Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A few years ago, on the cover page of National Geographic there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”

More than one billion Catholics refer to her as their spiritual mother, a command first given by Jesus to John at the Cross: “Behold, your mother.” 

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Two factors that have inspired Marian devotion are her relatability and her many apparitions throughout the centuries. 

She is relatable because, like many Christians, Mary was poor. She spent time as a refugee. She accepted God’s plan for her life while she was still a teenager, modeling a path for other young people to follow. And from the annunciation to the cross, she walked the path of faith paved in surrender.

Mary is powerful because she is relatable; she is one of us.

Secondly, she pulls back the veil between heaven and earth. The first reported Marian apparition took place in the year 40 AD, shortly after her assumption. 

There have been an estimated 2,000 Marian apparitions since, almost 20 of which have been officially approved by the Vatican, reminding us of Mary’s intimate connection with humanity, even from the highest realms of heaven. 

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Today we celebrate one of those apparitions, Our Lady of the Rosary. 

In the 13^th century, the Blessed Mother appeared to Saint Dominic and assured him that, among other things, if he spread devotion to the rosary, then his religious order would flourish. 

800 years later, there are more than 5,000 Dominican nuns and priests ministering around the world – with more than 70 Dominicans having been canonized as Saints! A reminder that Mary is true to her word.

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May she, the most powerful woman in the world, intercede for us today as we pray: 

Hail Mary…

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Image credits: (1) Beliefnet.com (2) National Geographic (3) Saintraphaelchurch.org

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Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel. Perhaps we’ve experienced something similar before.

Martha’s hair up in a bun, beads of sweat are forming on her forehead, her waist is wrapped in an apron, her joints are inflamed from standing too long, and flour is covering her hands and the floor. 

Meanwhile, water is boiling – and so is she. 

Storming into the living room, she accuses Jesus of not caring about her burdens while she blames Mary for being the cause of her anxiety. 

But Jesus, the divine physician, diagnoses the root cause of Martha’s stress. “You are worried and anxious about many things,” he says. The root of the verb, “worry,” means, “to strangle; to seize by the throat; to tear.” 

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At least that day, Martha seized her work by the throat and squeezed any grace out of it.

In her kitchen, all she saw a giant mess. Water boiling over; vegetables half cut; flour everywhere; and a whole lot of “stuff” to get done with a lazy, absentee sister.

Instead, she could’ve imagined:

The Lord’s voice humming beneath that boiling water; his empty stomach soon to be filled; his gratitude for a hot meal – a labor of love; even Mary’s heart being filled with wisdom as she learned from Jesus.

The entire scene is sacred. Her work is sacred. Her home is sacred. Most importantly, their guest is sacred.

But Martha is too focused on “what” she was doing, as opposed to “why” she was doing it, ruining a beautiful liturgy, as it were, in the process.

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How often are we like Martha? We get so stressed by what we are doing that we forget why we ever started? By the end of the day, we might say, in the words of TS Eliot, “We had the experience, but missed the meaning.” 

May we relax our hands and hearts, allowing grace to flow freely throughout our day, and so encounter Christ along the way.

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Image credits: (1) iStock (2) Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Vermeer (3) Etsy

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Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, 
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Auto-immune diseases – such as type-1 diabetes and arthritis – confuse the body’s natural defense system, so that the body can no longer tell the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy cell.

Normal cells are mistaken for a threat, causing the body to attack itself, leaving a person reeling in pain.

These days, when we gaze across the world of politics, race, religion, and culture, it’s easy to see this “auto-immune” mentality at work.

People will fight against each other over just about anything. We even set boundaries around conversation when meeting new people; we will not talk about this or that, lest we become instant enemies.

What we sometimes fail to realize is that, beneath it all, most people are good. We’re all made in the image and likeness of God, and we all want the same basic guarantees: food, shelter, peace, security, and love.

In a word, we want to live.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives one of his most famous parables, The Good Samaritan, which challenges our understanding of what it means to be a neighbor, or a member of this world we all call home.

Consider the parable through the eyes of the wounded stranger, who has been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. Unlike the other characters in the story, he is not identified by his profession, social class, religion, or ethnicity. 

He could be anyone – a Jew or a Samaritan; rich or poor; someone’s brother, a husband, a son. As he faces his death, the ethnic and religious boundaries that likely defined his life are suddenly erased.

He doesn’t care who helps him; all that matters is that someone helps him. A Jew, a Samaritan, anyone capable of compassion because that is what matters in his hour of greatest need – not politics, culture, or religion, but compassion.

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Perhaps we could live our lives with more of that perspective. 

Not with the arthritic spirit of division, rather on what unites us: the short passage of time; our need for a good neighbor, our desire to live.

Will you be my neighbor? If so, what might that look like today?

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Image credits: (1) How to Deal with a Problem Neighbor, NY Times (2) Parable of the Good Samaritan, Balthasar van Cortbemde (3) Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Mr. Rogers Documentary