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.

The 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2023

Matthew 18, 15–20

Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The Lord refers to his “Church” as such exactly twice in the Gospels: in Matthew 16, 18, where Jesus tells Simon the son of John that he is “rock” and upon this rock he will build his Church, and here, where he provides guidance for church order.  It would be interesting to know whether the Lord used the Hebrew word keneseth, meaning “assembly”, which the Greeks translated with their word synagoge or whether he used the Greek word ekklesia, another Greek word meaning “assembly” that the early Christians, including the Apostles, preferred, as it distinguished the Christians from the Jews.  The fact that Jesus spoke of his Church during his lifetime indicates that he meant for his first followers to think of themselves as distinct from the Jews, though they themselves were  originally Jews.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  The Greek text is stronger: If your brother wins against you, depart and rebuke him between yourselves only.  The Lord’s counsel seeks to avoid the scandal among non-believers of a dispute between Christians.  St. Paul was already dealing with this problem among the Gentile Christians in the early 50’s: “But brother goes to law with brother: and that before unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 6, 6).  The Lord says, in the Greek, “Depart”: Do not remain where you are being wronged or hurt, as long as it is between you and the other and does not directly involve others.  “And rebuke him between yourselves only.”  That is, not only tell him that he has sinned and what his sin consists of, but how it has caused personal distress or harm.  Now, how one goes about doing this depends on several factors.  We have to act prudentially and choose the right time, place, and words for this rebuke.  It is best delivered in a calm though firm manner.  And the purpose of the rebuke is “to win over your brother”, not to avenge oneself on him.

“If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”  The stipulation for the number of witnesses goes back to Mosaic Law.  This next step depends upon there having been present at the offense at least two or three other people.   Their presence would be to cause the offender to admit to his action, to seek forgiveness, and to make amends when he might dismiss or make light of what the offended or harmed person says.  “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.”  That is, the local Christian community.  This was practical to do in the early years of the Church when individual churches were small and might contain a dozen or a few dozen people.  It is done now only in cases of a member of the clergy who causes harm to a parish through embezzlement, for example, or to a family or individual.  The matter should be reported to the local bishop, or, if it involves a bishop, the papal envoy may be contacted or the local archbishop.  “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”  The term for this action is excommunication, which St. Paul applied to the woman and her son who were living as husband and wife yet claiming to be Christians in 1 Corinthians 5, 1-5.  

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  This saying may have been given at a different time than the preceding counsel but Matthew was reminded of it when he recounted Jesus speaking of witnesses.  On the other hand, it may be that the Lord simply went onto a related but different subject st this point.  He is speaking though not of the general members of a local church but of the Apostles.  He had already granted Peter the power of binding and loosing but now he gives it to the Apostles as a group.  This power relates primarily to the sacramental absolution or withholding of absolution of sin.  It is the basis for the Apostolic Pardon which a priest gives to a dying Catholic.  The Pardon, presupposing the recipient is sorry for his sins and is detached from the desire to sin, not only forgives sins but also remits punishment due to sin in this world and in the next, meaning purgatory.

“Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”  If one person who believes in the Lord and asks for something in his name receives what he has asked for, how much more those who are joined together to ask for a certain thing!  What we ask for pertains to needed graces, conversions, and that which is necessary to do God’s will.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  The Lord is present in the believer’s heart through grace and is present in the midst of several believers to a stronger degree: “The Kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17, 21).

We see how the Lord does not leave us as scattered individual Christians but has bound us together not only through baptism but through the society of the Holy Church.  It is as members of his Church that he desires us to live out our lives in his service as we await his return, aided, comforted, and, when necessary, rebuked by other members.

Personal Note: I need to re-record the Bible Study discussion on the Hebrew language from this past Tuesday and will do so as soon as I can,

Saturday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 5, 2026

Luke 6, 1-5

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

At the Wedding of Cana, the Lord Jesus performed a miracle that was known only by the wedding servants, the Apostles, and the Lord’s Mother.  St. John tells us that this was the first of his “signs”.  He later performed miracles at various places in Galilee as he preached the Gospel.  But it was at Nazareth that he announced that he was the long-awaited Messiah, though not using that politically loaded term.  Then at Capernaum a demon Jesus exorcised cried out that he was “the Holy One of God”, while other demons called him “the Son of God”.  The miracles the Lord was performing acted as signs pointing to his identity as something much greater than a mere man or even a prophet.  The local Pharisees had heard about him and perhaps had sent to Nazareth to find out his background and what he had said and done there.  In today’s Gospel Reading we see them walking with the Lord and his Apostles.  We should see how curious this is.  Jesus is leading his Apostles to a particular destination and the Pharisees are simply tagging along with no other purpose than to watch the Lord with a critical eye.

“His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.”  Due to the Lord’s ceaseless activity and his zeal to preach, he and the Apostles often slept out of doors, eating sparely.  For instance, on the occasions when Jesus fed the large crowds, the twelve Apostles between them were found to have just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish — hardly enough for a filling meal for thirteen grown men.  The Apostles took advantage of a Jewish Law that allowed them to take and eat grain heads they could reach as they walked along a path.  Then they rubbed these in their hands, as though to bake them, and then they ate them.  The Pharisees were aghast.  “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”  They objected to the action of the rubbing of the grain heads.   The only thing in the Law that might be found behind their claim is from Exodus 16, 22, in which God tells the Israelites to gather enough manna on Fridays to last them into the Sabbath so that they would not break the law regarding resting on the Sabbath by preparing food.  For the Pharisees, rubbing the grain heads meant the preparation of food, and in the days of Moses, people were put to death for anything approaching the breach of the Sabbath (cf. Numbers 15, 32-36).

“Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry?”  The Lord refers to an incident recounted in 1 Samuel 21, 1-6.  It may not be apparent at first sight what this passage has to do with what the Apostles are doing, though both involve the actual or apparent breaching of the Law.  But David, in this passage, is fleeing from King Saul, who is trying to kill him though he is innocent of any crime or treachery.  And after David and his men had eaten, David lead them into the land of the Philistines, who recognized him as the king of Israel (v. 11).  Here, the Lord was indeed fleeing — not from an earthly enemy but to the Passion and Death he longed for in order to redeem the human race.  And as he went along he would be recognized for who he was: the Son of God, the King of Israel.  

In the moment, Jesus explains to the Pharisees that in case of dire necessity, exceptions should be made in the practice of the Law: if a person is famished, let him eat even if it means some minimal preparation of food on the Sabbath. By doing this, Jesus shows his compassion to the Apostles and thus equates himself to Ahimelech, the high priest who allowed David and his men to eat the consecrated bread.  The Pharisees may have noted that and the strong claim he was now making for himself.  His next claim stunned them.

“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”  Even if they had not heard that he had announced himself in Nazareth as the Messiah, the words of John the Baptist, the unprecedented gushing forth of miracles and even the cries of the demons identified this man as one who was beyond men.  His seeing himself in terms of the high priest would have further alarmed them.  But now he takes for himself the title of the Son of Man by which the Messiah was known by the Prophets and even in their own teachings.  And he assumed for himself the divine prerogative of Lawgiver in declaring that he, the Son of Man, was “Lord of the Sabbath”.  

The Evangelists do not tell us how the Pharisees responded.  Most likely they could not speak and stayed put for a while after the Lord and his Apostles resumed their passage through the wheat.  Perhaps they did not follow.  They had much to consider.

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta. I met her on a couple of occasions. Once at the Gift of Peace where I served as a live-in volunteer in the mid 1980’s when the Missionaries of Charity used it as a hospice for indigent AIDS patients. She came once or twice a year as sisters preparing for their final vows lived and worked there. I also met her (and shook her hand) after a Mass in which I served during which a number of younger sisters made their final vows. She came up to my third short button in height. I found her very child-like, very humble. When two newly ordained priests came by, hoping to give her their first blessing, her eyes lit up and she positively glowed at the prospect. When they entered the room she dropped to her knees and was as happy as a little girl at her birthday party. She now enjoys the eternal presence of the God for whom she worked so hard here on earth.

Friday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 4, 2026

Luke 5, 33-39

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”

In the first part of today’s Gospel reading, we learn, through the mouth of a Pharisee, something of the structured lifestyle that characterized the Pharisees and their disciples and John the Baptist and his.  They had this in common: they fasted on certain days and they prayed certain prayers, probably at set hours of the day in imitation of the schedule of prayers in the Temple.  The Pharisee’s question reveals at least his perception that the Lord’s disciples did not follow something similar.  And we know that the disciples themselves felt they needed the Lord to teach them to pray “as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11, 1).  Regarding prayer, Jesus wanted the disciples to ask him to pray so that they might understand that prayer is itself a gift of God, as well as knowing how to pray.  The question of fasting gives him the opportunity to reassert that he is the Bridegroom who has come to lead his Bride to his home in heaven.  The time for fasting will come, he says, but it is not now when he is still among us: this should be a time of feasting and rejoicing. 

“No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.”  The meaning of this parable is not easily discerned.  With some thought, the Lord appears to be saying that only those baptized and made anew can receive infusions of grace that enable the perfect following of God’s commandments.  However, if we grant that, then what are we to do with the the Lord’s observation that, “no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”?  The Lord is in fact observing what people say who will not try the new wine and remain with the old even when it has turned into vinegar.  St. Augustine says that the Lord is speaking specifically of the Apostles here, for at this time as “an old cloak” or “old skins”, the new wine of the Holy Spirit would burst them and overflow, but after the Lord’s Death and Resurrection they would be made new in order for him to fill them.  This is an apt interpretation because in the Acts of the Apostles 2, 13, when the Holy Spirit has filled them at Pentecost, the people hear them speaking other languages and praising God and they respond, “These men are full of new wine” (Acts 2, 13).  Peter, under the influence of the new wine of the Holy Spirit thereupon delivers an exhortation to the crowd that is so persuasive that “there were added in that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2, 41) to the ranks of the Church.

The Holy Spirit acts within a person and causes the person to change inwardly (as with wine) and outwardly (a new cloak) so that we are disposed to doing the good which the Lord would have us do.  Through the ages, earthly wine has been used for many purposes: for cleaning wounds, as a restorative and medicine, and to bolster courage, among others.  May the Holy Spirit heal the wounds of our sins and hurts, help us to recover and to persevere in times of tribulation, and to be bold in proclaiming the Gospel is the words, actions, and prayers of our everyday lives. 

Thursday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 3, 2026

Luke 5, 1-11

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

The events presented in today’s Gospel Reading are found only in the Gospel according to St. Luke.  Both St. Matthew and St. Mark, eager to quickly tell of the call of the first Apostles and then move on to the Lord’s teachings and his more spectacular miracles, summarize.  St. Luke, however, writing for the Gentiles, wants to point out to them the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness, which form the basis for his miracles.  In this account, we see how a miracle leads to an act of mercy that changes a life — and history.

“While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.” The Greeks would have known the Sea of Galilee as the Lake of Gennesaret, from the oldest name for this body of water.  Numbers 34, 11.  “Galilee” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “the district”, that is, the district of the Gentiles, for that is what northern Israel became after it was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.  It only became Jewish again in the hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born.  The Sea was later called the Sea of Tiberias after the city built on its coast by Herod Antipas and named for the reigning Roman emperor.  St. Luke is telling us that Jesus was outside a town, almost certainly that of Capernaum.  He is standing in the wild grass.  “He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.”  This tells us that it was the early morning, not long after daybreak.  The time may have been days, weeks, or months after Jesus had entered Capernaum and cured many people after sunset.  The mood of the fishermen who are washing their nets is dismal for they have nothing to show for a long night’s work.

“Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.”  Simon, soaked to the skin and exhausted, does as Jesus says.  This is not some small act of obedience.  All Simon wanted at that time was to finish washing the nets, dry off, and go to bed.  Putting out again took work, too.  “Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.”  He sat down, taking the posture of the teacher while his students stood attentively, and taught the crowds of the love of God, the need to repent, and about heaven.  “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  Jesus asks an extraordinary thing of an already exhausted man.  In so doing, he acts like a carpenter from landlocked Nazareth who does not know anything about fishing.  Again, Simon shows remarkable patience in his obedience: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”  He and his brother Andrew load the nets into the boat and put out into the lake.  It would have taken them perhaps thirty minutes and to get out to the middle of the lake.  We might wonder if, while engaged in this, Simon realized that this was a turning point of some kind.  He was taking orders that seemed unreasonable and even risked the mockery of his neighbors for the apparently foolhardy effort he was making.  He would have done this for no one else.  What did it mean for him?  What was happening to him?

“When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.”  Simon could not have reasonably expected anything to happen after he lowered the nets, and the Greek indicates that it happened as soon as the nets hit the water.  Simon was faced now with an emergency: his nets were tearing apart so that he stood to lose the nets and the haul of fish.  “They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.”  James and John had watched the spectacle from the coast along with their father Zebedee and the others.  At first it would have been difficult to tell what was going on, but when they saw the figure of Simon waving to them, silhouetted by the light of the rising sun, they hurried out. Rowing as hard as they could, they came alongside Simon’s boat and assisted with the nets, pulling as much of the catch into their boat as they could reach.  There was excitement and yelling and struggling with the nets and keeping the boats in position so that they did not crash into each other and yet remained near enough to work together.  And in the midst of all this, Simon caught sight of Jesus, calmly observing the scene.  He stopped what he was doing and “he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’ ”  He had seen the Lord perform miracles before.  This one was different.  This one was for him, and he knew, deep in his heart, that he was undeserving of it.  He knew who Jesus was, better than the demons who had cried out, “You are the Son of God!”  And he knew himself and he knew that Jesus had done this for him.  “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  Do not be afraid that you are not good enough.  Do not be afraid of your sinful past.  Do not be afraid of temptations.  You will catch men.  Simon could not have understood much or anything of what this meant, but it did not stop him from giving up everything, then and there, to follow Jesus: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.”

If we examine our lives and consider the immense love of the Lord Jesus, perhaps gazing at a crucifix as we do so, we will feel the urge to say with Simon Peter: Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful human being.  But let us not let our past prevent us from following him and “catching men” for him through our prayers, words, and good deeds.  He is the Fisherman and we are the nets.