The 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 13, 2026

Matthew 18, 21–19, 1

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

In yesterday’s reading, the Lord Jesus explained to his Apostles what they are to do when one believer sins against another.  The Lord details a process by which the offender might reflect and then ask forgiveness.  St. Peter follows this with a question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  Peter asks a good question.  His concern is that someone may take advantage of another believer’s willingness to forgive by continuously wronging him, as in stealing from him.  Jesus seldom gives yes or no answers to the questions posed him and he does not do so here.  He answers with a parable.  He wants the Apostles to understand forgiveness, which has its source in the forgiveness God offers.

The king in the parable is settling accounts with his servants, ministers of his court.  He finds that one servant owes him “a huge amount”.  St. Matthew actually records the amount Jesus gave, but the translator chose not to give this, which is unfortunate.  According to the Greek text, the servant owed “10,000 talents”.  Now, a talent was a weight of silver — approximately 125 pounds.  Checking the newspapers today we can see that silver trades for about $28 an ounce.  If we calculate from this the sum owed by the servant, we arrive at the stupendous figure of $560,000,000.  That is, over half a billion dollars.  We can imagine Peter’s jaw dropping upon hearing this.  Jesus includes a bizarre element  in his parables, and this is one.  It is, in fact a ludicrous amount of money because even if a king could have possessed it at that time, he would hardly have loaned it to a servant.  And if he had, what could the servant have possibly bought with it?  He would hardly have remained a servant.  But Jesus is making a point here.  A king had loaned an impossible amount of money to a servant and now he wanted it back, with interest.  The servant cannot repay it.  Has he wasted the money?  He seems to have lost it all, at any rate.  In such a case, the king quite lawfully ordered “him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”  

“The servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ ”  In a panic, the servant cried out for mercy.  We do not feel sympathetic towards the servant because of his foolishness, although we do for his innocent wife and children.  And we would not expect the king to have compassion on him, but the king does.  Jesus here features a second bizarre element: by forgiving this foolish servant his debt, the king seems to show himself foolish — he has just written off half a billion dollars.  Other servants, looking on, perhaps would have felt encouraged to seek large loans from this king as well.

This king, of course, is God, who is ever ready to forgive us our sins.  Our sins are enormous debts we incur — enormous because of their number and also because of the majesty of the One against whom we sin.  No acts we might undertake, no deeds we can do, can pay off this debt.  It only is forgiven if God forgives it.  If he does not forgive it, then in effect he hands the offender “to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt”, which is to say, never.  Now, the servant’s wife and children, that is, the sinner’s friends and associates, would not have joined him in prison in this event, but would have remained free to raise money for him.  In this case, however, their efforts would have been fruitless.  This is why prayers do not avail for the damned: those in hell did not approach the king for forgiveness while there was still time.  

Let us note what the servant does so that the king forgives his debt: he pleads earnestly for mercy, and he promises to make up for it.  Now, all is dependent on the merciful disposition of the king, but if we know that we have a merciful king, then we can hope for forgiveness if we apply to his mercy: we beg forgiveness from our heart, and we promise to make up for the harm we have caused as best as we can.  Implicit in this promise is one to never offend again in any way.

The Lord shows through this parable that if God graciously extends his mercy to us even though we can never pay him what we owe, that is, we cannot “make up” for our sins on our own, how gladly we ought to forgive one another.  The relief we should experience in the forgiveness of our sins by Almighty God should be so great that we hardly notice the sins others commit against us.

“Unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”  The Lord does not tell us to insist on an apology as a condition for our offering forgiveness, and in this way he tells us that the forgiveness does not necessarily affect the sinner, but always the one who is sinned against.  To forgive is to renounce revenge against one who has caused harm, and frees the one who forgives from the slavery to which vengeance always leads.  Significantly, Matthew points out that just after Jesus teaches this lesson, he embarks for Judea in order to die there for the forgiveness of our sins, and where he will give the greatest example of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23, 24), which he prayed as men crucified him.

If we meditate deeply on the forgiveness tendered by the Son, we will more readily forgive as well, and conform ourselves to him more and more.

Personal Note: I am scheduled for Mass tomorrow. I think I am doing a little better. My appetite is starting to revive.

Saturday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, September 12, 2026 

The Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary

Luke 6:43-49

Jesus said to his disciples: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.”  The Lord Jesus often taught by laying a foundation of everyday experience and proceeding to draw unexpected — sometimes shocking — observations from it.  The observation Jesus draws from the everyday experience of good and rotten fruit may seem straightforward to us, but probably caused some head scratching among his hearers, and may do so among us if we look carefully at what he says.  He begins by speaking of a “good tree”.  The Greek adjective can also mean “beautiful” and “worthy”.  There is a moral sense here, as in “a good husband”.  Normally when we think of a good object, as distinct from a good person, we only think of it as being useful or well constructed.  Assigning a moral tint to the tree implies an intention on its part.  Jesus does this because he means for the tree to stand for a person.  Now, if a good tree is one which has a good intention and is also “useful”, it will be able to produce good fruit.  The fruit may go bad on a tree if it is not picked while it is ripe, or because of insects, but when the tree produced it, it was “good fruit”.  Conversely, a tree which is not healthy or has a bad intention, as it were, does not produce good fruit, but “bad”, that is, “ugly”, “useless”, and “corrupt”.  It does this even when the weather has been good and the soil rich.  Jesus observes from this that, “Every tree is known by its own fruit.”  That is, a tree cannot be judged as “good” or “bad”, or, “healthy” or “unhealthy”, or even as “beautiful” or “ugly” until it shows its fruit, even if it looks healthy or good otherwise.  Besides this, the type of tree or plant it is may not be known until it puts forth its fruit.  A grapevine in mid-Winter looks like a dead bunch of weeds.  It becomes clear that it is a healthy grapevine when spring arrives and it becomes almost a different plant.  The Lord offers that, “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil.”  Two women may look very much alike: they may look polished, capable, intelligent, and virtuous.  Their actions, however, reveal whether or not this is true.  As with the trees, a good person does not consistently produce wicked works, nor does the wicked person consistently produce good works.  The works tell the health or virtue of the person: “From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”  This helps us to consider other people, but it especially helps us to consider the Lord.  All his works were performed to help other people — his Passion and Death most of all.  By meditating on the words and deeds of the Lord we learn of the goodness of his heart, and its beauty.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?”  This seems like a separate saying, but we can also understand it as the conclusion to the Lord’s remarks on the goodness or wickedness of the heart.  Not only is he truly “the Lord”, but he is a good Lord who has traversed the land of the Jews and performed countless miracles of healing, feeding, and exorcism.  His commands need not be feared.  Since he is a good Lord, carrying out his commands ought to be done simply to please him.

“I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them.”  These last couple of verses from the Gospel reading for today’s Mass echo the verses with which the Lord concludes his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7, 24-27).  It should not surprise us that the Lord used similar words in his preaching on different occasions.  He gives three steps in discipleship: a person comes to him, listens to him, and obeys him.  First, a person gets up and goes to Jesus.  Save for a few notable exceptions, the sick who sought cures either came to him or were brought to him.  Jesus most often taught outside the cities, so those who wanted to hear him had to go to him.  Coming to Jesus, then, involves an act of the will — a choice.  In coming to Jesus, a person gives up the activity in which he was engaged or changes his plans for the day, and opens himself to the Lord’s message.  This person then listens to his words.  The Greek word for “to listen” also means “to pay attention”, “to understand”, and “to obey”.  This listening is active and discerning.  It is learning what should be carried out.  It is not listening for entertainment or to obtain material for criticism.  The words of the Lord are not background music that one only hears snatches of when that person is not otherwise busy.  Listening is a preparation for full commitment.  Then comes the obedience.  The one who comes to the Lord and listens to him, “acts on his words” in obedience.  This shows a commitment to the Lord as well as trust, in that acting on his words will bring personal benefit to the one who does this.  

The people who heard the Lord say these words must have been thunderstruck by them.  He did not say, as the Pharisees, that these words must be followed because they were of the Law given to Moses by God; he is saying that his words must be obeyed because they come from him, Jesus of Nazareth.  And he further astounded the crowd in comparing the one who obeyed his words to a man who built his house on a stone foundation.  This brings to mind the comment of the Evangelist on a similar occasion that the crowds were amazed “because he spoke as one having authority” (Matthew 7, 29).  The crowds wondered, “Who is this?” in the same way that even the Apostles did.  We should wonder this too, and commit to our response for the answer we arrive at. And we pray on the Memorial of her Most Holy Name that the Virgin Mary our Mother may intercede for the graces we need to persevere in our love for Jesus Christ.

Personal Note: I think I’m a little better but the fatigue is still oppressive and limiting. Please continue to pray for me.

Friday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, September 11, 2026

Luke 6, 39-42

Jesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

There are actually two distinct parables in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass.  Jesus first tells one involving the blind leading the blind, a well-known and oft referenced figure.  But let us ask the question, Why would a blind man allow another blind man to lead him anywhere?  It would seem clear to anyone that if a blind man needed to go somewhere, he would find a sighted person to lead him.  There are three basic reasons why he might follow another blind man: 1) he did not know the other was blind, either through his own ignorance or the other’s deception; 2) he trusts the other blind man to lead him somewhere, perhaps relying on his greater experience of getting around; 3) the blind man feels himself to have no choice: he needs to go somewhere and there is no other option (to his mind) than to follow another blind man.  In interpreting this parable, we can understand that, in the first case, a person searching for God follows another person (or religion) who seems sound enough, but in fact cannot lead him to God.  Because the first blind man does not do his due diligence he winds up in the “pit” of true darkness.  He has followed false religions or philosophies to their end.  In the second case, the first blind man knows that the one he has chosen to lead him to his destination is also blind.  Nevertheless, he chooses to follow him.  The other may have persuaded him with assurances of his skill in getting around.  But this winds up as a disaster also, and the first blind man has greater blame for his final situation because he knew what he was choosing.  Here, we see what happens to a person for whom all religions are the same and that no one really knows the truth, which may not be knowable anyway.  In the third case, the blind man only knows other blind men.  He has heard that most people can see and could help him get around, but he never attempts to meet them.  Asking a sighted person for help is not an option, then.  But he needs to get to a certain destination and he despairs and goes with another blind man.  Here we have the situation of the sinner who has always followed the devil.  The blind man at some point seeks happiness or enlightenment, but refuses to go to those who could provide it, and so chooses a worse darkness instead.

“No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.”  St. Luke places this saying of the Lord here, but it is really separate from the preceding parable and the succeeding one.  The Lord is teaching his disciples that they can be like him if they allow themselves to be “fully trained” by him.  That is, they cannot go to anyone else — a Pharisee, for instance — to be trained so that he can be “like” Jesus.  Only Jesus can make his followers to be like him, through grace.

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?”  This is another oft referenced figure of the Lord’s, though most of the people who refer to it are not Christians.  This makes their use of it ironic.  For us it is necessary to think as the humble servant does: that a miscue occurred not because of bad directions but because we did not follow them properly.  We should be quicker to blame ourselves than another.  This allows us to examine the facts in the case and come up with a correct understanding.  Perhaps it was a matter of faulty directions, or maybe they really were improperly carried out.  But blaming the other person leads us to seek evidence that only validates our position.  And so if we perceive a person to be unjust, rather than cast blame right away, we ought to make sure of our facts.  We should humbly allow for the possibility that we might be wrong about any given perception.  Humility will bring us very close to Jesus.

We pray for our nation on this solemn anniversary. We pray that we will live as good neighbors with one another and to avoid the traps our enemies lay for us both abroad and in our own land that will wreck our lives with bitterness, hatred, and fear, so that we become as they the,selves are.

Personal Note: I’ve tested positive for COVID. Please pray for my recovery. I’ve probably had it for the last couple of weeks.

Thursday in the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2026

Luke 6, 27–38

Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

The Lord Jesus does not merely tell us to love one another, leaving us to guess at what that means: he explains love to us so that we can carry it out.  And although it may strike us as unloving that we are to “carry out” our love, we must remember that love has to be expressed in actions, just as faith and hope do.  What St. James says about faith applies equally to love: “But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2, 20).  The Lord commands us to love one another, including those who hate us.  That is because in order for us to become perfect we must love as he does: “Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and slander you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5, 44-45).  We love for the sake of the One who loves us.  This requires untwisting our twisted human nature — difficult work which we can do only with the help of God’s grace.  That this is possible at all is shone us not only in the life of Christ but also in the lives of his saints.  We can do this, and we must do this.  Loving as Christ loves is for our good and ultimately God’s glory.  It is for our good because it results in an eternal reward of unimaginable ecstasy.  Only those who love perfectly can bear this ecstasy and be transformed by it.  All others will back away from it as yet without the capacity for it.

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”  Here, the Lord lays out the general principles of our love for others.  “To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.”  Next, he uses hyperbole to emphasize the imperative of this love.  He sums up his teaching with, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  That is, consider in what way you can serve a given person, according to your abilities and within your already existing responsibilities, and then act accordingly.  The most important action we can perform is to pray, although it is often the last action we think of.  We should, in fact, pray in our considerations and for the other’s good.  “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.”  That is, Even the secular-minded people around us love those who love them.  “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.”  This is a much misunderstood commandment.  The Greek word translated here as “judging” means “to bring to trial” or “to decide innocence and guilt”, in a judicial context.  It is to be compared with “condemning”.  We are not to set ourselves up as God as though to judge another soul, for God alone is the Judge: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12, 19).  Vengeance, or, punishment, is God’s, not ours, to hand out. 

“Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”  This is the ecstasy of heaven.  It will pour over and through us in an everlasting torrent.  Some will experience it more keenly than others, for “the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  If we love without measure, we will experience love without measure to our fullest ability to receive it.

This love that our Lord so wants us to enjoy that he commands us to show it so that we can receive it, is not the mere natural love all people are capable of, but the supernatural love that only the children of God can love with.  We pray that we may love fully with this love, itself a gift of God.

Personal Note: A person I met with late last week has tested positive for Covid and so I will be tested for it later today.

Wednesday in the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, September 9 2026

Luke 6, 20-26

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

The Lord begins a lengthy homily on how his faithful followers are to live.  Although in many ways echoing the Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew 5-7, St. Luke describes the setting in ways that make it sound like a distinctly different occasion.  The sermon which Luke recounts also presents the Lord phrasing some of his teachings very differently from what we find in St. Matthew’s Gospel, such as his use of woe: “Woe to you who are rich, etc.”  It should not surprise us that over the course of the three years of his Public Life the  Lord did not preach on similar themes and even use similar words.  Here, he also uses different phrasings and words, according to the circumstances, primarily his audience.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.”  He does not say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, but, “Blessed are you who are poor”.  This is more literally translated as, “Blessed the destitute”.  That is, those who have sold all they had, given the money to the poor, and followed Jesus.  As Peter said to Jesus, “Behold we have left all things, and have followed you: what therefore shall we have?” (Matthew 19, 27).  The Lord answered him, “Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  In this way they are blessed.

“Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.”  Large crowds went without food for three days to hear Jesus, and in his mercy he fed them with a miracle, prefiguring how he would feed his followers with the Bread of Life that they could receive only from him.  “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.”  We think of the tears of Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother Lazarus, and the tears of Mary Magdalene at the tomb of the Lord.  The Lord gave these faithful followers cause for laughter and rejoicing, as he will give us on the last day at our resurrection.  “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.”. There were those standing with him at the time who had already suffered for him, and millions of people since, in many different ways.  “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”  We note that the Lord does not promise happiness and justice in a new Kingdom of Israel such as so many of his followers expected.  True joy awaits us at the end of our lives, in heaven.  “For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.”  We see that the Lord is speaking particularly of persecution by the Jewish authorities.  Luke was writing for Greek Christians who had themselves witnessed the Apostles, especially St. Paul, persecuted by the Jews in whatever town he visited.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”  This brings to mind the case of the rich man who did not feed the desperate Lazarus.  Abraham, in the parable, said to the rich man as he burned in hell, “Son, remember that you did receive good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and you are tormented” (Luke 16, 25).  That is, he did not use the wealth God had given him as God had directed him.  “But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”  The Psalmist complains to God of the wicked, “Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore the people turn and praise them; and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches” (Psalm 73:7–12).  But God’s justice will overtake them in the end: “Truly you did set them in slippery places; you did make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” (Psalm 73, 18-19).  If it seems justice is delayed it is only to give these wretched sinners time to repent.  “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.”  Those who mock the Lord and his disciples will come to the place where there is weeping, darkness, and the gnashing of teeth.  “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”  The false prophets were those attached to the Temple as a guild but through whom God did not speak.  They told people what they wanted to hear so that they might profit from their words.  They did not call anyone to repent, as did the true Prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah.

We learn from the Lord’s words how necessary it is to belong to him entirely without holding anything back, for in his love for us, he holds nothing back. 

Personal Note: I’ve been very sick these last few days and I had to cancel the Tuesday night Bible study and the Wednesday morning Bible Study. I’m not able to eat solid food yet. Please pray for me so that I can get back to work.

The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 2026

Matthew 1, 18-23

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

The most ancient tradition of the Birth of the Virgin Mary comes from a document sometimes called the Proto-Gospel of James.  The identity of the author is unclear.  The document itself seems to have been composed in the East between the years 60 and 1oo A.D.  It is quoted or referred to by some of the earliest Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria.  It provides us with the names of the Virgin’s parents, Joachim and Anne, and tells us of the time she spent in the temple in Jerusalem, which is celebrated by the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, on November 21.  The story, in brief, tells of how the childless yet devout couple of Joachim and Anne pray for a child, and Anne receives a visit from an angel promising that her child would be “spoken of by all the world.”  Anne replies that she will dedicate her child to the service of God.  At the time of the birth of her child, Anne asked the midwife whether it was a boy or a girl. When the midwife responded that it was a girl, Anne answered, “This day has God magnified my soul.”  Since this book is not considered canonical Scripture, we do not have to uphold it as accurately reporting on the actual events it contains, but in the opening chapters in which these events are described, nothing esoteric or heretical appears, lending, lending them credibility.  Certainly, the medieval Christians accepted the book as history.  And although a certain folktale style permeates the work, it is not so different from, say, the canonically received Book of Tobit.  The Feast celebrating the Virgin Mary’s birth originated in the East some time following the Council of Ephesus in 431, which proclaimed, in opposition to a heresy denying the divinity of Christ, that she was the Theotokos, that is, the “God-bearer” — the Mother of God.

The translation of the Gospel reading for this Feast is somewhat problematical, to go by the opinions of the two greatest biblical scholars of ancient times, Origen and St. Jerome.  That is, the modern translation reflects a point of view that these men contested even in their own time: that St. Joseph suspected the Virgin Mary, his espoused wife, of committing adultery, and that he planned, essentially, to abandon her.  Both of these scholars offer a very different way of reading the text.  For instance the verse translated as, “Joseph her husband . . . unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.”  By considering the context of these words and considering what the words really mean, we can also translate it as, “Joseph her husband . . . not wishing to publicly lead her to his home [as the final part of the wedding celebration], decided to release her [from the marriage agreement] privately.”  Let me quote from my own translation of St. Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew: “According to Jerome and Origen, he [Joseph] did not suspect adultery.  Joseph knew the chastity of Mary.  He read in the Scriptures that a virgin would conceive, as it is written in Isaiah 7, 14.  And from Isaiah 11, 1: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root, he also knew that Mary was descended from the line of David.  It was, in fact, easier for him to believe that this [prophecy] was fulfilled in her than that she had committed fornication.  Accounting himself unworthy to live with such sanctity, he wished to send her away secretly, as Peter said, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man (Luke 5, 8).  He did not wish to make a public display of her – leading her to his house and taking her as his wife, accounting himself unworthy.”

We give thanks to Almighty God for the gift to the human race of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who brought into the world his own Son.  No one but him ever walked the earth with as much virtue, grace, and love of God.

Bestow upon Your servants, we beseech You, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace, that, as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin stood for the beginning of our salvation, so may the solemn feast of her Nativity bring about an increase of peace.  Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.

Monday in the 23d Week of Ordinary Time, September 7, 2020

Luke 6, 6-11

AM On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Interestingly, in today’s Gospel reading, St. Luke thought it significant enough that he supplied the detail that the man’s right hand was withered.  Most likely, the man was right handed, and the loss of the use of this hand meant an inability to work.  His lot would have included the resultant poverty but also loneliness because even today, healthy people tend to edge away from the deformed, the handicapped, and those suffering from deadly diseases like cancer.  Yet this man came to the synagogue.  Probably he did not intend to beg, as it was the Sabbath, when most work was forbidden, but to pray, and perhaps to take some solace in human proximity, of not their company.  The Greek adjective translated here as “withered” does not tell us much about the cause of his condition.  The word itself can also mean, “a desert-like dryness”.  St. Mark uses a perfect passive participle to describe the man’s hand, in Mark 3, 1: “whose hand had been withered”.  This tells us his condition arose not from a birth defect but from an illness or accident.

“The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.”  They note the presence of the man with the shriveled hand and think that he will approach Jesus for healing.  Since apparently the synagogue in today’s reading was located in Capernaum, and since Jesus had spent entire days and nights healing people from all around the city, this man came some distance to see Jesus.  It is possible that the Pharisees, seeing him enter the synagogue, brought him to a seat where they knew Jesus, standing up front, would have to see him if the man’s own courage failed him.  At any rate, the Lord moved before anyone else could: Jesus “said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come up and stand before us.’ ”  Now, this was quite out of order for a synagogue assembly.  The Jews came together here on the Sabbath to study the Scriptures and to pray.  Discussions might ensue, but no actions outside of that.  When the man stood up and came to Jesus, the Lord did not heal him immediately.  Instead, he spoke to the crowd: “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  Now, what did Jesus mean by this?  He seems to open up the possibility of destroying the man with the withered hand.  But while the Lord is speaking aloud so that all might hear, his intended audience is the group of Pharisees and scribes, who are already plotting to destroy him.  He challenges them to see the evil that they were committing.  In doing so, he seeks to “save” their lives, that is, from hell.  In considering this verse, it helps to know that the verb here translated as “to save” also means “to heal”, which we can also understand as “to forgive”.  

The minds of the Pharisees are so darkened with hate that they do not see what Jesus is trying to tell them.  Indeed, they seem hardened against the miracles Jesus has performed, and what that signifies.  They do not challenge the reality of the miracles.  They simply look past them.  All they can see is a man who pays them no deference and does not follow their interpretation of the law.  After the Lord spoke to them, he let the words sink in.  He “looked around”, looking into the eyes of men who discounted the healing of the lame, the sick, the blind as signs that God had truly come among them.  

And then he turned to the man with the withered hand and told him to hold out the afflicted appendage, and all could see that it was whole.  Flesh and tendons had suddenly appeared.  The man could wiggle his fingers and open and close his fist.  The sense of touch returned to it.  We have to imagine the reaction of the man, for it was so overshadowed by the bitterness of the Pharisees that this is what Luke describes: “They became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.”  They probably bolted from the synagogue, unable to bear the presence of the Lord and the man whom he had healed.  They go off to break the Sabbath by their plotting the Lord’s death.  Jesus, in fact, did not break the Sabbath here, but went against the interpretation the Pharisees baselessly put upon the Sabbath laws. 

We can see here that God will not allow us to decide what he can and cannot do, but we can also see in this account how God comes to the earth, signified by the synagogue, in order to heal the human race from the sin which has withered it, that is, the original sin which wounded human nature.  The devil, that is, the Pharisees, is powerless to stop him, but howls about the healing and forgiveness that he brings and looks for ways to destroy him.  Looking at the account this way helps us to understand something of the mindless and senseless state of those who hated (and continue today to hate) the Lord.