Looking for Jesus

HOMILY FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, December 2, 2012:
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Click here to listen to a Podcast of this homily: First Sunday of Advent

One of Leo Tolstoy’s stories is called “The Cobbler and His Guest.” I’d like to share it with you today:  In the city of Marseilles there was an old shoemaker named Martin who was loved and honored by his neighbors.  One Christmas Eve, as he sat alone in his little shop reading of the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus, and of the gifts they brought, he said to himself. "If tomorrow were the first Christmas, and if Jesus were to be born in Marseilles this night, I know what I would give Him!" He rose from his stool and took from a shelf overhead two tiny shoes of softest snow- white leather, with bright silver buckles. "I would give Him these, my finest work."  Replacing the shoes, he blew out the candle and retired to rest. Hardly had he closed his eyes, it seemed, when he heard a voice call his name..."Martin! Martin! You have wished to see Me. Tomorrow I shall pass by your window. If you see Me, and bid Me enter, I shall be your guest at your table."

Martin did not sleep that night for joy. And before dawn he rose and tidied up his shop.  On the table he placed a loaf of white bread, a jar of honey, and a pitcher of milk, and over the fire he hung a pot of tea. Then he took up his vigil at the window.  Soon he saw an old street-sweeper pass by, blowing upon his thin, gnarled hands to warm them. "Poor fellow, he must be half frozen," thought Martin. Opening the door he called out to him, "Come in, my friend, warm yourself, and drink a cup of hot tea." And the man gratefully accepted the invitation.

An hour passed, and Martin saw a young, miserably clothed women carrying a baby. She paused wearily to rest in the shelter of his doorway. The heart of the old cobbler was touched. Quickly he flung open the door.  "Come in and warm while you rest," he said to her. "You do not look well," he remarked.  "I am going to the hospital. I hope they will take me in, and my baby boy," she explained. "My husband is at sea, and I am ill, without a soul."   "Poor child!" cried Martin. "You must eat something while you are getting warm. Let me give a cup of milk to the little one. What a bright, pretty fellow he is! Why have you put no shoes on him?"  "I have no shoes for him," sighed the mother. "Then he shall have this lovely pair I finished yesterday."  Martin took down from the shelf the soft little snow-white shoes he had admired the evening before. He slipped them on the child's feet...they fit perfectly. The poor young mother left, two shoes in her hand and tearful with gratitude.

Martin resumed his post at the window. Hour after hour went by, and although many people passed his window, and many needy souls shared his hospitality, the expected Guest did not appear.  "It was only a dream," he sighed, with a heavy heart. "He has not come."  Suddenly the room was flooded with a strange light. And to the cobbler's astonished vision there appeared before him, one by one, the poor street-sweeper, the sick mother and her child, and all the people whom he had aided during the day. And each smiled at him and said. "Have you not seen me? Did I not sit at your table?" Then they vanished.  At last, out of the silence, Martin heard again the gentle voice repeating the old familiar words. "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me…Whatever you did for one of the least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Today is the First Sunday of Advent and for us it is the start of a new Church year.  We find ourselves today once again back at the beginning of our liturgical cycle.  We triumphantly celebrated Jesus Christ as our Lord and King last weekend and now we go back to the beginning of the story; back to Chapter one of the story of how Jesus came and saved us. 

In this liturgical cycle, we start with the things that prepared us for the coming Savior and so today we heard from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who began with the words, “The days are coming, says the LORD,  when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.”  That promise of course, was fulfilled in Jesus. Likewise our Gospel called us to begin to seek the signs that something momentous is on the horizon, something unprecedented, something that will forever change our lives.

As our Church year has come to its close the last two weeks, it was a time to review the year behind. Where did last year’s journey take us?  Did the practice of our faith make a difference?  Did we grow in holiness?  Today, I offer a different challenge.  In January, when we have our new calendar year, many of us will engage in the cultural practice of making New Year’s Resolutions.  Often those resolutions are very superficial.  We will resolve to eat less chocolate, to lose 10 pounds, to watch less television. Sometimes, they are more meaningful – we resolve to be a nicer person, to swear less, to be kinder to strangers.

But today, at the beginning of this Church year, I challenge all of us, myself included, to make some spiritual resolutions.  Where do we need to grow in faith this year?  Is it in our prayer life?  In our family life?  In our workplace?  Where is Jesus calling us to love more, to be more bold in proclaiming His Word?  Where are we being challenged to grow in holiness this year?

Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of the Lord. We remember both His historic arrival 2,000 years ago and we look forward to His return again in glory.  But, as we look both back and forward, don’t forget to look down right where we are to become always more aware of Christ’s daily arrival in the ordinary events and the ordinary people in our lives. He wasn’t only present 2,000 years ago and at some point in the future – He is present right here in our midst today. 

Our Gospel today reminds us that we should be vigilant to recognize and welcome the Lord who comes to us without warning everyday in the people, the places and the events we least expect. If we are preparing for the Lord’s coming by looking up to the sky, Luke today invites us to instead look out, to look to the person on our right and our left, to see the arrival of God that is before our eyes every day, to look into the story of our daily lives and recognize the Lord who comes to us in the ways we least expect.

Jesus doesn’t care how much money we make, how many fancy cars we own, how nice our home is, how many people work for us.  On Judgment Day, Jesus won’t even ask us how many times we went to Church, or how many times we prayed – because those things only have value if they have lead us to the main criteria for salvation – did we love – without restraint, without condition, without measure?  Our spiritual lives and prayer practices are crucial, necessary, we can’t live or be saved without them.  But, these prayers are only working if they lead us to action, to love, to reaching out, to actively loving “these least brothers and sisters of mine”.

Jesus didn't say that the poor would thank us, the hungry share with us, the imprisoned welcome us back nor the sick be healed by our visits, but He did say if we recognize His presence especially in them, we will be among those welcomed into the eternal joy of life with Him in Heaven.

So, let us so resolve on this first day of a new Church year, to be people ever more conscious of the presence and action of Jesus in our lives in the big ways and in the small ways.  Let us resolve to be people who witness to that presence of Jesus in the lives of others – especially in those places that have been difficult for us in the past.  Let us make this a holy Advent, leading to a holy Christmas, an even holier year for us all.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!   Make us new!

May the Lord give you peace.

Lord, you've done it again!

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING, November 25, 2012:
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Click here to listen to a Podcast of this homily: Christ the King

A woman went on a parish pilgrimage to the Holy Land and one of the places they visited was the village of Cana where Jesus performed His first miracle changing water into wine.  At the gift shop there, they sell a fine vintage of wine which they claim will be the best you’ve ever tasted.  The woman bought several bottles to bring home as gifts for family and friends.  At the end of the pilgrimage, she and her group were at the airport just about to head through security when the woman realized that she forgot to put the bottles in her checked luggage and instead had them in her carry-on.  Thinking quickly, she took out a marker and labeled each of the bottles “Water.”  When she got to the security officer, he opened her bag, looked at the bottles and said, “What are these?”  She calmly responded, “They are just water.”  The officer looked suspiciously and said, “Well, we’re going to have to open one to check.”  He opened the bottle and poured some out and of course it was the fine vintage from Cana.  “Ma’am,” he said. “This isn’t water.  It is wine.”  Without missing a beat, the woman threw her arms in the air and cried out, “Hallelujah, Lord, you’ve done it again!” after which the officer waived her through.

It might be hard to believe, but today we celebrate the final Sunday of the Church year.  Like the punch line in our joke – the Lord has done it again.  We have, once again, made our yearly pilgrimage of faith through the birth, death, resurrection, teachings and miracles of Jesus and now we come today to the last act.  And as you might expect, as we again prepare to go back to the beginning of this great story, we end on a high note. Effective endings tend to be climactic.  Speeches often end with a ringing acclamation; songs try to end on an up note; operas build up laboriously to a grand finale.  And, it is for this reason, presumably, that the Feast of Christ the King was chosen for this final Sunday of our Church year.

So, we liturgically ascend to the Throne where Christ reigns as King today.  But, this is a notion that might have trouble getting traction for us because in our democratic society, the notion of royalty or of kingship doesn’t have much appeal. As Americans, we honor the voice of the people above that of the Divine Right of Kings.  If this is the case, Pontius Pilate, I think, felt the same way.  As we hear in our Gospel today, he had no sympathy for the concept of Christ’s kingship either. Even though he was an imperialist, Pilate viewed the claims of Christ’s kingship with suspicion.  If Christ were claiming to be a king in a political sense, then he could represent a threat to Pilate’s own position and the empire he was there to defend. Notice that the question uppermost in his mind was not “Are you the Messiah of the Jews?” but “Are you the king of the Jews?”  If the answer was a political one, then the Roman Empire would have a subversive on its hands and Pilate and Jesus would find themselves on a collision course.

The answer that Jesus gives is a relief to Pilate.  He says, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”  This is a truly shocking statement from Jesus.  Unfortunately, it is one that we have heard so many times that it may have lost its punch.  Jesus tells Pilate that His Kingdom is not made up of kings and queens, of armies and wars, of territories and conquest.  His Kingdom is made up of something entirely different – it is made up of the Truth.  It is made up of something that can’t be won or purchased or conquered. And His kingship cannot be stripped away even as He is stripped and beaten because He is the very Truth of that Kingdom.  “I am the way and the truth and the life,” He said. “No one can come to the Father except through me.” Christ is saying to Pilate and to us, “I am the Truth from God – I am God’s revelation of Himself. I am God’s Word.  God is speaking to the world through me.” 

This must have been an amazing thing for Pilate to hear; and it should be something amazing for us to hear as well. St. John spelled out the reality of this in the prologue to his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory that He has from the Father as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

What Jesus had to say to Pilate doesn’t end with His statement.  In fact, it ends with a challenge when He said, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Would Pilate listen? Do we?  As far as we know, Pilate did not choose to accept the invitation of Christ to become one of God’s children. What he did at the end of the day, instead of listening to Christ, to the Truth, was to wash his hands of Him. We, too, can be tempted to wash our hands of what Christ asks of us.  But, today’s feast reminds us that our allegiance belongs to Christ our King; that we are all called to belong to the Truth and to listen to His voice. This is how Christ is meant to be our King – ruling our hearts and our lives.

We know there are many voices in our modern world competing for our allegiance – the call to unbridled materialism and consumerism; the call to a secular self-sufficiency that convinces us we can do it all on our own with no need for God; the daily distracting calls to the trivial and the transitory. There is no shortage of calls. But, in the midst of it all, Christ is calling too. He is telling us emphatically about the uniqueness of His authority and the reliability of His claim to be the very incarnation of God’s Truth.  He is calling us to the counter-cultural truth that we are meant to love radically – both our neighbors and even our enemies; that we are meant to reach out to the needy, the homeless, the addict, those on the margins.  He is calling us to transform our broken world into His Kingdom of love and peace and holiness.

As our Church year ends on this high note, let us raise a cheer for Christ our King, let us abandon all other false kings that demand our loyalty; let us listen to the voice of the One who saves us and let us dwell in His abiding and unchanging Truth.

“Everyone who belongs to the truth, listens to my voice.”

May the Lord give you peace.

Number of abortions in US dropped 5 percent

NOTE: While a lot of the individual details of this story might not be great, fewer abortions is always a good thing.  Let's hope the decline continues! - FT

By Mike Stobbe |  ASSOCIATED PRESS  |  NOVEMBER 22, 2012

NEW YORK — Abortions in the United States fell 5 percent during the recession and its aftermath in the biggest one-year decrease in at least a decade, perhaps because women are more careful to use birth control when times are tough, researchers say. The decline, detailed on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Both the number of abortions and the abortion rate dropped by the same percentage. Some analysts theorize that some women believed the couldn't afford to get pregnant.

‘‘They stick to straight and narrow . . . and they are more careful about birth control,’’ said Elizabeth Ananat, a Duke University assistant professor of public policy and economics who has researched abortions.

While many states have aggressively restricted access to abortion, most of those laws were adopted in the past two years and are not believed to have played a role in the decline.

Abortions have been dropping slightly over much of the past decade. But before this latest report, they seemed to have pretty much leveled off.

Nearly all states report abortion numbers to the federal government, but it’s voluntary. A few states, including California, which has the largest population and largest number of abortion providers, don’t send in data. While analysts estimate there are more than 1 million abortions ­nationwide each year, the CDC counted about 785,000 in 2009 because of incomplete reporting.

To come up with reliable year-to-year comparisons, the CDC used the numbers from 43 states and two cities — those that have been sending in data consistently for at least 10 years. The researchers found that abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age fell from about 16 in 2008 to roughly 15 in 2009. That translates to nearly 38,000 fewer abortions in one year.

Mississippi had the lowest abortion rate, at 4 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. The state also had only a couple of abortion providers and has the nation’s highest teen birth rate. New York, second to California in number of abortion providers, had the highest abortion rate, roughly eight times Mississippi’s.

Nationally since 2000, the number of reported abortions has dropped overall by about 6 percent and the abortion rate has fallen 7 percent.

By all accounts, contraception is playing a role in lowering the numbers.

Some specialists cite a government study released this year suggesting that about 60 percent of teenage girls who have sex use the most effective kinds of contraception, including the pill and patch. That’s up from the mid-1990s, when fewer than half were using the best kinds.

Experts also pointed to the growing use of IUDs, or intrauterine devices, T-shaped plastic sperm-killers that a doctor inserts into the uterus.

A study released this year by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that does research on reproductive health, showed that IUD use among sexually active women on birth control rose from less than 3 percent in 2002 to more than 8 percent in 2009.

IUDs essentially prevent ‘‘user error,’’ said Rachel Jones, a Guttmacher researcher.

Ananat said another factor may be the growing use of the morning-after pill, a form of emergency contraception that has been increasingly easier to get. It came onto the market in 1999 and in 2006 was approved for non-prescription sale to women 18 and older. In 2009 that was lowered to 17.

Underlying all this may be the economy, which was in recession from December 2007 until June 2009. Even well ­afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about anemic hiring, a depressed housing market, and other problems.

The End is Near!!

HOMILY FOR THE 33rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, November 18, 2012:

Click here to listen to a Podcast of this homily: 33rd Sunday

Two priests were fishing on the side of the road one day. They thoughtfully made a sign saying, “The End is Near! Turn around now before it’s too late!” and showed it to each passing car.  One driver who drove by didn’t appreciate the sign and shouted at them, “Leave us alone, you religious nuts!”  The car sped by and then all of a sudden they heard a big splash.  They looked at each other and the one holding the sign said, “Maybe we should just write ‘Bridge Out’?”

This is one of those times of year when what is going on in nature and what is going on in the life of the Church match up pretty well.  Just think in nature – you can’t help but notice that just about all of the leaves have fallen off of the trees now, and we begin to engage in those annual rituals of digging out our warmer clothes as winter is close at hand.  This season of the year, in its grayness, its starkness, its cold, reminds us of endings. 

So, too, does our Church calendar remind us of endings.  We heard Jesus say this in our Gospel passage, “Learn a lesson from the fig tree.”  In other words, learn the lesson that the natural world can teach you.  That is why we traditionally celebrate a month in honor of the dead during November.  The natural surroundings of November lend itself to such thoughts and prayers.  We also head into the final weeks of our Church year.  In just two weeks, on the First Sunday of Advent, we begin again the great cycle in which we recall the history of our salvation beginning with the prophets, leading on to the birth of our Savior, eventually recalling His death, His resurrection, His words and His saving deeds.  But, before we get there, we’ll spend these days reminding ourselves about endings.

The Church gives us this annual cycle for a reason – not just as a reminder; but in the hopes that we will unite ourselves to it.  We don’t simply, once again, tell the story of Jesus.  Instead, we’re meant to hear that story and notice ourselves within it.  We’re meant to live it.  In this way, not only do we recall Jesus birth, but Jesus becomes born again in us.  We not only recall Jesus suffering and death on the cross, but we see ourselves on that cross with Jesus, we find Him present in the midst of our own suffering.  We not only recall that Jesus rose from the dead and returned to the Father in Heaven, but we become resurrected people.  We feel the resurrection Jesus offers us in this life when we overcome the struggles of our own lives, we praise God for the gift of the ultimate resurrection when we too will join Him and all who have gone before us in the glory of Heaven. 

Hopefully, we have had moments of connection with that great story over course of the last year.  Today, our Scriptures call us to reflect on that.  Just like any journey when we reach our destination, we look back at where we’ve been and evaluate what kind of journey it has been.  Well, we are arriving today and over the next two weeks we should be asking ourselves: How has this year’s trip been?  Have our spiritual lives advanced in ways we could have never imagined?  Or do we, upon reflection, realize that perhaps we haven’t gone anywhere, still stuck in the same mud we found ourselves in last year? Have we become better people, holier people, more Christ-like people?  How has the power of God’s Word, the grace of the Body and Blood of Jesus changed and transformed us this year?

In our First Reading, the Prophet Daniel recalls some hard times for God’s people. Daniel is writing about 500 years before Christ.  Alexander the Great and others are ravaging the Middle East as he writes. Wars and distress are all around.  In the midst of this turmoil what do we hear?  That God will take care of His people, those whose names are in the Book of Life.  In the midst of challenge and distress, Daniel calls the people to trust their faith in God and live accordingly. Though wars and disasters whirl around them, God will send them the Michael, Prince and guardian to defend them.

In the Gospel passage, Jesus predicts the final fall of the Jerusalem Temple.  He speaks to His disciples about the end times.  Like Daniel, Jesus speaks of wars and distress everywhere.  In the midst of this destruction, the Son of God, like Michael the Archangel, will come with power and glory to offer salvation to God’s holy people. He uses that image of the fig tree pointing out that people pay attention to the signs from nature and adjust their lives accordingly; and so if we are willing to change our life because of the signs from nature, all the more should we do when we read the signs of our salvation.  We are called to be alert and active – to be readying ourselves so that when the end time comes, of which no one knows the day or hour, we will be ready, our names will be written in the Book of Life, we too will make our way to Heaven.  

We are called to trust in the Lord.  As we look back on the past year, we probably have experienced some joys and triumphs, as well as some storms and distress. Our trust in God tells us that ultimately – whatever the tribulation or the triumph, God is always present with us, God is always leading us and guiding us, and God will always in the end save us. 

As we move into the end of our Church year, as we are reminded of the end things, we are called to reflect – how has this year been?  Am I closer to God?  Do I experience God as closer to me?  My brothers and sisters, “Learn a lesson from the fig tree.”  Read the signs of our own spiritual lives.  As we look forward to the new Church year, let us ready ourselves to begin again.  As we prayed in our Psalm today, “I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.”

May God give you peace.

Never too late to give it all away

HOMILY FOR THE 32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, November 11, 2012:
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A man died suddenly and found himself in front of the Pearly Gates greeted by St. Peter.  “Welcome,” he said. “I just have to take a look in the Book of Life here to see if you can get into heaven.”  St. Peter looked through the book but kept shaking his head discouragingly.  “It doesn’t look too good, my friend.  Why, you’ve never done anything for anyone but yourself.  You’ve been greedy, selfish, power hungry, concerned only about your own well-being.  I’m not sure we can let you in.”  The man, now worried, said, “But, St. Peter, how about the time that I came across that woman who was being harassed by a group of bikers?  I grabbed a baseball bat, went right up to them and said, ‘Leave the woman alone or you’ll have to deal with me.’”  St. Peter looked at the book again and said, “That’s impressive. When did that happen?”  The man said, “About three minutes ago.” 

It’s never too late to give all that we have.   We heard in our Gospel passage today, “She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”  Today’s Gospel sets two pictures side-by-side for us.  It is hard to imagine two pictures that could be so different from one another.  The first picture shows us the scribes with their long robes, the many honors they receive, and their great skill at praying. Right behind them, rich people are making large offerings to the Temple.

The second picture in our passage is of a woman who makes an offering too. But her offering is so small that the two coins she drops in the offering plate would be worth mere pennies. And because it is easy to overlook a penny lying in the street, it could be easy for the people in the Temple – as it could be easy for us – to overlook this widow if Jesus hadn’t drawn our attention to her.

We all know that every parish that has ever struggled to meet the budget would be glad to have the sort of people in the first picture contribute to the mission and ministry of the Church.  Just think, when a parish sets a strategy to raise money for a new building or something equally grand, the first step is usually to focus on the respected and the rich in the parish, people who could have a real impact on the budget and help sustain the ministry; the so-called big givers.  Compared to five-figure gifts, six-figure gifts or more, what can a penny do?

But Jesus focuses our attention on the widow and her coins because in her, Jesus must see something of His own life.  At the end of the parable we hear Jesus say, “She, from her poverty, has contributed all that she had, her whole livelihood.”  Or as other translations put it more bluntly and plainly, “She has given her whole life.” And that is where Jesus sees a reflection of Himself in this woman’s gift.

She gave everything she had; even just those meager coins; and in turn she was blessed by the Lord. Perhaps gazing upon this woman, Jesus thought of another widow who was blessed: His own mother Mary.  Maybe Jesus saw this woman at the temple that day and thought of His own mother - what she sacrificed, what she had, what she lost. She may very well have had to struggle to make ends meet. Jesus saw that. He knew that. He knew the value of those two small coins. He understood where the widow at the temple was coming from because He'd lived it Himself.  And He understood what that widow at the temple was really doing – giving all that she had to her God.  She didn't hold back. She let go. She didn't take. She gave.  St. Francis names this eloquently when he said, “Hold back nothing of yourself for yourself, so that He who gave Himself completely to you, may receive you completely.”

In Mark’s Gospel, this story finds itself chronologically just before the events of Holy Week; just days before Jesus will give His whole life on the cross. Jesus turns our attention to the woman not because she shows us how to run a giving campaign.  Rather, when she opens up her hand and the two coins slip out, she too has given away her life. In the same way, on the cross, Jesus opens up His own hands and life slips from them as well.  Her giving is total just as, on the cross, Jesus will completely give of Himself.

You see, in this woman and in our Lord we see that the Kingdom of God is found not where people hold on tight to their riches or when they demand respect.  The Kingdom is found not in holding on to what we have, but in letting go.  As Jesus says repeatedly, “Those who want to save their life will lose it. And those who lose their life for my sake and the gospel will find it.”

This is a lesson we all need to hear. We may suffer terrible losses that rob us of those we love, like the widow. We may grieve, and we may mourn, we may face every kind of struggle, challenge and strife in life and we may ask ourselves “Why?”  But there is only one way through loss – the way of love. The way through our challenges is by opening our hearts; giving ourselves; holding nothing back; surrendering everything to the Lord.

In her giving, this widow gives us a glimpse of our Lord Jesus. She gave her very life. So does He. St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians gives us even more insight into this.  He writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,” and He died on the cross.

This widow gives us a glimpse of our life in Christ – hands open, giving away life, in turn to gain it eternally. We too are called today to find what she has found, that all we have comes from God and should be returned to God.  Only then will we have life to the full. We too are called to open our hands and release whatever we are grasping; whatever we are holding; to give all that we are and all that we have to Christ.  Only then can we gain the Kingdom He has promised.

Lord, take my life and form it; take my mind and transform it; take my will and conform it; to Yours, O Lord.

May the Lord give you peace.

Memorial of Blessed John Duns Scotus

Most folks know of my love for the great Franciscan philosopher/theologian Bl. John Duns Scotus.  Today is his feast day.  Though you may not know him by name, if you've heard of the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, you can think this great thinker for advancing that belief.  Here's a bit on his life and at the end a link to some of his writing. - FT

Bl. John Duns Scotus

John Duns Scotus was probably born in the winter of 1266 in the South of Scotland. Around 1279 he was accepted in a Franciscan friary in South Scotland. After eight years of preliminary studies in philosophy, or rather in the artes, at Oxford, he started to study theology there in 1288. Having attained the age of 25 he was ordained a priest in Northampton on March 17th 1291.

In the academic year 1297-98 John Duns prepared his first theological course which would change his life. During the next year he gave this course, on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the most important textbook of systematic theology at the time. During these years (1297-99) Duns wrote Lectura I-II, his lecture notes on the two first books of the Sentences. Scotus' course based on these notes not only impressed his audience very much, but also the Franciscan leadership, and established his name as an exceptionally penetrating and original thinker.

In the summer of 1301 Scotus had fulfilled all the requirements for being a master (magister). However, he was sent to Paris by the Franciscan leadership in order to continue a Parisian career, at the most prestigious university of Europe.

After having again taught on the Sentences for a year, he and some of his colleagues were banished in June 1303 from Paris because of a conflict between the French king Philip IV and Pope Boniface VIII. He returned to his studium at Oxford and probably spent the first half of 1304 in Cambridge.

At the end of the summer of 1304 he was already back in Paris where he became professor of theology in 1306. Duns Scotus and his socius continued to work very hard on hisOrdinatio together with a staff of assistants. The Ordinatio was meant to be the definitive edition of his Commentary on the Sentences. For this edition he used his Lectura I-III andReportatio Parisiensis IV and piles of other materials he had prepared in the meantime.

In 1307 Duns leaves Paris again, but this time he left for Cologne in order to become the professor of theology at the Franciscan House of Studies (Studium). On November 8, 1308 he suddenly died in Cologne, leaving behind quite a number of unfinished works, including his Ordinatio.

Excerpted from Research Group John Duns Scotus

• Read A Treatise on God as First Principle by Bl. John Duns Scotus.