{"id":2204,"date":"2017-07-09T11:55:02","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T15:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2017-07-09T11:55:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T15:55:02","slug":"14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

14th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nZechariah 9:9-10
\nPsalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
\nRomans 8:9, 11-13
\nMatthew 11:25-30<\/p>\n

Giving praise to God is a recurring theme in today\u2019s readings.\u00a0 Our reading from Zechariah calls us to \u201cshout for joy<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The psalm speaks of praising (extolling) the Lord\u2019s name for ever.\u00a0 In the gospel, Jesus himself gives praise to the Father.<\/p>\n

To praise God is speak and<\/em><\/strong> act in a way that shows we recognize and value all that God has given us.\u00a0 Sometimes we think about Mass in terms of how it makes us feel.\u00a0 We think of the prayers as asking God for what we need.\u00a0 Both of these are important but at the center of the Mass is our action of \u201cpraising the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 Even when we do pray for our own needs, we can do so with trust and gratitude based on all that God has done for us in the past.<\/p>\n

God does marvelous deeds for us.\u00a0 Hopefully we recognize these deeds as God does them but sometimes we don\u2019t.\u00a0 Sometimes we are so centered on what we think we want that we miss what God does give us.<\/p>\n

Sometimes praising God is hard because we labor and feel a great burden upon us.\u00a0 When we feel labored and burdened we might even question if God is out there and does He really care?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll begin my response to this question by saying Jesus never said we won\u2019t struggle or face suffering.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor my yoke is easy<\/strong>, and my burden light<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The terms \u201ceasy\u201d and \u201clight\u201d do not say there will be no struggle or sufferings.\u00a0 They do tell us that it is easier with deal with the sufferings and struggles when we let<\/em><\/strong> God be part of our lives.\u00a0 Sometimes when we want it \u201cour way\u201d we don\u2019t let God in.\u00a0 When we do let Jesus in, he can help us see as he sees and that changes how we perceive our burdens in a way that makes them a whole lot easier to bear.<\/p>\n

With that in mind I want to turn to how we might perceive the burdens we face.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cdon\u2019t make a mountain out of a mole hill\u201d comes to mind here.\u00a0 Do we make our problems bigger than they really are?<\/p>\n

In my own life I think about what it takes for me to be a priest.\u00a0 One might think it should be easy.\u00a0 What could be easier than working for God?\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t always seem easy to me.\u00a0 In fact, I will say that for me being an engineer was easier (but not better) than being a priest.\u00a0 This is not to say that I don\u2019t enjoy being a priest.\u00a0 I enjoy being a priest and believe this is what God is calling me to do but there are challenges.\u00a0 For instance, I like to have everything done now or at least know when it will be done.\u00a0 In engineering it was easy to know when a project was done.\u00a0 As a priest, it isn\u2019t so clear.<\/p>\n

I can also overanalyze tasks in a way that causing unnecessary stress.\u00a0 For instance, once Pat Albrecht announced her retirement and knew June would take over as our Pastoral Associate, I began to \u201cworry\u201d about finding a new Catechetical Leader to be in charge of our children\u2019s and youth faith formation.\u00a0 I wondered if anyone would apply.\u00a0 If someone did apply, would they be any good.\u00a0 So I worried.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t need to.\u00a0 We had seven people apply, interviewed four and then narrowed it down until we selected our new person who I think is a great candidate and I see a lot of potential for the future.<\/p>\n

Did I have reason to be concerned?\u00a0 Yes but I didn\u2019t need to feel burdened.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t need to \u201cworry.\u201d\u00a0 God had it all figured out.<\/p>\n

What burden do you face right now?\u00a0 Are you making it bigger than it is?\u00a0 How is God calling you to respond?\u00a0 How do you need God to help you through it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Zechariah 9:9-10 Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14 Romans 8:9, 11-13 Matthew 11:25-30 Giving praise to God is a recurring theme in today\u2019s readings.\u00a0 Our reading from Zechariah calls us to \u201cshout for joy.\u201d\u00a0 The psalm speaks of praising (extolling) the Lord\u2019s name for ever.\u00a0 In the gospel, Jesus …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[312],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-zy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2205,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}