The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Thursday, October 28, 2021

Ephesians 2, 19-22

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Today’s reflection is on the First Reading for the Mass of this feast.

“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.”  Roman citizenship was much prized in the ancient world.  A person could have it through birth, through purchase, or through service.  Paul himself could boast of his citizenship, which allowed him to appeal his legal case to Caesar.  Citizenship conferred a number of privileges on the holder, making him very different before the law from non-citizens.  To be a fellow citizen “with the holy ones” meant to have the same access to the Father as the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the capstone.  Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  The Benedictine Walafrid (d. 849) comments in his Gloss: “There is no one so perfect that he is not able to grow”, meaning that our growth into the temple of God ought to be continuous.

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  Paul seems to contrast this temple with the great temple to Artemis in the city's center. Magnificent, rich, and renowned though it was, it remained a dead building. The Church, on the other hand, was constructed of living stones, the cornerstone of which was the Christ who had redeemed mankind and pleaded for it before the Father.  The very foundations consisted of the prophets and apostles, more solid and dependable than any cement or stone.  This reminds of the saying of Jesus that: “He who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7, 24).  Nor is it an empty structure, with these foundations and walls, for God himself dwells in it.

So much of the work of the Apostles and their disciples is hidden from history, and yet we can gaze upon the solidity of the Church that has withstood the worst storms which fallen human nature and the scheming of the demons could devise, and marvel at how powerful their work must have been.  From a careful examination of a lofty tower  we can imagine the greatness of its foundations.

There is very little in the Tradition about St. Simon. He is sometimes called, anachronistically, the “Canaanean” from the Greek text of the Gospels, or, “the Zealot”, which might also translate the text, but this is not certain. He is said to have preached the Gospel in and around the land of Israel and to have been crucified.

A rich tradition exists concerning St. Jude, also known as Thaddeus. Armenian Christians have a

Ways claimed that he came into their land and preached the Gospel there, eventually converting their king.

Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2026

Luke 13, 18-21

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The Lord Jesus often used simile to teach about the Kingdom of God.  This allowed him to compare this tremendous mystery with ordinary things and experiences.  All the same, his similes are deceptively simple and nearly amount to short parables.  Their simplicity aids ordinary folks while the kernel deep within the heart of each simile provides the more spiritual person much to consider and to be amazed at.

“What is the Kingdom of God like?”  The Lord does not propose to define the Kingdom of God, only to tell “what it is like”.  We might think about what we want to know about it.  For some of us, the answer might be its location.  Where is it?  Others might want to know what does a person do there.  Others are interested in what it looks like.  The Lord answers the question he sets forth by talking about its experience.  He says, “It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” The Kingdom of God grows around us and also within us.  We can see it grow through baptisms and vocations to the Priesthood and the religious life.  We can see it grow as its missions spread across the face of the earth.  This is very mysterious.  How does it happen that people come to desire to give up their lives to Christ, whatever we are called to in this life?  How does it happen that people in countries and cultures hostile to the Faith will risk death to be baptized?  And this has been happening for two millennia now, in all parts of the world.

We can feel the mystery within us too: “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  How does it happen that we are attracted to and love a God who died a shameful death on the Cross? Where does our love of God come from?  How has it grown within us as we grew?  Why do grown men and women confess their sins to priests?  What deep feeling motivates this and what is its origin?  Most believers have moments or periods in which they feel very close to God.  Where does this come from?  How does the dough feel as the yeast rubbed into it causes it to rise?

In the First Reading for today’s Mass, St. Paul puts in concrete terms the manner of life we should live in the Kingdom of God. He sums up his teaching in simple terms: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5, 21-33). Paul bases his admonition on the words of Jesus himself: “If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13, 14). Following his summary, Paul shows us what this means in various relationships. For spouses, and beginning with wives, he says, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.” Then, turning to husbands he declares, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.” This is mutual subordination within the marriage for the sake of Jesus Christ. Because of the importance of this teaching, Paul sums it up once more before he moves on to children and parents: “Each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.” Let us love one another, imitating the love of Jesus for us.

Monday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2026

Luke 13, 10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.”  The Greek says, “He was in one of the synagogues, teaching, on the Sabbath.”  He was teaching in a Judean synagogue on the regular day of the assembly.  On a Sabbath he went to one of the synagogues and was invited to teach.  The Jews did not worship God in their synagogues — they worshipped only in the Temple.  The synagogue had for its purpose the reading and discussion of the Law.  A prominent Jew owned the building and might lead the discussions, but he was not a priest.  This man would be known as the “ruler” of the synagogue, a title he might hold in conjunction with others who contributed to the funding of the building.  We see how this worked in Acts 13, 14–15: “But they [Paul and Barnabas], passing through Perge, came to Antioch in Pisidia: and, entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, they sat down.  And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue invited them, saying: Ye men, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation to make to the people, speak.” 

We can think of the Lord Jesus sitting before the crowd of men and women.  They would have felt eager to hear this stranger teach, for he had a reputation as a masterful teacher and as one who healed, confirming his teachings.  Yet, he would have appeared and sounded unlike themselves for he was a bit tattered from his traveling through Galilee and Judea, and he spoke with a thick Galilean accent.  We can surmise that he taught for a normal period of time there, though St. Luke tells us not a word of what he said.  At the end of his teaching, he looked into the congregation and rested his eyes on “a woman . . . who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit . . . bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.”  The Greek text says that she “had a spirit of infirmity”.  The Greek text shows the Hebrew text that lies beneath it.  We might almost say that the Hebrew slip is showing under the Greek dress.  There is no “spirit” of infirmity for the Greeks.  They understood all injuries, sicknesses, and weaknesses as physical in nature.  The Hebrew implies that a particular spirit had possessed her so that she could not stand upright.  Nor does this indicate a figure of speech, for when Jesus encounters a blind man or a lame man or a leper, he is not customarily said to confront a spirit of blindness or lameness, or a spirit of leprosy.

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”  The Lord does not say “healed”, here.  The Greek says, “You are released from your infirmity.”  Now, she has made no request.  The Lord sees her, knows her suffering, and releases her.  It is almost as though it had been permitted for the spirit of infirmity to hold her until the Lord came so that he could release her at that time.  Perhaps we have a hint at the mystery of human suffering here.  That it had been part of God’s Providence that she should suffer this terrible condition for so long so that his Son could show his love for her and for all humanity in releasing her in this public way, in the place of the learning of the Law.  We might question the “need” for her to suffer like this, but we must recall that none of us is owed a life without suffering.  Besides this, a single serious sin causes the death of the soul.  It might be that the imposition of her condition prevented her from committing sins which would have left her damned.  The Lord releases her, laying his hands on her.  We might see this and think whether it might be worth eighteen years of suffering to feel the hands of the Lord Jesus on us just once. “She at once stood up straight and glorified God.”  She is released immediately.  The Lord, literally, raised her up.  We can consider how this sums up the Lord’s life: he comes, he teaches, and then he raises to life.  And when he raises to life, the Jewish leaders respond with outrage.  “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.”  The synagogue ruler was “indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath.”  Here again, we see a Hebrew text beneath the Greek, for healing on the Sabbath would have meant nothing to Luke’s Greek audience.  The synagogue ruler exposes himself to us as a Pharisee, whose interpretation of the Law forbade almost any activity on the Sabbath, though the words of the Law say nothing about the performing of miracles.  The Pharisee might have known this (although unwilling to admit it) and so he tries to blame the woman for coming to the synagogue for healing.  But this is not what she did, nor, as was pointed out before, did she so much as ask to be healed.  She came to the synagogue for the same reason that the ruler (presumably) had: to learn about the Law.

The Lord takes up the woman’s defense: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?”  Now, “hypocrites” did not mean then what it means now.  The Greek word was a translation of a Hebrew word that meant “the godless” or “faithless”.  Understanding this helps us with what the Lord is saying.  Indeed, he says “Faithless men” in the plural, as though addressing the congregation or, at least, its leaders.  Then rather than argue the Law with them, as though they were not worthy of it, he speaks about the ordinary experience of caring for one’s animals on the Sabbath. “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?”  Far from breaking the Law by coming for a healing on a forbidden day, he calls her a “daughter of Abraham”.  The Lord also confirms the nature of her condition.  The Lord  says that Satan had “bound” her, that is, had possessed her and had chained her in such a way that she could not stand erect, a typical punishment for those awaiting trial.  We can think of St. Peter in prison, chained in this way (cf. Acts 12, 6).  And just as the Jews were free of servile labor on the Sabbath so as to study the word of God, so she is freed from her servile condition.

“When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.”  The rulers of the synagogue were “disgraced”, “shamed”, “put to confusion” by the Lord’s words.  In short, they lost their credibility.  In such a way the Lord showed that the Jewish leadership as a whole, including the priesthood, was finished.  He stood alone as the Teacher and Fulfiller of the Law.  The crowd rejoiced on behalf of the woman, on behalf of the overthrow of their tyrants, and in Jesus, who had come to raise them up.

The Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 25, 2026

Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Today’s reading directly comes after the Lord’s encounter with the Sadducees, in which he was challenged on the doctrine of the Resurrection.  It is the only time we know of in which they approached him.  Following this encounter, the Pharisees resume their attempts to pin him down as to the basis for his teaching.  One of their band thus steps forward and asks him point blank: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  This is an identity test, asking the question, Who are you, and what do you believe?  It is also a test regarding the Lord’s beliefs about the Law as a whole.  We recall that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had already defended himself against the accusation that he saw his mission as abolishing the Law (cf. Matthew 5, 17).  The opinion that the Lord denigrated the law arose because he had openly cured people on the Sabbath, an action which did not in fact break the Law, but only the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law. 

“Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”  This was a question every Jew could answer because the answer was the Shema Israel, a prayer, blessing, and creed which a Jew would say twice a day, and which was carried in written form in the phylacteries which the Jews wore: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength. And these words which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: and you shall tell them to your children, and you shall meditate upon them sitting in your house, and walking on your journey, sleeping and rising.  And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be and shall move between your eyes. And you shall write them in the entry, and on the doors of your house” (Deuteronomy 6, 4-9).

This answer would have satisfied the Pharisee, but the Lord goes on to speak of the second law, “second” not in terms of numbering but in terms of importance: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This law is given in Leviticus 19, 18 in order to sum up a series of commandments regarding one’s behavior towards a fellow Jew.  This law, then, does not follow in consecutive order from the “first” commandment, and the Pharisees would not necessarily have put it as second in importance after this.  More likely, they would have put forward one of the Ten Commandments, such as the first, which forbids having “strange gods” before the true God, or the commandment imposing the Sabbath.  

Jesus has been asked a question.  St. Matthew indicates that with it the Pharisee was testing him, that is, challenging him.  By speaking of this second commandment, Jesus responds with his own challenge, and not merely a theological one, but one which threatened the authority of the Pharisees.  Because of their origin as a sect founded by men, little real basis existed for their own interpretations.  Jesus, however, comes out directly on his own authority, as established by the the divine power evident in his miracles, and defines the second commandment.  In the verses following this reading, Matthew tells how Jesus manifested his own authority as divine through the Scriptures.  In doing this, the Lord pushes them to look beyond the narrow confines of their sect in order to take seriously the claims he makes about himself.

This love we owe God and our neighbor is not to reside in a mere feeling which will dwindle and perish without the nutrition furnished by good works. Love is either active and engaged and seeking opportunities to do good for the loved one, or it is nothing. Famously, 1 Corinthians 13, 4 is translated into English as “Love is patient, love is kind, etc.” but this is not correct. According to the Greek, we should read it as: “Love is being patient, love is acting kindly.” Love is not passive, waiting for a chance to act, but goes out looking to show itself through good works. It is tempered by nothing but prudence.

Let us truly love God by obeying the simple commandments he gives us, that leads us to eternal life. He gave His Son up to death to make eternal life possible for us, and to show us how much he loves us.

Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 24, 2026

Luke 13, 1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ ”

The literal Greek, “And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, etc.”, indicates that those who told the Lord of this event had witnessed it themselves.  The event sounds horrendous in these words, yet no contemporary outside reference is found for it.  Many scholars assume that this corresponds with a massacre that the Jewish historian Josephus describes, but the many differences in detail between the two makes this very unlikely.  It seems as if this massacre took place while the Lord traveled to Jerusalem for the last time.  From what we are told here, a group of Galileans — pointedly, not Judeans — were slaughtered in the Temple area as they were bringing their sacrifices to the altar or while the sacrifices were proceeding.  No explanation for the killing is given.  This raises the questions of why Pilate’s forces in the Temple area at all, and whether the murders were committed by Pilate’s direct order.  At least one of the Fathers, Cyril of Alexandria, thought that the Galileans here were followers of Judas the Galilean, mentioned in Acts 5, 37.  There may be something to this.  Judas began an uprising around the time of the Lord’s Birth in reaction to the census of Quirinius.  He did not engage the Romans directly, but only those whom he considered to collaborate with them — by registering for the census, for instance.  It is not clear when he died, but his sons were said to have been killed in 46 AD.  Josephus blames the Jewish insurrection against the Romans on the movement he founded.  Cyril postulates that those who told Jesus about the massacre were in fact trying to see how he would react.  It seems also possible that Pharisees were telling him this, seeking to enrage him at this slaying of his fellow countrymen so that he would lead his followers in an attack the Romans in vengeance, but before he was fully ready to do so, as they supposed.  They would have thought to rid themselves of Jesus easily in this way.

The Lord seizes on this news in order to teach, not to stage an uprising.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?  By no means!”  Far from praising or even condoning the actions of the Galileans, whatever they might have done, Jesus refers to them as “sinners”.  He could be approaching the subject from the Jewish point of view that something as terrible as this could have happened only to sinners.  Whatever the case, he does not speak of the Romans or Pilate, but of the Galileans.  He points out that they were no different, in terms of sin, than other Galileans.  This could have happened to anyone, in essence.  Then he says, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  He teaches about spiritual death by speaking of physical death.   He seems to indicate here that the Galileans in some way could have avoided getting killed, for he tells the crowd that if they repent of their sins, they may yet escape damnation.

“Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them.”  The fact that Luke recounts the episode of the Galileans and this one with the tower of Siloam in such detail tells us that these events must have still been remembered and talked about at the time he was writing his Gospel.  Since he was writing it for Gentiles in Syria, the effects of these catastrophes must have been felt beyond Israel.  We have no information of the disaster involving the tower.  It may have been part of a fortress, but not even its location in Jerusalem is certain.  While the killing of the Galileans was murder, an accident seems to account for this loss of life.  The Lord’s point remains the same: we are all sinners and we must all repent or suffer eternal death. 

Luke informs us that the Lord next told a parable, and it directly connected to what he has just taught.  He speaks of a farmer who went out to a fig tree which he owned, and: “He came in search of fruit on it but found none.”  The farmer knows when it is the season for figs, and so he went to the tree in full expectation that he would find some hanging on the tree’s branches.  He then registers his frustration with a handy employee, who is actually a vine-dresser, not a “gardener”: “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.”  He gives a command: “So cut it down.”  By way of explanation, the farmer says, “Why should it exhaust the soil?” which literally means, from the Greek: “Why does it bring the earth to nought?”  That is, the tree fights against the purpose of the earth, which is to bring forth fruit.  Why does it do this?  In the farmer’s mind, it seems to have deliberately chosen to thwart the purpose for the earth’s creation.  

“Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”  The vine-dresser, who has no stake in the existence of the fig tree, intercedes on its behalf.  He will take on additional work in order to attempt to get fruit on it.  He will dedicate himself to this.  He lays out for the farmer the specific measures he will take.  It may bear fruit in the future.  If not you can cut it down.”  The Greek says, “You shall cut it down”.  The vine-dresser is not telling the farmer what he can or cannot do; he is saying what he knows he will do.  The farmer is the Lord Jesus.  The vine-dresser is the Church of the Gentiles.  The fig tree signifies the Jewish people, just as the cedar tree signifies the people of Lebanon.  The Lord is saying that for three years he has searched for “fruit” — faithful people — among the Israelites and has found “none” (a slight hyperbole, since a few — the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the Apostles, and others — followed him).  The Gentile Church pleads with the Lord to give it time to preach to the Jews.  We do not hear from Jesus what the “farmer” decided, but we know from history that this was the case.  Gentile Christians like Luke did preach to the Jews, but to little avail.

We can learn from these verses how necessary repentance is for our salvation, and that we must repent now while we can, for we do not know how long we have.  The fig tree was utterly oblivious to how close it came to its absolute end, and that only earnest pleading saved it — for a short time, unless it changed.

Friday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 23, 2026

Luke 12, 54-59

Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass continues with St. Luke quoting the Lord Jesus regarding the end of the world.  

“When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does.”  Now the Lord proposes a very ordinary example of how we predict the weather.  All his hearers could relate to this, not just the erudite, but even slaves.  The weather pattern was stable and predictable.  A cloud rising in the west, from the Mediterranean Sea, meant rain.  Similarly, “when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is.”  That is, the air mass coming up from the desert.  Awareness of the signs of the weather was very necessary for a people dependent on locally grown grown crops and locally raised sheep, goats, and cattle.  And these were not the only signs the people knew to look for.  The key for us in understanding Jesus here is that people of all kinds were on the look-out for changes in the wind direction or the clouds.  In many cases, their survival depended on this.

“You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”  The Lord launches out against those who do not look for the signs of the end of the world, when their eternal souls would be at risk.  We must look at this word “hypocrite”.  It does not mean in the Gospels what we think it means.  It comes from a Greek word that translates a Hebrew word that means “the faithless”, or, “the godless”.  If we reread this passage we can see that the modern meaning of “hypocrite” does not make sense in it.  It makes quite a lot of sense if we understand it as describing people who could keep an eye out for the signs of the present time but do not.  They are conscious of their lives and property, but not of their souls, though they should be.  We should note that in his accusation, the Lord implies that it is easier to understand the signs of the present times than of the weather, which ought to give us all pause.  What are these signs of the present time, that we should watch for them?  The Lord, in Matthew 24, gives signs for the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and for the coming of the judgment.  We are to especially watch for false prophets and a fierce, world-wide persecution.  We might also consider a breakdown in society not only of law and order but of the belief that there is such a thing as right and wrong, as is the case today.

“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”  This begins a new saying which is not a continuation of the above, but is related to it.  “If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way.”  That is, if you have sinned against someone and you fear the final judgment, ask for forgiveness now.  “Otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison.”  Our real “opponent” is not the person we sinned against but our own pride, sloth, and intransigence.  We cannot rightly hope to enter heaven while dressed in these rags.  “You will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”  That is, until the fine has been paid, restitution made, or the debt made good, whatever the case may be.  The fact that a person might be released at some point, after a period of suffering in prison, refers to purgatory.  While we think of purgatory as a particularly Catholic doctrine, we can see its roots in Jewish apocryphal books written around the time of Jesus.  The phrase “If you are to go with your opponent” may be translated literally thus: “While you are going with your opponent.”  The distinction is important because we must know that we are currently going with our opponent to the magistrate — that is, that we are at the moment free but also aware that every step we take brings us closer to that judgment.  This, then, is the instant we must shed everything that holds us back from confessing our sins and seeking absolution and forgiveness.

Thursday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 22, 2026

Luke 12, 49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”  The Lord Jesus speaks dramatically and passionately here.  He himself is Fire that the Father has sent to the earth, and he longs to set it ablaze.  Now, he does not mean “the earth” in terms of the planet, but human beings who are formed from the dust of the earth.  He yearns painfully to “blaze” in us, with his love so that we might love him and one another.  In this way, he makes us “children of light” (1 Thessalonians 5, 5).  We should note how he says, “How I wish” it were burning now.  As Fire, he can hardly contain himself, but roars and lashes out with flame as though to increase.  We see this again in his next sentence: “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”  From fire he turns to water.  The Greek word translated as “baptize” may not have the primary meaning we understand today — that is, as referring to the sacrament — but rather as a washing, a pouring on of water, even a purging with water, as fire also purges in its own way.  This pouring of water can be understood as watering crops, so that the faithful, watered by the grace of God, may grow and bring forth fruit — converts.  But we can also understand this as meaning the Sacrament of Baptism, that the Lord is pained until the whole world receives his teaching and is converted.  “How great is my anguish!” the Lord cries.  Literally, he is saying, “How I am confined”, or, “compressed”, or “afflicted” until this is accomplished.  We see what he means in his relentless pursuit of souls up and down Judea and Galilee, with a few excursions into Samaritan and Gentile territory.  He hardly slept and only paused to eat when he was invited to do so by some follower or a curious (or scheming) Pharisee.  The Apostles were reduced to eating the heads of grain as they followed him from town to town, even on the Sabbath.  There was nothing he would not do, no place where he would not go, in order to save a soul.

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?”  As he has lived, so he expects his followers to live.  Their zeal for holiness and the spread of the Gospel would disrupt the comfortable routines of worldly people.  They would pose troubling questions to them about their lives and goals.  The effect of a saint on them would cause the people of the world to say, “He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, and his ways are very different” (Wisdom 2, 15).  If we think about it, the act of gardening or farming is a violent one, for the ground is torn up, fertilizer is put into it, and then seed, and plants not native to that soil grow from it.  This can be understood in the spiritual sense of a human person or of the world: the “tearing up” meaning repentance inspired by the word of the Gospel; grace being poured into the person or the world; the sowing of the “seed” as the full reception and acceptance of the Lord’s teachings; and the growth of the plants as living the holy life while remaining in the world, surrounded by temptations.  “No, I tell you, but rather division.”  The Greek word translated here as “division” might be better translated as “a breaking-up”, since Jesus means here the result of an act of violence, whereas “division” implies a clean separation.  The Lord seems to say that he came in order to cause a breaking, but this can also be understood that his coming inaugurates a breaking, but is not directly causative of it.  That is, the Lord does not break up families, but families break up as a result of some members following him and some rejecting him.

“From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.”  The Lord uses an uneven number, five, in order to show the nature of the break.  It is not an even, smooth division, but a jagged one.  A person must do violence against himself in order to be his follower (cf. Matthew 16, 24), and this has ramifications for a family as well as for a society.  Let us imagine if a very large number of people in our society sold their possessions in order to follow Christ, whether as laity or consecrated religious.  Our consumer-based economy would be sorely affected.  But ultimately this would work for the good of souls.  It might lead to a re-humanizing of our economy and society.