Dear Parishioners,
Last week, if you recall, was the feast of the Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared alongside Jesus on Mount Tabor. Well, we read about Elijah this weekend in our first reading. Elijah experiences God in a tiny whispering sound. God is not in the strong wind, the crushing rocks, the earthquake, or fire. Contrast this to Moses experiencing God atop Mount Sinai. There, God was present in fire, smoke, cracking boulders and trumpet blasts. Elijah hid his face in his cloak. Moses unveiled his face and saw God directly.
Dear Parishioners,
The Transfiguration of the Lord. What an awesome scene. It’s so awesome, in fact, it receives its own feast day, which we celebrate on August 6th. Because August 6th this year falls on a Sunday, we skip what would have been the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time and celebrate the liturgy for the Transfiguration.
Dear Parishioners,
In my homily a few weeks ago on the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (don’t worry if you can’t remember it, I can’t even remember what I preached this morning), I trashed King Solomon, David’s son. Yes, Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem and put Israel on the map with its wealth and armies and cities, but he also left Israel in serious debt. He actually sold off a portion of Israel in the north to a foreign power, enslaving those people, and imposed heavy taxes on the rest of people. Who cares that the temple is pretty when you’re dying of starvation?
Father James Wallace grew up in Winnetka, Illinois and attended Sts. Faith Hope and Charity grammar school, New Trier High School, and then The George Washington University in Washington DC, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 2007. He attended seminary at The Pontifical North American College in Rome and was ordained a priest in 2012 for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In addition to being the pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Parish, he serves as a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese, a dean in Vicariate II, and a professor of canon law and spiritual director at Mundelein Seminary. He is also one of the featured Mercy Home Sunday Mass celebrants, airing Sundays at 9:30am on WGN.
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