Fr. Bob’s Weekly Reflections

There is a song by Billy Joel; called Piano Man. It is about Joel’s early life when he used to play the piano in a bar. Every night he would sing songs for the customers and in piano man, he tells their stories.

Many of us look back and feel guilty about something we said or did in the past. If only we could undo the cruel deed, we would un-say the harsh words.

This true story is from Woman’s Day Magazine. When Karen and her husband Tom found out they were going to have another baby, they wanted to prepare their three-year-old son Michael to be ready for a new sister.

In our gospel, we read of ten lepers who come to Jesus for a cure. We have little concept today of what it meant to be a leper at the time of Jesus. Worse than the disease was the leper's fate; cut off from family, forced to live a wretched life alone, begging for food.

In our gospel today the twelve apostles make an excellent request of Jesus; increase our faith. Jesus does not respond directly to their request, He puts the apostles on the spot. The point of importance, He says, is not how much faith you have, its size, its amount. What is important is the kind of faith you have, it has to be genuine.

Many people used to come to Mother Teresa. They wanted to get involved in her work. Mother Teresa being a wise woman could tell if they had what it took to work with her sisters.

When we read the Gospel of Luke 16: 1-13, we hear about an employee who cheats on his employer.

Jesus lived in a society where caste lines were sharply drawn. It was clearly understood that people stayed with their own kind. Good people did not mix and mingle with bad people.

In Luke 14:25-33 we read that large crowds were coming to Jesus. The movement He started with a dozen men was swelling with converts. How pleased the disciples must have been.

Our gospel today is the third instance in which Luke tells us that Jesus ate with the Pharisees. It must have been an unusual event.  Luke says that they watched him closely. However, it seems that Jesus was also observing them. He gently teases the other guests about what he had observed.

Discipline is a bad word, none of us really like it; it conjures up something arduous and painful. To choose a life of discipline is to choose the narrow way.

It is always a temptation to preach the Gospel of Jesus in a selective manner.

There is a novel called The Man Who Lost Himself; in one scene the main character of the story trails a man to Paris.

One day long ago, someone interrupted Jesus with a question any of us might find ourselves asking. Parents had died and there is an estate to settle.

In Eugene O’Neill’s play, “The Great God Brown,” we see a man on his deathbed and he is frightened.