Monday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 12:38-42

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the Prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”

“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” The scribes and the Pharisees are not to be asking in good faith for the Lord to prove to the, who he claims to be. Rather, they are daring him to produce a sign from heaven. But even such a sign as they were asking for would not suffice for them to believe. Just as they had incredibly attempted to explain away his exorcisms of demons by saying that he did so by the power of the prince of demons, they would concoct some excuse or explanation for even a sign from heaven.

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the Prophet.”  Both the Greek and the Hebrew words that can be translation as “generation” also mean “age”, and this is what the Lord should be understood as saying: “an evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign”. The “age” he means is the final age of human history which began with his Incarnation and will end with his Second Coming. We today live during this generation or age, and it does seek “a sign” because it is “evil and unfaithful.” It does not seek the reality, which it cannot deny but a sign which it can explain away. “But no sign will be given it” — because the time for signs is over: God has entered the world garbed in our flesh. “The sign of Jonah the Prophet.” Jesus instead points back to a sign given in the past, one very unlike the sign they scribes and Pharisees were daring him to produce for them. And yet Jonah is the greatest sign the Old Testament could offer for who Jesus was. Jonah was sent from Israel to a far country to preach repentance to an unbelieving people; during the storm on the boat on which he traveled he offered himself as a victim to save  foreigners; cast into the sea, he was swallowed by a great fish and after three days he was cast ashore onto dry land.  By pointing to this sign from Israel’s past the Lord Jesus taught about his life in heaven, his Incarnation, his mission, his sacrificial Death, and his Resurrection.

“At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.” A sign, due to its nature, must be explained in order to be understood. But the scribes and Pharisees do not ask Jesus for an explanation. And yet, the sign to which Jesus directed them should have provoked protests and questions. The fact that it did not shows the bad faith in which the sign was demanded.

So many people today seek signs, but the faithful can give them more than that. Through words and deeds we can show them Christ within us and teach them to long for experiencing him fully in heaven.

The Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 19, 2026

Matthew 13, 24–30

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

Matthew quotes Jesus as speaking often about the “kingdom of heaven”.  While we find these words here and there in the old rabbinical writings, we do not see them in the Old Testament.  Jesus proclaims this kingdom for the first time.  He does not define it in a precise way that would satisfy us modern people, but he often likens it to ordinary earthly experiences involving plants and merchants.  Perhaps the simplest way to think about what the term means is that it is the manifestation of God’s glory, or his righteousness.  The principle manifestation of God’s glory, of course, is the Lord Jesus himself.  Though we might prefer very simple, concise answers and definitions from our Lord, he is revealing eternal truths in human language, and the best way to do this is through parables, which present narratives that lead us to understand more than can be put into words.

The parables Jesus told nearly always included a grotesque  or even ludicrous element.  Here, that element takes the form of a man’s enemy going to extraordinary trouble to ruin the man’s crop.  The means he employs is not an efficient one and the risks the enemy takes in doing this do not seem worthwhile.  Still, this is what the enemy does, and his choices tell us much about him.  They speak of his desperation.

Jesus explains this parable in private to his Apostles: “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom” (Matthew 13, 38).  By “the children of the kingdom” he means those who are to be saved.  They are set into the world in order to grow and to bear fruit.  They are not there as passive decorations.  This hearing of fruit means producing good works, particularly bringing others into the Church.  Conversely, “the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.”  The “children” of the evil one means temptations and wicked people who join themselves to the devil.  These threaten or do actual harm to the children of the kingdom, but their purpose is to turn the “wheat” into “weeds”, and they cannot do this.  At the end of time, the wicked will be taken out and burned in everlasting fire, and the just will rise into a glory that never fades.  The lesson for the wheat: Persevere.  James 1, 12: “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for, when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which God has promised to them that love him.”

Jesus here also addresses the question of why there is evil in the world.  Why does God allow people to do wicked things?  Why does he allow the wicked, for instance, to desecrate, burn, and blow up Catholic churches, as they are doing now all over the world, seemingly with impunity?  God, in his marvelous providence, created a wide range of creatures.  Among them is the human race.  A human is created in such a way as to know and love God.  Love, however, must be chosen, and so the human person possesses free-will.  Free-will allows for love of God, but it also allows for placing the love of other things above the love of God, effectively resulting in hatred for that which belongs to God.  In short, for a human to love, he must also be able to hate.  In addition, those who choose to love other things above God are especially liable to the temptations of the devil.  But God does not leave his children defenseless prey for the wicked: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10, 30), but renders them temporal assistance as well as that of grace.  Ultimately, the one who suffers as a result of evil men, whether directly or indirectly, must look up beyond the dissolving world around us to our eternal prospects, and see that even the devil helps us to heaven, to his frustration, by furnishing the temptations which make us strong in resisting them.

Saturday in the 15th Week of Ordinary Time, July 18, 202(

Matthew 12:14-21

The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

This reading follows upon St. Matthew’s account of the Lord Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees “went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death” because they thought that he had broken the Sabbath by this action.  In fact, there was no justification for their view in the Books of the Law.  The Lord’s crime, in their eyes, was two-fold: he had broken the Sabbath according to their interpretation, and he was doing so in a way that undermined their “authority”, though no one with real authority had authorized them to teach anything.  Many had rejoiced at seeing the man’s hand healed, but all thePharisees could do was look for ways to keep this good from happening again.  There are always those who cannot see the good that others do, but imagine some evil is being perpetrated.  It is the poison of envy.

“When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.”  The Lord does not remain where he is not wanted.  He leaves the envious Pharisees, but the good he has done in that town remains.  He does not take his healings back.  They remain, and continuously remind the people who received them or saw them, of the Son of Man who had come into their midst.  Jesus withdraws because his time had not yet come.  When it did come, he would not let anyone or anything get in his way, but since it had not, he would go to another town to preach.  We wonder at his meekness here.  The Lord of all retreats before men, when he could destroy the Pharisees himself, or call down seven legions of angels to do this for him.  Instead, he moves from them, giving them a greater chance to reconsider before they acted irretrievably.  

“Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known.”  We see his mercy, and we see how true it is that his joy was to be among the children of men (Proverbs 8, 31).  He continued to heal the sick, the lepers, and the lame, as pathetic a group of people as could be found, following their only hope.  And he trusts himself to them, that they would not speak about him, the one who had given them life.  

“My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight.”  Matthew quotes Isaiah 42, 1-3 for all but the last line, which either he adds, or which his scroll of Isaiah has.  Through the Prophet, the Father speaks tenderly of his Son, in whom he delights.  “He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.”  That is, the Son will not rouse the people to arms in order to rebel.  “A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench.”  These are the ones who follow him.  The “broken reed” is the sick, the lame, the grief-stricken, the abandoned, and the “smoldering wick” are those who want to hear the words that lead to eternal life, but have not heard them from the Pharisees.  The Lord is careful with them, and heals the broken reed, and blows on the smoldering wick until it blazes with heat and light.  “Until he brings justice to victory.”  This is the final judgment at which justice is delivered for the just against the wicked.   

“And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”  Matthew may have added this line as a fitting conclusion, since it does not appear in the most important Greek and Hebrew texts.  Through Jesus, we all have hope for heaven, and even on earth we may hope and pray for the conversion of our enemies.

Friday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 18, 2026

Matthew 12, 1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

“Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.”  The many regulations pertaining to travel on roads and highways that exist today reflect concern for public safety and efficiency of travel for all in view of the large numbers of heavy, fast moving automobiles.  In ancient times, few, if any laws — such as traveling on the right or the left side of the road — were to be found.  Even the practice of walking through another man’s grain fields and snacking from whatever grain was within reach, was permitted.  At times, the ancient traveler had little choice than to traverse farmland due to poor or non-existent roads.  Jesus, here, is leading his disciples through a field of grain as he makes his way to another town.  His disciples are hungry, naturally enough, for their meals came irregularly due to their relentlessly itinerant lifestyle.  And so they do what is permitted: they pick and eat the heads of the grain as they follow the Lord.

“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.”  This comes from the Pharisees, who have abrogated to themselves the interpretation of Jewish Law.  In fact, though they represent that the legal prohibition they claim is from the Mosaic Law, it is, in fact, not.  The only possible reference to a limitation on walking during the Sabbath is found in Exodus 16, 29, in which the Lord God tells the Hebrews not to go outside the camp to collect manna on that day.  Only in the hundred years or so before the Birth of the Lord was this interpreted in the way the Pharisees held as tradition.  All the same, it was not written down in any code of laws at the time nor did it gain any official approbation from the Sanhedrin.  Thus, this is a case when the Pharisees bound “heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23, 4).  

“Have you not read what David did?”  The Lord Jesus has before challenged them on the legitimacy of their interpretations of the Law and on their authority for insisting that these are normative.  Here, he as much as says, “For the sake of argument, let us grant that you are correct about the law.  But let us see how this works in the case of David.”  The example the Lord offers is enough to quash their position entirely: “He went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering.”  That is, this should have been seen as a terrible profanation beside which what the Pharisees accused his disciples of simply paled.  The Lord then referred to the Law which they professed to know so well: “On the Sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent.”  

Now, in the first case, Jesus effectively compares himself and his Apostles to David and his companions who were in flight from King Saul; and in the second case, with the priests who served in the Temple.  We can understand the first case in terms of the Lord and his Apostles indeed making great haste; however, they were not fleeing from someone, but rather to someone — to the next town, to preach the Gospel, and in that case, “the workman is worthy of his wage” (Matthew 10, 10).  And in the second case, we see the Apostles compared to the priests who go about their work in the Temple, offering sacrifices, which is certainly fitting.  The Lord declares them to be “innocent men” in that they have broken no precept but are, in fact, doing holy work.

We also strive to be declared “innocent” by the Lord on the last day when “the accuser of our brothers . . . who accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12, 10) accuse us falsely of breaking God’s laws.  Let it be him, and not us, who is “cast forth”, overcome by “the Blood of the Lamb”.

Thursday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2026

Matthew 11, 28-30

Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

“Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.”  The Greek conjunction translated here as “for” more usually means “that”, so: “Learn from me, that I am meek and humble of heart.”  This makes more sense, since otherwise the Lord seems to say that we should learn from him “because” he is meek and humble of heart, which begs the questions, Why is being meek and humble of heart good?  What incentive is there to learn from one who possesses these qualities?  Neither the Law nor the Prophets teach that we should be meek and lowly of heart in dealing with our fellow humans.  Instead, we are to learn that the Lord is meek and humble of heart and because we love him we see these as good qualities for us to imitate for everyone desires to become like the one he or she loves.  

Further, the Lord Jesus shows us what meekness and lowliness of heart mean so that we are not left to hazy and perhaps conflicting definitions.  Among the countless examples of his meekness, we can think about his Incarnation and his Passion, particularly his dealing with the high priests and with Pilate.  In his Incarnation we behold the Almighty Son of the eternal Father, begotten of him before all ages, before whom the angels in all their majesty wonder in awe, join himself to a human nature to grow within a human womb for nine months, and then to be born in an ignominious place within his own creation, wrapped in dirty swaddling clothes, and laid in a piece of furniture out of which animals eat.  He did this willingly, eagerly, in obedience to the Father and out of his love for men and women who had devoted themselves to sin from the beginning, even knowing that the mass of these ungrateful creatures would reject him and some would kill him.  He does not shy away from offering his life for them and calls them “Satan” who would prevent him from doing so.  He resolutely makes himself subject to his Father and carries out his command.  Nor does he complain or threaten.  He does not call seven legions of angels to destroy his enemies.  He does not strike anyone dead for mistreating him, but even heals the slave of the high priest when he suffers a wound during his arrest.  He, the one before whom the demons quail, endures the insults of his own high priests and the insolence of the pagan secular power.  Nor does he punish the criminal crucified with him who blasphemes him, or ignore the plaintive prayer of the one who repents.  This is true meekness: carrying out the will of God without thought of self.

We observe his lowliness of heart in his great love for each human person, no matter how lowly their state or miserable their condition.  He touches lepers, the untouchable.  He touches the dead and raises them by the hand.  He refuses no one who comes to him to be cured, even those who show themselves ungrateful to him for saving their lives, as in the case of the nine lepers (cf. Luke 17, 12-17).  He runs himself ragged for three years through Israel so that everyone might have the chance to hear him, meet him, know him, and repent.  He does not restrict himself only to the Jews but goes to great trouble to expel demons from a Gentile in another country, and heeds the pleas of a Phoenician woman to cast out a demon from her daughter.  He lets the unclean touch him so that they might be cured.  He associates with the lowest classes of people: prostitutes and extortionist tax collectors in order to convert them.  Nor does he disdain to seek the salvation of those who have made themselves his mortal enemies, but discourses with them, challenges them, and gives proof of his divinity to them, as they he owed this to them.

Meek and humble of heart, he yearns for our salvation as well and offers to share his yoke — his life — with us so that we may attain it.

Personal Note: I messed up the recording of the second part of the Bible Study on the Book of Revelation last night so I am going to (try) to record this part in the next day or so that will be especially for those who come to my blog. I will let you know how it goes and I will post it as soon as I can.

Wednesday in the 15th Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2026

Matthew 11, 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the childlike.”  As St. Thomas Aquinas points out in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus did not choose Aristotle and Plato to be his disciples, but rather Peter and Andrew.  And the Lord chose fishermen rather than philosophers to be his instruments in spreading the Gospel in order to show his power.  If a painter is skilled and has the best brushes and paints, it is not surprising when he paints a nice landscape.  We expect that from him.  But if a painter is able to make an even more beautiful picture with gummy paint and old brushes, then it is remarkable.  In the case of the Apostles, the Lord chose to use not even paints and brushes but tar and rags, and with these he painted the most wonderful, colorful, skillful painting in all of history.  This shows that he is truly God.  He chooses to spread the Gospel today through you and me.  Regardless of our worthiness or skill, if we allow him to apply us to the canvas of this world, he can continue this picture, and so bring people to stand in awe of it, and worship him.

Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 14, 2026

Matthew 11, 20-24

Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.”  In the verses prior to those of today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord has upbraided the Jews for not repenting at the preaching of John the Baptist, then the Jews in general for not repenting at his own preaching, and now he reproaches specific towns for not having repented despite not only his preaching but his miracles which powerfully validate his calls to repent.  The Lord’s exclamations show his great hurt at the complacency of the people of these towns.  We get the sense from his words that if anything could shock God, this was it: this complete absence of interest in their eternal welfare.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”  The Lord’s use of “woe” here brings to mind the “woes” pronounced by the Prophets of old, especially that of the late Prophet Zephaniah: “Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!  She listens to no voice, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God” (Zephaniah 3, 1-2).   

“For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.”  The Lord compares the great and ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon with the insignificant fishing towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida.  Tyre and Sidon were thriving hubs of civilization and trade.  The residents of these cities were steeped in their polytheism, but they would have been far more open to the Lord’s message, he is saying, than had been the Jewish inhabitants of the towns that ringed the Sea of Galilee.  We should keep in mind the utter contempt in which the Jews held these pagan cities.  Those who lived in them were unclean “dogs”.

“But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”  A few centuries before, God had spoken through Ezekiel against Tyre and described its condemnation: “I will make you like a naked rock, you shall be a drying place for nets, neither shall you be built any more: for I have spoken it, says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 26, 14).  The unrepentant citizens of these Jewish towns would suffer both destruction and shame, as the pagans would be punished more lightly than they.  

“And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.”  The people of the very town where the Lord had come to live and where so many had heard his preaching and been cured of their incurable illnesses would go down to “the netherworld”.  Since the Greeks did not believe in a hell, they had no proper word for it and the translated of St. Matthew’s Gospel had used the only available word, “Hades”, for “the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” forever (Matthew 25, 30).  “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”  Sodom, the city destroyed by the Lord by the pouring of fire and brimstone upon it (cf. Genesis 19, 24), was emblematic for the most wicked deeds a human could commit.  And yet, the Lord says, if it’s residents had seen the miracles performed there that the Jewish people of Capernaum had seen, they would have repented.  The Lord is saying that complacency and indifference are worse than abominable wickedness.  “But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”  All sinners will hear these terrible words directed to them on the day of judgment: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25, 41).  All will go into the fire, but for the most wretched of them — those who strutted about in their sin despite years of chances to repent — the fire will blaze the hottest.