Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

The second reading today reminds all of us about the noble confession of faith that was begun at our baptism and which we must renew often.

Evidence for Faith

Often times people of faith are made to believe that scientific knowledge is more believable than the knowledge faith provides. Sometimes, even those who are believers can make the mistake of thinking that faith means accepting things that are irrational or that seem impossible. Today's second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews assures us that opposite is true.

"Faith is the realization of what is hoped for, evidence of things invisible." Science can only tell us about this physical world. By definition, science will never be able to create an experiment that proves or disproves the existence of God. Since God exists outside of the system of our physical world, it takes a different kind of knowing to gain knowledge about God. This way of knowing we call faith, and it is every bit as certain as the knowledge we gain from science. We should never be scared of science. The more we experiment, the more we will see that this visible world points to an invisible reality, even providing evidence for faith.

Numbering Our Days Aright

In today's psalm the author prays "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart." There is a certain wisdom that comes from remembering that our days are numbered. None of us lives forever. Moreover, since we know not when our last day will come, we should live each day with at least some thought about our last day. The world might go on for centuries, you're life might go on for decades...or you could get hit by a bus today. Are you ready? If not, why not make some changes today.

Prayer Conforms Our Hearts to God

In our first reading today, Abraham shows us the power of intercessory prayer. Specifically, his nephew Lot has gotten himself into trouble living in the Las Vegas of the biblical world, the city of Sodom. Through the prayer of Abraham, Lot and his family are saved. That's good news for all of us who know some family members that could using a little saving.

God really does hear our prayers. Yet, while it's somewhat poetic to think of us changing God's mind as a result of our prayer, the deeper reality is that prayer changes us. Jesus has an intimacy with his father in prayer that makes the disciples jealous. The ultimate fruit of prayer is not that our prayers change the world or even God, but that we grow in intimacy with God. It's our hearts that change to become more like God. What better answer to prayer could there be?

Choosing the Better Part

Jesus chastises Martha in the gospel today for being "anxious and worried about many things" while there is "need of only one thing." We too often get swept up in doing so many good things that wind up worn out and not fulfilled. Normally it's not that we're doing bad things, just like serving was not a bad thing for Martha to be doing. However, when we get too busy with worldly things we can tend to miss the one thing that is important.

If someone looked at your calendar, would they be able to tell the one thing that matters most in your life? Most in importantly, would that one thing be God?

Farewell to Curé of Ars

Today's homily is the last one given by me as the Associate Pastor at Curé of Ars. It's been an amazing two years here and I want to thank everyone. My recent car accident has made it difficult to do some of the normal physical tasks of life, but has made it much easier for me to see what is really important. Nothing matters more than our relationship with God. After that, it's our relationship with our family and friends that matters. Those are the things that last. I am blessed to call so many of you at Curé among my extended family. Please pray for me as I go to Washington, and know that I will pray for you.

Big Rewards from Small Commitments

Today's homily was delivered to over 500 scouts present for Mass at the Chapel of the Twelve Apostles on the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola, Missouri.

I love playing my trumpet. With all the activities that I did in school growing up, playing trumpet is one that I have continued to enjoy. People often wonder how I got started. The truth is, I just wanted to be my troop bugler. Little did I know that trying to fill that simple need of my troop back in 6th grade would lead to one of the most enjoyable leisure activities in my life.

God often works this way. He's got a big plan for our happiness, but he only shows it to us in little bits. It takes saying yes to one little decision each day, taking one small step. Before you know it, you look back and see all the fruit that God brought from those baby steps. Let's pray that we can all have the faith to make the commitments that God is asking of us.

What Does God Think About Sinners?

Today's readings all consider the important question of sin and what to do with sinners. We get several examples of people who know they are sinners...David and the woman in the Gospel. We even get one example of a guy who thinks he's not a sinner but everyone else is...Simon. Most importantly we get the example of Jesus and how to deal with all these people. From this we can learn just what God might think of us.

Expanded Expectations

Both in the first reading and the gospel today we see God do the unexpected...he raises someone from the dead. Just when people though they had Jesus figured out, he goes and does something so unexpected that people are left in fear. Perhaps we don't expect much from God. We can get so used to God acting in certain ways in our life that we really don't think that anything all that out of the ordinary is possible. Today's readings and homily are all about helping us to to expand our expectations and to even expect the unexpected.

A Matter of Life and Death

Why a feast in honor of the Eucharist? Isn't every Mass a celebration of the Eucharist? Sometimes we can allow ourselves to take the Eucharist for granted and not give Jesus the reverence and love that we should. That's why we need a special feast like this. St. Paul reminds us that the Eucharist is serious business, life and death business, as we also hear in the sequence today. Let's do our best each day to prepare well to receive Jesus and allow him to form us more perfectly into his family, the Body of Christ.