The King's Corner

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region. (Luke 4:31-37) Do we listen to Jesus?  He tells our demons, such as hate, envy, and pride, to be quiet and come out of us.  He knows they destroy us.  We know they are unclean spirits, yet we let them do their dirty work. It’s well past time we l

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”  He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things t

Sunday Homily A little African American boy was watching the balloon man at the county fair. The man was evidently a good salesman because he allowed a red balloon to break loose and soar high up in the air, thereby attracting a crowd of prospective young customers. Then he released a blue balloon, then a yellow one, and a white one. They all went soaring up into the sky until they disappeared. The little boy stood looking at black balloon for a long time, then asked, “Sir, if you sent the black one up, would it go as high as the others” The balloon man gave the kid an understanding smile. Then he snapped the string that held the black balloon in place, and as it soared upwards, he said, “It isn’t the color son. It’s what inside that makes us rise.”

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one – to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gav

Reading Father Healey's Pastor's Pen messages, one concludes we should be wearing masks regardless of vaccination status.  Use is strongly encouraged.  COVID is still present and a real, ever-present threat.  Nevertheless, many people are still confused and understandable so.   When I look into the pews from the altar, I judge about 10% of those in attendance are with masks.  The other 90% likely silently say, "I want out!"  We all want out, but not out of life on earth through sickness and death related to COVID.   Of course, many mask-less people will not get infected.  That's obvious.  Nevertheless, our community of faith is divided and likely tribal in its approach to masks, and even vaccinations.  The common good seems secondary to personal choice and stance.   This Pearls Before Swine cartoon makes it clear we are stuck in a time loop I fear will have us "looping" and loopy well into this winter and 2022.  God help us!  Let's remember, God help

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” (Matthe

  The wise ass is truly wise.  We all need to visit him on the hill.   Better yet.  Let's climb the mountain to find Jesus and listen to his sermon.  It's a sure cure for stupidity. Deacon David Pierce

Number 5: You shall not kill.   The “boss” has focused.  If only we would do the same.  We must not kill body or spirit.  This is a commandment most of us surprisingly ignore.  We kill our own spirits when we feed our souls with lies and hatred.  We kill our bodies with careless eating habits and sedentary living.   In this cartoon God points the finger at us warning us to carve that commandment carefully so it’s legible.  Many of us let the chisel slip so the “t” becomes “w.”  Let’s hammer with clear minds and steady hands. Deacon David Pierce

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’  Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by h

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:60-69)

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks died from cancer in November 2020.  I had just discovered his writings and speeches this summer, and his earlier death was a great surprise to me because I looked forward to more of his work and ideas based on his passion for God and his faith.   His most recent book was “Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times” (2020).  The book jacket facing page reads: "The world is in crisis.  Liberal democracy is embattled, public discourse has grown toxic, identity politics and extremism deepen social divisions, and the rise of victimhood mentality calls for ‘safe spaces’ but stifles debate.  The influence of social media seems all-pervading, family life is breaking down, and drug use and depression are on the rise.  Many fear what the future holds. In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today’s crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self interest over the common good…” He also has wr

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40) Once upon a time a man, whose ax was missing, suspected his neighbor’s son.  The boy walked like a thief and spoke like a thief.  But the man found his ax while digging in the valley.  The next time he saw his neighbor’s son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child (Lao Tzu) Loving our neighbor (or the neighbor’s child) is made difficult by our suspicions.  We all tend to be suspicious or believe the worst about our neighbors, including those of different bac

  This cartoon reminds us of U.S. citizens rowing to achieve our own agendas, be they religious or political.  Are we in the boat with Jesus and rowing on his behalf and for the common good?  If we are not careful, he might step out and walk ashore leaving us to survive storm(s) we have caused ourselves. Deacon David Pierce

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off.  And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage.  So when the first came, they thought that they wou

What follows is Father Richard Rohr's meditation for August 13.   Jesus seems to recognize that it’s either a world of domination or it’s a world of love. To understand Jesus’ paradigm of love, though, we must first understand the Trinity in whose image God says “Let us create” (Genesis 1:26)! The Trinitarian God is the loving, relational flow who flows through everything since the beginning. We will continually misinterpret and misuse Jesus if we don’t first participate in the circle dance of mutuality and communion within which he participated. We, instead, make Jesus into “Christ the King,” a title he rejected in his lifetime (see John 18:37). He never sought that kind of power. People are more comfortable with a divine monarch at the top of pyramidal reality. So we quickly made the one who described himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29) into an imperial God, both in the West (Rome) and in the East (Constantinople). This isn’t the naked, self-emptying Jesus on th

A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal  life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22)

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.  He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm and has scattered

Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away. (Matthew 19:13-15) “Let the children come to me,” was what Jesus said, according to Matthew.  But, he then went away.  Jesus had other places to go; however, he was still with them, as are we today with him and God.     Let’s consider the following insight. “The presence of God does not depend on an act of God’s will.  It depends simply on our own realization that where I am, God is.  The challenge is to come to the point that where God is, I am.”  This location of God and us was provided by Sister Joan Chittister in 2010 [40 Stories To Stir The Soul]. 

This year I’ve seen a few more butterflies than usual.  Perhaps my butterfly bushes are finally working.  Here’s an article by Steve Heaslip recently published in the Cape Cod Times. [begin] Perhaps you have heard of the “Butterfly Effect.” The theory refers to the concept that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the ocean can start a ripple of breeze that turns into hurricane on the other side of the ocean. A quick online search traces the scientific concept to mathematician Edward Lorenz whose research related the “effect” to chaos theory and weather prediction. The high level science of the theory is way above this photojournalist’s daily approach to assignments. But the idea that almost imperceptibly small changes we make can have big consequences really resonates. I’m not sure that a butterfly flying around off the western coast of Africa can send a major hurricane up the East Coast of the United States. There are days where the simple act of making a left turn instead o

AND TILL CLEAN! Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.  When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged hi

Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church. If he refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:15-20) “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is a popular expression.  It pertains to a sure thing.  You have it.  The two birds might fly

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” (John 2:24-26) If we love our life, but we are just grains of wheat, we bear no fruit.  We remain in the seed bag with no germination, perhaps to rot or be eaten by seed-eating animals, such as rats. We don’t grow into what God made us to be – more than we think we are.  We all have hidden potential that needs to be released for the benefit of others and our communities.  Seeds burst from their husks and so must we. If we hate our ambivalent lives confined within our husks, then we preserve our lives for eternal life meaning we shed those husks or chaff and grow to bear fruit w

As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said.  When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?”

Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water.  After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. (1 Kings 19:4-8) Our Church selected this reading from Kings as a way to introduce the Gospel reading (below), or at least so it seems.  Elijah ate and drank and was strengthen by an angel of the LORD after which he walked 40 days and 40 nights in the desert on his travel to the mountain of God.  We

  Simple message for all of us swine (or rats) looking for pearls of wisdom.  Good friends are hard to come by.  When they are found, our net worth climbs.  No stock market is required. Deacon David Pierce

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.  Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.  

What follows is Father Richard Rohr's Sunday blog entry.  It focuses on God and suffering. We live in a finite world where everything is dying, shedding its strength. This is hard to accept, and all our lives we look for exceptions to it. We look for something certain, strong, undying, and infinite. Religion tells us that the “something” for which we search is God. But many of us envisioned God as strong, complete, and all-powerful—a God removed from suffering. In Jesus, God comes along to show us: “Even I suffer. Even I participate in the finiteness of this world.” After two thousand years, Jesus is still a revolutionary symbol, revelation, and reality. He turned theology upside down and taught, in effect: God is not who you think God is. The enfleshment and suffering of Jesus reveals that God is not apart from the trials of humanity. God is not aloof. God is not a spectator. God is not merely tolerating human suffering or instantly just healing it. God is participating with us in

I provide here last Sunday’s Boston Globe “Opinion” article written by columnist Renee Graham entitled: “America’s alarming empathy gap: Strength isn’t a clenched fist. It’s an open hand offering mercy and grace to those who reach for support.”  We all need open hands of mercy and grace.  Too many of us have them folded.  Her article is presented here in its entirety.    Edmund Muskie may be the only person in American political history to lose his chance at the White House because of snow. In 1972, the senator from Maine was favored to win the Democratic presidential nomination — until he fought against a smear campaign believed to have been orchestrated by Richard Nixon, the incumbent president. When the Manchester Union Leader, a conservative New Hampshire newspaper, published a scathing attack on Muskie’s wife, Jane, the candidate stood outside the paper’s office in a February storm and ripped into its publisher with such fury some thought Muskie was crying. He wasn’t. Muskie’s fac

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening, he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.  During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little

The children of Israel lamented, “Would that we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna.” Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin. When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, which tasted like cakes made with oil. At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.  When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved. “Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who conceived all this people?  Or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster

First Reading The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!”  Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.  In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What