Monthly Archives: September 2025

Reflecting on Luke 16:19-31

Has there ever been a time in our lifetimes when the words of today’s gospel were more desperately needed, or more thoughtlessly unheeded? The Church has written so many encyclicals about the right use of wealth, and today those words are about as popular as the Ten Commandments, of Amos’ railing against the corrupt rich in his day, or of the story of Lazarus and Dives.

We all have our theories of how bitter lies are somehow taken for truths, especially lies about those who are poor, and how they got that way.

When St. John Paul II defended the primacy of labor in his encyclical “Laborem Exercens” (1981), he was derided by a columnist in Fortune magazine for being “wedded to socialist economics and increasingly a sucker for Third World anti-imperialist rhetoric.”

As John McKenzie, SJ wrote, reflecting on St. John Paul II’s prophetic voice, “They saw him as a benighted Pole who failed to understand the sanctifying grace of consumerism.”

Are we guilty of the crimes that Amos attributed to his own people: self-indulgence, frivolous distraction, willful ignorance, and cruel neglect of the poor?

Paul’s first letter to Timothy—that beautiful second reading today—reveals the kind of persons we might be: people of integrity, kindness, piety, steadfastness, and love, people who fight the good fight of faith, people of true nobility.

Conservative commentator and Orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro asked atheist Bill Maher this question: “Why do you and I agree on morality like 87.5%? We both grew up in Western society, which has thousands of years of Biblical morality behind it.”

We are the inheritors of this morality. Dives is not the hero of this story.

In what ways are you taking care of Lazarus at your door?

Kathy McGovern ©2025 

Reflecting on Luke 16:1-13

Ah, football season. Is there anything more exciting? Is there any assembly more joyous than the community of believers who gather at the altar of football, wearing the liturgical robes bearing their team’s logos?

Did you hear the fight song the nearly 70,000 Philadelphia Eagles fans sang, somehow all on pitch, (thanks to the recording playing to keep everyone together) at the season opener? The unity and fervor of that huge audience shook the stadium. Now THIS is the shared faith, almost worth dying for, that unites all believers..

Huh. How is it that the singing at Sunday Mass isn’t as robust, as heartfelt, as joyous as the cheers and songs routinely chanted at NFL games? Why does a text like Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim! not inspire the same ear-piercing singing as Hit ‘em low, hit’em high, and watch our Eagles fight!—which, by the way, is pitched five notes higher than the average hymn?

I think the answer lies in today’s curious parable. The secular world has found delightful ways to build community, and Jesus applauds the unjust steward for recognizing what works out there in the world, and using it to his advantage.

This wily servant bets on the (corrupt) financial savvy of the Master’s debtors.  They know he’s cooking the books in their favor, and, by siding with them, he’s betting that they will be good to him after the Master dismisses him. Now that’s using your talent to ensure your retirement plan!

Like so many, my heart soars when I hear huge crowds singing and chanting for their team. How can we capture that joy when singing the texts of our faith?

What successful secular strategies can you adapt for growing your spiritual life?

Kathy McGovern ©2025 

Reflecting on John 3:13-17

This feast is especially precious to me because Denver’s radiant and godly Bishop George Evans died on the vigil of the Triumph of the Cross forty years ago. As the years have passed, the warm memories of this great man have become stronger, and his mission of reconciliation comes into even sharper relief.

I knew him because he lived in the rectory of the parish where I worked. In those heady days of the 1970s and 1980s, it wasn’t uncommon to walk into the rectory, where the parish offices also resided, and see the governor, the mayor, and many of the most prominent people from the Justice and Peace offices gathered at Bishop Evans’ dining room table. I recall that numerous maps were displayed on the walls. Downtown Denver, and, in particular, the university catering primarily to working adults, was undergoing a makeover, and Bishop Evans was committed to ensuring that the university would be accessible to all.

One day, when Bishop Evans was a young, overworked monsignor, he visited a low-income housing project with a friend who would become his great partner in housing, Sr. Lucy Downey, SCL.  He was utterly stunned at the poverty and lack of resources in the projects. When he returned to the Cathedral that night, he had an announcement. “For the rest of my life,” he said, “housing will be my #1 priority.”

What a huge dream that was, to provide housing for Denver’s low-income residents in seven apartment buildings around town. Today, Archdiocesan Housing, Inc. manages thirty properties that house up to three thousand residents. And that’s just a drop in the bucket of housing needs today.   

Lift high the cross today.  Bishop George Evans processes with us.

What people have you known who continue to inspire you?

Kathy McGovern ©2025

Reflecting on Luke 14: 25-33

What charisma did Jesus possess that he was able to draw The Twelve, as well as many dozens of unnamed disciples, into mission with him? I imagine him as this young, warm, kind rabbi, whose very presence compelled James and John to drop their nets (and thus to evaporate the family business) and follow him.

But at what cost! They would have to love their families “less”—the proper translation of “hate” — than they loved him. They would have to love their own lives less than they loved him! They would have to be willing to “take up the cross”— surely the most dreaded image for anyone living in an occupied country–and follow him.

What kind of recruitment poster is that? Leave your families and vital love them less than you love this highly controversial man whose promises are sacrifice, privation, death, and eternal life?  Apparently, those who chose a life of hardship with him did it with great joy. They were utterly devoted to him.

It’s good to be cautious when you make a commitment, of course. You need to make a list of pros and cons. You need to determine whether you can succeed before taking on a new project or job. But the cost of this discipleship? To be a faithful follower of Jesus, you must renounce all your possessions!

What an impossible call this is. The Catholic tradition reserves this particular sacrifice for those who embrace poverty in Religious life. But all of us are called to love Jesus more than possessions, family, or even our own lives.

Do I do this? The answer is: sometimes. And those times have brought me my greatest joys.

When have you found deep joy in following Jesus?

Kathy McGovern ©2025