Tuesday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, October 1, 2024

The Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Luke 9, 51-56

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

“When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”  It is as if all that came before was but a prelude: the furious pace of his preaching, the long hours spent healing, raising the dead, and exorcizing.  The way St. Luke phrases his verse, it was not merely time for return to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover; it was time for something that would completely overshadow the Passover as the light of the sun obliterates the light of the stars at dawn.  John 12, 27: “For this reason I came unto this hour.”  He would let nothing and no one come between him and the work of Redemption of the human race: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (Matthew 16, 23).  He had waited over thirty years of his lifetime on earth to do this, and for all the generations of mankind, watching history unfold from heaven: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!  I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12, 49-50).

“He sent messengers ahead of him.” In order not to have to take the time to arrange lodgings and purchase food so that he could concentrate on preparing the Apostles for what was to come, he had certain disciples run up ahead into the towns through which he must pass on his way to Jerusalem.  “They entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there.”  Samaria separated Galilee from Judea so that it was almost impossible to travel between the two provinces without going through it.  “They would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.”  The Samaritans were descendants of Gentiles who had gradually moved into the depopulated land of the northern kingdom of Israel after the Assyrians conquered it hundreds of years before.  They adopted the religion of the Israelites and built their own Temple.  The Jews rejected them as not being descended from the Twelve Tribes, and a great enmity existed between them.  The Jews treated them as they would Gentiles.  Thus, they could buy food from the Samaritans but would not go into their homes and would sleep outside their towns.  But the Samaritan city spoken of here would not even sell food to the Jewish disciples of Jesus because they were traveling to Jerusalem.

“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”  The “sons of thunder” are roused to wrath against the ungracious Samaritans: here is the Messiah, on his way to claim his throne and to crush the Roman oppressors, and this petty nation of outcasts dared to stand against him.  They saw the Lord as soon calling down fire from heaven on the Romans.  Why not begin with the Samaritans?  “Jesus turned and rebuked them.”  Luke does not say that Jesus explained his reason for not destroying the town as Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed, only that he rebuked the overzealous James and John.  Nor does he tell us exactly what he said to them.  But this was not the time for judgment.  That time will come, but now was the time for patience so that sinners might have time to repent.  “They journeyed to another village.”  That is, a village further on.  We see the Lord treat the village as he had treated Nazareth at the beginning of his Public Life when his own townspeople rejected him.  He accepts their rejection and lets them live with it.  Perhaps some would rethink what they had done.  But those who did not would have no answer for their Judge on the day of their deaths. 

The failure of the first town to welcome Jesus provided for the benefit of the next town that did receive him, and this reminds of us of how the rejection by the Jews as a whole led to the Gospel moving to the Gentiles.  As St. Paul declared to a group of the Jews in Antioch: “To you it behoved us first to speak the word of God: but because you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts of the Apostles 13, 46).  And, indeed, the first bishop of Antioch after Peter, who reigned there after he left Jerusalem in the care of James, was the Gentile convert Ignatius.  

The Lord Jesus comes to each of us, looking for a welcome.  How gracious of our Lord to come to us rather than to summon us to him, as other authorities would!  How excited we should be to receive him in Holy Communion and also in prayer.  And how we should receive him right away, forgiving sins and asking forgiveness of others, and lining the ground before him with the palm branches of our faith and good works.

 Monday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 30, 2024

Job 1, 6-22

One day, when the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “Whence do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming the earth and patrolling it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?” But Satan answered the Lord and said, “Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land. But now put forth your hand and touch anything that he has, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person.” So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.  And so one day, while his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were ploughing and the asses grazing beside them, and the Sabeans carried them off in a raid. They put the herdsmen to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Lightning has fallen from heaven and struck the sheep and their shepherds and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, seized the camels, carried them off, and put those tending them to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, when suddenly a great wind came across the desert and smote the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young people and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” Then Job began to tear his cloak and cut off his hair. He cast himself prostrate upon the ground, and said, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” In all this Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.

The question of why bad things happen to good people is one which has vexed the human race for many thousands of years.  And yet, the question is phrased wrongly.  It should be, “Why should bad things not happen to good people?”  We phrase the question wrongly because we fall into the non-Christian’s way of thinking that the world of nature is more or less in balance and that people come into the world as “blank slates”, either as neutral in terms of a predisposition towards either good or evil or as predisposed towards good.  None of this takes into account the utter catastrophe of Original Sin, which greatly harmed the original harmony that existed and was meant to exist between humanity and nature, between human beings, between men and women, and even the inner harmony that our First Parents were created with.  As a result of this sin, which damaged our human nature, we are indeed born into the world predisposed to do evil.  That is, we are predisposed to selfishness, pride, anger, envy, lust, and greed.  The grace of baptism helps to mitigate this, but grace is not magic: it gives us the ability to overcome temptations and the disharmonies in our lives.  Careful parenting and good examples help us as well.

The Book of Job looks at a man who is doing everything right.  He obeys the law and is even conscious of the behavior of his children, lest they sin.  And calamity comes upon him anyway.  Job appears to be a character in an absurdist play in which a cold, heartless, universe plays a game with him that he cannot win even though he plays by the rules.  In fact, that is how we feel when calamity comes upon us, especially when it seems not to come as the consequence of our actions.  It is only later, through reflection, that we can begin to make sense of it all.  This is what happens at the end of the Book of Job: God himself speaks to Job and Job accepts the truth.

In God’s marvelous Providence he foresees all the evil that will befall his people as a result of sin — their own or someone else’s, and he uses that evil to bring about a greater good than would have been achieved if the evil had not happened in the first place.  He allows a car accident which prevents a person from getting to work where there will be a fire.  He allows a pestilence so that people will be reminded of the shortness of life and the urgent need for conversion so that they do convert and attain eternal life.  He allows evil so that the wicked suffer an end, cutting short their reign over the good.  And he permits evil, such as temptation and persecution, in order to give the good man the opportunity of becoming a great man, encouraging him to strengthen the virtues he already has.  We recall how, in speaking of future persecutions to those who would suffer them, the Lord said, “Through perseverance you will save your souls” (Luke 21, 19).

It is so necessary to pray for the gifts we need in order to grow ever closer the the Lord Jesus in faith and in good works.  He is that most perfect One, the Son of God, who willingly suffered for our sakes, who took on all that hell could throw at him, and destroyed it through his obedience to the Father.  However much we suffer in this life, we have him as our model and as our source of grace to help us so that he may overcome in us the evil that necessarily comes to us through sin. St. Paul urges us, “Be steadfast and unmovable: always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15,  58), and with him let us cry out, “Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15, 57).

 The 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 28, 2024

Mark 9, 38–43; 45; 47–48

At that time, John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass consists of four sayings of Jesus that St. Mark has joined together.  The first is prompted by St. John telling the Lord: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”  To this, Jesus replies: “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”  John and the others saw someone attempting to drive out demons using the name of Jesus, and while this person might not be successful because he is neither authorized nor given power to exorcise, he is harmless to Lord and his Apostles and may indeed prove helpful in that the name of Jesus as having power is being spread.  As St. Paul said many years later: “Some indeed [preach], even out of envy and contention: but some also for good will preach Christ. Some [preach] out of charity, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel. And some out of contention preach Christ not sincerely: supposing that they raise affliction to my chains. But what then? So that by all means, whether by occasion or by truth, Christ be preached: in this also I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1, 15-18).  So we who strive to make the Lord’s name known ought simply to concentrate on the work given to us and leave alone what others do.

The second saying: “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.”  Those who support the work of spreading the Gospel will share in the missionary’s reward.  And we are all to be missionaries for Christ, according to the Lord’s command (cf. Matthew 28, 19-20).

The third saying: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”  We “cause” people to sin through bad example, misleading with words, coercion, negligence in preventing the sin, and promising to participate with another in their sin.  Sin abounds and is even glorified in our society today and we may feel overwhelmed in trying to do anything about it, but we must take care that we do nothing to encourage it and to give good example to show that there is a different way to live — in Christ.  We must never do or say anything that seems to approve of sin.  The “little ones” of whom Jesus speaks are our neighbors for whom the Lord also died.  By his calling them “little ones” we recollect that we are “little ones” too, before the Lord of all the world.

The fourth saying: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, etc.”  The Lord uses a figure of speech to teach the seriousness of sin and also the means to prevent further sin.  In speaking of a hand or foot “causing” sin, the Lord means the motivation of the sin for which the hand or foot is used.  Therefore, we cause, so to speak, our hands and feet to sin.  But what we are told to do is to take stock in our meditations of the gravity of sin which can cut us members off from the Body of Christ, so that we flee temptation when we cannot fight it.  “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”  That is, the soul and body of a person are corrupted on earth by sin, and worms feed on this corruption in the grave.  The corruption of the wicked will endure into eternity and worms will not cease to consume it.  The “worm” here can also be understood as feelings of guilt and remorse which only serve to torment the wicked once their time on earth is over.  The “fire” is the exterior punishment that those who do evil in the world suffer.  It is a physical fire that will burn the resurrected bodies of sinners after the last judgment, and a spiritual fire that burns their souls even now.

 Saturday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 28, 2024

Luke 9, 43-45

While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Jesus has just descended the mountain where he had been transfigured before his Apostles Peter, James, and John, and a man has brought his only son, who is possessed by a demon, to Jesus.  After Jesus exorcises the evil spirit, the boy is restored and the gathered crowd rejoices. St. Luke tells us that, “they were all amazed at his every deed.”  The Greek word has the meaning of “awestruck”.  It is at this point that the Lord begins to prepare his Apostles for his coming betrayal, arrest, Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  The journey to Jerusalem which they had now begun was to be the final one with their Master, and they could not believe their ears when he told them this.

In the midst of the acclamation by the crowd, the Lord said to them, “Pay attention to what I am telling you.”  He had often spoken solemnly on matters of the law, but here he speaks as a parent to a beloved child, warning him of some danger.  The peril of which he speaks pertains to him: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”  That is, he does not warn them of am imminent, physical danger to themselves, but only to him.  He warns them in this way because he knows that their faith will be sorely tested.  Indeed, if the Lord had not prepared them and told them what would happen beforehand, the Apostles might not have stayed in Jerusalem after the arrest but fled back to Galilee.  He tells them what they need to hear, that he will be “handed over to men”.  The literal meaning of the Greek is more urgent: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.  Even if the Lord had said nothing more than this to them on this occasion, these words by themselves would have caused great alarm.  Already, shortly before the Transfiguration, to go by Luke’s chronology, the Lord had said to his Apostles, “The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and the third day rise again” (Luke 9, 22).  Now, he emphasizes that he is about to be “betrayed” into the hands of the rulers of the people.  

The Apostles were thunderstruck: “But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it.”  Was Jesus speaking to them in a parable?  Was he quoting some obscure Scripture?  At the height of his success in Galilee, it seemed impossible that he could be speaking literally.  And if he meant some danger of which they had not heard, then surely he would be able to avoid it.  “Its meaning was hidden from them.”  Luke uses a figure of speech.  God is not “hiding” the meaning of these words from them, but allowing them to wonder about them or to ask Jesus what he meant by them.  But they do not ask: “They were afraid to ask him about this saying.”  

We must be willing to face the facts about ourselves and the destinies towards which we are tending.  We must face the facts about our God, that he is ever merciful but that we will not benefit from his mercy if we will not truly repent of our sins. 

 Friday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 26, 2024

Ecclesiastes 3, 1-11

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every thing under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What advantage has the worker from his toil? I have considered the task that God has appointed for the sons of men to be busied about. He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

The verses for today’s first reading have entered into common currency and have even been used as the text for popular songs.  They possess a simple symmetry with an almost hypnotic rhythm.  The words encompass the whole of human life and provide a reassuring regularity for it.  Both text and style suit each other admirably.  This is, altogether, one of the clearest and most memorable examples of Hebrew poetry.

These verses also illustrate how the Israelites perceived the order of the universe, one of the qualities that made them unique among ancient peoples.  The Babylonians, for instance, believed that the universe existed in an order, but a fairly fragile one, and that the order applied to the sun and the moon and the seasons, but not to the will of their gods.  The Israelites believed that the order of the universe whether regarding the heavenly bodies or an individual’s life was subject to the order God had created and that this order expressed his own being.  Indeed, we can read the Old Testament, particularly, as the story of God maintaining the order of the universe while the humans he has created attempt to wreck it.

These verses pertain to human life, in the literal sense, but the Christian can see deeper into them and thus understand how this maintenance of order by God pertains to the mysteries of salvation.  “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”  There is a time for the Son of God to come among us, and for him to die for our sins.  There is a time to plant the faith and a time to harvest the faithful soul, or, a time to found the Church on earth and a time to bring it into heaven.  There is a time to tear down the kingdom of the devil and a time to build up the kingdom of God.  There is a time to weep for our sins and a time for rejoicing in the kingdom of God.  There is the season of Lent for us to mourn in and the season of Easter to be glad in.   

“A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”  A time for scattering the enticements of the world and a time to build oneself up in the virtues.  A time of nearness to God at the beginning of our conversion and a time of feeling distant from him that strengthens our desire for him.  A time to seek the truth about God and a time to lose oneself in the love of God.  A time to keep our meditations to ourselves and a time to share them.  A time to rend our garments in penance and a time to sew the garments of others in performing good works, which cancel a multitude of sins.  A time to be silent when we are just learning the basics about the Gospel and a time to speak when our faith has matured.  A time for beginning to love God and a time when we are mature when we hold as loss everything that is not God (Philippians 3, 8).  A time of war when we enter into spiritual combat to subdue temptations and undue worldly desires and a time of lasting peace when lie in the embrace of our loving God.

“What advantage has the worker from his toil?”  That is, beyond keeping his life and providing for his family.  “God has appointed for the sons of men to be busied about.”  The advantage is that the worker — us — are engaged with God in maintaining the order of the world.  The last verse of this reading, given above, is not a good translation of the Hebrew.  The King James Version has a better one: “He hath made every thing beautiful in its time; also He hath set the world in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.”  That is to say, God does not compel the worker to engage in this work merely through the worker’s need for sustenance, but he gives the worker a sense of the worth of his work and the good that it does.  At the same time, though within the workings of God’s Providence, no one can fathom it.  As mortal beings, all we can do is to marvel at it.

 Thursday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 25, 2024

Ecclesiastes 1, 2-11

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.  What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.

The Book of Ecclesiastes appears, at first reading, rather pessimistic.  All things are vanity!  Even the brief shrug of optimism towards the end, “Go then, and eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with gladness, because your works please God” (Ecclesiastes 9, 7) is surrounded by grim reminders that death is just around the corner, awaiting its chance.  This book does contain beautiful, memorable lines, but on the whole we might wonder what it is doing in the Bible.  It hardly mentions God, for one thing.  It has much value for the Christian, however, because it helps him to understand the depths of the human dilemma before the coming of the Lord Jesus: Human nature is fallen and without grace we can do nothing to help ourselves, and when we die, we will suffer punishment in hell for our sins.  The author of Ecclesiastes did not speak of hell as it had not yet been revealed, but speaks of death in what would be its place.  We are mortally wounded, and yet we cannot help ourselves: all we can do is to prolong our time of suffering, and to enjoy a few moments if a pause in it occurs.  We ought to consider that this is the modern view of life as well, that we are all doomed to extinction and that we should enjoy what we can while we can.  This view incites hedonism, waste, addiction, and violence.  The only way out of this doom is through Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the Light in the darkness.

“All things are vanity!”  The Hebrew word translated as “vanity” has the primary meaning of “breath” or “vapor”: All things dissipate quickly like a breath or a bit of mist.  The Greek word used for the Hebrew in the Septuagint has the meaning of “emptiness”, “instability”, or “meaninglessness”.  The English word “vanity”, used in most translations, formerly had as its primary meaning “worthlessness” or “emptiness”, as in, All our attempts were in vain.  The author of Ecclesiastes, traditionally thought to be King Solomon, declares at the very head of his book that “all things” are vapor, are worthless.  Nothing is excluded.  “What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?”  That is, a man is born, works, and then dies.  What does he gain for all this?  It is the question God asks the rich farmer at the end of his life in the parable Jesus tells: “You fool, this night do they require your soul of you. And whose shall those things be which you have provided?” (Luke 12, 20).  

“One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays.”  Since the days when Charles Darwin wrote about the evolution of species and the tendency he thought he observed in simple species to evolve into more complex, hardier ones, people have had a fascination for the notion of human progress, in terms of the improvement of human living conditions, development of morality, and even political and economic evolution.  The author of Ecclesiastes would dispute that this kind of “betterment” can be achieved or that it is inevitable, as its proponents believe.  The simple fact is that while we have had much change in certain areas of life, we have had no intrinsic progress.  Human nature in its fallen state remains the same throughout the ages. 

“All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.”  Here, Qoheleth speaks of our frustration with our human limitations.  This verse might remind us of Augustine saying, “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you.”  Our restless hearts, made to seek and to find God, are so often frustrated by our evil habits, fleeting desires, and sloth and so they seek shortcuts to peace in dangerous, unfulfilling ways.  This is the way to emptiness.

“Nothing is new under the sun.”  This saying shows us the way to the solution of the human dilemma.  For thousands of years, the human race yearned for a deliverance that could come only from “the outside” of our world, that is, from divine intervention.  The deliverance arrived when God became man and died for our sins.  The Incarnation  was the something “new” under the sun that humanity did not dare to dream of.  Jesus Christ makes a new covenant between us and God; pours the new wine of grace into the new wineskins of those transformed by faith; and promises those reborn in him a place in the New Jerusalem.  We can see why St. Paul urges the Gentile converts of Colossae: “As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith, as also you have learned: abounding in him in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2, 6-7).  

 Wednesday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 25, 2024

Luke 9, 1-6

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

“Jesus summoned the Twelve.”  Luke phrases this very formally, as though a king or a general were summoning his emissaries for a mission.  Luke says “the Twelve” as though he were naming an official body of men.  The number seems important to him, and he is the Evangelist who informs us of how the Apostles added one to their membership after Judas hanged himself, thus preserving the number.  The Greeks to whom Luke was writing considered the number twelve a sign or even component of the cosmic order.  They recognized twelve constellations in the zodiac, counted twelve months in the lunar year, and worshipped the twelve gods of Olympus, who had overthrown their predecessors, the twelve Titans.  The number of the Apostles thus reflected for them the new cosmic order of the Gospel.  At the same time, for the Jews, the number recalled the twelve sons of Jacob who became the eponymous founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The Greeks could see in this a reconstitution of Israel, a new Israel, spread through the whole world and not contained merely in a pocket of land.

“And gave them power and authority.”  That is, the Lord shared his power with them; they did not possess power on their own, and the sharing lasted only for the duration of their mission.  He gave them both the power and the authority to use this power — he left its use to their discretion.  “Over all demons and to cure diseases.”  The demons possess varying levels of their own power according to their hierarchy.  The power and authority Jesus lends the Apostles takes in all of them.  These actions, exorcism and curing the sick, act as signs that God walks among men, that the kingdom of the devil is shattered, and for the forgiveness of sins.

“Take nothing for the journey.”  The Apostles are to go abroad as though they were fleeing from something, or fleeing to something.  They were hurrying without impediments just as a person drops everything he is holding in order to run and greet a long-lost loved one.  Nothing matters except seeing them again.  Their entering a town or village as travelers but without a staff, a second tunic, or sack would certainly have drawn people’s attention.  This kind of arrival would also contrast with the arrival of Pharisees or scribes, or any traveling preachers, who would attempt to impress the locals with their wealth, which would imply approbation.  The Apostles come as simple messengers.  “Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.”  The better off denizens of the place would vie with one another to house the Apostles when they saw them perform miracles, but the Apostles had come not for their own benefit but to announce Christ.  They were not to accept honors of any kind.

“And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”  To shake the dust off from one’s feet amounted to declaring that one would never return to that place, or to write off the place.  The Apostles were to show this sign to a town where they were not welcomed, that is, if they came to a town and began to preach and they were told to leave.  There will always be people who will reject the Gospel no matter how well it is preached or how many miracles support it.

“Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”  We see here the commitment of the Apostles.  They did not think of themselves merely as students of Jesus but as his messengers as well.  We should try to imagine how this looked, the Apostles tired and hungry from walking, arriving unannounced into a strange town with no money.  They might have begun to preach in the marketplace, announcing the coming of the kingdom of God and calling people to repent.  They probably lacked charisma and were not used to speaking in public, and they came without credentials — they were neither scribes nor Pharisees from Jerusalem.  They probably spoke of Jesus as the Messiah.  If they gained little hearing, they might have spotted a lame man lying in the shadows, or a child with a deformity, and then laid hands on them to cure them.  The man or child would have stood up healed instantly, and this would have caused a commotion, with a crowd surging around the Apostle to find out who he was.  Then the Apostle would have his audience.

You and I may not possess the power to cure, but we all have the power to perform charitable works.  These are the signs that will draw others to us.  May they see us and our good deeds and find Christ.

 Tuesday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September, 24, 2024

Luke 8, 19-21

The Mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your Mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My Mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

When we read about Jesus and his “brothers” we have to keep in mind that we are reading a translation into modern English of a 1st century A.D. document from the Middle East.  The Greek word adelphoi — “brothers” — stands in for the Hebrew awkhim,  This term can mean a male sibling sharing the same parents, a male sibling sharing the same father (as in a “half-brother”), a male of the same tribe, or even a male who resembles another male.  In other words, it is a very general term relating one man to another.  In a town so small as Nazareth, just about every male would be another male’s brother.  The same could also be said for “sister”.  For instance, Abraham called Sarah his “sister”, though technically, in our understanding, she is his half-sister (Genesis 20, 12).  One of the Lord’s Apostles, James the Lesser, was said to be the “brother of the Lord” 

(traditionally, St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude were said to be the “brothers” of this James), but we know from the Gospels that his mother was the “sister” of the Blessed Virgin Mary, while his father was named Alphaeus.  

The Evangelists speak of the Lord’s brethren in negative terms, generally speaking.  With the exception of members of the Blessed Virgin’s family, they seemed to regard their kinsman with suspicion when it was not with outright hostility.  St. John sums up their reaction to Jesus in two places.  First, at the very beginning of his Gospel, he says, “He came unto his own: and his own received him not” (John 1, 11).  The Greek word translated as “his own” has the meaning of “his people”, or, “his extended family”.  John also comments later, when there was some question as to whether Jesus would return to Jerusalem for one of the holy days, and his relatives were taunting him, “For neither did his brethren believe in him.”  To this, Jesus replied,  “My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready” (John 7, 5-6), which is to say, You belong to this world.  We also recall the story of how Jesus returned once to Nazareth and after he had preached, the people of his own town, among whom would have been members of his extended family, tried to kill him.

How are we to read the verses of today’s Gospel reading, then?  The text says that “the Mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him.”  The Lord must have been staying in Capernaum when they came.  He would have been hard to find if he had been preaching around the country just then.  But what had they come for?  St. Mark tells us: “And they [Jesus and his disciples] came to a house, and the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said: ‘He is become mad.’ ” (Mark 3, 20-21).  According to the context, the Lord had very recently moved to Capernaum at the beginning of his ministry and he was preaching to crowds of people and healing the sick.  News of his work made its way back to Nazareth, and his Mother and brethren came to see for themselves.  We do not know what they were told.  When news travels it changes, and those who gave their reports may have completely distorted the truth.  Nevertheless, the Lord’s brethren were all too ready to believe that he was “mad”.  The Greek word translated here as “mad” has several meanings, including to be “amazed” or “astonished”, but can also mean “to be beside oneself”.  Luke quotes some disciples using this word to tell others of the Resurrection: “Certain women also of our company made us astonished” (Luke 24, 22).  We can surmise, then, that the brethren came to him in order to take him back to Nazareth, for “they were scandalized in regard of him” (Mark 6, 3) — that is, “upset” with him.

“But [they] were unable to join him because of the crowd.”  It is almost as though the crowd, rapt in the Lord’s preaching, were protecting him from his brethren.  St. Mark, as if to confirm this, tells us that when Jesus was told that his Mother and brethren were outside, “looking round about on them who sat about him, he said: ‘Behold my mother and my brethren.’ ” (Mark 3, 34).  Now, the Greek word translated here as “join” really means “to meet”.  This implies a discussion, which “to join” does not. In using this verb, Luke tells us that the relatives meant to persuade Jesus to go back to Nazareth with them.  If they merely intended to “join” him, we would think it a sign of their support for him.

“He said to them in reply, ‘My Mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.’ ”  That is, to the extent that his Mother and his brothers and sisters hear and act on the Lord’s word, he will know them as his Mother and brethren.  Here, we see de facto praise for his Mother, the true Handmaid of the Lord, and at the same time the rejection of his earthly brethren who only wanted to protect their honor or the honor of their town.  This intimate place in the Lord’s family is open to any believer who strives to follow his commandments and to proclaim his Gospel.  We might wonder why the Blessed Virgin Mary went with these brethren.  We find the answer in St. John’s Gospel: “Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus, his Mother” (John 19, 25).  Where he was in danger, there she was to share it with him.

In these verses we see the prime example of how the Lord came to earth not to bring peace, but a sword, so that “a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 20, 36).  If our own observance of the Lord’s commands causes division in our families, among our relatives, or within our neighborhoods, we ought to remember that our Lord experienced this himself.  We can draw consolation from this, ask for his grace, and do as he tells us.