Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I want to change gears this week from our regular reflections and focus on an often-neglected part of the Holy Mass: the Universal prayer, or Prayers of the Faithful. These general intercessory prayers are an expression of our desire, as a community, to invite God into every aspect of our lives, particularly in those areas of need that occupy our minds and hearts. It is an act of our Priesthood as baptized members of Jesus’ Body, the Church, offering up our prayers to God for the sake of those in need. Our petitions follow a general pattern as laid out in the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, the Church’s guidelines for the celebration of Mass: 1
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, The parable of the workers in the vineyard upsets me, and I think God wants it to upset me to teach me a lesson. The laborers all receive the same pay regardless of their work. Shouldn’t those who worked more have been paid more? This seems like the very core of social justice: equal work for equal pay. The owner of the vineyard deliberately pays the last workers first; this is an important detail. He wants the workers who have been there all day to see that those who arrived at the last hour also received the regular daily wage. They are meant to see the generosity of the landowner on display. Their complaint shows their wounded pride: “These
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, “You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.” (Ezekiel 33:7) Being a prophet is not easy in any age. Ezekiel struggled with his sacred duty of warning the people of Israel about their wanderings away from God. Even now, in our overly-sensitive culture, we hesitate to comment on sinful behavior for fear of reprisal. We have taken “do not judge” too far, and now stand in danger of failing in our duty to protect each other from sin. We forget that God “will hold you responsible for his death.” To the level that I bear responsibility for my brother, my child, my friend, or
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, Forgiveness is about relationship, not law. We are asked by Jesus to forgive our brother or sister in His Name. This means restoring them to relationship with ourselves just as God has restored us to relationship with Himself. We are brothers and sisters in God’s family; Dad wants us to get along! This doesn’t mean pretending that the hurt never occurred. “Forgive and forget” is not the Christian way; “forgive and love again” is. We need to honestly feel the debt that our brother or sister owes to us, not to deny it or cover it up. Then we can honestly offer this debt to Jesus, who paid our debt to the Father by His Passion and Death on the Cr
