Friday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, October 1, 2021

The Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

Luke 10:13-16

Jesus said to them, “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, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

St. Luke sets these words of the Lord just after he has addressed the seventy-two disciples whom he has sent out to the villages and towns, to prepare the way for him there.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”  The Lord Jesus is not speaking self-indulgently here: he is not venting.  Nor is he posing, showing himself as the righteous one in comparison with these wicked towns.  He speaks out of the fullness of his heart, almost in incredulity that the inhabitants of these towns have seen Divinity close up and yet failed to be changed by the experience.  They have in fact failed to change themselves as a result of seeing Divinity in action very near to them.  The irony here is almost too much to bear: the Lord has touched the blind and made them see.  He has touched the deaf and caused them to hear.  He has touched the lame and they have walked away, carrying the mats on which they had been brought to him.  He has driven out demons.  In not a single case in which his help was asked did he fail to cure that person.  He changed the lives of all these sick and infirm people, and yet the people who witnessed the miracles were unchanged.  It was as if a block of marble had not allowed Michelangelo to chip at it, or a lump of clay had refused to be handled by a potter: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? says the Lord” (Jeremiah 18, 6).  St. Luke includes this incident in his Gospel not simply because he knew of it, but because he thought it important for his Greek Gentile converts to know too.  The incident expresses the terrible fact that the Jews, by and large, rejected Jesus: not as a result of some lack of his power and persuasiveness, but in spite of the manifestation of his power and exposure to his preaching.  If you and I are to do our part in the conversion of the world, we must show with our behavior that the Gospel and the Sacraments are so powerful as to have transformed us into something more than the rest of humanity.  Grace must radiate through us so that others can see it, hear it, and feel it.  If it remains unseen, unheard, unfelt by others, then we have buried it, like the man given the single talent by his master to invest.  We become cups of cold water just out of reach, though in the sight, of thirsty men and women.

“Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”  The Lord Jesus may have said these words on another occasion, but Luke thought to include them here.  They are amazing words.  If we truly live in him, for him, and through him, then we bear his reflection vibrantly in us, and so when you or I are “rejected”, that is, insulted, assaulted, mocked, ignored, or persecuted for our beliefs and our way of life, then it is the Lord himself who is treated in this way.  Transformed by his grace, we carry him with us.  We do not merely represent him, but present him.  It would be as though we were the mother of the king’s son and we had taken him into public for the king’s subjects to admire and fall in love with, and instead they hurled insults at us, perhaps not daring to insult the prince himself.  The abuse, directed ostensibly at us, the mother, is a grave offense against the prince.  But those who listen to us, listen to the Lord.  Let us become saints through the grace of God so that this is so.  Therese of Lisieux was such a saint.  During her lifetime, her words were heard only by a few of the world’s inhabitants, but they are now published in many languages throughout the world.  Her simple words about God and about her life with him ring true with authenticity because of the sanctity with which she lived her life on earth, apparent to all who saw her.  We may think that our words extend only in a limited way, but sanctity makes them golden and like thunder.

 Thursday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 30, 2021

Luke 10:1-12

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”  In times when the crops had been watered with plenty of rain, but not too much; and plenty of sun, but not too much; and there had been no pestilence or hordes of insects eating the crops, nor foreign invaders to burn it as it stood in the field, there might be a glorious harvest.  The crops would still have to be gathered in quickly, as the window for harvests tended to be narrow.  A miscalculation could ruin a perfectly good crop.  At harvest time, every hand is needed to get the crop in before it spoils or rains.  The Lord says, “The harvest is abundant.”  That is, the world abounds in people who could be saved.  They are attracted to the Lord’s call and yearn to hear more and to be baptized.  They long for the Sacraments.  They cannot wait until they are enfolded within the saving embrace of the Holy Church.  “But the laborers are few.”  On farms in the western part of our country, at least, laborers are flown in from Australia to work in the fields because of the shortage of farm workers here.  These men are hired by blocs of farmers and they go from farm to farm.  If these men were not available, we would have food shortages in our country.  In the “field” of the world, all possible hands are working night and day to bring in the harvest of those to be saved.  Missionaries bring the Gospel to the people of far-off or isolated lands; priests and men and women religious along with lay folks teach RCIA classes, teach CCD or religion classes in the Catholic schools, and meet with people individually who are searching for the truth.  Likewise, lay people working and living in the world attract their neighbors and colleagues to the Faith through the good example of their lives.  And still, these are hardly enough.  Christ calls all those who believe in him to labor for the salvation of the world.  On America’s farms until fairly recently, even the small daughters in a farming family were expected to do their part at harvest: they would form part of a chain of women and children who continuously supplied the men gathering the harvest with cold water.  All of us can offer prayers and sacrifices for the good of souls.  No prayer is wasted, no sacrifice overlooked. 

“So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  The Lord addresses these words to us.  Some laborers are reluctant to be sent out: they might fear the workload or not think themselves skillful or strong enough.  But there is a place for every believer.  Some prefer the shade they have now to the sun they will face in the field, but these will miss out on the joy and celebration once the barns are filled.  If they exclude themselves from the work, they will be excluded from the reward.  The Master of the harvest does indeed send out laborers for his harvest.  We know that he goes into the marketplace at all times of the day to hire them, if only for an hour or two (cf. Matthew 20, 1-26).  But the ones he desires to hire and send out must still agree to be hired.  And so we pray that they will respond to the grace and inspirations of God to work for the conversion of the world.

“Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”. The Lord changes his image here from the harvesting of crops to going into the world as sheep among wolves.  He means for us to win souls by our innocence, but also to lure in the wicked by allowing them to see us as prey.  Indeed, those who work for the Master are often killed as they do his work.  These hear a voice from heaven, declaring, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow them” (Revelation 14, 13).  But innocence also has the power to convert the wicked: “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver, from your vain behavior in the tradition of your fathers, but with the Precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

 The Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, 

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

As I watched: Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne. His clothing was bright as snow, and the hair on his head as white as wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire. A surging stream of fire flowed out from where he sat; Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him. The court was convened, and the books were opened. As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a Son of Man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed. 

Traditionally, it is held that the rank of archangel comes between that of the angels and the principalities.  The word “archangel”, used only twice in the Scriptures, comes from a Greek word meaning “chief angel” or “ruling angel”.  We know the names of three archangels of the vast numbers of angels in this rank of the angelic hierarchy: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.  Previously, each was accorded his own feast day, but since the reform of the calendar after Vatican II, they are honored together on one day, that which formerly belonged to St. Michael alone.  The primary work of the archangels, as of all the angels, is to glorify Almighty God.  Secondarily, they are assigned to help humans to live the life of Faith, to practice the virtues, and to be saved so that we might glorify God in heaven with them.

The prayers of the Church invoke the choirs of angels and implore them to come to our aid, particularly at the end of our lives when we are most vulnerable to the temptation to despair.  The Archangel Michael, so strong in battle against Satan, delivers the holy soul who has just departed this world into heaven, safe from any hindrance of the devil and his cohort.  St. Michael is invoked during the traditional form of the Mass in the Confiteor (“I confess to Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed Michael the Archangel, Blessed John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and you, brethren, that I have sinned through my own fault, etc.”).  It is also thought that he is the angel spoken of in the Roman Canon when the priest prayers for God’s holy angel to take the Sacrifice on the altar to God’s altar in heaven.  Michael appears as the protector of God’s Chosen People in the Book of Daniel, and as the Church’s great protector in Revelation 12, 7-9.  

The Archangel Gabriel is best known for his appearances to Zechariah the priest in the Temple, announcing the birth of John the Baptist, and to the Virgin Mary, announcing the Conception and Birth of the Son of God.  Church writers from the Fathers onwards hold the opinion that it is Gabriel who speaks to St. Joseph in his various dreams.  Some have even held that he appeared as the star of Bethlehem, guiding the Magi to the newborn King.  He also appears in the Book of Daniel, explaining prophecies, as he would explain mysteries to Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph.

All that we know of the Archangel Raphael comes from the Book of Tobit.  He is instrumental in the safe travels of Tobias, his mission to recover money owed to his stricken father, the safe marriage of Tobias and Sarah after demons have killed her previous husbands, and the cure of Tobit’s blindness.  In light of these good works, Raphael is invoked as a patron of travelers and for healing.  Very memorably, at the end of the Book of Tobit, Raphael reveals himself with these words: “I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord” (Tobit 12, 15).  These “seven” include Michael and Gabriel.  They would seem to be the principal archangels who “stand before the Lord” interceding for the human race.

We marvel at those who stand before the Lord, “thousands upon thousands” ministering to him, and “myriads upon myriads” attending him.  Creation is so much more than the human race, and so much more than the measurable universe.  We inhabit but a tiny corner of it, a speck that will one day disappear.  Let us live lives worthy of heaven with the help of the Archangels so that we may one day stand before God with them.

 Tuesday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 28, 2021

Luke 9:51-56

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

“When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”  This verse helps us to understand an important fact of St. Luke’s Gospel.  Let us note that this Gospel contains 24 chapters.  Of these, the first three chapters speak of the preparations for the Lord’s Birth, his Birth, an episode from his Childhood, John the Baptist’s mission, a couple of verses describing the Lord’s baptism, and then his genealogy.  Chapter 9, 52 through Chapter 24 tell us of the events that covered a few weeks in the last year of the Lord’s life on earth and of his Resurrection.  Chapter 4 through almost the end of Chapter 9 are all we have from Luke on the nearly three years of our Lord’s Public Life, minus his last journey to Jerusalem and all that happened there.  The greatest part of the Gospel of Luke concerns itself with just a few weeks of the Lord’s life.  That is not to criticize the Gospel in any way, but understanding this helps us to see the importance of what Luke does tell us in those few chapters apart from his beginnings and the last stage of his Public Life.  It also tells us of what Luke and those for whom he was writing considered most important: all that Jesus said and did during his last journey, the Last Supper, his Passion and Death, and his Resurrection.  (St. Mark approached the writing of his Gospel in the same way, and seven of St. John’s twenty-one chapters are devoted to what the Lord did just on Holy Thursday and Good Friday).  

“When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, etc.”  The Greek word translated here as “to be taken up” would be better translated as “to be raised up”, as in his crucifixion.  And his days “were completely filled up”, according to the Greek, a figure of speech indicating that there was no more room for any other word or action.  “He resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”  The Greek says, “He fixed his face firmly to journey to Jerusalem.”  This more graphically tells us that his manner changed, at this point.  He was no longer simply preaching repentance; he was preparing himself and his Apostles for the end.  

“He sent messengers ahead of him.”  These seem not to be any of the Apostles, but some of the disciples.  They would have announced the Lord’s coming as that of a king or conqueror.  And indeed, he comes as the conquering Messiah who will ultimately take Jerusalem — not by force of arms, but with his mercy.  “On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there.”  As the Lord was traveling from Galilee to Judea, it would be difficult to avoid Samaria.  The messengers would have preferred not to enter a Samaritan town, where they almost certainly would not be welcome.  Still, the Lord came to save all and so all would have the opportunity to know him and to accept him or reject him.  “But they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.”  We can understand this verse spiritually as: hardened sinners do not listen to the Lord because he wants to lead them to heaven.  The sinner does not want to be told he is a sinner and that he has to live a different way lest he die.  The promised glories of heaven mean little to those resolved to sin, interested as they are only in short-term gain.

“When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, etc.”  The Lord Jesus called the sons of Zebedee the boanerges (cf. Mark 3, 17), Aramaic for “sons of commotion” or, according to St. Mark, “sons of thunder”.  The reason for our Lord doing so seems clear from their desire “to call down fire from heaven to consume them” [the Samaritans].  These two must have preached with great fire and been prepared for action at any moment.  Knowing this helps us to understand why Herod chose to put James to death (cf. Acts 12, 2-3).  Their impetuosity overruns their good sense, here.  Rather than waiting to see what Jesus will do in response to this rejection by the town, they want to force their own solution on their Lord.  We do this too.  “Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.”  We are not told what Jesus said to them, and so he may have made his rebuke of them short though sharp.  The Lord never punished anyone for walking away from him or rejecting him.  He simply let people go their way, or walked away himself.  We see this in Luke 4, 30, when the people of his own town tried to kill him: “But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.”  And as happened after Jesus had fed the five thousand and explained to them that they needed to eat his Body and drink his Blood to be saved: “After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him” (John 6, 67).  In his mercy, the Lord lets them go or departs from them in peace so that they might have time to think, to repent, and to come back to him.  We see this most of all in how he allowed his Apostles to flee when he was arrested, and even to intervene for them so that they might not also be arrested.  And then, on Easter Sunday, he returned to them.

 Monday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 27, 2021

Zechariah 8:1-8

This word of the Lord of hosts came: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her. Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.

When Zechariah is the First Reading, Advent can’t be far away.

“I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her.”  This reading can be understood as the Lord speaking about the Jews in exile in Babylon and his desire to bring them back to Israel, but also as the Lord speaking about a believer who has sinned and repented.  In this verse, for instance, the Lord declares that he is “stirred to jealous wrath” for the repentant Christian: he will protect this lost sheep who has returned.  He will hold it tightly in his arms lest the devil seek to lure it back to disaster.  “I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem.”  Almighty God speaks of his intention to be with his people when they return, and also to fill the repentant sinner with his grace and to dwell once again on the throne of his heart.  “Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”  The Lord even seems nostalgic in this verse for his relationship with the repentant one before the sin, and is eager to resume it.  “Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.”  That is, sense will return to the sinner who has come back.  “The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.”  Moral and spiritual strength will return, and a certain innocence, after the priest grants him absolution.

“Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?”  After the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem, about sixty years before Zechariah uttered this prophecy, a large number of its citizens were driven into exile, but many remained behind.  There were two “remnants” then, and for both, return seemed impossible.  The one group who remained looked at the ruins of the city and its torn-down walls and saw that there was nothing for the exiles to come back to.  The exiles saw no end in sight to their desperate situation.  But with God, all things are possible.  Similarly, a person who has purposely broken God’s law devastates his own soul and pulls down the walls of grace that protect him from evil.  It seems impossible that he could ever be restored.  And he cannot be, by his own efforts.  Only grace can do this.  “Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun.”  Whatever the sin and no matter how serious, God can rescue the fallen soul at the slightest prayer for help.  “I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem.  They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.”  God has more ardent desire to restore his people than they are to be restored.  It is quite amazing to hear the Infinite God speaking like this.  But so desirous is he to gather our souls in his embrace that he would even sacrifice his Son for them.

 The 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 26, 2021

Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48

At that time, John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass consists of four sayings of Jesus that St. Mark has joined together.  The first is prompted by St. John telling the Lord: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”  To this, Jesus replies: “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”  John and the others saw someone attempting to drive out demons using the name of Jesus, and while this person might not be successful because he is neither authorized nor given power to exorcise, he is harmless to Lord and his Apostles and may indeed prove helpful in that the name of Jesus as having power is being spread.  As St. Paul said many years later: “Some indeed [preach], even out of envy and contention: but some also for good will preach Christ. Some [preach] out of charity, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel. And some out of contention preach Christ not sincerely: supposing that they raise affliction to my chains. But what then? So that by all means, whether by occasion or by truth, Christ be preached: in this also I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1, 15-18).  So we who strive to make the Lord’s name known ought simply to concentrate on the work given to us and leave alone what others do.

The second saying: “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.”  Those who support the work of spreading the Gospel will share in the missionary’s reward.  And we are all to be missionaries for Christ, according to the Lord’s command (cf. Matthew 28, 19-20).

The third saying: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”  We “cause” people to sin through bad example, misleading with words, coercion, negligence in preventing the sin, and promising to participate with another in their sin.  Sin abounds and is even glorified in our society today and we may feel overwhelmed in trying to do anything about it, but we must take care that we do nothing to encourage it and to give good example to show that there is a different way to live — in Christ.  We must never do or say anything that seems to approve of sin.  The “little ones” of whom Jesus speaks are our neighbors for whom the Lord also died.  By his calling them “little ones” we recollect that we are “little ones” too, before the Lord of all the world.

The fourth saying: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, etc.”  The Lord uses a figure of speech to teach the seriousness of sin and also the means to prevent further sin.  In speaking of a hand or foot “causing” sin, the Lord means the motivation of the sin for which the hand or foot is used.  Therefore, we cause, so to speak, our hands and feet to sin.  But what we are told to do is to take stock in our meditations of the gravity of sin which can cut us members off from the Body of Christ, so that we flee temptation when we cannot fight it.  “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”  That is, the soul and body of a person are corrupted on earth by sin, and worms feed on this corruption in the grave.  The corruption of the wicked will endure into eternity and worms will not cease to consume it.  The “worm” here can also be understood as feelings of guilt and remorse which only serve to torment the wicked once their time on earth is over.  The “fire” is the exterior punishment that those who do evil in the world suffer.  It is a physical fire that will burn the resurrected bodies of sinners after the last judgment, and a spiritual fire that burns their souls even now.

 Saturday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 25, 2021

Luke 9:43b-45

While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

In St. Luke’s chronology, this saying of Jesus occurs after he was transfigured on the mountain, and then expelled a demon from a little boy which his Apostles had failed to cast out.  

A more literal translation of the Lord’s words is: “Lay you up in your hearts these words, for it shall come to pass that the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men.”  A distinction is to be made between “pay attention” and “lay up in your hearts”.  In the first, the speaker orders his hearers to listen closely.  In the second, the speaker wants his hearers to hold onto what he is telling them.  They are to listen to his message and ponder it.  A person who is told to “pay attention” may rightly discard the words after he has listened to them.  Jesus wants his Apostles to think about what he is telling them, to ponder it, and not to forget it.  This “handed over” or “delivered” comes from a Greek word that also means “to betray”.  Jesus speaks very clearly that he will be betrayed.  But what did that mean to the Apostles at that time?  St. Mark gives a fuller account of what Jesus said on this occasion: “The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise again the third day” (Mark 9, 30).  Speaking in this way after he was glorified before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, and after his marvelous exorcism of the boy, his words would have come across as nonsense.  He seemed at the height of his fame and in manifesting his power.  Nothing appeared in the way of his successful march on Jerusalem, where he would reestablish the kingdom of Israel.

“But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it.”  The Apostles were not ready to hear his words.  Their meaning escaped them because they did not want to face them.  Jesus’s saying might have been a parable for all they knew, and they were accustomed to ask Jesus the meaning of his parables.  But not this one.  Just as the Pharisees refused to believe that Jesus was from God despite all the miracles they witnessed, so the Apostles refused to believe that Jesus would be betrayed, arrested and killed.  And what did it mean that he would rise from the dead?

Times arise in our lives when we come face to face with some hard reality, something that flies on the face of our expectations.  We can take it seriously or go into denial about it.  A person could realize that he or she is called by God to the Priesthood or the religious life, and say no and refuse to think of it again.  Or the person can begin to think about this, and take time to get used to the idea.  Or someone could realize that they have been acting in a hurtful way to other people.  They can either think about this and change their behavior or reject the idea out of hand and go on as before, driving friends and family out of their lives.  It is necessary for us to “lay up in our hearts” the insights and calls Almighty God sends us and to follow them so that we might draw nearer to him as we do his will.

 Friday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 24, 2021

Haggai 2:1-9

In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: Tell this to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak, and to the remnant of the people: “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes? But now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the Lord, and take courage, Joshua, high priest, son of Jehozadak, And take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. This is the pact that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, And my spirit continues in your midst; do not fear! For thus says the Lord of hosts: One moment yet, a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come in.  And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Mine is the silver and mine the gold, says the Lord of hosts. Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former, says the Lord of hosts; And in this place I will give you peace, says the Lord of hosts!

In the First Reading for today’s Mass, we hear Almighty God speaking through his Prophet Haggai, urging the Jewish people whom he had brought back from exile in Babylon to rebuild his Temple in Jerusalem.  

“Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?”  Since the period of the exile extended about seventy years, few that returned to Jerusalem could describe from their own experience what the original Temple had looked like.  The Lord is telling the people that they are a new generation who will make a new Temple, and also that fears of not being able to build one the equal of the original are unfounded.  No one remains who can make that comparison.  “And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?”  All that is left is pitiful ruins.  Whatever the Jews are able to build, with their limited resources, will surpass these ruins.

“Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts.”  God addresses by name the governor, Zerubbabel, a descendent of David, and the high priest, Joshua, telling them, and also the people, to take courage and to set to work.  The project, already begun and shortly afterwards discontinued, would entail much labor and expensive material.  It amounted to an enormous undertaking by a people still struggling to live amidst drought and political intrigue. “For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. This is the pact that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, And my spirit continues in your midst; do not fear!”  The Lord assures the Jews that he will prosper their work on the Temple just as surely as he led their ancestors out of Egypt.  Note here the use of the second person plural “you”: “This is the pact that I made with you”.  For the Jews, a person was his ancestors, and the descendants of a person were that person.  This is the meaning of the cry of the Jews to Pilate, “Let his Blood be on us and on our children!”  Their children were not innocent, in their eyes, but were also necessarily implicated in Christ’s Death.

“One moment yet, a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will come in.”  The Greek word translated here as “treasures” actually means “the choice things”, or, “the chosen things”.  It is used in the Gospels to speak of “the elect”.  For this reason, this verse traditionally has been understood to refer to the Messiah, the Elect of God, being his only-begotten Son.  Thus, the coming of the Messiah, his Incarnation and Birth, are attended with signs of a seismic change in the universe: God becomes man.  This was prophesied in a psalm: “In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God: And he heard my voice from his holy temple: and my cry before him came into his ears.  The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them. There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet” (Psalm 18, 7-10).  The human race, unable to save itself from sin and death, calls out to God, and he himself comes down.  The heavens and the earth shake at the sight of this. Peter acknowledges Jesus Christ as “the Christ of God” in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass.  The Father has revealed this to him.  The revelation is hardly less of an event than the Incarnation itself.  It is very much “earth-shaking” news.  

“And I will fill this house with glory.”  That is, with the glory of his Son.  “Mine is the silver and mine the gold”.  For the Jews of the time of Haggai, these words were an assurance that God would provide the gold and silver for the adornment of the Temple.  We Christians can understand these as the spiritual riches with which the Lord endowed his Church.  “Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former.”  While Almighty God dwelt in the original Temple in sign, the Son of God would in fact walk about the second Temple and defend it as his Father’s House.  This second Temple can also be understood as the Church, the fulfillment of the sign of the Chosen People.  “And in this place I will give you peace!”  That is, the Prince of Peace.  “For he is our peace” (Ephesians 2, 14).

 Thursday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 23, 2021

Haggai 1:1-8

On the first day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius, The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak: Thus says the Lord of hosts: This people says: “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” (Then this word of the Lord came through Haggai, the prophet:) Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed; And whoever earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! Go up into the hill country; bring timber, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive my glory, says the Lord.

The Prophet Haggai worked in Jerusalem around the year 520 B.C., as we know from information provided in the book of his prophecies.  He is said to have been a young man at the time of the return of the Jewish exiles in Babylon to Judea.  The returning Jews were filled with religious zeal and they began to restore the worship of God as soon as they reached Jerusalem.  They began to rebuild the Temple, though short of money and materials, but a few years later work came to a standstill as a result of flagging zeal and years of bad harvests.  The work ceased for some sixteen years, and it was during that time that the word of the Lord came to Haggai, to urge the work to be resumed. 

A note of interest regarding the words in the reading which precede the actual prophecy.   Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, is mentioned as an ancestor of the Lord Jesus according to his human nature in the genealogy at the head of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  

“The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”  Haggai gives the popular opinion of the time that other matters had to come before the Temple.  The political situation of the time was marked by uncertainty and instability, as well.  The Samaritans, for instance, actively tried to thwart the rebuilding of the Temple.  This opinion begs the retort that the perfect time for building the Temple or for beginning any project will never arrive.  As the commandant of my high school told my class once, “If you wait until you have enough money to marry, you will never get married.”  “Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”  The Lord contends through Haggai that the people had their houses while their God did not.  It would be as if the master slept outside while the slaves slept in their quarters.  

“You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated; have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed.”  Through the Prophet, Almighty God sums up the situation of the Jews at this time: they have indeed returned from Babylon, but their life was not magically transformed after they returned.  They still had to plow fields and sow seeds and harvest grain and fruit in order to eat.  In addition, their life was made hard by the fact that Jerusalem still lay largely in ruins.  The walls had been pulled down by the Babylonians and the city burned.  Besides this, drought on successive years had led to hunger and increased poverty.  Truly, the returning Jews had eaten, but not been filled.

“Consider your ways! Go up into the hill country; bring timber, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive my glory, says the Lord.”  The Lord indicates to them that their lot will improve only when his House is restored, so that he may dwell among them.  Of course, the Jews did not believe that the infinite God could be contained in a house or that he needed one for any reason.  The Temple meant the restoration of their religion and a rededication of themselves as servants of the one, true God.  Service to God must come before taking care even of oneself.  As the Lord Jesus would say five hundred years later, “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10, 37).  As for the improvement of the lot of those dedicated to the service of God, Jesus says, “Be not anxious therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or how shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. Your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6, 31-33).

For nearly five hundred years, the second Temple, built on the site of Solomon’s original Temple, stood modestly in the Holy City.  King Herod the Great , in the years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, began an extensive overhaul of the structure so that it regained much of the glory of the first Temple.  It was in this Temple that the Lord Jesus prayed, taught, and performed many miracles.  He who had spoken through the prophets, including Haggai, at last came to speak himself.

We can understand the Temple of God, as Paul did, as ourselves: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God: and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6, 19).  We become Temples upon our baptism.  We are consecrated to God’s service, and he dwells within us.  When we sin, we drive the Lord from his Temple, and when we fall from the Faith we tear it down, as the Babylonians tore down the first Temple, and as the Romans destroyed the second, sending our souls into a bitter exile away from God.  But when we recover our faith, by the grace of God, we return from our exile and rebuild our Temple so that he may dwell within us once again as our Sovereign and Savior.

 Wednesday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 22, 2021

Luke 9:1-6

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”  According to St. Luke’s chronology, the Lord Jesus sent out his Apostles on mission after he raised the daughter of Jairus  from the dead.  After the Apostles returned, he preached to a crowd of five thousand, on which occasion he said to them, “Give you them to eat” (Luke 9, 13).  We can interpret this order of events as the Lord giving the Apostles a sign of his power in the raising of the little girl, which gave them the confidence to preach and to heal as he commanded them.  After they had done so, he tells them to feed the large crowd.  In this way the Lord showed them that their work was not done when they returned from their mission: they would always be doing the work of the Gospel.  Here, when the Lord tells them to give the crowd something to eat, he is telling them to feed the crowd spiritually with their preaching.  The Apostles will understand this later, that their preaching the word of God gives life more surely than physical food.  

To provide signs of their authority to preach the Gospel, and that it was true, the Lord gave them power to heal sickness and cast out demons — physical and spiritual evils.  These signs also pointed to the approach of the Kingdom of God, as a sort of fanfare for the arrival of their King.  We ought to glorify God, who gave such power to men (cf. Matthew 9:8).  That is, who worked through men with such power, for all power comes from God.  Almighty God continues to work great miracles through his saints, and the miracles of the Sacraments through his priests.

“Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.”  The Lord ordered his Apostles to go as they were, without any preparations.  They would look more like fugitives when they arrived at a town than the heralds of a King.  Their words would not be smooth and practiced either, as were those of the Pharisees.  This would actually lend greater credibility to their words, backed up by the miracles they performed.  They did not rely upon schools and training to tell the truth about God.  They were not professional preachers who did this for a living.  They showed up as people much like the people to whom they spoke, and whom they cured.  The Lord’s injunction to take nothing with them was also directed for their own benefit.  They could be in no doubt that God was working through them or that they were doing these things of their own power or skill.  For them, the sign was that they were doing the same work as their Master.  He had made them something like himself.

“Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”  If they were first welcomed into a humble house, they were to stay there and not move on though someone else might offer them the hospitality of their finer house.  The Apostles were not to give any impression that they were after prestige or money.  The message of the Gospel must not be impeded by the distraction of its preacher.  But neither must it be forced on anyone.  If preaching and persuasion failed, they were commanded to leave the town peacefully — not with anger and curses.  

“Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”  They went out in pairs so as to assist and encourage one another.  Their success proved immediate.  Preaching in the marketplace or in the town synagogue, if it had one, and curing the sick, many came to believe in the Good News that the Kingdom of God was approaching.  The preaching the Apostles did at this time sowed seeds which they would nourish and which would grow after Pentecost when they returned to preach again. 

The Lord Jesus wills for us to preach the Gospel just as we are.  We do need to know the rudiments of our Faith, as the Apostles did at the time they went out under the Lord’s direction so that we have something to give people.  It is the sincerity of our words and the integrity of our lives that will plant the seeds which Jesus gives us to sow.

 The Feast of St. Matthew, Tuesday, September 22, 2021

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

The Hebrew name “Matthew” means “the gift of God”.  The Apostle Matthew is called “Levi” by St. Luke, which perhaps is the name of his father, so that the Apostle’s full name was Matthew, the son of Levi.  Matthew was born and lived in Galilee and worked as a tax collector, which may have been his father’s occupation as well.  His line of work was despised by the Jews since it meant, in effect, collaborating with the Roman occupiers.  Also, the tax collectors were known for overcharging people, which resulted in additional loathing.  Matthew’s friends were limited to his colleagues for these reasons.  He lived well, as we can surmise from his occupation and from the fact that he had a large enough house and yard to accommodate “many tax collectors and sinners” as well as Jesus and the Apostles he had so far called.  It is fair to presume that he was married, as he owned his own house and was established in his work: he was clearly of age.

The story of St. Matthew’s call is simply told.  Jesus came upon him at his custom’s post and called to him, and the tax collector walked away from his job and never went back to it.  This speaks very much to the power that radiated from our Lord, that a man like Matthew would leave his career and family to join Jesus without any apparent hesitation.  Besides this, that Peter, Andrew, James, John, and the others already called by Jesus would accept Matthew and not be scandalized enough to leave.  We know that Peter was very strict in the practice of his religion, for in a vision recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, he was told to kill and eat unclean animals. To this he replied, “No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean” (Acts 10, 14).  If not for the Lord’s hold on him, surely Peter would have at least spoken up, and likewise Matthew would not have dared to join his followers.  St. Luke adds, in his account, that Matthew “left everything and followed him” (Luke 5, 28).  

“While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.”  The transition in Matthew’s own account is rather sharp.  Luke tells us that Matthew “made him a great feast in his house” (Luke 5, 29).  This would have taken place in the afternoon, as that was the time for the main meal of the day.  We can imagine the haste with which this was put together: animals had to be slaughtered and prepared, some food probably had to be purchased in the marketplace, invitations issued to friends and colleagues.  Matthew would have had slaves to perform much of the labor, but even if done quickly, it would have taken a little time.  Matthew would have welcomed Jesus into his house and given him the kiss of welcome and anointed his head with oil.  There may have been music as the crowd of guests settled onto their couches to eat.   

“The Pharisees saw this.”  It seems like Jesus cannot do anything or go anywhere without Pharisees turning up.  Here they are again, perhaps not many, but only a couple.  Still, they would have made up for their lack of numbers with their haughtiness and arrogance.  “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  The Pharisees were never interested in the repentance of sinners.  They only concerned themselves with preserving, as they thought, the righteous.  The Gospel writers very deliberately emphasized that Jesus and John the Baptist preached the repentance of sins to show how distinct they were from the Pharisees from the very beginning.  For the Pharisees, it was literally unthinkable that any Jew could associate with “tax collectors and sinners”.

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.”  For the Pharisees, sinners were not “sick” so that they could be healed, but already dead and needed to be buried.  The Lord points out to them how they should look at sinners, and treat them, as physicians treating the sick who came to them for healing: with patience, kindness, and the true medicine of mercy.  The Lord probably gave the Pharisees a chance to respond to his words.  When they did not, he told them, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”  The Lord quotes Hosea 6, 6.  He offers this medicine to the Pharisees so that they might heal from their delusions and do the will of God.  And like a good physician, he couches the prescription with a warning.  The warning is found in the context of the quote from Hosea, in which God is speaking about his people: “I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. But, as Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy” (Hosea 6, 5-9).  And then, in Hosea 7, 13:  “Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!”

This lesson would not have been lost on Peter and the others, and we never hear of strife among the Apostles over Matthew’s inclusion among them.

Following Pentecost, Matthew preached for some years, likely in his native Galilee during the worst years of the persecution launched against the Christians there by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.  He wrote his Gospel in either Aramaic or Hebrew at that time to encourage the believers in Jesus, many of whom had lost their own property and been beaten, and some of whose family members had been martyred.  Reduced to the direst poverty, with threats to their lives, they yearned for the return of the Lord Jesus and for his judgment.  Matthew emphasizes the Lord’s teachings about persevering during persecution as well as the Lord’s protection of the faithful, the certainty of his coming again, and the judgment to end the world.  After preaching in the Holy Land, Matthew went abroad to spread the Gospel, some say to Ethiopia and some say to Asia Minor or Greece.  According to tradition he suffered martyrdom.

 Monday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 20, 2021

Luke 8:16-18

Jesus said to the crowd: “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lamp stand so that those who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care, then, how you hear. To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.”

It seems that the three sayings contained in this reading from the Gospel of St. Luke are related only in terms of things appearing and not appearing, and that they are not related in terms of an overall meaning.  We see this practice of recording the Lord’s sayings in an apparently haphazard fashion throughout the first three Gospels, especially in that of St. Matthew, who sometimes seems to write things as they occur to him rather than as a connected series.

The first saying we have is, “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lamp stand so that those who enter may see the light.”  This can be understood as Almighty God giving the gift of faith to someone.  God gives this gift not as a reward for some action on the person’s part, but as a means of drawing others to the Gospel.  Each of us who believes in God is set “on a lamp stand” — public life — in order to shine into its darkness and to light the way to the Gospel.  Each of those who are thus “enlightened” are set on a lamp stand as well.  Groups of lights on lamp stands are the various Catholic churches throughout the world and constitute “golden candlesticks” among which the Lord Jesus is said to stand: “And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks: and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like to the Son of Man” (Revelation 1, 12-23).

The second saying is: “For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.”  This is a warning concerning the final judgment, particularly, and of God’s Providence, in general.  If we wait patiently, the causes of injustices are revealed even in this world.  Today, for instance, many “cold case” crimes are solved through DNA testing that could not have been done at the time these crimes were committed.  Hope had been given up that the perpetrators would ever be caught.  Surveillance of all kinds is now a regular fact in the world and this also aid in identifying criminals, although the privacy of innocent people may also be threatened by this.  But Jesus means that our own thoughts will be revealed at the end so that our intentions will be made known: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12, 36).  Also, Revelation 20, 13 can be interpreted this way: “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it.”  This is for the establishment of justice.  The hypocrisy of the wicked will be shown in broad daylight, as well as the hidden prayers and good deeds of the just.  Sufferings that people strove to hide will be made known to all.  All that happened to us in the world will finally make sense.

The third saying is, “Take care, then, how you hear. To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.”  This is mysterious until we realize that it is about faith.  The faith of those who have it will grow stronger as a result of its exercise, especially in perseverance.  Those whose faith is weak will lose it altogether in time of tribulation: “And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. 

Yet it has no root, but is only for a time: and when there arises tribulation and persecution because of the word, he presently falls away” (Matthew 13, 20-21).  Those whose faith is weak do not exercise it and at best consider the Gospel merely a private philosophy that need not influence their actions.  They bury their talent, as it were: “But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money” (Matthew 25, 18).

The Lord Jesus speaks so succinctly.  The richness of even his shorter sayings so abounds that they reveal his divinity.

 The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 19, 2021

Mark 9:30–37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.  They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Some years ago I talked to a woman who wanted to become a priest.  I asked her why, and she said that she wanted to lead a parish, and to run things at a parish.  I think she did not really want to become a priest; she only wanted the “power” to lead a parish.  “Power” was a word she used frequently in our conversation.  I think she may have confused “power” and “authority”, but I could be wrong.  The powers that a priest has are sacramental.  A priest may be given authority as pastor of a parish by his bishop, but authority is a very different thing from power.

St. Mark recounts for us, in this Gospel reading, how the Apostles argued about power.  As they understood it at that time, the Lord Jesus was leading a movement not unlike other movements of the time, which had as their goal the reform of religion or the overthrow of the Romans.  With this in their minds, “office politics” were bound to arise: the struggle to be second-in-command, or to gain the notice and favor of the leader, to make others look less competent, to take over duties.  The Lord strove throughout the three years of his Public Life to teach the Apostles that theirs was a different sort of movement, and that authority is different from power.  

“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”  In his movement, his Church, the leader is the head servant, patterned after the Lord himself, who came to die on the Cross not for his own glory but for our salvation.  He came to serve, not to be served, and so shall his members serve, in him.  “Power” is only the ability to serve in different ways.  “Authority” means having the means to direct one’s fellow servants.  In the end, our desire for power is a sign of our own insecurity.  We want to clap our hands and make ourselves safe or punish those who seem to threaten us,  but if anything, the Lord teaches us that the safety we most often crave does not lead to salvation.  It is an impediment to it if it keeps us from living the Gospel.  The Lord came to lay down his life for us.  He rejected safety and the use of power to make himself safe, as we see in the temptations he endured in the wilderness.  

In living the Christian life and in spreading the Gospel, as we are told to do, we must think how we might serve God, and let our service to him be the reward we seek.

 Saturday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 18, 2021

Luke 8:4-15

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”  Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.  This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

The Fathers interpret the reasons for the lack of fruit in various ways.  In the main, they teach that the “path” that the seed of Christ’s teaching falls on is an unteachable heart, one so set on sin and wickedness that it does not even consider a different way to live.  The seed is “trampled” in contempt.  The “rocky ground” the seed falls on allows the plant from the seed to begin growing, but in a short time it withers due to “lack of moisture”: the carelessness and sloth of the one who receives it withholds the nourishment which the Gospel, sown in the mind through hearing, requires for growth.  The seed that falls “among thorns” is choked by covetousness and lust.  On the other hand, the seed that falls on “rich soil” signifies the teaching of the Lord that has been embraced and treasured, and is shared with zeal, so that others fall in love with it as well so as to be likewise “fruitful”.  

It is possible for those of us who are firm believers at the present moment to grow cold in our faith and even for it to die.  We see this all the time in all sorts of people.  Often young adults who move on to college stop going to Mass and then stop believing all together.  Adults may stop believing when they are shaken by the scandals in the Church.  Others simply fall into disbelief because belief and faith require work that they are not interested in doing.  How can we prevent this from happening to us?

First of all, we must pray.  In order to pray, we need to make this a regular practice that nothing keeps us from.  We can schedule prayer in our day as monks, nuns, and priests do who pray at set times of the day.  Prayer is necessary because it leads us to the love of God: we cannot love someone we do not talk to.  Lack of prayer eventually results in the loss of faith, and may lead us, step by step, to become the hardened ground of the “path”, holding religion on contempt. 

Second, we must fortify our faith with a deeper understanding of the Lord’s teachings.  We can do this through reading the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, by studying the doctrines of the Church, and by learning about the saints.  We can also get to know the writings of the Church Fathers and to become familiar with Church history.  These things provide the “moisture” our faith needs in order to grow and flourish.

Third, we need to worship God at Holy Mass on Sundays and holy days —and during the week, if possible.  Learning about the Mass enables us to worship God more fully, so that we may become more open to his gifts.  We ought to avail ourselves of the Sacraments, the chief conduits of grace in our world.  Making a monthly confession, for instance, is a good practice.  In this way, we put down strong roots which will keep us from destruction in any storm.

Fourth, performing good works is necessary.  We should perform good works for ourselves and for others.  Good works for ourselves would be restraining our desire to buy things we do not need and to avoid anything that could be a near occasion of sin.  Good works for others may be as simple as a smile or a greeting, or in some way caring for the sick, the poor, and the troubled.  It could be teaching CCD or ushering at Mass.  Through works such as these we become “fruitful” for others in bringing the Faith to them.  We also combat the vices of covetousness, lust, and sloth in these actions.  By continuously working for the good, we do not give temptation any attention.  Thus, we become “the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

 Friday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 17, 2021

Psalm 49

Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together! My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, men who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on for ever, and never see the Pit. Yea, he shall see that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes for ever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who have foolish confidence, the end of those who are pleased with their portion. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.  Be not afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. Though, while he lives, he counts himself happy,  and though a man gets praise when he does well for himself, he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never more see the light. Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish. 

Above is the whole text, in translation, of Psalm 49, parts of which are used for today’s Responsorial Psalm.  It is an unusual Psalm in that it does not include praise and thanksgiving to God, or pleas for mercy from him.  God, in fact, is hardly mentioned by name.  The Psalm, however, is a meditation on Divine Providence.  As such, it addresses timely and timeless issues.  It is an apt Psalm for us to consider in view of our society’s present state.

“Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, men who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?”  The translation here is a little cumbersome.  The Hebrew reads more like: “Why should I fear, in the days of evil, the iniquity of the usurper which surrounds me, of those who trust in the wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches?”  The “usurper” here is one who seeks to add to his wealth the little which another man has.  The usurper is confident in his ability to do this, as he is backed by wealth and political power, and he thinks himself right in acting this way.  We can think of the parable the Prophet Nathan tells King David about the rich man who took the poor man’s lamb for his supper.  The verse of the Psalm tells of a dire situation, and yet the Psalmist asks, “Why should I fear?”

“Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on for ever, and never see the Pit.”  The answer the Psalmist gives to his question does not provide a short-term solution to the threat he perceives to himself.  Instead, the Psalmist takes the long view.  The usurper may be rich now; he may have the upper hand now and think himself invincible, but sooner or later he will come to his end and nothing and no one can save him from it.  As Christians, this means that we trust in the Lord that his justice will prevail in the world.  The wicked die and are judged according to their deeds.  “Yea, he shall see that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.”  The wise — those who know how to live properly, both morally and physically — die too, and if even they die, those who have wealth will die.  The wise, that is, the devout believer in Jesus Christ, differs from the wicked in that for them, death in this world is not the end.  The true believer looks forward in hope to the day when he rests in the arms of the Lord.  The wicked dread death throughout their lives because they do see it as the end.  They throw much of their money at schemes to cheat old-age and death.  They live in desperation, despite their appearances to the contrary, which they feign.

“Their graves are their homes for ever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands their own.”  This verse is translated not from the Hebrew text but from the Greek Septuagint.  The Hebrew reads: “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwellings to all generations.”  The Greek may in fact preserve the reading from an earlier Hebrew text.  It is interesting though that modern translations which pride themselves on using the earliest manuscripts go back to the Greek for this verse rather than rely on the Hebrew.  Perhaps there is a Hebrew variant text that translates this way.  All the same, the verse speaks of the impermanence of the individual human and even of his heritage.  The few traces we leave behind us in this world are quickly lost.  We can understand “their graves are their homes forever” as meaning that in their sin, the wicked, the usurpers, are already dead, and that after their time on earth is over, they shall experience the second death, which is hell.  “Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish.”  The one who trusts in his own strength, wealth, or power is deluded and lives like the beasts.  He dies like them too, and is soon forgotten.

“This is the fate of those who have foolish confidence, the end of those who are pleased with their portion.”  In this Psalm, the Psalmist seems to equate the wealthy with the wicked, but he does not.  He is concerned with the usurper, who makes himself rich from the property of others.  A usurper is bold and because he holds other people as subjects for exploitation, he sees himself as superior to them.  A usurper may otherwise be any bully, anyone who has power over others and lords it over them.  This could be a parent, a spouse, or a boss.  The usurper could be a politician, a bishop, or a pope.  Whoever they are, “like sheep they are appointed for the netherworld; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Hell shall be their home.”

“But God will ransom my soul from the power of hell, for he will receive me.”  He will receive me because I did not usurp, nor did I despair or seek revenge when I was surrounded by the usurper’s iniquity.  I did not sin when I was sinned against.  I persevered in my faith in God and in my trust in his justice. 

“Be not afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.”  The Psalmist consoles those who suffer injustice in this world by reminding them of the destiny of the wicked who become “rich” in wealth or power.  This also pertains to unjust political or social trends which sometimes seem to rise up and hold sway.  One moment, a movement has everything going for it and the good people seem unable to stem its tide, and the next it is gone, for all that is dark is self-destructive and can last only so long. As the Psalmist says, “Though, while he lives, he counts himself happy,  and though a man gets praise when he does well for himself, he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will nevermore see the light.”  But those who seek the Lord will live forever in the glory of heaven.