mickey’s Christmas Carol (my childhood favorite). I even like the latest one now out in theaters—the one with Jim Carey playing all of the major characters in the movie. I saw it in 3D as well as on IMAX.