Daily HOMILY for January 13, 2015: Tuesday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

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Tuesday 1^st Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

January 13, 2015

AUTHORITY THEN & NOW +++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  In another age, we would have listened to what people in authority said, and we would have believed them

Ø  In the past positions of authority automatically conferred a certain weightiness on the people who held them: parents, teachers, priests

Ø  However, today we live in a culture that has grown increasingly cynical about authority

Ø  This is partly because of our modern desire to take authority figures down so that we might become freer

Ø  It is also because authority has all too often been exercised in controlling, manipulative, and even abusive ways

Ø  Today fewer believe in something simply because “mom told me so” or “the bishop decreed”

HIS AUTHORITY WAS PERSONAL ++++++++++++++++

Ø  In today’s readings we are offered an alternative image of authority, the authority of Jesus

Ø  His authority is not something automatically conferred by a certain position

Ø  It is his life which gives weight to his words

Ø  Even the unclean spirits recognize that his words have weight and authority

Ø  In the Letter to the Hebrews we read about Jesus as the one who can lead us to salvation because he has become perfect through suffering

Ø  So it is the way that he lived and the way that he died and rose, that gave weight to his words, authority to his teaching

OURS MUST BE PERSONAL TOO +++++++++++++++++

Ø  As followers of Christ, we too are called to speak with authority and preach good news

Ø  However, in a time when words are cheap and reality seems almost virtual, our authority will be as weighty as the witness of our lives

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  There is no other way. Our lives must first become weighty, consequential, significant

Ø  And we don’t have to wait to write our testimony talk for our day of commissioning

Ø  We achieve that authority here each day

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Daily HOMILY for January 12, 2015: Monday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

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Monday 1^st Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

January 12, 2015

WHEN WE’RE ASKED TO DO SOMETHING +++++++++

Ø  What is the first thing that pops into your heard when you are unexpectedly asked to do something?

Ø  Isn’t it a concern about how it will impact what is already on your schedule for the day?

Ø  That’s not a bad response

Ø  It is a responsible appropriate one

Ø  There are other people and your own expectations that need to be taken into account

Ø  But sometimes doesn’t your mind begin to send up several flags for self-protection…

Ø  “I’m already doing a lot”

Ø  “This may make me tired”

Ø  What not ask somebody else, especially that person who never does anything”

Ø  If we’re not careful, before we know it, we may become paralyzed and end up doing nothing

WHEN FISHERMEN ARE ASKED TO DO SOMETHING +

Ø  The call of the fishermen in today’s Gospel is remarkable because of their immediate response

Ø  “They left their nets and followed him”

Ø  From information about their later lives we know that this was no whim or fancy on their part

Ø  To the contrary, they all stayed with Jesus; following him to the end

Ø  Three of them of them died for him

Ø  We also know, from other Gospel passages, that it was probably not this simple

Ø  The fishermen had known about Jesus earlier

Ø  Perhaps that makes their response even more impressive

Ø  Meaning, they had counted the cost and still said yes

Ø  And perhaps they had talked it over with their wives, who should get some credit too

AN ALTERNATIVE WHEN ASKED +++++++++++++++++

Ø  Today, when you are surprised by a request, see if you can sense what prompts your initial reaction

Ø  And wonder, can the Kingdom break into your ordinary life, this ordinary day?

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The deeper questions is whether I have the freedom of the fishermen or not

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Daily HOMILY for January 7, 2015: Commissioning Service

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Commissioning Service

St. Luke’s Institute

January 7, 2015

HIRING A FIRM ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  If Jesus had hired the Jordan Management Consulting Firm to do an assessment of the individuals he was to choose for the 12 positions of overseers of his organization the report might have looked like this

DEAR SIR +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø   Dear Sir: Thank you for submitting the resumes of the 12 men you’ve picked 4 management positions. All have taken R battery of tests.

Ø  We ran their results through our national data base and also conducted personal interviews

Ø  It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking

TO BE SPECIFIC +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  To be specific, Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper

Ø  The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest about company loyalty

Ø  Thomas asks too many questions that would tend to undermine morale

Ø  Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau

JUDAS ISCARIOT +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  1 of candidates, however, shows great potential

Ø  He has a keen business sense & knows many of the movers & shakers inside & outside community

Ø  We recommend Judas Iscariot as Deputy Director

AND PAUL ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We also want to comment on the man named Paul who came in as a late entry

Ø  He is very boastful and so compulsive that he would be difficult to work with

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Corinthians makes clear that we are earthen vessels so that any good we are able to do is the power of God

Ø  The Gospel of John states that our love of God is seen in how well we feed and care for those God has entrusted to us

Ø  We have seen both that power and that love at work in Tom the past 6 months

Ø  It is time for others to witness it and with that we send him forth with our blessing

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