Today is a very solemn day. It is a day of mourning. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he’ll be laid to rest. We pray for his soul. The thing that I remember most about him is how Pope John Paul II asked him when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, “What are you gonna do when you retire?” And Cardinal Ratzinger said, very simply, “I want to write a book about the Lord.” Cardinal Ratzinger, who goes on to follow Pope John Paul II, not to just write a book about the Lord but to witness the faith of Peter and to witness to all of us what it means to be close to Jesus.
He did so many things. He wrote so many books and he gave great orations and speeches. But the thing that everyone will remember about Pope Benedict the XVI is that he knew Jesus and he was a friend of Jesus. And so we are called to not worry about all of these crazy things that we could do in our lives but do we really care about knowing Jesus and being a friend of Jesus? Because that’s what lasts. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.
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Pre-evangelization
Before anything can catch fire, the material has to be ready. You need something combustible, something prepared to receive the spark.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that the soil has to be ready before it can bear fruit. The same is true with evangelization. Before people are ready to hear the full message of the Gospel, their hearts are often prepared through goodness, truth, and beauty.
That’s the work of pre-evangelization, tilling the soil. When we promote truth, show goodness, and create beauty, we help prepare hearts to encounter Jesus and say yes to Him.
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Fear of Being Less of Ourselves
One of my favorite scenes from The Lord of the Rings is when Gandalf heals King Theoden from Saruman’s possession. This is such an awesome scene of healing. At one point, the possessed King Theoden says to Gandalf, “If I go, Theoden dies.” And that’s precisely what we see in the gospel today. The demon spirit tells Jesus, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” We say that to…
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Unforgivable Sin
The Nightmare Before Christmas. The one character that people love to hate is the Mayor of Halloween Town. The Mayor is smiling on the outside, but on the inside is absolutely selfish. This is the perfect example of what we see in the gospel with the Pharisee—the Pharisee, smiling on the outside, but absolutely selfish on the inside…
