Revelation part 4:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FBfNklhDXGBqcZFXUDKeId1vObIUzapy/view?usp=drivesdk

Wednesday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 29, 2026

The Feast of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

John 11, 19-27

Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died]. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever zbelieves in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Formerly, St. Martha alone was celebrated on this day, but recently the feast was expanded to include her brother St. Lazarus, and her sister, St. Mary, who lived in Bethany, near Jerusalem.  The St. Mary celebrated today is not St. Mary Magdalene, who stood at the Lord’s Cross and was the first to see the Risen Lord after his Resurrection, but “Mary of Bethany”.  St. Gregory the Great seems to have been the first to conflate these two distinct women.  

From the three accounts in the Gospels which involve Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, we can see their close connection to the Lord.  In Luke 10, 38-42, Jesus enters “Martha’s house” and talks to an enraptured Mary while Martha struggles to prepare dinner.  It would seem from this that either Martha owned the house outright or that it was the house of Lazarus, whom Luke did not know about, and that Martha lived there.  We are not told that Martha was married, so if the house was hers, she might have been a widow.  It could also be the case that Luke does not mention spouses or Lazarus in order to keep his story simple, because the presence or absence of anyone except Martha, Mary, and Jesus does not affect the main point.  

In John 11, 1, the Evangelist tells us, “Now, there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, of the town of Mary and of Martha her sister.”  The implication here is that the three siblings did not live together, but separately.  A further implication is that these three were well-known to the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem to whom John was writing his Gospel, for the names of those for whom Jesus performs miracles are almost never given.  John also here identifies Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus, as “she that anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair”.  He mentions this even before he tells the story how she did this (which he would do in the chapter following the raising of Lazarus) leading us to believe that the story was very well-known at the time of his writing.

The Lord loved these three, as is clear from the story of his raising Lazarus from the dead.  Indeed, when Mary notifies the Lord that her brother is in need of healing, she says, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”  And John comments, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus.”  They firmly believed in him as the Messiah, and as one with great power.  When the Lord arrives in Bethany, Martha says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But now also I know that whatsoever you will ask of God, God will give to you.”  And Mary will say to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Mary’s faith and her gratitude for the Lord raising up her brother bring her to anoint his feet with a very expensive perfume, and to wipe his feet with her hair.  (This is anointing is distinct, though similar, from that done by the sinful woman in Luke 7, 36-50, which took place in Simon the Leper’s house, not in that of Lazarus.)  

“Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  This profession of faith spoken by Martha, reflected the faith of her brother and sister as well.  No one but Peter would make such a profession before the Lord’s Resurrection.  We pray to Saint Martha, that she might obtain for us the grace to be filled with such faith as hers; to her sister Mary, that we may become as dedicated to the Word of God as she; and to Lazarus, that we may hear the Lord saying to us at the moment of our deaths, “Come forth!”, summoning us into his life in heaven.

Personal Note:  The fourth part of the Bible Atidy on the Book of Revelation has been recorded and the link for it will be posted on the right-hand sidebar sometime today (Wednesday). Feel free to let me know if you found it helpful!

Tuesday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 28, 2020

Matthew 13:36-43

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

To begin with, Jesus speaks of “the end of the age” as a “harvest”.  The harvest is a very active time on a farm when the mature crop is brought into the barns as quickly as possible before it over-ripens or before it rains, making the field a muddy mess that is harder to work in.  For the modern farmer, a big rain just before or in the middle of the harvest means he cannot use his machinery because of the condition of the soil.  The end of the age, then, will involve great urgency and speed.  The world has ended.  No deeds remain to be done.  The destiny of each person has been decided.  At this point, too, we are speaking of resurrected bodies, which move with incredible swiftness.  The angels will reintegrate the bodies of the deceased so that they may live again, and the souls of those bodies rejoin them so that soul and body may together share in the joys of the blessed or the torments of the damned.

The wicked will be placed away from the just at the last judgment so that each group may hear its sentence with the members together.  The just will rejoice at seeing the great saints in their company, saints to whom they prayed during their lives and whose virtues they imitated.  On the other hand, the wicked will look upon the faces of their fellows with alarm and growing horror.  They will recognize the most evil men in history who thought nothing of the slaughter and massacre of innocent humans.  The instant the judgment on each group is pronounced, the just are brought into heaven, where “they will shine like the sun”,  and the wicked will be thrown by the angels into “the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  Here is how St. John the Apostle saw the final judgment in a vision he himself recorded: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne. And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which was the book of life. And the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20, 12).

The just will enter “the Kingdom of their Father”.  These are very sweet words.  We can think of how the father of the prodigal son watched for the coming of his son day after day, night after night, and when he finally saw him afar off, ran out to meet him, tears of relief and joy streaming from his eyes.  We can think of how tightly the father held him, and then led him home to a great feast.  Our Father watches for us, waits for us, and will finally embrace us on our entrance into heaven.  We might think of the words of the Song of Songs: “For, behold, the winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land: The fig tree has put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come” (Song of Songs 2, 11-13).

Terrible and unrelenting punishment awaits those “who cause others to sin and all evildoers”.  These shall “suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1, 9).  That is, their punishment shall be both external and internal.  External in “destruction”.  Jesus gives us a hint of this in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  In hell, the rich man cried out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16, 24).  The internal punishment is indicated by the words “wailing and grinding of teeth”.  This punishment is the awareness by the damned that they are away “from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power”.  They will suffer from the knowledge that they are permanently cut off from the face of God by their own choice, by their own works.  The words of the afflicted Job allow us some insight into their hearts: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man child is conceived. Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it from above, and let not the light shine upon it. Let darkness, and the shadow of death, cover it, let a mist overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness” (Job 3, 3-5).

“Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  This is an idiom that means the same as, “a word to the wise”.  Let us pray for wisdom so that every day we might know how to firm up our place with the just by an unshakable faith and a bounty of good works.  

Monday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time, July 27, 2026

Matthew 13, 31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” He spoke to them another parable. “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

The weekend was hard but I am continuing to feel a little stronger each day.  I did have some confusion late in the afternoon and faintness in the evening but not as much as previously.  Thank you for your prayers!

Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed to explain something of the kingdom of heaven.  He explains in a vivid and — to the Jews — astounding way in order to reveal that the kingdom of heaven was not going to be a victorious army of soldiers going forth to do battle with the Gentiles; it was not going to feature a restoration of the dynasty of David.  He uses the work of nature to describe it and does not issue a call to arms.  The people of the time struggle with this, as Matthew subsequently shows the Apostles doing when they ask Jesus to explain for them the parables that he had taught during the day.  His plain exposition did not satisfy them since it did not go along with what the Pharisees had taught them and their parents all their lives.  They simply took in his words and set them beside what they had been taught as children and waited for further elucidation.  Rather than showing their weakness in doing so, the strength of their faith truly shines: they did not fully understand, but they loved and trusted Jesus and continued to stake their destinies with his.

The real wonder of the parable lies in the fact that the birds of the air choose to gather in the branches of the mustard bush, which could grow to about a man’s height, eschewing the mighty cedars of Lebanon and even the olive trees of Galilee and Judah.  Jesus teaches that it was to this issue of the tiniest seeds that attracted the birds, that is, those searching for salvation.  Certainly their were greater trees in which they could be safer, but they chose the humbler mustard tree.  This is a sign of grace, that though the world is full of religions and philosophies and the false promises of the devil, those who yearn for the Way, the Truth, and the Life, come to the Holy Church and find refreshment there.  We can also see the mustard tree as Jesus himself, the Son of God who descends from heaven to be born of a humble Virgin in a stable and who grew up in the shadow of the false teachings of the world, offering not power but peace to all who came to him.

Personal Note: Just a reminder: The first three parts of the ongoing  Bible Study on the Book of Revelation have been recorded and the links to the recordings are provided in the right hand side bar on this page.

The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 26, 2026

Matthew 13:44–52

Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” 

Jesus preaches here to his disciples, who are familiar with his way of preaching and with his parables, and so are in a better position to understand him than the crowds.  He particularly preaches here regarding the kingdom of heaven, a term that does not occur in the prophets or in the apocryphal literature of the time.  It is worth noting that Jesus does not say, “the kingdom of Israel”, the re-establishing of which many Pharisees and scribes expected to be done by the Messiah.  Thus, in his healing and exorcising, the Lord acts, for the Jews, like the long-awaited Messiah, but his words do not lend to this interpretation.  

His parables on the kingdom of heaven do not contain references to uprisings, soldiers, fighting, or victories, either.  Clearly, his kingdom is “not of this world”.  Instead, the objects and occupations of ordinary daily life fill these parables, at once speaking to the common man, and at the same time showing them as signs of heavenly realities.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.”  Now, this treasure was not buried in the man’s own field, but in another’s.  It sounds like the finder happened to be in this field, perhaps on business, and found the treasure.  It sounds like the finder had a fairly easy time locating it.  He would hardly have taken to digging and excavating another man’s field without permission.  This implies that the owner of the field did not know his field very well.  He did not know what was on it.  This signifies the Gentiles, who found Christ among the Jews and “sold off” their former way of life in order to live as a Christian.  We can also understand this as a Christian man whose devotion is unremarkable suddenly realizing, in an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, how much Jesus loves him, and he completely gives himself over to the Lord.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.”  Now, we can understand this parable much as we understand the one above, but we can look at them in another way: It is The Son of God who is the merchant in this parable, and he is “looking for” those whom he has come down to earth  to save.  Out of joy in finding us, he sells all that he has — that is, he leaves heaven, becomes man, and endures his Passion and Death — in order to save us.  In his eyes, we are the “pearl of great price”.  As St. Paul reminds us, “You are bought with a great price” (1 Corinthians 6, 20).

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.”  That is, everyone is invited into the kingdom of heaven: “Many are called” (Matthew 22, 14).  “Fish of every kind” are caught, that is, those who love Christ for himself, and those who give the appearance of following him for some benefit, such as power or money.  The net is haul ashore, the last judgment, and what is good is kept and what is bad is thrown away.  The Lord adds this explanatory phrase: “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous.”  Traditionally, it is understood that the mission of the angels on the day of judgment will be to wake the dead, reconstituting their bodies so that their souls can reunite with them.  The angels will then convey the resurrected humans to the place of judgment.  In the image our Lord furnishes here, it is the angels which will separate the “lambs” from the “goats” in the presence of the Lord.  After the judgment, the angels will take the wicked and “throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  Perhaps the former guardian angels of the wicked will do this.  The “wailing and grinding of teeth” signifies both the agony of the wicked in their torments and of their regret at how easily they could have been saved if they had given themselves to Christ during the short time of their mortal lives.

Finally, Jesus compares the scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven as the head of the household who brings out both the old and the new.  In the case of the head of the household, that might mean fresh food and aged wine.  In the case of the scribe, it can mean the ability to understand and preach both the Old and New Testaments, revealing how the Old is the sign of the New.  That can be any of us who love the Scriptures inspired by God and treat them as treasures and as pearls of great price.

Personal Note: For those who are interested, Part 3 of the Bible Study on the Book of Revelation is available through the link on the right sidebar. We have a few more parts ahead of us!

 Revelation Part 3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bXju3cu8pbCi1sI16pPRQ__WAxPq6qVO/view?usp=drivesdk

The Feast of St. James the Apostle, July 25, 2026

Matthew 20, 20-28

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of St. John.  He is called “the greater”, perhaps because of his age, distinguishing from the St. James who became the bishop of Jerusalem and who lived until nearly the time of the Jewish Revolt.  St. James the Greater is mentioned several times in the Gospels, usually in conjunction with his brother John.  He and John and Peter shared a special intimacy with the Lord, who invited them to places apart from the other nine.  James would seem to have been a young man at the time our Lord called him to follow him, since his father and mother were very much alive at the time.  He also would seem to have preceded John in age since he is always mentioned as first of the pair.  We have an indication of his temperament in that Jesus referred to the two brothers as “the sons of thunder” (cf. Mark 3, 17), and when he and John wished to call down fire from heaven on a town that would not receive them (cf. Luke 9, 54).  He was the first of the Apostles to die, beheaded by Herod, in about the year 44.  This indicates their zeal — even rashness — for the Lord.  Peter manifests a similar zeal, so perhaps this is why these three were chosen by our Lord for events such as the Transfiguration and to keep him company during his Agony in the Garden before his arrest.  He was the first of the Apostles to receive martyrdom, as he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in the year 44.  There is a tradition, though not an ancient one, that St. James preached the Gospel in Spain before returning to Jerusalem, where his martyrdom took place.  His relics are said to rest in Compostela, Spain, an important destination of pilgrimages from the Middle Ages onwards.

In the Gospel reading for his feast, his and John’s mother, whom many scholars identify as Mary of Cleophas, approaches Jesus and desires him to bestow high rank on her sons, “one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”  That is, she wants them to be his chief lieutenants, with one of them possibly becoming his successor “in his kingdom”.  However, she mistakes the nature of the Lord’s kingdom for a re-establishment of an independent kingdom of Israel.  The Lord indicates this, telling her, “You do not know what you are asking,” which is frequently the case when we pray for some outcome or other.  The Lord then addressed the two brothers, asking them, “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”  The brothers almost certainly have little idea what Jesus is asking them, although they may understand the “chalice” means “battle” of some kind.  Nevertheless, they say, without hesitation, they can.  Then the Lord assures them that they will indeed drink the chalice that he drinks.  We can understand this “chalice” as the persecution and Death that the Lord endured, or more broadly as a commitment to do the will of the Father, no matter what the cost.  We “drink” this chalice when we are baptized, confirmed, and whenever we receive Holy Communion.  It can also mean living the life and dying the death the Father has chosen for us.

At the same time, what they are asking for is not the Son’s to grant, but is reserved for the Father.  That is, it is reserved for those who live in accord with the Father’s will.  To claim a seat in the court of heaven before living a holy life is mere presumption.  It is only after a saint’s death that he hears the words, “Come up higher” at the heavenly banquet (Luke 14, 10).

Naturally, the ten other Apostles took umbrage at this brazen attempt to gain power.  Their might have occurred a permanent rift between the Apostles right here, but the Lord Jesus explains the difference between what he will give them — authority — versus what civil or other religious rulers possess — power.  The point of authority, particularly Within the Church, is that of service: “Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”  But this is not an abject slavery, rather, an imitation of the Lord’s own service: “Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  

St. James did indeed drink the chalice of the Lord, preaching the Gospel and offering Sacrifice of the Mass until his martyrdom.  And now he sits with God.

We also celebrate the feast of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, who was martyred in Asia Minor during the Roman persecution.