Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Haggai 1:1-8  +  Luke 9:7-9
September 26, 2019

   Consider your ways!  You have sown much, but have brought in little….   

Today’s First Reading consists of the first eight verses of the Book of Haggai.  While this book is found many books later in the order of the Old Testament canon than Ezra and Nehemiah, thematically the three of them are joined.  Haggai is one of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, and the book bearing his name is second to last in the Hebrew canon.

Where in Ezra and Nehemiah God had demanded that His Temple be rebuilt, in Haggai God recognizes that His people’s response has been to declare that “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”  Such bare-faced rejection of God’s Will is what God asks Haggai to confront.

God’s people were using misfortunes as justification for delaying the building of the Temple.  In the face of this, God points out that misfortunes point all the more to the need of the people to trust in His will, and to follow His commands.  We might reflect today on whether we’ve used misfortunes in our own lives as a way to get around—or as we tell ourselves, just to delay—our compliance with what God has asked of us.

Wednesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Ezra 9:5-9  +  Luke 9:1-6
September 24, 2019

   He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.   

The word “apostle” literally means “one who is sent”.  But the reason for being sent can vary, and this reason therefore qualifies the type of apostolic ministry.  For example, today’s Gospel passage comes from the ninth chapter of Luke (which is 24 chapters long).  Here, the apostles are not being sent to proclaim the Resurrection, because Jesus has not died yet!  At the end of the Gospel the Apostles will be sent to proclaim the Gospel and thereby build Jesus’ Church.

In today’s Gospel passage, however, the Twelve are being sent for a simpler mission.  Jesus “sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”  This two-fold mission is interesting.  How does it relate to the mission that the Apostles will begin to carry out on Pentecost?  Is proclaiming “the Kingdom of God” the same thing as proclaiming the Gospel?  Why does Jesus here give the Apostles power to heal the sick, but not to raise the dead?

Although a book could be written trying to answer these questions, reflect today on the way in which you yourself have been sent by God in the past, and may be sent for a new mission today or very soon.  At any point on one’s earthly journey, the Lord can surprise you with a new request.  Like the Hebrews at the first Passover, we must be ready to move as the Lord asks.

Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Ezra 6:7-8,12,14-20  +  Luke 8:19-21
September 24, 2019

   Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.   

Today’s First Reading, like yesterday’s, proclaims the might of God’s providential Will in the context of God’s people rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.  Today’s passage from Ezra concludes by describing the dedication of the Temple and the priestly sacrifices offered.

Reflect, though, on today’s Responsorial Psalm.  Both yesterday’s and today’s Responsorials can be heard in light of the return from exile described in their First Readings.  Today’s Responsorial refrain is “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”  The most obvious interpretation of this refrain within the Scriptures of yesterday and today is to imagine this verse being sung by the priests preparing to offer the Passover sacrifices.

However, as Christians you and I can see in these sacred events and places great foreshadowings.  One of the four ancient senses in which Christians have interpreted Scripture is called the “anagogical sense”, which simply means that people, places and things from long ago can point forward through time all the way to eternity as we may experience it in Heaven.

For example, the ancient Jewish Temple foreshadows Heaven itself, or more specifically, the inner life of the Trinity which is the life of Heaven.  Jesus, the Lamb of God, offers Himself eternally to the Father in Heaven, and so the Passover sacrifice points to this “part” of the experience of Heaven.  We as Christians are called to live the vocation God gave us at Baptism by offering sacrifices of thanks, not so much in imitation of the sacrifices in today’s First Reading, as in imitation of the Lamb of God whose self-sacrifice on Calvary revealed to us the love to which God invites us in Heaven.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit by Louis Galloche [1670-1761]

St. Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
Ezra 1:1-6  +  Luke 8:16-18
September 23, 2019

“‘…he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.’” 

Tomorrow and the next two days, the First Reading comes from the Book of Ezra.  To put this book into context within the Old Testament and within salvation history, at least two things ought to be kept in mind.

First, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are sometimes considered a single book because their focus is so similar.  They fall within the latter half of the Old Testament section commonly called “the historical books”.  The period of history these books deal with is sometimes called “the second Exodus”, not from exile in Egypt but from the Babylonian exile.

Second, the return of the Chosen People to the Holy Land at this time was different from the Mosaic Exodus in that His people were returning to a land that had previously built up.  Chief among their works of reconstruction was the rebuilding of God’s Temple in Jerusalem.  This is one focus of the First Reading today and tomorrow.

Specifically, today’s First Reading—the opening six verses of Ezra—relates how the Persian king Cyrus was the instrument of God’s will.  This point might move us to reflect on the breadth of God’s holy Power amongst pagan culture, a reflection that might offer hope for our own day.

Saint Padre Pio, also known as St. Pius of Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap. [1887-1968]

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C]
Amos 8:4-7  +  1 Timothy 2:1-8  +  Luke 16:1-13

   “You cannot serve both God and mammon.”   

Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel Reading—“You cannot serve both God and mammon”—are sometimes falsely interpreted.  They’re taken to mean that you cannot have both God and money in your life.  In other words, this false interpretation claims that there’s a competition in your life between God and money.  They battle against each other in a zero-sum game.  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.

In fact, our spiritual well-being and our financial well-being are not in competition.  When Jesus plainly tells you that “You cannot serve both God and mammon”, the key word is “serve”.  “You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  You can serve God or you can serve mammon.  But you cannot serve both.

God, of course, wants us to serve Him alone.  He had declared to Israel many centuries before Christ:  “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!  Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength.  Take to heart these words which I command you today” [Deut 6:4-6].  To love someone is to serve her.  This is true in our relationship with God, as well:  to love Him is to serve Him.

The beautiful thing about serving God is that through this form of love, we become more like Him.  After all, St. John taught the first Christians that “God is love” [1 John 4:8].  Serving God is as God wants, and in fact this is what you want in your heart.  God Himself planted that desire there when He created your heart:  the desire to serve Him, and so become more like Him.

On the other hand, what happens when you try to serve money?  One simple way to answer is to ask yourself whether your self-image goes up and down with the amount of money that you have.  Do you feel worse about your own self when you lose a significant amount of money?  Do you feel better about yourself when you gain a significant amount of money?  Serving money in this way is a false form of love, and a false servanthood.  It is a love of something that is beneath you.

So what is financial wealth for?  Financial wealth is a means by which to serve others.  If a person gains financial wealth, God intends for that wealth to be used for others.  That doesn’t mean that the wealthy person has to give it all away, like St. Francis of Assisi.  Despite what some socialists might say, there’s nothing inherently immoral about accumulating wealth.  The sin lies in not using one’s wealth for others, especially within the setting of one’s vocation.

We can speculate that God allows financial wealth to accumulate to those who have the skills to use that wealth for others.  Some persons just don’t—for whatever reason—have it in them to handle the responsibility that comes with significant wealth.  If those persons were to come into wealth—as happens, for example, with government lotteries—they would end up with ruined lives.  But some persons do have the skills required to deal with wealth in a way that not only allows them to grow that wealth, but also to use it to serve others.

Money when loved instead of being used for service stunts one’s growth in Christ.  The one who serves money closes himself off from others.  Money has no power to foster growth in persons.  Becoming like money by loving it can only be a downward path, a descent from the personal dignity with which God created us.

God gives us stewardship over all things—including money—for the sake of service.  This service fosters love among persons.  God gives us relationships with other persons—human and angelic—to foster a communion of saints.  God gives us Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in order that we might enjoy eternal life amidst God’s very essence as a communion of the three divine Persons.

St. Lawrence Distributing Alms by Fra Angelico [c. 1395-1455]

St. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13  +  Matthew 9:9-13
September 21, 2019

   “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”   

Among the four evangelists, only Matthew and John were members of the Twelve apostles.  Mark and Luke did not, as far as we know, ever meet Jesus during His earthly life.  Nonetheless, Mark and Luke were disciples of Peter and Paul, respectively, and from those two Mark and Luke received the apostolic witness to the Good News.

On this feast of St. Matthew, we also ought to keep in mind that while all four accounts of the Gospel are apostolic in origin, each presents a unique portrait of the Messiah.  If a man has four very close friends during his life, then after his death each of those four would likely write a different biography of their common friend.  The account of his life would reflect the biographer’s interactions with him.

Today’s Gospel passage presents Matthew’s own account of how Jesus called him to serve.  Matthew is strikingly honest about his sinfulness.  In light of his own need for mercy, Matthew presents Jesus through the words that the Lord speaks at the end of today’s Gospel passage:  “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The First Reading might seem most fitting today because of St. Paul describing various roles within the Body of Christ, such as Apostle and evangelist, both of which Matthew was.  However, consider the beginning of this passage, where Paul describes the Christian’s need for humility and patience, so as to bear “with one another through love”.  These words echo Matthew’s description of how Jesus called himself.

Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn & Paul Chŏng Ha-sang & comp.
1 Timothy 6:2-12  +  Luke 8:1-3
September 20, 2019

   Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another….   

Today’s Gospel passage doesn’t seem much like a passage!  There’s no narrative to speak of, but mostly a description of Jesus’ entourage as He journeys while preaching.  How is such a “cast of characters” meant to tell us something as it’s preached from the pulpit on this weekday in Ordinary Time?

Perhaps we might relate this cast to what in the Apostles’ Creed we profess as the “communion of saints”.  In Heaven this cast of thousands adores God perpetually, gathered together in voice to worship the Lamb who was slain for our salvation.  But on earth, during our pilgrimage, while we do pause occasionally for worship, we also have many practical matters to attend to.  On earth, while we’re journeying to where we can enjoy “the better part” alone, we have to attend like Martha to many simple needs.

Jesus, as He’s described in today’s Gospel passage, is surrounded by three types of persons.  There are the Twelve apostles, those who had been cured by Jesus, and those who provided for the crowd.  We might reflect on this assembly as the first parish, although journeying from one town and village to another!

Thursday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
1 Timothy 4:12-16  +  Luke 7:36-50
September 19, 2019

“So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.”

In today’s Gospel passage we witness a conflict among the “sinful woman”, Simon the Pharisee, and Jesus.  In this passage, the Lord uses the sinner’s situation to try to bring the Pharisee to Him.  For your own spiritual life, to draw from this Gospel passage, you have to put yourself in the sandals of this sinful woman.

Until we look seriously at our sins, at their effects on our souls, and at their consequences (for ourselves and for others, both in this world and in the next), our experience of prayer will be diminished, and so therefore will the benefits of our prayer.  Too often in our prayer we’re like Simon the Pharisee instead of being like the sinful woman.  The Pharisee says to himself, “If [Jesus] were a prophet, He would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”  By contrast, the sinful woman says nothing, but she acts with great love.  The Pharisee speaks to himself with doubt about whether Jesus is even a prophet.  But the woman acts with love towards Jesus, because she knows through faith that He is the Messiah who wants to wash away her sins.

If we wanted to sum up today’s Gospel passage, we could ponder just those two sentences that Jesus proclaims to Simon:  “her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  In those words, Jesus teaches us two lessons.  First, the virtue of humility is the beginning of a fruitful prayer life.  Second, through that fruitful prayer the Christian finds the start of the contentment and peace of mind that remain elusive until we remain in God.

Wednesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time [I]
1 Timothy 3:14-16  +  Luke 7:31-35
September 18, 2019

   “But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”   

Our society today is knowledge-rich but wisdom-poor.  Consider the differences between knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge today, as it’s commonly considered, is thought to be facts and figures.  A recently enshrined paragon of knowledge is an IBM computer called “Watson”, which can spit forth names and dates faster than human game show champions.  While we might dispute whether facts and figures are the essence of knowledge or merely some of its components, we often educate our children according to knowledge-based systems.

What would it mean instead to educate children, and to re-form adults, according to a pattern of wisdom instead?  Jesus in today’s Gospel hints that “wisdom is vindicated by all her children”.  These curious words suggest that wisdom “educates” not according to a knowledge-based system, but according to a person-based system.  Jesus teaches us that wisdom bears children; it doesn’t generate results.  Wisdom can only be understood according to a personalistic view of human life, the Gospel, and the eternal life to which Jesus wants to lead us.  It’s wise for us to follow Him.

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom
from the Maestà altarpiece of Duccio di Buoninsegna [c. 1255-c. 1318]