14th Sunday B July 7, 2024

14 th Sunday B

July 7, 2024

 

Here is an insult you can add to your repertoire, “You are a thorn in my flesh.”

This is what St. Paul complains about in today’s excerpt from the second letter to the community at Corinth.  One thorn Paul must deal with is those who he calls “Super apostles”.  Those who think they have the corner on holiness in the community.  Being super means that they are pumped up with their own abilities.  They are far from humble.  Paul is quick to remind them that he is not super.  He has a thorn that keeps him humble.  We are not clear what this thorn takes, but we are sure it serves to remind Paul that he is weak.  He is humble because he is weak.  Paul ends this excerpt by reminding us that weakness leads to strength from above.  In his words, “When I am weak, I am strong.”

Paul has been given a thorn to keep him humble. We may ask ourselves what thorn keeps us humble?

  • Is my thorn illness?
  • Is my thorn a job?
  • Is my thorn a person?
  • Is my thorn a situation in life?

How does my thorn keep me humble?

In the gospel being in one’s hometown keeps him humble.  Many in his hometown can’t see beyond the child they knew in years past.  Here is the child whose dirty diapers were changed by those in the synagogue that day.  This is the child they spanked when he misbehaved.  Are we now to see him as a prophet?

     Being a prophet is not easy. So many of the prophets rejected the call from God.   “I am too young”, “I don’t have the words.”  “I will run away.”  The prophets before Jesus and Paul took time to recognize that God chooses the weak. “When I am weak, I am strong.”  One’s weakness allows one to rely upon God.

 

Recognizing one’s weakness means one allows the power of God to work through one.  I am glad to be weak, for it means I am not the one in control.  I don’t have to worry about the sun coming up without my willing it so.  

So many of the saints were weak men and women who God called.  When they let go and let God be in charge, they were able to do the will of God.

 

I am a great fan of the Serenity prayer by the teacher Reinhold Niebler.   (This is the original longer version)

God grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.

Living  one day at a time ,
Enjoying one moment at a time.
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would like it.

Trusting that he will make all things right,
If I surrender to his will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this world
And supremely happy in the next.

One thorn I have been given is the thorn of fear.  When I give in to my fear, I become frozen.  When I let the fear recede and let the spirit take over, I go forward to do what God wants me to do.

One of the things I know is that I am not in charge. It is when I try to take control that I get in trouble.  The work of my redemption is done.  I just need to be weak enough to allow the spirit to work through me.

“Because Christ wore a crown of thorns, I bear the thorn of weakness.”

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

By Deacon Paul Cerosaletti • October 19, 2025
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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

By Deacon Paul Cerosaletti • September 21, 2025
Language scholars who have studied the origins of the word mammon in Hebrew and Aramaic have found clear association with words meaning wealth, riches, money, profit and possessions. But there is also evidence that one of the root words for mammon also means “that in which one trusts.” On all of our US currency — each coin and paper bill — is a simple (and, I suspect, often overlooked) phrase: “In God we trust.” This phrase was added during the Cold War to distinguish our currency, and nation, from that of the atheist Soviet Union. On each of our denominations of currency, both coins and paper bills, we have this simple reminder in whom we should be placing our trust in — God — and not what we should be placing it in: the fruit of our human activity, especially money. It is a poignant reminder to us today in light of the Gospel passage we hear and our current experience. This reminder begs us to ask two questions of ourselves and collectively as a country and society: Do we trust in God first? Always, everywhere, in everything? Or do we place our trust first in small-“g” god, or gods of human origin? In answering those questions, we might ask ourselves, what do our actions say about whether we place our trust first in God, or in humans? Where are we spending our time and treasure? This past month has brought us yet more tragic and traumatic reminders of our society’s misplaced trust. The recent spate of wounding and taking of innocent lives through gun violence in service of an ideology of retribution is just the most recent in a continuing human saga of such behavior, behavior that places trust in leading with human action to resolve differences, over our openness and trust in allowing God to lead us to a conversion of heart and to reconciliation. There is more that could be said about the responsible use of wealth in service to God. About detachment from ‘goods’ of this world — goods that God gives us out of love to draw us closer and more deeply into love with God, that we might revere God and God’s creation, but not take those goods in place of God. But in light of our continuing tragedies and the lack of reverence for human life, created by God in the image and likeness of God, of which they are clear evidence, the most important response we can offer is what St. Paul exhorts us to in his letter to Timothy, when he writes: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. And so we will pray to God, as St Paul asks. Pray collectively for those who have suffered violence in all forms against humanity. We will pray collectively for those wounded, those who have lost their lives and their families. And then perhaps most difficult of all, we will pray for those who perpetrated this violence, and all who are tempted to perpetrate violence against humanity. We should be challenged in our prayers to pray for people we don’t want to pray for. We may find the heart that is converted is our own. In all these prayers we place our trust first and foremost in God, who desires to save us, and who “proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). In this is our act of Faith. In this is our act of Hope.

Solemnity of Peter And Paul - June 29, 2025

By Fr. Chris Welch • July 1, 2025
Solemnity of Peter and Paul June 29, 2025 Peter and Paul are called the saints of Rome. Partly this is because, both died in the city. You may visit their burial places. The grave of St Peter is under the Basilica bearing his name and St. Paul is buried under the church of St. Paul outside the walls. (Being a Roman citizen Paul was buried outside the walls of Rome, while Peter was killed and buried in the city of Rome.) More about the churches later. Paul and Peter couldn’t be more different. It is said “God draws straight with crooked lines”. Why did God choose these men? A good question. It has been said “God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the called.” Paul was a well-educated, Pharisee. An official of the temple. Paul spent his early career persecuting the followers of Jesus, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Peter was a simple fisherman. He often said the wrong things and at times had flashes of insight, as in today’s gospel. Peter spent time with Jesus and denied knowing Jesus the night before his passion and death. Later Peter was asked 3 times “do you love me” by Jesus. Peter was the apostles to the Jews, while Paul was the apostle to the gentiles (the non-Jews). The Basilica of St. Peter is probably the most famous church in the city of Rome. For years it was thought that the church held the remains of St. Peter. This was confirmed in the 1940s when excavations took place to find more room to bury popes in the crypt of the building. Workers found and ancient cemetery under the church. Today we can take the tour, often given by seminarians from the North American College Seminary. Be sure to reserve the tour before you arrive in Rome. The tours are limited. At the end of the tour, you will come to the Marble box with the bones of St Peter in it. When the bones were tested, they were found to belong to a man from the first century. After Constantine made Catholicism the official faith of the republic, He constructed a simple church over the cemetery. Later it was added to and today it is the large church we know of as St Peter’s Basilica. You may visit the Constantine chapel in the crypt of the church to see where the first church was located. When I was on my sabbatical in Rome in 2008, I invited my family to visit me and I arranged to offer mass in the Clemintine chapel. After mass I noticed that one of the metal doors on the wall was open. We crawled in and went behind the altar to tough the marble box where the bones of St Peter were placed. What a thrill to be so close to the great saint’s remains. To visit the tomb of St Paul you need to travel outside of Rome to the church of St Paul outside the walls, most of the tour buses do not go here, so be carful which tour bus you take. The church is next to a monastery with a nice cloister garden. On the base of the dome are faces of the popes. Years ago, excavations took place, and the bones of St Paul were found in the base of the church. Today we honor the great saints of the early church. It is due to the preaching of St Paul that we the gentiles, non-Jews are here. A few months ago the successor to St. Peter was a man from our nation, Pope Leo the XIV. Let us give thanks for these great man and these great saints.