Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 17:20-25

“For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus describes the phrases “the Kingdom of God” and “the Son of Man”.  The meanings of both are elusive, and that’s Jesus’ point.

In the Pharisees, who ask “when the Kingdom of God would come”, we can see many in our own day who exert great effort in predicting and spreading news of the time of this coming.  Jesus splashes cold water on them all:  this coming “‘cannot be observed, and no one will announce, “Look, here it is”’”.  Along the same line, Jesus soberly explains to the Pharisees that while they “‘will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man,’” they “‘will not see it.’”

However, in the midst of this sobering up, Jesus declares something provocative, if not confusing.  “‘For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.’”  So while the coming of the Kingdom “‘cannot be observed,’” it already “‘is among you.’”  How are we to understand what seems on the surface like a contradiction?  Perhaps such understanding ought only be sought by the Pharisees of old.  Perhaps our part is simply to live within the Kingdom of God, under the shepherding of the Son of Man.

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12  +  1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17  +  John 2:13-22

… you are the temple of God ….

Today’s Gospel passage shows us God’s passion for His temple, and His passion for the sacrifice offered there.  In the confessional, priests often hear people confess anger.  A priest might find it necessary to ask questions when someone confesses “getting angry”.  In light of Jesus’ action in this passage, it’s important to remember not only that merely “getting angry” is not necessarily a sin.  Also, even acting in anger is not necessarily a sin.

Acting in anger, or fostering anger in oneself or others, certainly can be a sin.  But Jesus acts in anger in today’s Gospel passage, and with good reason.  When reflecting on a state of anger, and actions that flow from it, it’s important to ask what the object of one’s anger is.  This object can make all the difference in the morality of such an act.

While experiencing the passion of anger, Jesus purifies the Temple.  In the passion of love, He purifies the temple of the human body of sin on Calvary, by offering up His own body in sacrifice.  St. John the Evangelist makes this point clearly.  When Jesus challenges His opponents, saying, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”, the evangelist explains that Jesus “was speaking about the temple of His Body.”  The Church’s belief in the great goodness of the human body is based in large measure on this Gospel truth.  The Church’s challenging ethic of purity of body stems not from a belief that the human body is bad, but that the human body’s purity ought to concern us as much as the purity of the Temple concerned Jesus.  Both temples ultimately belong to God, for His purposes and for His glory.  The temple of the human body is meant for the offering of sacrifices, small and large.

Click HERE to take a virtual tour of the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome

The 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
Malachi 3:19-20  +  2 Thessalonians 3:7-12  +  Luke 21:5-19
Catechism Link: CCC 162
November 13, 2022

“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

Jesus’ last sentence in today’s Gospel Reading presents a two-edged sword.  “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”  While Jesus says that you will secure your lives, this will only occur by your perseverance.  What that perseverance demands is the sharper side of the sword.

We can define the word “perseverance” as hanging on “through” what is “severe”.  Not many of us have ever literally faced something as severe as a cliff-hanger in the jungles of the Amazon.  Yet more than a few of us have faced death.

Maybe you were involved in a serious vehicle accident where you came within an inch of losing your life.  You might have faced a serious illness that could have been terminal, but for some mysterious reason took a turn for the better.  Regardless, every experience of suffering is an occasion for a moral choice between two opposing perspectives.  You must choose between looking at suffering as an end, or looking at it as a means.

The venerable Monsignor Ivan Eck has a saying that he’s well known for.  “In the face of suffering, you can choose to be bitter, or you can choose to be better.”  You get to choose.  The difference between the two choices is that, on the one hand, you can choose to be bitter through your own power alone.  On the other hand, you can only be better through God’s strength.

In this Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus describes many types of suffering that His disciples might experience.  However, He’s not outlining these types of suffering to frighten us, but to alert us both to our need for perseverance and to what perseverance demands from us.

There’s a distinction that we need to understand in order to appreciate Christian perseverance.  God’s strength not only makes it possible for us to hang on in spite of what life throws at us.  In fact, we hang on to God Himself.

This Sunday’s First Reading can help us put into a broader perspective what it means to hang on to God.  The First Reading is taken from the Book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament.

Throughout the book named after him, Malachi prophesies—in the Name of the Lord—about what he calls “the day” or sometimes “that day”.  Without knowing Jesus, it’s easy to feel fear when Malachi prophesies:  “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire… says the Lord of hosts.”

However, in the last verse of today’s First Reading, we hear a message of hope.  Malachi prophesies in the Name of the Lord:  “But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”  These are words that can inspire perseverance.  Although these words speak of fear, this is a particular type of fear.  This is not servile fear, as you would naturally fear a wolf that’s bearing down upon you.  Malachi prophesies about the type of fear that brings healing and strength.

Fear of the Lord’s Name is another way of speaking about religious awe of God.  A more pedestrian way at getting at this same truth is the modern quip:  “There are only two things I know for sure:  #1, there is a God; and #2, I’m not Him.”  Of course, it’s easy to say such a thing, but harder to live from such a conviction.

Nonetheless, what the Jews knew only dimly, as in a mirror, Jesus revealed plainly in His very Person when He walked this earth.  The Most Holy Name of Jesus literally means “God saves.”

So consider this question:  how often do you call on the Name of Jesus as you work to persevere through difficulties?  You might be tempted to use the Holy Name of Jesus in vain.  But Jesus instead wants us when we’re suffering to use His Name not to express frustration, but to call for the strength that only He can give.

Calling on the Name of Jesus when striving to persevere in faith may seem quaint to some, or even superstitious.  Regardless, make a resolution that three times during the coming week you’ll call on the Name of Jesus out loud when you’re struggling with some situation, striving to persevere in the life of faith.

Please note:  two reflections are given below, each based on the First Reading or Responsorial Psalm of the day.  The Year I readings apply to years ending in an odd number (for example, 2023), while the Year II readings apply to years ending in an even number, such as 2024.  The Gospel Reading is the same in both years.

 

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Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time [Year I]
Wisdom 2:23—3:9  +  Luke 17:7-10

   God formed man to be imperishable; the image of His own nature He made him.   

Today’s First Reading from the Book of Wisdom explicitly proclaims a belief central to Judaeo-Christian thought.  The first sentence of this passage instructs us that “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of His own nature He made him.”

Today’s First Reading is eleven verses long.  The last nine make up a passage often proclaimed at funerals, meditating as it does on human suffering.  But the first two verses offer a frame in which to situate those last nine.

The theme of suffering is a continual theme throughout the seven books of the Old Testament’s “Wisdom Literature”.  Suffering is, for many, what makes or breaks them spiritually.  Many turn away from God because of their experiences of suffering.  Others profoundly deepen their living in God through their experiences of human suffering.  None of the Bible’s “Wisdom Literature” gives an “answer” to human suffering.  Wisdom is not found in answers.  Wisdom is found in resting in the Image of God.

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Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time [Year II]
Titus 2:1-8,11-14  +  Luke 17:7-10

The just shall possess the land / and dwell in it forever.

During the last weeks of the Church year—which more or less correspond with the month of November—the Church asks us to turn our attention to what she calls the “Last Things”.  Each Christian needs to focus his or her attention upon Heaven and Hell, death and judgment.

A lot of people like to think, and lead their lives, believing that only one of these four things even exists.  Of course there is a Heaven.  Heaven is the place where everyone goes when they die:  this is what some people believe.  This is what some people teach.  But this is not what Jesus taught.

Jesus taught that people, if they do not follow Him, will go—not to Heaven, but to that other place, called Hell.  King David, in composing today’s psalm, puts it this way:  “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”  Salvation—being saved, which is another way of saying, “getting to Heaven”—does not come from ourselves, but only from the Lord.  If we try to get to Heaven by ourselves, or if we try to make our own Heaven, we will fail, and end up forever without God.  We are responsible for doing many things, and at the end of our lives, we should be able to give an account of what we have done.  Still, none of those things are what get us into Heaven.

Please note:  two reflections are given below, each based on the First Reading or Responsorial Psalm of the day.  The Year I readings apply to years ending in an odd number (for example, 2023), while the Year II readings apply to years ending in an even number, such as 2024.  The Gospel Reading is the same in both years.

 

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Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time [Year I]
Wisdom 1:1-7  +  Luke 17:1-6

Love justice, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart ….

At weekday Mass during this second-to-last week in Ordinary Time, the Church’s First Reading is taken from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom.  Not surprisingly, the Book of Wisdom is part of the Old Testament group of books called the “Wisdom Literature” (the other three groups of Old Testament books being the Pentateuch, the Historical Literature, and the Prophetical Literature).  There are seven books that make up the “Wisdom Literature”.

This book is fitting for us to listen to as we draw near to the end of the Church year.  Towards the end of the Church year, the Sacred Liturgy draws our attention to the Last Things:  Heaven, hell, death and judgment.  You and I need wisdom to think rightly about these four last things.

Today’s First Reading consists of the first seven verses of Wisdom.  It might surprise some just how “earth-bound” this passage is.  It is not “pie in the sky”, meditating abstractly on ideas and theories about God’s wisdom.  The passage is very concrete.

The first two words of the book are “Love justice”.  A good retreat master could develop an entire week-long retreat exploring just these two words, so profound are they.  Love and justice are both virtues:  the former the greatest of the theological virtues, and the latter one of the moral (or “cardinal”) virtues.  To love justice is to devote one’s self to a right ordering of one’s thoughts, words and actions:  giving to God what is His due, and recognizing God in our neighbors, whom He created for us to love.  In attending to the simple matters of daily life with divine love, we cannot fail to grow in wisdom.

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Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time [Year II]
Titus 1:1-9  +  Luke 17:1-6

Such is the race that seeks for Him, that seeks the Face of the God of Jacob.

The refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm is a good one to memorize and use throughout the day for repeated recitation and reflection.  “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your Face.”  This refrain has many words that one might focus upon in meditation.  But consider just the final phrase:  “… that longs to see your Face.”  There are two verbs here, and one noun.

What type of seeing is the Psalmist referring to, and exactly what Face is he referring to?  He’s referring to the Face of the Lord, clearly, but how can one see His Face?  Since God is purely spiritual, how can He have a Face?  Throughout the Old Testament, especially in regard to Moses, we hear that man cannot bear a “face-to-face” encounter with God.  In some sense, the term “Face” must be metaphorical when speaking of God.  At least, this is so in regard to the Old Testament.

With the Incarnation, the holy Face of Jesus becomes our means of gazing upon the Face of God.  St. Thérèse the Little Flower helps us to do so.  Not only can man bear this gaze, but this gaze invites us into a relationship with Him that offers salvation.  We experience this salvation even upon earth, in the midst of living as members of the Church Militant.  This salvation comes to fulfillment in Heaven, with what theologians call the “beatific vision”.  Seeing the Lord on earth comes through faith in Jesus as the Son of God.  Living in relationship with Him unto death leads to an everlasting vision of the Lord’s glory, which is to say, His Face.

Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 16:9-15

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at Him.

“You cannot serve God and mammon.”  This sentence of Jesus is sometimes falsely and simplistically interpreted to mean that you cannot have both God and money in your life.  In other words, this false interpretation says that there’s a sort of competition in your life between God and money which is a zero-sum game.  Or to use a picture metaphor:  this false interpretation says that there’s a see-saw in your life:  God and money are sitting at opposite ends of the see-saw.  If one goes up, the other must go down.  The holier you are, the less money you will have, and the more money you have, the less holy you must be.  This interpretation of Jesus’ words is false.

Our spiritual well-being and our financial well-being are not in competition with each other.  Rather, when Jesus plainly tells you that “You cannot serve both God and mammon”, the key is the word “serve”.  “You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  You can serve God, or you can serve mammon.  But you cannot serve both.

The beautiful thing about serving God is that through this form of love, we become more like Him.  After all, “God is love”, as St. John taught the first Christians.  So in the very act of loving God, we become like Him:  that is to say, we enter into His very way of life, His very way of being.  This is as God wants, and in fact this is as each of you wants, in the deepest center of your heart, because God planted that desire there when He created your heart:  the desire to serve Him through sacrificial love, and so become more like Him.

Please note:  two reflections are given below, each based on the First Reading and/or Responsorial Psalm of the day.  The Year I readings apply to years ending in an odd number (for example, 2023), while the Year II readings apply to years ending in an even number, such as 2024.  The Gospel Reading is the same in both years.

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Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Romans 15:14-21  +  Luke 16:1-8

… because of the grace … in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God ….

There are differences among Christians, and then there are disagreements.  Differences can be of various types, including those willed by God Himself for the sake of the Church.  For example, there are different religious orders, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carmelites.  These difference are willed by God, and make the Church richer.

So there are differences within the Church, but then there are disagreements.  Differences can come about through human sin, contrary to the will of God.  Some disagreements are rooted in beliefs that are contrary to the mind of God.

As an example, there are disagreements among Christians about Christians serving within the Church as priests.  A priest, of course, is a mediator:  in more common parlance, a “middle man”.  He stands between God and another human person in order to serve that person:  in order to bridge the gap between God and the other.  Is there such a thing as an authentic Christian priesthood?  Many Christians insist that the answer is “No”, and that any pretense of mere human beings acting as priests is an offense against God.

However, in today’s First Reading, speaking to the Romans about himself, St. Paul the Apostle speaks of his “priestly service of the Gospel… so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable”.

Among Christians who speak regularly against Catholic teaching and practice about the priesthood, you will often hear that there is only one mediator, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, there ought to be no human mediators between “me and Jesus”.  But St. Paul’s words today—inspired as they are by the Holy Spirit—clearly show such an idea to be contrary to the mind of God.  This is only the first point by which to understand God’s gift of Christian priesthood, but it’s good for us to reflect on it when we re-read today’s First Reading.

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Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time [Year II]
Philippians 3:17—4:1  +  Luke 16:1-8

“And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.”

“Our citizenship is in Heaven”.  What would our lives look like if we believed these words sincerely?  Saint Paul is exhorting the Philippians neither to place their faith in this world, nor to use the things of this world for their own sake.

If our citizenship is in Heaven, then we are sojourners in this world.  To place our faith in this world is to sink our roots in this world, which can only tie us down when God chooses us to raise us to Himself:  either briefly in prayer, or into Heaven after our death.  How many persons spend a great deal of their time in Purgatory casting off their ties to the world?

If our citizenship is in Heaven, then the things of this world are means, rather than ends.  What do we seek in this life?  What we seek are our ends.  Do we seek things that are of this world?  Or is what we’re seeking of God?  God gives us good things in this world to use as stepping stones, to draw others, and to be drawn up into our true citizenship in Heaven.

Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 15:1-10

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus’ first parable in today’s Gospel is heartfelt, offering us hope of God’s compassion for the wayward.  Jesus offers a “moral” to the parable in explaining that “there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”

Although Jesus’ “moral” seems straightforward enough, there is something about it that seems paradoxical.  Wouldn’t it make sense for the “righteous” to rank higher in Heaven than the repentant?  Why isn’t there such rejoicing in Heaven over the righteous?  There are at least two responses that might be offered.

First, the “righteous” of whom Jesus is here speaking are defined by the righteous themselves.  Yet such self-righteousness is a false righteousness.  Only God can make a human person righteous.

Second, those who are righteous in the true sense of the word are so only through their repentance.  A saint is a sinner who knows he’s a sinner.  In this sense, all human beings in Heaven (excepting, of course, Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother) are righteous through their self-repentance.  You and I as sinners rejoice that the Lord has not left us in our sins, but has offered us His grace, which is the means to righteousness in God’s sight.

All Souls’ Day
Wisdom 3:1-9  +  Romans 5:5-11  +  John 6:37-40
N.B.  There are many options for Scripture readings for today.

The souls of the just are in the hand of God.

The belief the Church celebrates today is part of the “communion of saints”.  That’s a familiar phrase—we recite it in the Apostles’ Creed—but the “communion of saints” isn’t just those who are canonized saints in Heaven, but also the members of the Church who are in Purgatory, as well as those on earth.  Today we who are members of that third group pray for those in the second, so that joined through prayer, we all may become members of the first.

Sometimes we feel torn like Saint Paul.  While it’s better to be in heaven, God wants us here on earth for His purposes.  Those purposes call each of us to help others in many ways.  One of the most important of these is prayer for others, which is formally called “intercession”.

Even in heaven, saints are given missions by God.  Saints are not simply fixed on God, without regard for others.  Saints in heaven pray for the rest of the “communion of saints”.

We on earth are like the saints in Heaven in this regard.  While we might want to fix our attention on God alone, God wants us to offer our lives for others, because this is often where we find God revealed in our lives.  So it is through our prayers of intercession, both for fellow pilgrims on earth, and for those in Purgatory.

Does this take away from God?  No.  God wants us to turn to each other.  Intercessory prayer is a form of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  If it’s valid in God’s eyes to pray for oneself, why wouldn’t it be to pray for others?  When a family suffers a tragedy, they draw closer together.  Part of this occurs through prayer, and they all are stronger afterwards, and more closely knit together.

Our prayer for others draws us closer to those we pray for.  Those in Heaven, in Purgatory, and on earth are drawn closer together through intercession.  When we intercede for another—or ask someone’s intercession—we don’t believe that that person is God.  We ask another to take our prayers to God.  When we call our mother and ask her to pray for us, we’re doing the same as when we kneel and pray a rosary:  we are asking our mother to pray to God for us.

Through all prayers of devout intercession, the Body of Christ grows stronger.  In the person of Christ, God and man are united.  Within Christ, we live as members of his Body.  Within Christ, we build others up, and so find God’s love for us.