Perspectives from the Pulpit

Did you ever hear the voice of God? Or, did you ever hear someone say: “The Lord told me such and such?” If you’ve heard His voice – you know that you know that you know it’s true.

A young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, “I can sleep through a storm.”

Food. It’s one of the most important things in life. True, we need food just to survive. But, it’s so is much more than that. Think of all the ways and occasions food is a part of our lives.

Have you ever seen a commercial or one of those cartoons before, where someone is in the midst of a really difficult moral decision, and all of the sudden, out of thin air, appear on their shoulders an angel and a devil?

Most of us know a prayer that begins with the words, “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins because of your just punishments, but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love…”

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known by its Latin title, Corpus Christi. And we celebrate in a very intentional and focused way what we celebrate at each and every Mass – that ordinary bread and regular wine become the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

“Beloved: Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.”

It seems that the more people I talk to, the more I hear – usually in quite general terms – about a growing angst in our culture. It goes something like this: "There is such a division in society today.”

In the season of Easter, our first reading isn’t from the Old Testament, but from the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles. We see the early Church wrestling with the challenge of applying the meaning of Jesus and his teachings as the first and second generation of Christians, spreading the good news, led and inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit, as more and more come to believe through them that Jesus indeed is the way, the truth, and the life.

Have you ever been super-enthusiastic about a new idea that occurred to you – one that was so promising and exciting, but one which you hadn’t entirely thought through?