News - August 2021 RSS Feed

“ROAD CLOSED! BRIDGE OUT! TURN AROUND!” Important - indeed rather critical - warnings, you might say. And it would be foolish not to heed them. The Lord has given us the same kind of critical warnings in his statutes and decrees – what Scripture calls a “word of truth.” Jesus reiterates this in the gospel, along with a “course correction” regarding which commands are more serious and which are “human tradition.”

Today’s readings, like so many in our Sunday liturgies, present us with the demands of God’s revealed word and challenge us to renew our obedience to that word. Joshua calls for a clear decision on the part of the tribes of Israel as to whether or not they intend to serve the Lord. Jesus calls for a decision from his apostles – to leave or to continue following him, despite the “hard saying” about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Likewise, the Lord today asks us for our decision – to live in obedience to his word or to go our own way. His sayings may be hard, but the choice remains clear – “to whom shall we go?”

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was defined as a dogma of faith by the Venerable Pope Pius XII in 1950. He did not, however, settle the question of whether or not Mary died before being taken to heaven. Some hold that, since death is a punishment for original sin from which Mary was preserved from the moment of her conception, she did not have to die. Another opinion holds that since Mary was so closely united with her Son, who suffered death on the cross for our salvation, she also would have experienced physical death, just as Jesus did. The question was, and still is, left open.

It’s no big secret that we need nourishment in order to stay alive. All the more do we need it if we are doing something strenuous, like a long hike (as Elijah found out). The Holy Eucharist is the food the Lord provides to nourish us as we make our way through this pilgrim land. It is the seed of eternal life, planted within us now, which will come to full fruition in eternity.

“Could you pray with us and give us some word from the Lord for our marriage?” The young married couple standing before us spoke perfect English. Noteworthy because we were in the middle of Slovakia, where my wife Patti and I had been invited to give a retreat for priests and a Day of Renewal for Catholic Charismatic Renewal leaders. We were impressed by the number of young adults who were committed to the Lord in a country which had suffered under atheistic communism for over 40 years.