PAN DE LA SEMANA

14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C July 7, 2013 LIKE LAMBS AMONG WOLVES I remember an old thriller of a movie, where a man dabbles in some kind of well-thought out high level crime by joining an organized group of criminals. When the crime was done and the spoils were supposed to be divided among them, one of them, the villain, unexpectedly pulls a fast one on everybody else who, each, was left holding an empty bag. The villain, in the end, had this to say: “Amateurs should not play games with professionals!” And he made a clean escape with all the booty in hand. Amateurs, indeed, should not be playing games with professionals. Take it from one who dabbled a little with basketball during the days when psychomotor skills, not brash and braun, were all that mattered; when there was far less bruising and bone-breaking body contact necessary. Aging now, and with far less agility and far more fragility in body and bone, I ought never play tum...

Catholic Homily/Sunday Reflection 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 4, 2010 The readings today are a study in contrasts. We hear a call to rejoice to those who previously were mourning. We hear St. Paul ’s readiness to boast, but this boast is associated with the “marks of Jesus on [his] body.” We hear the Lord exhorting us to ask the harvest master to send more laborers to his fields, but we also are made aware of the danger attached to the work of reaping, a danger not unlike that of lambs sent in the midst of wolves. We have today a very sobering reality check for all followers of Christ! Reality … that which so many people in our times try their best either to ignore, gloss over, or deny altogether. When reality gets too painful, when it strikes too close to home base, the common tendency for people is to pretend “everything will be alright.” But no amount of denial can reverse the hard facts of life. People suffer. People die. There are gross imbalances in the world, and ...