PAN DE LA SEMANA

  12 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C June 23, 2013 GRACE IN WHATEVER FORM! Many years ago, the words used by Dietrich Bonhoeffer made a big dent in my mind. He talked about “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Before I proceed, let us get it straight from his mouth: “ "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance; baptism without church discipline; communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." It is all too easy for all of us to look only for the former, and ignore the latter. Why not? It is nice to be comfortable and safely ensconced in our seats. It is hard to rock the boat and even  harder to suffer unnecessarily. That is not what I gather from the readings today. The first reading from Zechariah speaks about the Lord “pouring out” “grace and petition” – something pleasant and unpleasant, something that would lead to ...

Ascension Sunday May 12, 2013 HE, GOING AWAY; WE, KEEPING TO HIS WAY! From the human viewpoint, Jesus’ death was a failure, a defeat. But God’s viewpoint, not ours, had the final say in the end. He rose from the dead. Today, God puts a definite period to this saga of seeming defeat. He ascends into heaven. In glory. In triumph. In joy. The Gospel of today tells us thus: “They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.” (Lk 24:53) This image of disciples going their merry, grateful way is a far cry from the two disciples dejected and destined toward their Emmaus of despondency, no more than 40 days before. I would like to think of the Ascension of the Lord, among other things, as an image of the Lord’s going away … He takes leave of his beloved disciples. Physically, that is, not not much more. He says good-bye to them, but this is one good-bye that is not assoc...