PAN DE LA SEMANA

22 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C September 1, 2013 THE VIRTUE OF THE STRONG Lisa Fullam makes a distinction between a pilgrim and a tourist. A tourist, she says, goes to places to see something new. A pilgrim, instead, goes some place to become someone new. I have been a tourist myself countless times in my life. Having been there, done that, I now realize that getting some place and seeing new places alone by themselves do not necessarily make me a better person. Being a tourist makes me see new places, indeed, and I can make the necessary check marks of those places I have seen in my Michelin guide. But time eventually wears off the initial sense of novelty, and people are not really impressed by what one has seen, or where one has been, no matter how many times we tell friends and foes alike that we’ve “been there; done that.” But friends and foes alike are impressed by what and who we have become, not because we have been t...

Catholic Homily/Sunday Reflection 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time(C) August 29, 2010 Reasons, there are, abounding to aim for greatness, popularity, and power. With so much competition in our postmodern culture that values self-fulfillment and self-realization to the hilt; with so much pressure on us to deliver, perform, and conform to the so-called “norms” of a society that ever hankers for the elusive more and more, who would want to be at the bottom of the heap? Who would want to be left behind by the bandwagon of success and achievement? By comparison, the liturgy today simply sounds so counter-intuitive, so counter-cultural! Whilst the whole world speaks of getting up higher in the rung of worldly importance, and exhorts all and sundry to pull their own strings, and to claim their rightful place under the sun, today’s readings almost sound like a douse of cold water to our raging enthusiasm to excel and be known to many for all we are worth (or at least imagine ourselves to ...