Tag: Deacon Rudy Villarreal

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The Good Samaritan

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Mass Readings

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Psalm: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37 OR Psalm 19:8-11
Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

Today we hear the familiar story about the Good Samaritan. Of course, this story teaches us about helping one another, but this story also has a twist. Let’s try to figure that out.

In today’s Gospel, a scribe, presumably someone well versed in the Mosaic law, asks Jesus a question designed to test him. It seems the goal was to make Jesus look foolish and to show that he does not have the credentials to be called a rabbi.

So, the scribe asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now at the heart of this question is a much-debated question in Judaism during Jesus’ lifetime: of all the commandments within the Mosaic law, which one was the most important. Jesus turns the question back to the scribe, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” The scribe replies, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But the scribe couldn’t leave it there, so he pushed on asking, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

There is no doubt that the primary point of this parable is that our neighbor is everyone who is in need. There are no boundaries. My neighbor is not limited by race, religion or national origin. My neighbor even includes those who break our laws, including illegal aliens. Please don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say. To show love does not mean that we condone illegal behavior or that we shouldn’t enforce our laws or that we can’t hold people accountable. But showing Christian love should influence how we enforce our laws and how we treat those who break our laws.

But there is a second and perhaps more subtle point to this parable. In this story, two people pass on the other side of the road, presumably so that they don’t come into contact with the wounded man or his blood. You see, they were both part of Jewish Temple worship and if they came into contact with blood, they would be impure and unable to worship. But look at the Samaritan. He does not worship at the Temple. When he sees the man lying in the street, he goes to help him.

Here’s the twist. If you think worshiping God is more important than helping your neighbor, then you don’t know what it means to worship God. Anyone who thinks that the commandment to love God and the commandment to love our neighbor are in competition with one another misunderstands both. Both commandments are two sides of the same coin!

John’s Gospel clarifies this point for us, “Those who love me will keep my word [that is, the new commandment to love one another], and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them,” (14:23). John’s Gospel teaches us that God is not the object of our love. God is the very source and ground of our ability to love.

When we love one another, we experience the presence of God. That is the deepest reason for the existence of the church. It is impossible to love God without loving our neighbor. This is why the Gospel can never be reduced to a private experience between God and me. I cannot find God outside of my relationship to all my brothers and sisters. Christianity is not a series of conclusions that any one of us could reach simply by thinking about it all by ourselves. Christianity is a report; it’s the Gospel; it’s the “good news,” and “news” requires that someone bring the news to us.

That’s why church is so important. The role of the church is not merely to be a bearer of the mysteries of our faith. No! Our capacity to live together as a community of believers with mutual forgiveness, our deep concern for the well being of all members of the community, and our desire to share the community with all our brothers and sisters who are not in the community is how we come to know what the word “God” means.

I suggest to you that the church most fully lives its mission and most fully fulfills its role in God’s plan of salvation by including everyone who wants to be included. The church is about inclusion, not exclusion. The church not only tells us the story of Jesus of Nazareth, but it provides us with the experience to help us understand who it is that Jesus called “Father.”

Homework! After hearing the Word of God proclaimed and after receiving the Eucharist, I encourage you to reflect on these two questions over the course of the week.

  1. First, what person was the most significant in bringing the Good News to you? To whom have you brought the Good News?
  2. Second, we love God by loving our neighbor. Have you ever felt tempted to try to love God and bypass loving your neighbor? When?

I think by doing our homework, we will deepen our discipleship by better understanding Jesus. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

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Be Missionary Disciples

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mass Readings

First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14C
Psalm: Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20
Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18
Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Today’s scriptures are about announcing the Good News. They remind us that announcing the Good News of the Kingdom of God, by our words, our deeds, our life, is not just the task of a few people. It’s not just about the priests and deacons and consecrated religious. No! Announcing the Good News is required of all baptized Christians.

In the first reading from Isaiah 66:10-14, Isaiah proclaims the good news to those who are returning from exile in Babylon. He tells them that Jerusalem will take care of them as a mother comforts her baby. Isaiah assures them that they will live a life in in the certainty of Yahweh’s promises of love, protection, prosperity and salvation.

In the Psalm, we hear, “Sing praise to the glory of God all the earth,” because of the wonders He has done.

In the second reading from Galatians 6:14-18, Paul tries to address the confusion created by those Judaizers, those ultra-conservative Judeo-Christians who insist that there their way is the only way. Paul reminds them and he reminds us that the mission of all of us is to bear witness to the saving power of the Cross through a life of sacrificial self-giving.

In today’s Gospel from Luke 10:1-12 and 17-20, we hear the story of the commissioning of the 72. The disciples are told to go out and preach the Good News of God’s love and salvation. He also gives them travel tips. They’re supposed to be walking witnesses of God’s Providence. They’re supposed to be living simple lives, preaching the Good News and healing the sick. It’s a reminder to us that of the 1.5 billion Christians in today’s world that all the baptized have the same message mission as the 72: to proclaim Good News of Jesus Christ to all the other non-Christians in this world. This makes sense, right? As disciples, we are called to share the Good News.

What’s a disciple? Three things make a disciple. First, accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Second, deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ by learning more about him. And third, we go out into the world to share the Good News, what Pope Francis calls being a missionary disciple. So, we all have the same responsibility as the 72. There are over 1.5 billion Christians in this world: about 1 billion Roman Catholics, and half a billion other Christians in 30,000 different denominations. That means that there are over 1.5 billion missionaries in the world. But how do we do it?


There’s a fascinating study coming out of Detroit, about why young adults join the Catholic Church despite the scandals. The vast majority of them say they first came to church by the personal invitation of a Catholic. Other say they were drawn to the church by people they encountered who live a lively relationship with Christ and His Church. Isn’t that interesting? As faithful Catholics, we can be good missionaries simply by living our lives as authentically as possible. But Here’s the catch. It’s really not an option. It’s our responsibility. We can’t miss the opportunity to be disciples, in everyday life, by our words and our deeds.

That means we need to avoid being counter-witnesses. The church was founded on Peter, humble uneducated fishermen who died for the Lord He loved. Compare his faith with “supermarket Catholics” or “cafeteria Catholics” or “barely-make-it-to-mass Catholics”. These kinds of Catholics bear counter-witness to Christ. Instead we are called to be heralds of the kingdom, and that starts in our own homes. For example, when spouses respect each other, we teach our children to respect others. Our neighbors then can experience the Kingdom in our own families.

But this is not an easy path. In today’s world, moral martyrs. These people aren’t being killed physically, but they’re persecuted in the media. They’re defamed or falsely accused just because of their profound love for Jesus Christ and the counter-cultural lifestyle they proclaim. They are not unlike the martyrs of the church.

The early church called people martyrs. Martyrs were people who died giving witness to Christ. The most important element wasn’t how they died. What was most important was their fidelity to the Faith, until their last moment in their lives. Martyrs are not something in the past – a subject of study. No, unfortunately, recent history of abounds with examples of martyrs from the civil war in Spain, religious persecution in Poland, Mexico, Vietnam, Russia, China, Africa. The names of Edit Stein from Germany; Maximilian Kolbe from Poland; Miguel Pro from Mexico; Pedro Poveda, Spain, Fr. Stanley Rother from Oklahoma, are just the beginning of a long list of innocent victims who died for their faith.

Even today, religious freedom is still denied in many countries, or very severely regulated, including countries you wouldn’t expect, like Switzerland where I currently live, where the faith is controlled by the government. Several Muslim nations forbid the celebration of the sacraments. And in China, we see not only control of religion, but perhaps even persecution of religious ideas that the government considers a threat.

As missionary disciples, nourished by the Word of God proclaimed and by the Eucharist, we are all called to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the courage of the martyrs. Are you ready?

Homework:

  1. What are some examples of where you’ve heard the Good News of Jesus?
  2. What are some ways you can share the Good News?

I think by doing our homework this week, we will develop a better sense of what it means to be disciples and perhaps betters skills as the disciples we are all called to be. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. +Amen!

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Let the Dead Bury the Dead

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Readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: 1 Kings 19:16B, 19-21
Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

Today’s readings, in particular the first reading from 1 Kings 19:16, 19-21, and the Gospel from Luke 9:51-62, sound harsh. But really, at the heart of these readings is the question of attachment. From where do we draw our faith: from our belief in God or from the things of this world? This is a source of great tension in the world. The world, perhaps now more than ever, is so completely intertwined in our lives that it’s difficult to not be “in the world,” so to speak. The lure of social media seems too powerful.

But these readings offer a caution to us all – not just the community of believers. Look, we’re all surrounded by stuff. Indeed, some of our homes are so crammed with stuff that it’s difficult to even walk around. Isn’t it funny how attached we are to things or to our cell phones or to various social media sites? Have you ever had the experience of sitting with someone who was so absorbed with their cell phone that they didn’t know what was going on around them? That can be so frustrating! Sadly, some forms of social media can really bring out the narcissist in people. Some of our family and friends seem obsessed with posting selfies of themselves in various poses or wearing various outfits.

In many ways, people like this, people so absorbed with their stuff, are dead. They’re dead to what’s happening around them. It’s as if they don’t really care – or they might care a little as long as you don’t interfere with their stuff. The minute you cross the line – the minute you ask them to put their cell phone down – well, you might as well have asked them to cut off their arm. Paul describes obsession with the stuff of this world as in today’s second reading from Galatians 5:1, 13-18, as the yoke of slavery.

Paul says we shouldn’t waste our freedom on things that will dull our minds or our senses – and that includes everything from drugs, alcohol and food addictions to binge-watching shows, losing hours to online gaming or social media – you name it! All this stuff belong to the flesh. But we are called to be integrated bodies and souls. So we need to be careful with worldly distractions. Paul reminds us that the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, (Galatians 5:14). If we believe that God is love, and if we believe Jesus’ command that we are to love God with every fiber of our being and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we can’t allow ourselves to become so distracted with worldly things that we forget to look up and see the people around us, starting with our own family and friends.

We were not created to be alone with our stuff. We were created to be part of the community. We must resist the temptations that pull us out of our community – that try to isolate us, for it is when we feel alone that we are must vulnerable to give in to temptations.

Homework!

  1. First, try to tally up the time you spend watching shows on TV or over the internet, the time you spend playing any sort of video game, and the time you spend on social media. Can you reduce that number by 5% this week to spend with your family and friends?
  2. Second, in what ways are you present to the people around you? Try to name a few concrete examples for yourself.

I think by doing our homework, we might shift our time and attention away from the allurements of this world and more toward loving God by loving those around us. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!