Wow, so let me ask you:  Were you at Mass this morning?  (Say yes, say yes…!.)

Here we are, smack plop in the middle of Ordinary Time, and I can’t stop reflecting on the three GREAT readings! 

First, there was Joshua:  He’s called together delegates from all the tribes of Israel.  He wants to know, where are their loyalties?  Whom will they serve?  The gods of the Amorites, in whose land they are now living?  Or will they serve the God of the Israelites, the one true God? 

He tells them outright what he will do.  It’s the scripture which hangs on countless dining room walls, and which was painted by a group of rowdy teenagers on the roof over my front door (as I recounted once long ago):

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then there was that great scripture from the second chapter of Ephesians. 

You know the one:  It’s held in disdain by gender feminists who shrink from the admonition to “be subordinate” to their husbands—as though we aren’t all supposed to serve one another in love, just as Jesus served his apostles and, through his saving death and resurrection, all of us. [Read more...]