For the ancient Jew, wealth and possessions were seen as signs of God’s favor. So you can imagine why we hear about the disciples being so shocked in today’s Gospel when Jesus says: “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  How could the people God favors have a hard time entering his kingdom? If that is true, the disciples wonder, “who can be saved?”

Jesus’ reply holds the key: with God all things are possible. Wealth, power, and merit tend to give us […]

As I’m sure you realize, we usually have a missionary assigned to our parish to promote the missions for Mission Sunday.  The archdiocesan Mission Office had assigned us a priest several months ago.  Earlier this week, however, we learned from his religious community that he would not be available.  I called the Mission Office immediately to see if another missionary could come.  Michelle, the office’s assistant director, explained that, unfortunately, there was an increasing shortage of missionaries and none was available this weekend.  “Of course, Msgr. Brouwers,” she continued, “we […]

“Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”  In our first reading today, we heard Joshua, Moses’ aide who would eventually succeed him, protest to Moses that Eldad and Medad were not present when the Spirit of God came and rested upon the rest of the elders, so they should not be prophesying.  Pay attention to Moses’ response: “Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!  Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”

And, in our Gospel, we heard John, the beloved […]

Do you consider yourself a competitive person?  Or maybe I should ask, in what area are you most competitive?  We’re all competitive, aren’t we?  Maybe you’re competitive in getting the best grades in your class or the biggest paycheck at work.  Maybe you compete to make the best pancakes in your family or tell the funniest joke.  We humans are naturally competitive.  After all, that’s what helps us survive in this very competitive world.

In our culture, we often base our identity and self-worth on whether or not we are the […]

“Who do you say that I am?”  This is an important question that we hear Jesus ask his disciples in today’s gospel.  It’s an important question that he asks each of us so let’s see how the encounter continues.  Peter answers correctly, “You are the Christ.”  Since this is the correct answer, we might wonder why Jesus immediately instructs the disciples not to tell anyone about him.  Why would he do that?  We all know that it’s because they had the wrong notion of who the Christ – the Messiah […]