Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the first appearance of the 10th Doctor’s companion, Martha Jones. Is she just another girlfriend for the Doctor or does she have something unique to contribute? Plus, what’s with the Doctor’s fascination with hospital lobby shops?
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Sunday, September 2, is the Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B). Mass Readings: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8, Psalms 15:2-5, James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
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Sometimes we hear people running down the concept of religion. “Jesus didn’t come to bring us a religion,” they say, “but he wants to have a relationship with us.” Other times we hear people say they are “spiritual” but not “religious.” Both of these are based on an impoverished understanding of what religion is—as if it simply consisted of unimportant rituals or arbitrary doctrines.
But real religion involves neither of these. It doesn’t contain arbitrary doctrines but truths that have been revealed by God. It also involves genuine relationships with God, with Christ, and with our fellow human beings.
Thus St. James tells us that “religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Having a real relationship with God means not only loving him but loving our neighbors as well—especially our less fortunate neighbors.
Yet it is possible to become too focused on external rituals. This happened with Jesus’ critics, who faulted his disciples for not washing their hands before they ate, in violation of the custom of their day. But this custom was not based on God’s teaching. It isn’t found in the Mosaic Law. Jesus thus rebuked his critics for “teaching as doctrines human precepts.”
Like the prophets before him, Jesus made it clear that moral values take precedence over mere ritual observances: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
This is not to say that rituals are unimportant. Ritual appears in every culture, showing that it’s built into human nature. Thus God gave Israel rituals alongside moral commandments in the Old Testament Law. This Law was a model of wisdom for the people of the ancient near east, and by observing it the Israelites would show “wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’”
God has ordained different rituals for us today, but ritual—together with the moral imperatives that flow from the ethic of love—is an important part of how we relate to God.
Rather than talking down religion, we should recognize and embrace the concept, for it is a biblical one. In doing so, we should embrace the impulse for ritual that God built into human nature, but we should also recognize the transcendent importance of love. This is taught in both the Old and the New Testaments. When Jesus identified the first and second great commandments as love of God and love of neighbor, he was quoting from the Law of Moses.
We thus should “be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” And we always should strive to be one who “walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart,” for “whoever does these things shall never be disturbed.”
Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore the mystery surrounding Area 51, the claims that the government is hiding alien spacecraft there, the earthly secret programs to develop specialized aircraft, and the secrecy surrounding the existence of the facility itself.
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This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 23 August 2018 to 29 August 2018.
Angelus
Homilies
Speeches
Papal Tweets
Papal Instagram
Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the 5th Doctor story, Four to Doomsday, which features frog-men, Australian aborigines, ancient Greeks, and the Pink Panther’s Kato.
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Sunday, August 26, is the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B). Mass Readings: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-17, 18, Psalm 34:2-3, 16-21, Ephesians 5:21-32, John 6:60-69
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Despite everything God does for us, we can still be ungrateful. We still have free will, and we can choose to turn our backs on him.
Joshua presented the leaders of Israel with a choice: Would they serve the true God or would they serve the false gods of the nations? This occurred during the first generation to live in the Promised Land. They had received all the benefits God had assured them he would provide, and they were grateful. They declared that they would follow the Lord, for he “brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.”
Despite this initial resolve, Israel’s gratitude faded, and many eventually rejected God and began to worship idols, bringing disaster upon the nation. It doesn’t have to take generations for this to happen. People can abandon God even though they’ve just experienced his blessings.
When Jesus fed the five thousand, countless disciples saw how he miraculously multiplied the loaves. But when he then declared an even greater miracle—that he would offer us his flesh and blood in the Eucharist—many balked. Jesus knew this, and he told them: “Among you there are some who do not believe.” He refused to water down his teaching on the Eucharist, and then we read one of the saddest verses in the Bible: “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him” (John 6:66).
Think about that: These people were already so committed to Jesus that they had become his travelling companions, like the twelve apostles. But despite this commitment, and despite the miracle they had just seen, they refused to accept his teaching and turned their back on him.
Today many people abandon their Catholic Faith because the Church has “hard sayings” that people don’t want to accept. But when Jesus asked the twelve if they also wanted to depart, St. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter didn’t deny that Jesus’ saying was hard, but he accepted it anyway. In the same way, we can accept the difficult teachings of the Church, because Jesus is guiding it.
St. Paul tells us that “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her,” caring for it the way each and every one of us cares for our own bodies. Not only does Jesus love and care for the Church, he also loves and cares for each one of us, especially when we encounter hardship in life. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all.” Knowing that God loves us and cares for us no matter what happens gives us the hope and courage we need to remain his disciples.
Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore the claims and counter-claims about Bigfoot, the mysterious tall, hairy biped supposedly indigenous to North America. Could there be an undiscovered species of primate out in the woods?
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This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 22 July 2018 to 22 August 2018.
Angelus
General Audiences
Letters
Messages
Speeches
Papal Tweets
Papal Instagram
Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha talk about the 2006 Christmas special, The Runaway Bride, featuring once and future companion Donna Noble and the change of atmosphere she brings to Doctor Who.
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Sunday, August 19, is the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B). Mass Readings: Proverbs 9:1-6, Psalm 34:2-7, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58
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In the first century, the number of believers in the true God was vanishingly small. The world was swallowed in pagan darkness, and the wicked emperors of Rome ruled the Mediterranean world. No wonder St. Paul said “the days are evil.”
Today, we also live in evil days. So many have turned away from God, falling back into the same lies and deceptions that filled the pagan world. Like St. Paul and the first Christians, we even face the prospect of persecution for our faith.
This is why we must be wise: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time” that is given to us. Fortunately, God is willing to supply us with the wisdom we need. By listening to God’s word, we heed the call: “You that are simple, turn in here! . . . Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
Sometimes the insights God gives are surprising from a human perspective. When Jesus declared that he is the bread of life and that he would give his flesh for the life of the world, many in his audience “disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” But Jesus did not back down. He didn’t explain away his words as a symbol or a metaphor. Instead, he forcefully declared: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
The message of Christ sometimes contains “hard sayings” like this, but because they come from God himself—the source of all truth—we can rely on them. In contrast to the shrewdness of men, they represent the true wisdom that leads to eternal life.
That God has shared such amazing insights with us is cause for rejoicing, and we have a duty to tell others of the wonders God has prepared for us, both in this life and the next: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” By doing so, we shine a light in the darkness around us and help bring the light of Christ to every soul with which we share the gospel. It’s often said it’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, and sharing the wisdom of God with others is a key part of our mission as Christians. It is one way that light triumphs over darkness.
Another way the light triumphs is by refusing to give in to all the causes of disappointment we face. The fact that God is working in our lives is a constant source of hope. Even though the days in which we live may be evil, we can still lead lives of great joy, for we know God himself, the font of goodness and joy. This makes it possible—no matter what difficulties or dangers we face—for Christians to always sing “hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.”