The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time [B]
Wisdom 7:7-11  +  Hebrews 4:12-13  +  Mark 10:17-30

Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands.

To fine tune our prayers so that they’re more effective, here’s a question for you.  But be careful, because it’s a trick question:  “When we pray, should we pray for a good thing?”  The answer is “Yes… and No.”  This Sunday’s Scripture passages explain why.

At the beginning of the First Reading, the virtue of prudence is invoked.  The Old Testament scribe proclaims:  “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.”  This virtue of prudence is actually the explanation for that “No” answer.  If someone were to ask you, “Should you pray for a good thing?”, then you should answer “No”, and prudence is the reason.  The definition of prudence shows us why we should not pray for just a good thing.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, prudence enables a person to do two things.  First, prudence helps one to see one’s “true good” in any given circumstances:  it helps one recognize which good to aim for.  Second, prudence helps one to choose the means to reach this “true good”.

But what is this “true good”?  The true good is the best good out of many good choices.

When we are little, our parents teach us to make moral choices by recognizing right from wrong; good from bad; what is holy from what is evil.  This is the first stage of moral wisdom.  This is the foundation of making moral choices.  It’s essential that we understand that difference.  In fact, to put it bluntly, this difference is the difference between Heaven and hell.  But as a Christian, you have to build upon that foundation.

The foundation of Christian morality is about good versus bad.  We build on that by hearing God call us deeper than only choosing what is good.  God wants us to do far more:  He wants us to choose what is best over and above what is merely good.  It’s in this sense that God does not want you to choose a good thing:  God wants you to choose the best thing.  “Good” is not good enough.  Only “the best” is good enough for God, and for you.

Take the example of spending money.  One hundred years ago, it was easy for the average Christian to make good moral choices about spending money because the choices were largely between good and bad:  survival or destitution.

Contrast that way of life with life today, when a significantly smaller percentage of a family’s income is spent on necessities.  People today face far more difficult choices in regard to spending:  they’re difficult because people have so many choices.  Modern people drown in the number of good choices that they have.

Nonetheless, God calls modern people to choose not just any good thing, but the best good thing in any situation.  Discerning that takes more time, energy, and prayer.  This is why, in general, poor people are happier than rich people.  This is one reason why it’s “harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Of all the struggles that parents face—and they face many, given that their children are surrounded by a culture opposed to Christianity—one of the harder struggles is to instill the virtue of prudence into their children.  Humility, by contrast, is far easier for children to acquire because life itself has a way of teaching one humility.

After humility, prudence is the second-most foundational virtue.  Where humility is the mother of all the other virtues, the Catechism uses a striking image to describe prudence:  it calls prudence the “charioteer” of all the other virtues [CCC 1806].

In other words, you can think of prudence as being the “inner ear” of the Body of Christ.  As your inner ear controls your body’s sense of balance, so prudence controls the balance of your soul.  You could be the strongest football player, the most graceful ballerina, or the most agile sprinter in the world, but if that one little part of your inner ear didn’t work, you would fall flat on your face.  Other virtues may be more powerful, and even more important, but without prudence, they won’t help you reach the greatest good:  each day in this world, or eternally in Heaven.

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 11:5-13

“… how much more will the Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit …?”

As Saint Luke the Evangelist continues to set before us Jesus’ teachings about prayer, we hear a lot about the prayer of petition.  Petition is one of the four chief types of prayer that human beings voice to God.  The four types are easily remembered by the acronym “P-A-C-T”:  this word reminds each of us of the pact, or covenant, that each of us entered at the moment of baptism.

The acronym “P-A-C-T” stands for:  petition, adoration, contrition, and thanksgiving.  Far more important than what we say to God, though, is what God says to us.  Still, what we say in prayer is important for many reasons, one of which is that our vocal prayers reveal to us the state of our own selves.

One way in which to reflect on the differences among these four types of vocal prayer is to consider their use in the three states of the Church.  The Church lives on earth as the Church Militant, in Purgatory as the Church Suffering, and in Heaven as the Church Triumphant.  Ask yourself, then:  which of these four types of prayer exist—or have meaning—in each of the three states of the Church?  All four are meaningful on earth, but only two have meaning in Heaven.

There is no need for prayers of petition in Heaven.  Petition is the prayer of a pilgrim, on his way to a better place.  What we ask for in petition reveals our own heart:  where we believe we are, and where we believe we’re headed, or at least where we want to go.  Our petitions are a gauge of our fidelity to the pilgrimage to which God has called us.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Jonah 4:1-11  +  Luke 11:1-4
October 6, 2021

“Father, hallowed be your Name, your Kingdom come.”

Every Christian knows by heart the ‘Our Father’:  the only prayer that Jesus taught to His followers.  But the ‘Our Father’ that we know in our hearts—which we pray at every Mass before receiving Holy Communion, and which we pray several times throughout the course of a rosary—is not exactly the ‘Our Father’ that we hear Jesus teach in today’s Gospel passage.

The version of the ‘Our Father’ that Luke records for us is shorter than the version that we know by heart. Maybe this shorter version is the first version that Jesus taught to his followers, much the same way that a teacher introduces just the key points of a lesson first, and then later fleshes it out some more.

In this shorter version of the ‘Our Father’, there are three petitions that Jesus teaches us to pray.  In the silence following Holy Communion, or after Mass, or in your home, read and pray this shorter version, and see what the three petitions are.  What are the three things that Jesus teaches us to ask for from our Heavenly Father?

Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time [I]
Jonah 3:1-10  +  Luke 10:38-42
October 5, 2021

“There is need of only one thing.”

Today’s Gospel passage is one of the more famous stories about Jesus’ life.  It’s such a very simple story, but it’s one of the most important lessons in the whole Bible about being a Christian:  about following Jesus.

If you could go back in time to visit Martha and Mary in their home, and ask both of them about showing hospitality to Jesus, surely Martha would say that she was being hospitable, while Mary would say that she was being hospitable.  Martha was tending to all the details of hospitality—the cleaning, the cooking, and so on—while Mary was tending to Jesus Himself.  What does Jesus think about these two different ways of showing hospitality?  Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Of course, this Mary in today’s Gospel passage—Martha’s sister—is not Jesus’ mother.  There are a lot of women in the Gospel named Mary.  But this Mary in today’s Gospel passage seems a lot like Jesus’ mother, because she has chosen the better part:  her life is focused on Jesus.  Mary stops everything that she is doing, and sits at Jesus’ feet, to listen to what He has to say to her, as each of us should do each day.

St. Francis of Assisi, Deacon
Jonah 1:1—2:2,11  +  Luke 10:25-37
October 4, 2021

“The one who treated him with mercy.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan ought profoundly to shape our spiritual and moral lives.  That order of things is important, however:  spiritual and then moral.

Although in a deeper sense there ought not be a distinction between our spiritual and moral lives, on the practical level, differences do mark the two.  We might say that the two are most sharply distinguished by sin.  The “scholar of the law” who “wished to justify himself” wants to be moral, but not spiritual.  Jesus demands that he be both, and that he be moral by being spiritual.

Mercy is the means by which the moral life is wedded to the spiritual life.  Or rather, mercy is the means by which the spiritual life begets authentic moral choices.  Were we not all children of Adam and Eve, fallen creatures, our moral choices would not demand mercy.  But in this world of sin and corruption, mercy is divine charity’s common currency.

In our spiritual lives we look on each of our fellow human creatures through the eyes of God the Father.  We love each sinner, beaten and wounded by the sins of himself and others, with the mercy through which the Father sent His innocent Son to be slain for us.  Through this love, we can choose to serve the broken, tend to the wounded, and know that in this service we serve God Himself.

The Holy Guardian Angels
Matthew 18:1-5,10

“… their angels in Heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

Our Guardian Angels shed light upon the path that we must walk.  When our struggles each day seem too great, they extend a ray of hope down upon us from God.  They allow us to see the face of Our Crucified and Risen Lord, who having shared in our suffering helps us share in His Resurrection, even in the midst of suffering.

Our Guardian Angels guard us from the snares of our enemies.  As the Devil tries time and again to convince us that his way—easier and broader than God’s—is the way that will bring us happiness, our guardians remind us that the Way of the Cross is the only path to the Father.

Our Guardian Angels rule us as we slip from the narrow path.  As we fall prey to the temptations of the Devil, our guardians do not abandon us.  Sharing in the boundless love of our Savior, they do not fail to stand by us even then.  They convince us, as they nurse our consciences back to health, that the Cross is the only true remedy for our constant falling away from God.

Our Guardian Angels guide us by bidding us to share in the sacraments of the Church.  For all their power, our guardians entrust us to the care of Holy Mother Church, since in her care we most truly belong.  For the Church is their Mother, too.  All the angels are fellow members of the Church, and as the Church’s children we imitate the words of Jesus when like little children we recognize and thank those who are our guardians.

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin & Doctor of the Church
Baruch 1:15-22  +  Luke 10:13-16
October 1, 2021

“Woe to you, Chorazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!”

Jesus never says, “Woe is me!”  Not once in the four accounts of the Gospel does Jesus ever say such a thing.  However, more than a few times Jesus expresses woe.  He expresses these woes regarding those who do not listen, and do not follow, the Word of God.

We might wonder what emotions Jesus experienced as He pronounced the woes in today’s Gospel passage.  He had just reasons to be angry, as well as frustrated.  Nonetheless, regardless of which emotions might have been running through His mind and heart, we know that Jesus had compassion for those He was preaching against.

In fact, to say that Jesus in pronouncing these woes was preaching against the people of these cities would call for a qualification.  In preaching woes against the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida, Jesus was preaching for them.  Does that sound like a contradiction?  It’s no more of a contradiction than is a father who disciplines his child.  Everything that Jesus did during His earthly life, including the overturning of the money changers’ tables, and the preaching of woes against the unfaithful, was for the sake of those in spiritual danger, to bring them back from a precipice into the arms of a loving Father.

The Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time [B]
Genesis 2:18-24  +  Hebrews 2:9-11  +  Mark 10:2-16

The Lord God said:  “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

The foundation of marriage is Christ’s marriage.  The foundation of married love is the love of Jesus’ Sacred Heart for His Bride, the Church.  The love of Christ is given to spouses when they receive the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  This is the only thing strong enough to save marriage:  not just marriage in general, but also each particular marriage.

The goal of any particular marriage is to mirror the love that Christ and His Church have for each other.  Of course, this goal is demanding even when a marriage is at its best.  At its worst, a marriage can only be saved by Christ’s love.

So when is a marriage at its worst?  A marriage is at its worst not when life throws poverty, or sickness, or any other serious blow against a couple, but when the blow comes from within:  when a marriage is torn by infidelity.  When the unity that God brings into being on the wedding day is violated, the husband and wife—each of them—become alone as was the man was “in the beginning”.

“Fidelity”—“faithfulness”—is one of the four essential qualities of a sacramental marriage.  A marriage which mirrors Christ’s love for His Church is a love that has those four qualities that we see in Jesus on the Cross:  a love that is free, full, faithful, and fruitful.  Of these four, living out faithfulness is the greatest struggle for many couples.

However, there are many different types of infidelity.  There are unfaithful thoughts, unfaithful words, and unfaithful actions.  Of course, some types of infidelity are worse than others.  But there is no marriage that is not affected by one form of infidelity or another.  Even when infidelity occurs only in a spouse’s thoughts, and even if those thoughts are kept to oneself, the married love of that couple is truly weakened, which makes daily self-sacrifice—the bread and butter of marriage—more difficult.

But at its worst, infidelity tears married love completely inside out.  It’s then that a spouse has to answer again the question that the priest asked at the beginning of the wedding ritual on the day the spouses got married:  “have you come here to enter into Marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?”  That word “wholeheartedly” reflects the Church’s clear statement—founded on Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel Reading—that a marriage in which love is not given “wholeheartedly” is not a Christian marriage at all.

When a priest prepares a couple for marriage, he asks each of them the question, “Do you intend to accept the obligation to be faithful to your spouse?”  How many young engaged persons understand that this “obligation to be faithful” entails the obligation to offer forgiveness to the spouse who has been unfaithful?

In other words, a spouse who says, “If you’re ever unfaithful to me, I’m out the door,” is saying that there are limits to his or her married love.  But Christ on the Cross says that that’s a lie, because that sort of “limited love” doesn’t mirror the wholehearted love of Christ that poured forth from His Sacred Heart on Calvary.  If Jesus said to you, “I’ll continue to love you as long as you’re faithful to me,” you would have no hope whatsoever of getting to Heaven.

Take this statement, and imagine one spouse saying it to the other:  “I will love you, as long as you do not … BLANK.”  Fill in the blank.  If there’s anything that a spouse can fill in that blank with to make that statement true, then that spouse needs to look at Jesus on the Cross.

Consider the moment at a wedding when the priest asks, “have you come here to enter into Marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?”  If the man or the woman says “Yes” out loud, but in his or her mind finishes that sentence by saying, “Yes… as long as my spouse is faithful to me first,” then no marriage comes into existence in God’s eyes.  Nonetheless, as difficult as it is to give one’s whole heart to another sinful human being, through God’s grace, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony not only comes into existence, but can endure in the face of human infidelity.  Upon the Cross, Christ shows us that with God, all forgiveness is possible.

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 10:1-12

“I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”

The Church often quotes verses from today’s Gospel passage in her promotion of vocations.  However, these seventy-two to whom Jesus speaks are appointed and sent for a specific reason.  They are sent “ahead of” Jesus, not in His name or in His person.  They are sent “in pairs to every town and place He intended to visit.”  They are “advance teams”, if you will.  In the general sense in which they are sent ahead of Jesus, we can consider these 72 as symbolizing all baptized Christians.  What Jesus says to them speaks today to each of us Christians.

Jesus offers many brief sayings in today’s Gospel passage.  All are loosely joined together.  Many can be singled out and meditated upon for a long period of time.  Take this proclamation of the Lord:  “behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”  It’s not difficult for a Christian disciple to use these words as a justification for self-righteousness in the face of any opposition, justified or not.  Nonetheless, that possibility doesn’t nullify the meaning of Jesus’ words.  At our best, we disciples are “lambs among wolves”.  We might wonder, if that’s our best, then what’s the worst?

While each Christian might be tempted to turn away from the “vocation” to be a lamb, perhaps we can take solace in two simple Gospel truths.  Our Lord and Savior is the Good Shepherd [John 10:11] as well as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world [John 1:29].