Pastor's Reflection

He could tell just by looking at them.

In the Gospel, Jesus hasn’t said a word yet. He looks at the crowd that is following Him:

“At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them 
because they were troubled and abandoned …” (Mt. 9:36).

The Scripture text is inspired by the Holy Spirit. No word, syllable, or part of a word in the Bible is incidental.

The Holy Spirit chose these words through Saint Matthew. The Gospel text was originally written in Greek.

So the Greek root word can clue us in to the deeper meaning at work.

The word “troubled” comes from the Greek root word eklyō. This word means what Jesus saw “came from out of what was broken in them, what had been enfeebled, what was bound up in them.”

But, not only is the crowd broken inside. They are also “abandoned.” The Greek word there is rhiptō. This means they are also “scattered” because they have been “hit by a sudden motion,” and that hit has “deposited a heavy load” on them and “thrown them down.”

I bet if you asked the people in the crowd how they were doing, they would’ve responded, “fine.” And therein is part of the heaviest wound: the common trap to pretend and act tough as if we have no wounds.

The people in the crowd lied to themselves. Not deliberately. They acted as though they had no wounds. It was part of the part they felt they had to play: to look good, perfect, like they had “it” all together. And that made the wounds all the more painful. Disguise always does.

What does Jesus see when He looks at you and me? What is broken inside of us? What is bound in us? When have we been hit by that sudden motion of hurt, the wound, the heavy load?

Right there, in that place, Jesus’s heart is moved with compassion for us. His Sacred Heart moves when He sees that we are broken, bound up, and scattered.

The question is, “When we see our wound, does our heart move as well?”

God bless,

Msgr. Bransfield

So often in our life we face hardship. We don’t often talk about our hardship – but our hardship talks to us a lot. It can tell us things like: “You’re not gonna make it. Others are going to let you down. You’ve got to fix this thing over here. Things would be better if you had only…”

Our hardships probably won’t quiet down. They gain power from tricking us into thinking we can fix them if only we had more power and control. Even though they will probably rattle on, it is important that we don’t let our hardships, hurts, and losses have the last word or even the loudest word in our day.

Hardships don’t exclude love. Love always comes in the shape of the Cross.

When we think of the Cross of Jesus, these words stand out above all others: “Take this all of you and eat of it. This is my body which will be given up for you.” …  “Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.”

These are the words of consecration of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus spoke the words of consecration just as He was about to face the Cross. This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi: the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus gave us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, the Eucharist, so that we might always draw close to Him in our trials. That way, His word of life triumphs over the old slogans that our brain learned when we went through pain and suffering. The Eucharist teaches us to de-memorize the old slogans.

There will be no shortage of difficulties that get in the way in life. It is important to realize we are not alone. We unite all we do to Jesus and His offering on the Cross. That’s why coming to Holy Mass and going to Eucharistic Adoration is so important.

Because in those places we hear as we do nowhere else the life-giving voice of Jesus Christ.

God bless,

Msgr. Bransfield

The first reading describes the encounter of Moses with God. Notice what Moses does just prior to meeting God:

"[Moses] rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone" (Ex. 34:4).

The Hebrew word for "early" comes from the same word that means "to shoulder the burden for the day." The word "early" is related to the same word for "shoulder." In the morning, as we get up, we get ready for the day. We say in English, "to face the day." The word "shoulder" became related to the word for "early" because so often as we go to face the day we are aware almost right away of our tasks for the day. And we put our shoulder to our tasks. We lift up our responsibilities and move into the day.

Next, Moses climbs up Mount Sinai. In the Old Testament, the mountain is the place of encounter with God. Those who are pursued by enemies flee to the mountains for safety. The rain, showing the providence of God, flows down from the mountains. God shows His people things on the mountain: He reveals mysteries. Yet, the mountain alone is not enough. There, on the mountain, they build an altar so that their offering can reach God.

God then descends in the cloud and passes by Moses. Moses bows down to the ground because God is approaching, drawing near, and wants to sanctify the inmost depths of Moses.

As we rise in the morning, we place our shoulder to our tasks. As we come to the Church of St. Eleanor, we approach the mountain. And here on the altar the sacred Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ are offered to God the Father. His grace flows down the mountain. He draws near to us as surely as He did to Moses.

As early as we can in the day, every day, let's be like Moses and lift our shoulder early so that we may be ready for the encounter with God.

God bless,
Msgr. Bransfield