“For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
Twice in today’s Gospel passage, God the Holy Spirit is referred to. The first mention is somewhat ambiguous in meaning: in its plainest sense, “blaspheming against the Holy Spirit” would refer to denying that the Holy Spirit is truly and fully God. The Church has had to combat such denial throughout her history.
The second mention of the Holy Spirit refers to a situation that many Christians face at some point in their lives. Whether at the point of death or with the fear of mere embarrassment, Christians at a loss as to how to defend the Faith must rely on the Holy Spirit. Even the most brilliant Christian orator or preacher (St. Augustine of Hippo being a prime example) knows that human brilliance in any measure is dwarfed by, and indeed comes from, the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
However, the Holy Spirit teaching the Christian what to say does not mean that the Christian becomes a puppet or megaphone of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches at that moment, but it’s still the Christian who must speak in his own name about the Holy Name of Jesus, making the Good News his own.
Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
“Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”
While the word “apostle” literally means “one who is sent”, today’s Gospel passage is not about Jesus sending the Twelve. It is about Jesus sending the 72 ahead of Him as what we might call “advance men”. The 72 are to prepare people to receive Jesus. Through this mission, we can relate this Gospel passage to our own lives as disciples, and to the lives of those whom we’re called to serve.
Very few members of the Church serve as successors of the apostles in the role of bishop, but by contrast, every Christian is sent by Jesus to prepare others to receive Him. This fact is often overlooked today. There is a confusion still, so many years after the Second Vatican Council, between the roles of the clergy and laity.
The role of the laity in the Church is largely “outside” the Church, rather than in the sanctuary. The laity are meant by God—designed by God in His design for the Mystical Body of Christ—to carry the fruits of the Church into the wider, secular world. The word “apostolate” is all but obsolete today in referring to the work of the laity, but it needs to be reclaimed, in order to describe the right and responsibility of the laity to engage the “world” with the Good News of Christ.
“Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!”
On the occasions when Jesus refers to persons from the Old Testament, it’s usually Moses or Abraham of whom He speaks. Today’s Gospel passage, though, is the only time that Jesus refers to Abel (along with the parallel passage in Matthew 23:34).
What’s intriguing about Jesus’ reference to Abel is that He speaks about him in relation to the Old Testament prophets. Jesus speaks about “the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world”. Clearly Jesus doesn’t agree with those modern scholars who consider the first generations of mankind in Genesis to be literary creations. After all, why would Jesus’ own generation, as He declares, be charged with the blood of a fictional character?
Regardless, we need to reflect on why Jesus included Abel among the prophets. Certainly, like the prophets, Abel was murdered for professing his belief in God. But his profession was not made verbally, as prophets usually proclaim their prophecies. In the fourth chapter of Genesis, we hear that Abel “brought to the Lord an offering… of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard” [Gn 4:3,4-5].
It might seem cavalier to say that Cain and Abel were engaged in the first of mankind’s “liturgy wars”. Nonetheless, Jesus pointing our attention to the prophetic nature of right worship reminds us of the need for “orthodoxy” within the Mystical Body of Christ.
“You pay tithes… but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.”
If the scholar of the Law who interrupted Jesus’ lambasting of the Pharisees thought he would earn an apology from Jesus, he quickly realized otherwise. Contrary to modern notions of Jesus as a sort of “spiritual teddy bear”, today’s Gospel passage splashes cold water on our souls, forcing us to ask whether Jesus might speak of us in a similar manner.
However, in addition to the sober fact of Jesus’ forthright willingness to condemn those deserving condemnation, we could consider in turn each of the “woes” that Jesus articulates today. Here consider just the first.
“You pay tithes… but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.” All three of these objects of religion—tithes, judgment, and love—are due to God from human persons. They “belong” to God, we might say, each in its own manner. Why might it be that the Pharisees are willing to give the first, but not the latter two?
There certainly is a hierarchy among the three. “Love for God” is due God because “God is love”. Judgment is due God in that only He—all-loving and all-knowing—can judge truly. Tithing of materials goods such as “of mint and of rue and of every garden herb” is due God because He is the Lord of creation. Nonetheless, the ascent to God in the practice of religion involves the ascent of a staircase with many steps. The tithing of material goods is one of the lower steps, and the Pharisees are content to rest there. This step is meant to lead us further upwards: closer to God, towards a higher share in God’s divine nature of eternal love.
The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from Heaven against every impiety and wickedness….
Saint Paul wastes no time. After a brief introduction to his longest and most important epistle, he dives into his first point of contention. It becomes obvious quickly that Paul does not fear debate.
While St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans professes eternal truths, these have very practical consequences. For example, he professes the Gospel to be “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”. For in the Gospel “is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith”.
This power for salvation implies that there are those who are not saved: those who do not receive righteousness. St. Paul explains plainly that God handed “those who suppress the truth by their wickedness” over “to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.” He expands on this by noting that they “exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator”.
Idolatry is St. Paul’s first point of contention, against which he opposes the life of faith. Those against whom he preaches, he notes, “became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.”
St. Teresa of Jesus (St. Teresa of Avila), Virgin & Doctor of the Church
Through Him we have received the grace of apostleship….
Romans is the longest of St. Paul’s letters: that’s one reason why you find it first among all the apostolic letters, immediately following Acts of the Apostles. But Romans is also the most profound of St. Paul’s letters. St. Paul explores for the Romans every important theme of the Gospel. This week—perhaps in an hour of Adoration, or in your prayer corner at home—take your study bible and read the introduction to this great letter of St. Paul.
Given its importance, our First Reading at weekday Mass comes from Romans for the next four weeks. Within today’s passage is a brief phrase that sounds innocent enough, but is full of matter for spiritual reflection. Saint Paul points out to the Romans that they are “called to be holy”. The same, of course, is true of each of us Christians. One could say that the whole of Romans is an unpacking of this call.
The word “called” is used three times in today’s First Reading. Reflect on how these three instances fit together. The first is in the first sentence of Romans, where Paul describes himself as “called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God”. The second is where Paul, fulfilling his own calling, describes the Roman Christians as “called to belong to Jesus Christ”. The third is Paul’s concluding phrase in describing those to whom he’s writing: “called to be holy”. We can say that the last phrase describes all Christians, who through baptism begin to “belong to Jesus Christ”: that is, His Mystical Body which is the Church. Within this Church each member has his or her particular role, so that all the members of the body might work together. For Paul, this particular vocation was apostleship. For yourself, pray for an increase of grace today either to discern or to live out this vocation, so that through it you may grow in that holiness which is participation in Jesus Christ.
The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] II Kings 5:14-17 + 2 Timothy 2:8-13 + Luke 17:11-19
… if we persevere we shall also reign with him.
“This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him….” Saint Paul, in saying this, is not subscribing to the belief that some Christians hold: namely, that Jesus suffered and died so that you don’t have to. In fact, Jesus suffered and died so that your suffering and death would not be meaningless: so that your suffering and death would not be a brick wall, but a doorway.
Living with Jesus is our goal. Dying with Jesus is our means. Dying with Jesus is the way by which we enter into Jesus’ life. But the choice is ours.
The first way that we might die with Jesus is baptism. Now, you might say to yourself, “I was baptized as an infant, so I don’t remember anything about my baptism, and besides, that was a long time ago. A lot of sins have passed under the bridge since then.” Nonetheless, it’s important to look back at what happened at your baptism.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul asks: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” [Rom 6:3-4].
One of the important truths that St. Paul is setting down is that the effects of Baptism don’t completely vanish once you commit your first mortal sin. On the contrary, dying and being buried with Jesus in baptism changes a person’s life forever. The Sacrament of Baptism marks your soul with an indelible mark or seal that cannot erased even by the worst of sins.
But what exactly is this mark or seal that Baptism imprints upon your soul? You’ve probably seen individuals who have towels in their bathrooms with their initials on them. It’s something like that with your soul, except it’s not your name, but God’s divine Name, that’s imprinted on your soul. This mark or seal is God’s way of saying, “This person belongs to me. This person is my child, and is destined for Heaven.”
Clearly we need never to presume upon this great gift, but there is a flip side to this coin. The other side reminds us that with every gift comes a responsibility.
The chief responsibility that comes with every gift is gratitude. This truth is illustrated in today’s Gospel Reading. “Where are the other nine?”, Jesus asks. “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” This “foreigner” was a Samaritan, a group of Jewish people not only looked down upon by most other Jews, but people who refused to worship as God had asked in the Old Testament. But in spite of all this, Jesus praises this Samaritan because he does know the first responsibility of being given a gift: that is, to give thanks in return.
The second way to die with Jesus is through our moral life. When we decide whom to vote for in November, and when we decide whether or not to participate in gossip that someone else in the room initiated, and when we decide whether to spend money for luxuries, or for necessities, or for others, we are making moral choices.
Some moral choices are easy to make, but others demand a difficult dying-to-oneself. It’s not difficult for a mother to love her infant and take care of him, although it might be more difficult at 2:00 a.m. Nonetheless, the bond of love between mother and infant moves her to care for the child even when that requires self-sacrifice. But other forms of dying-to-oneself are far more difficult, such as choosing to love someone who is not lovable, as an infant so naturally is. This is akin to Christ’s love for you on the Cross. His crucified love, in turn, has the power to lead you into the heavenly love who is the Most Holy Trinity, and even to let you dwell within this love during your earthly days.
The heavens and the earth quake, but the Lord is a refuge to His people….
Today’s First Reading from the Book of Joel is taken from its final chapter. The second half of Joel concerns the judgment of the Lord at some unspecified future time. This “day of the Lord” is described in apocalyptic terms that are much more sweeping than the prophecies Joel makes in the first half of the book.
Eschatology is the branch of theology that concerns “the last things”. The Greek word “eschaton” means “end” in the sense of “goal” or “fulfillment”. In both the Old and New Testaments, the “end times” includes the Lord’s judgment. But with the coming of the Gospel, this judgment was revealed in a new light. That light, of course, is “the light of the world” [John 8:12]: Jesus Christ.
Old Testament eschatology, however, is not without hope even if it is without saving knowledge of the One who will fulfill that hope. Today’s First Reading uses language that can seem dramatic and frightening, but which is finally reassuring for those who are truly the Lord’s people. For example, we hear today that the “heavens and the earth quake, but the Lord is a refuge to His people”.For us Christians, we can reflect on this First Reading in light of the Church being the People of God, and how our sharing in the life of the Church reflects our closeness to the Lord Himself.
For just two weekdays our First Reading at Holy Mass comes from the Old Testament Book of Joel. Joel is one of the twelve minor prophets. These twelve can be divided into three historical groups: those serving before the fall of the Kingdom of Israel, those serving between the fall of Israel and the Babylonian exile, and finally those serving after the return from the Babylonian exile. Joel falls into the last of these three groups.
The Book of Joel is only four chapters long. Today’s First Reading is from the first two chapters, and is a warning of the Lord’s judgment. The setting for this warning was natural: a lack of rain and a plague of locusts had decimated the crops necessary for survival. Joel’s warning is that this is only a sign of even worse suffering to come from the Lord. His people seem unprepared for His judgment, and Joel’s prophecy is meant to rouse them.
We can reflect on today’s First Reading in two ways: from a natural and then from a supernatural perspective. From the natural point of view, although few of us live directly off the land, all of us directly suffer to some extent when a local or national economy is weak. Temporal needs, when pressing, can either distract our attention from God, or turn us closer to Him for His providential care and guidance. From the supernatural point of view, the judgment that Joel threatened in terms of earthly suffering is only a foreshadowing of the eternal suffering that awaits us if we exclude God from our lives, and live as if this is the only world in which we’re meant to live.
Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy 