The Feast of All Saints, Monday, November 1, 2021

Revelation 7:2–4, 9–14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children if Israel.  After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed:  “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Here is the Zoom kink and the other information to attend tonight’s Bible Study on the Gospel of Matthew, 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time:

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

Feast days in honor of all the saints of God have been celebrated since ancient times.  In 837,  Pope Gregory IV ordered its general observance on November 1.  

The Book of Revelation offers various descriptions of the crowd of saints.  In chapter seven, used here as the First Reading for today’s Feast, John the Apostle, who received the seven visions recorded in this book, tells how he saw an angel that had “come up from the East”.  The Venerable Bede explains that this “angel” is the Son of God, the Angel of Great Counsel.  At the end of the final persecution, he holds back with a command the four angels who have fought against the wicked nations of the world.  He orders them, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”  That is, now that the terrible persecution is over — “There shall be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be” (Matthew 24, 21) — the Faithful, who have hidden, will be revealed to all.  The “seal” on their foreheads is the Sign of the Cross, the sign of Christ’s victory.  There are two bodies of the Faithful united in their belief and perseverance in the Lord.  The first group is that of the “children of Israel”, the Jewish Christians, of which there are many, but which are still a small part of the whole, for the second group, that of the Gentile Christians, is said to be “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”  All “stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.”  That is, they stood before the throne of God the Father and before his Son, who appears as the Lamb that was slain.  The Lamb stands between the saints and the Father in intercession for them, and also as though introducing them into the Kingdom of heaven.  They wear their baptismal robes, which they have washed white in the Blood of the Lamb through their perseverance in the Faith.  The “palm branches” signify their victories in Christ through martyrdom and against the temptations of this world.

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb!”  The saints cry out in exultation that they have been saved by God and that they could not have been saved due to their own efforts alone.  It is a cry of great gladness and of thanksgiving after their sufferings on the earth.  “All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed.”  The court of heaven — the angels and the Church already present in heaven (the elders and the four living creatures), throw themselves before the throne at the sight of their brothers and sisters who are brought safely home.  They exclaim: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  Almighty God, in his marvelous Providence and with his great wisdom and power has brought honor and glory upon himself in the salvation of the saints.  

“Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, ‘Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?’ ”  The elders are the Prophets and Apostles.  John is perhaps seeing a vision of himself in the future, at the end of time.  The elder seeks an answer to his question, but John is too overwhelmed to offer one.  This foretells the awe which will fill us when we look upon the choirs of the saints at that time.  “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  Of that great distress at the end, the Lord says, “And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24, 22).  The present time and, indeed, all of time since the first coming of the Lord, has been one of great tribulation, for the devil knows his time is short.  Each day of our life we are washing our robes and making them white in the Blood of the Lamb through our constant faith and our good works.  One day, we shall put on those robes, and they will shine as no fuller on earth could make them (cf. Mark 9, 2).  At that time, we will join the saints in heaven, whose prayers assisted us during our earthly lives.

 

 The 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 31, 2021

Mark 12:28b–34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“Which is the first of all the commandments?”  This is a good question for us to ask ourselves.  We can look back at different stages in our past and think about what was most important to us in those times.  Was it getting ahead at all costs, whether in school, sports, or our jobs?  Was it becoming popular or socially important?  Did we ever seek power over others?  Perhaps for some folks most important of all was simply surviving from day to day, due to the dire effects of poverty or health problems.  We can look at ourselves today and ask that same question.

When the Lord declares that the first commandment is the love of God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”, God himself tells us that beyond all other considerations, this is what is most important.  The Gospels tell us of how the Lord rejected the temptations of power, riches, and self-promotion in order to serve his Father.  Despite poverty, fatigue, and threats of death, the Lord loved and obeyed his Father with an unremitting passion and with zeal for his Father’s glory.  We see this love of God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength in the life of St. Paul: “Thrice was I beaten with rods: once I was stoned: thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren: 

In labor and painfulness, in much sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness: Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, my care for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11, 25-28).  He endured all of this in his missionary work “for to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).  And in his work for the churches he shows how the first and second commandments are linked: the love of God entails the love of the neighbor whom God has made.

Not all are called to work and to suffer as Paul did, but all of us are called to love as he did.  To grow in the love of God we must spend time with him.  We can do this through prayer, preferably before the Blessed Sacrament, looking upon him and realizing that he became as that for us.  When we pray, opening our hearts to him so that they may pour out to him and so that we may receive him within them, we begin to know who he is and how much we are loved by him.  Performing good works out of our desire to please him is also necessary, because one who seeks to grow in love gives presents to the one he loves.  Reading the Holy Scriptures is important too because they are the love letters of the Holy Spirit to us.

The greater our love for God, the greater our love for our spouses, parents, children, and friends.  Our love for God ought to become so great that we can even pray for our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.

 Saturday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 30, 2021

Luke 14:1, 7-11

On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Our model par excellence of humility is the Lord Jesus Christ, for, as St. Paul says, he “who was in the form of God, did not think it a prize to be grasped to be equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, born in the likeness of men, and was found in the likeness of a man.  He humbled himself, being born unto death, the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 6-8).  The verb I have translated from the Greek as “emptied” can also mean “to deprive of content”.  To begin to understand the Lord’s humility, which is all we can humanly do, we have to think in terms of similes and metaphors.  In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord himself presents what he has done, taking “the lowest place”.  Verse 10 in this reading, which speaks of this, might be translated, literally, “But when you are called, traveling, recline at the last place.” The verb I have translated as “traveling” has this customary meaning, rather than “go”.  The adjective I have translated here as “last” is the Greek eschaton, which does not mean “lowest”, as in the lectionary translation, but “last”, “final”, “at the last”.  The Lord uses this word to describe himself in Revelation 22, 13: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Applying this verse to the Lord, it means that he “emptied himself” in order to “travel” the great distance between heaven and earth, where he reclined first in the womb of the Virgin Mother, then in a dirty manger, on the “bed” of the Cross, as the Fathers called it, and in a stranger’s tomb, taking the furthest place from heaven possible in the human world.

The Lord shows how we might imitate him in his humility through the parable in this reading.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor.”  The seating at a banquet or feast was determined by the host.  The guest of honor, or the guest whom the host considered of highest importance would be given a place of marked significance — at the head of the table, for instance.  The other guests would be seated by the host in the order of importance in which he viewed them.  (The fact that the Lord and his Mother were with the servants at the Wedding at Cana tells us that they were seated at places furthest from the head).  The order was determined entirely by the host.  Thus, a guest who chose for himself the place of honor showed himself rude and a fool.  “A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him.”  This is the more likely the greater the number of guests who have been invited.  In addition, the seating of a guest in the place of honor by the host was itself a conspicuous honor.  In seating himself, the foolish guest would be passing this up.  But because a fool seldom realizes that he is a fool, the Lord urges that no one consider himself the guest of honor.  Otherwise, “you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.”  A better translation would be: “You will be led in shame to the last place.”  

Rather, the Lord says, “traveling, recline at the last place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ ”  We note that the Lord did not say to take one of the last places, but the very last place.  The host, recognizing the true value of the guest in the last place at the table, seats him higher up, perhaps displacing another person to do this.  The Almighty Father who sees his Son in the last place, says to him, My Son, come up higher, and so from his tomb he raises him to glory.  “Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.”  Those at the table will praise the one who is raised up, seeing the favor bestowed upon him by their host.  The guest thus receives greater honor than if he had been seated by the host there right at the start.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  We should note here that the one who “exalts himself” will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself “will be exalted” by another, by the host.  When we exalt ourselves we show our own foolish pride.  When someone of actual importance exalts us, it is a different matter.  When the Lord exalts us after we have taken the last place with him on earth, we shall be glorified in the eyes of the angels.

“

 Friday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 29, 2021

Luke 14:1-6

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.

From a remark by some Pharisees a few verses before those that are used for the Gospel reading for today’s Mass (“Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you”), it seems that Jesus has not yet left Galilee for Judea.  Thus, “the home of one of the leading Pharisees” where Jesus eats in this reading is in Galilee.  He is invited to eat dinner there after he has attended the synagogue in the town to which he has come and where he would have also taught.  The host and those who also had been invited to the dinner “were observing him closely”, noticing that he did not join in the ritual washings in preparation for eating, and expectant for any other behavior or words they deemed out of place.

Among the gathering sat a man “suffering from dropsy”.  This condition is marked by a swelling in the feet, ankles, or legs caused by fluid buildup due to heart, kidney or liver disease.  The afflicted man would have struggled to walk and suffered much pain.  He must have been one of the leading Pharisees as well since Luke characterized those present as “the scholars of the law and Pharisees”.  The Lord asks them, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?”  The Lord applies a different strategy than when he cured the woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath in Luke 13, 10-17.  That is, he asks before he acts.  In this way he also announces what he intends to do.  Now, this situation differs from that with the infirm woman in that this man was one of their own.  He was a friend, a colleague.  By posing his question first, he puts the present company over a barrel.  If they object in order to protect their doctrine, they show the man that they are not his friends.  They could not answer: “They kept silent.”  Their silence does not save them, though.  It reveals plainly that they cannot defend their own doctrine, but it also reveals that they do not regard the man with the dropsy as their friend, or they would have urged the Lord to heal him, Sabbath or not.  The Lord has already shown his inclination to do just that.

“He took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him.”  The Greek verb tells us that the Lord “took hold” of the man.  This could mean that he raised him up and lay his hands on him.  Luke does not describe the healing itself, only writing, “when he had healed him”, as though even Luke was so overwhelmed by the succession of miracles that they had become familiar.  Luke does tells us that after the Lord healed him, he dismissed him: he sent him home.  In this way the Lord saves him from ensuing awkwardness.  After the man is safely out of the house, with the gathering strangely silent, the Lord confronts them with a question similar to what he had said to the Pharisees after he healed the infirm woman: “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  In other words, is a human worth more than an animal or not?  But the group lacked the humility and the honesty to respond.  Failing to give any answer shows their bad faith and their disrespect.  We might wonder how they dared to face the healed man in public afterwards.

At the heart of this account is the healing by Jesus of this man.  He revealed the mercy of God to him through it.  Since he was included among the Pharisees at this dinner, we can wonder whether he had begun with a hostile opinion of the Lord, or whether he harbored curiosity instead.  It seems likely that the host considered him in accord with the views of the majority of their kind that Jesus was a false teacher.  Yet the Lord did not let whatever the afflicted man think of him prevent him from showing God’s loving kindness to him.  Almighty God does not love only those who love him, after all, but all whom he has created.  Nothing we can do can stop him from loving us.  We ought not to be prevented by anything from loving him.

 The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Thursday, October 28, 2021

Ephesians 2:19-22

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.”  Roman citizenship was much prized in the ancient world.  A person could have it through birth, through purchase, or through service.  Paul himself could boast of his citizenship, which allowed him to appeal his legal case to Caesar.  Citizenship conferred a number of privileges on the holder, making him very different before the law from non-citizens.  To be a fellow citizen “with the holy ones” meant to have the same access to the Father as the holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

“Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the capstone.  Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  The Benedictine Walafrid (d. 849) comments in his Gloss: “There is no one so perfect that he is not able to grow”, meaning that our growth into the temple of God ought to be continuous.

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  Paul seems to contrast this temple with the great temple to Artemis in the city's center. Magnificent, rich, and renowned though it was, it remained a dead building. The Church, on the other hand, was constructed of living stones, the cornerstone of which was the Christ who had redeemed mankind and pleaded for it before the Father.  The very foundations consisted of the prophets and apostles, more solid and dependable than any cement or stone.  This reminds of the saying of Jesus that: “He who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7, 24).  Nor is it an empty structure, with these foundations and walls, for God himself dwells in it.

So much of the work of the Apostles and their disciples is hidden from history, and yet we can gaze upon the solidity of the Church that has withstood the worst storms which fallen human nature and the scheming of the demons could devise, and marvel at how powerful their work must have been.  From a careful examination of a lofty tower  we can imagine the greatness of its foundations.

 Wednesday in the 30th Week Of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2021

Luke 13:22-30

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  Probably many in the crowd wanted to ask the Lord this vital question but lacked the courage to do so.  And a question of this type does require courage because the answer tells us something about our own chances of being saved.  

We should think about what the person is really asking.  Already at the time of the Lord’s Birth on earth the Jews had developed the belief in a final judgment, with those judged as righteous rewarded with heaven and the wicked punished in hell.  We see this in some of the apocryphal books, such as the Books of Enoch.  This belief came about at the same time as that in the resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees taught and the Sadducees rejected as not being found in the Law.  Much remained unknown about this judgment, and the question remained open about whether many or only a few people would be saved — that is, saved from hell.  The person in the crowd who called out this question to Jesus believed that Jesus could answer it, whereas the Pharisees could not.  To this person the Lord had demonstrated great wisdom and power so that he would know, if it could be known.  

The Lord’s reply, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough”, may not seem satisfying, but let us look at what he is saying.  By wording his answer in this way, the Lord avoids making it sound as though God had decided that only a few people could be saved and that he would send the majority of people into hell.  Instead, the Lord puts the answer in terms of whether a person was willing to “strive to enter” heaven.  That is, those who strive to do so would enter, but those who did not would be lost.  The “entrance” to heaven may be narrow, but there is an entrance which people may enter.  But they must strive (the Greek verb also means “to contend” to enter through it.  How do we “strive” to enter?  The Lord answers this in Matthew 19, 16-30 when the rich young man asked him what he needed to do to be saved.  The Lord told him to keep the commandments and to follow him, even to the point of giving up his property.  We can see in the Lord’s response to the rich young man a clue as to the meaning of the “narrow” way and how many will not be able to find it or enter it.  Concern for the things of this world, such as position in society or wealth make us too weak to enter the narrow gate.  Those inflated with pride also cannot pass through as the gate is too narrow for them.  Only those who are themselves “narrow” through fasting, alms-giving, and time spent in prayer will be able to pass through, widening the way just enough for themselves with the crosses they carry.

The Lord then speaks of those who will cry out at the judgment, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”  They saw the Lord, heard him preach, and did not repent and do penance.  Many living today will cry out in this way, for they saw the Lord in his faithful and in his saints, and heard his words through them and through the Scriptures, and yet went away unmoved or unwilling to move.  They will hear these fearful words: “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!”  The Lord describes their suffering in the world to come: “And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  They will wail in their despair and grind their teeth in their agony.  “And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God.”  The Lord speaks here of the Gentiles who will be saved: those who did not see him and yet believed (cf. John 20, 29).  

“Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  Not all who are “last” will be “first”, but to be “last” is itself not a sign of condemnation.  The Lord refers here to the Jews and the Gentiles.  He also means the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the first and last in society.  The condition of a person does not matter; only whether that person strives with all his heart, strength, spirit, and soul to enter the narrow gate to Paradise.

 Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2021

Luke 13:18-21

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The Lord Jesus often used simile to teach about the Kingdom of God.  This allowed him to compare this tremendous mystery with ordinary things and experiences.  All the same, his similes are deceptively simple and nearly amount to short parables.  Their simplicity aids ordinary folks while the kernel deep within the heart of each simile provides the more spiritual person much to consider and to be amazed at.

“What is the Kingdom of God like?”  The Lord does not propose to define the Kingdom of God, only to tell “what it is like”.  We might think about what we want to know about it.  For some of us, the answer might be its location.  Where is it?  Others might want to know what does a person do there.  Others are interested in what it looks like.  The Lord answers the question he sets forth by talking about its experience.  He says, “It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” The Kingdom of God grows around us and also within us.  We can see it grow through baptisms and vocations to the Priesthood and the religious life.  We can see it grow as its missions spread across the face of the earth.  This is very mysterious.  How does it happen that people come to desire to give up their lives to Christ, whatever we are called to in this life?  How does it happen that people in countries and cultures hostile to the Faith will risk death to be baptized?  And this has been happening for two millennia now, in all parts of the world.

We can feel the mystery within us too: “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”  How does it happen that we are attracted to and love a God who died a shameful death on the Cross? Where does our love of God come from?  How has it grown within us as we grew?  Why do grown men and women confess their sins to priests?  What deep feeling motivates this and what is its origin?  Most believers have moments or periods in which they feel very close to God.  Where does this come from?  How does the dough feel as the yeast rubbed into it causes it to rise?

 Monday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 25, 2021

Luke 13:10-17

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Here is the Zoom link for Monday night’s Bible Study on the Gospel of St. Matthew:

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.”  The Greek says, “He was in one of the synagogues, teaching, on the Sabbath.”  He was teaching in a Judean synagogue on the regular day of the assembly.  On a Sabbath he went to one of the synagogues and was invited to teach.  The Jews did not worship God in their synagogues — they worshipped only in the Temple.  The synagogue had for its purpose the reading and discussion of the Law.  A prominent Jew owned the building and might lead the discussions, but he was not a priest.  This man would be known as the “ruler” of the synagogue, a title he might hold in conjunction with others who contributed to the funding of the building.  We see how this worked in Acts 13, 14–15: “But they [Paul and Barnabas], passing through Perge, came to Antioch in Pisidia: and, entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, they sat down.  And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue invited them, saying: Ye men, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation to make to the people, speak.” 

We can think of the Lord Jesus sitting before the crowd of men and women.  They would have felt eager to hear this stranger teach, for he had a reputation as a masterful teacher and as one who healed, confirming his teachings.  Yet, he would have appeared and sounded unlike themselves for he was a bit tattered from his traveling through Galilee and Judea, and he spoke with a thick Galilean accent.  We can surmise that he taught for a normal period of time there, though St. Luke tells us not a word of what he said.  At the end of his teaching, he looked into the congregation and rested his eyes on “a woman . . . who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit . . . bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.”  The Greek text says that she “had a spirit of infirmity”.  The Greek text shows the Hebrew text that lies beneath it.  We might almost say that the Hebrew slip is showing under the Greek dress.  There is no “spirit” of infirmity for the Greeks.  They understood all injuries, sicknesses, and weaknesses as physical in nature.  The Hebrew implies that a particular spirit had possessed her so that she could not stand upright.  Nor does this indicate a figure of speech, for when Jesus encounters a blind man or a lame man or a leper, he is not customarily said to confront a spirit of blindness or lameness, or a spirit of leprosy.

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”  The Lord does not say “healed”, here.  The Greek says, “You are released from your infirmity.”  Now, she has made no request.  The Lord sees her, knows her suffering, and releases her.  It is almost as though it had been permitted for the spirit of infirmity to hold her until the Lord came so that he could release her at that time.  Perhaps we have a hint at the mystery of human suffering here.  That it had been part of God’s Providence that she should suffer this terrible condition for so long so that his Son could show his love for her and for all humanity in releasing her in this public way, in the place of the learning of the Law.  We might question the “need” for her to suffer like this, but we must recall that none of us is owed a life without suffering.  Besides this, a single serious sin causes the death of the soul.  It might be that the imposition of her condition prevented her from committing sins which would have left her damned.  The Lord releases her, laying his hands on her.  We might see this and think whether it might be worth eighteen years of suffering to feel the hands of the Lord Jesus on us just once. “She at once stood up straight and glorified God.”  She is released immediately.  The Lord, literally, raised her up.  We can consider how this sums up the Lord’s life: he comes, he teaches, and then he raises to life.  And when he raises to life, the Jewish leaders respond with outrage.  “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.”  The synagogue ruler was “indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath.”  Here again, we see a Hebrew text beneath the Greek, for healing on the Sabbath would have meant nothing to Luke’s Greek audience.  The synagogue ruler exposes himself to us as a Pharisee, whose interpretation of the Law forbade almost any activity on the Sabbath, though the words of the Law say nothing about the performing of miracles.  The Pharisee might have known this (although unwilling to admit it) and so he tries to blame the woman for coming to the synagogue for healing.  But this is not what she did, nor, as was pointed out before, did she so much as ask to be healed.  She came to the synagogue for the same reason that the ruler (presumably) had: to learn about the Law.

The Lord takes up the woman’s defense: “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?”  Now, “hypocrites” did not mean then what it means now.  The Greek word was a translation of a Hebrew word that meant “the godless” or “faithless”.  Understanding this helps us with what the Lord is saying.  Indeed, he says “Faithless men” in the plural, as though addressing the congregation or, at least, its leaders.  Then rather than argue the Law with them, as though they were not worthy of it, he speaks about the ordinary experience of caring for one’s animals on the Sabbath. “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?”  Far from breaking the Law by coming for a healing on a forbidden day, he calls her a “daughter of Abraham”.  The Lord also confirms the nature of her condition.  The Lord  says that Satan had “bound” her, that is, had possessed her and had chained her in such a way that she could not stand erect, a typical punishment for those awaiting trial.  We can think of St. Peter in prison, chained in this way (cf. Acts 12, 6).  And just as the Jews were free of servile labor on the Sabbath so as to study the word of God, so she is freed from her servile condition.

“When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.”  The rulers of the synagogue were “disgraced”, “shamed”, “put to confusion” by the Lord’s words.  In short, they lost their credibility.  In such a way the Lord showed that the Jewish leadership as a whole, including the priesthood, was finished.  He stood alone as the Teacher and Fulfiller of the Law.  The crowd rejoiced on behalf of the woman, on behalf of the overthrow of their tyrants, and in Jesus, who had come to raise them up.

 The 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 24, 2021

Mark 10:46–52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

The cure of Bartimaeus occurs in the Gospel of St. Mark just after the Lord and his disciples are said to have visited Jericho on their way to Jerusalem for the last time.  Mark tells us nothing of what the Lord did or said in the ancient city of Jericho, and gives the impression that Jesus did not stay long.  The nearer the Lord came to the time and place of his Passion, the more energetically he moved and acted.  All he could think of was our deliverance from sin and death.  As St. Albert the Great puts it in a sermon on the Lord’s meeting with the woman at the well, he thirsted more for her salvation than she did, at the height of the day, for a drink of cold water.

The blind man Bartimaeus had begged on the road leading out of Jericho for many years.  He depended entirely on alms in order to eat.  He does not beg in the city itself, perhaps because he had not had much success there.  Instead, he depended on merchants and travelers on their way south.  According to ancient accounts, palm trees studded the rugged land around Jericho, which may have provided shade for anyone who was begging.  We can imagine the terrible situation in which this beggar was placed.  He probably was competing with other beggars, whose pitiful cries would have filled the air.  He had to be attentive the whole time he was on the roadside so that he did not get on the road where he might be trampled or shoved away and hurt.  He was helpless.  When he heard the noise of a crowd surging his way, he sensed opportunity even while he braced himself for disappointment.  He must have called out to see what was causing the unusual mass of people, or perhaps he asked it of someone who had mercy on him and gave him a little money.  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he acted quickly, even recklessly.  He knew this name and he possibly had heard of the Lord’s powers to heal the blind.  “He began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.’ ”  The Greek text indicates that his crying out lasted for a time.  The verb translated here as “cry out” actually means something stronger, like “to shriek”.  The blind man did not get up from his place on the ground but kept crying out.  He acted prudently because he had no way of knowing where in the crowd Jesus was.   “Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.”  The Greek tells us that this was not a case of people simply hushing him, but of them roughly warning him “to keep silent”.  We might wonder what it mattered to them if a beggar cried out like this.  After all, they would soon be out of hearing range of his cries for mercy.  It would seem that other beggars were also in that place, but they did not cry out for Jesus, but for alms from the people.

“Call him.”  The Greek says, literally, “Summon him.”  The Son of David exercises his royal prerogative in summoning a servant.  “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  The Greek: “Be of good cheer.  Rise up.  Jesus is summoning you.”  Suddenly the mood of the crowd has changed.  Perhaps these are a more merciful people.  The beggar throws aside his cloak and stumbles towards the Lord, the crowd opening for him and guiding him with their hands.  This is not a summons to judgment, but a gracious summons from his Master.  The Greek word translated as “sprang” has the meaning of “rousing” or “waking”, as though the blind man was getting up from his sleep.  He comes “in the presence” of Jesus, the servant before his King, and the Lord asks him, “What do you wish that I should do?”  The blind man answers right away.  “Rabbi, that I should recover my sight.”  The Greek can also mean, “that I may look up.”  The Lord replies, “Depart, your faith has saved [or, “healed”] you.”  The text says that the blind man immediately recovered his sight — all at once, not by degrees.  And then he followed — or “accompanied” — the Lord to Jerusalem.

We can understand this miracle in terms of the end of a person’s life.  The dying one lies by the side of “the road” of life, unable to take care of himself, unable to see any longer.  He is alone in his darkness.  And then there is commotion heralding an arrival.  It is the Great King.  The one who is dying cries out to him in his need.  At that moment, the guilt of his past life as well as the demons tell him to shut up.  There is no hope for him.  He is theirs.  But the man is filled with hope and faith and cries out with greater strength to the Lord of heaven and earth.  The Lord summons him to his presence.  The man throws away the “cloak” of his flesh, as though roused to the wakefulness of true life by the Lord’s call.  Assisted by the prayers of the angels and saints he makes his way to him.  The Lord asks him what he wishes him to do.  The blind man could ask for anything he wanted, but he asks to see, to “look up” into the Lord’s face of love and glory.  The Lord grants it to him and he receives it immediately.  And then he accompanies the Lord into the Kingdom of heaven, the New Jerusalem.

 Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time

Luke 13:1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ ”

The literal Greek, “And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, etc.”, indicates that those who told the Lord of this event had witnessed it themselves.  The event sounds horrendous in these words, yet no contemporary outside reference is found for it.  Many scholars assume that this corresponds with a massacre that the Jewish historian Josephus describes, but the many differences in detail between the two makes this very unlikely.  It seems as if this massacre took place while the Lord traveled to Jerusalem for the last time.  From what we are told here, a group of Galileans — pointedly, not Judeans — were slaughtered in the Temple area as they were bringing their sacrifices to the altar or while the sacrifices were proceeding.  No explanation for the killing is given.  This raises the questions of why Pilate’s forces in the Temple area at all, and whether the murders were committed by Pilate’s direct order.  At least one of the Fathers, Cyril of Alexandria, thought that the Galileans here were followers of Judas the Galilean, mentioned in Acts 5, 37.  There may be something to this.  Judas began an uprising around the time of the Lord’s Birth in reaction to the census of Quirinius.  He did not engage the Romans directly, but only those whom he considered to collaborate with them — by registering for the census, for instance.  It is not clear when he died, but his sons were said to have been killed in 46 AD.  Josephus blames the Jewish insurrection against the Romans on the movement he founded.  Cyril postulates that those who told Jesus about the massacre were in fact trying to see how he would react.  It seems also possible that Pharisees were telling him this, seeking to enrage him at this slaying of his fellow countrymen so that he would lead his followers in an attack the Romans in vengeance, but before he was fully ready to do so, as they supposed.  They would have thought to rid themselves of Jesus easily in this way.

The Lord seizes on this news in order to teach, not to stage an uprising.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?  By no means!”  Far from praising or even condoning the actions of the Galileans, whatever they might have done, Jesus refers to them as “sinners”.  He could be approaching the subject from the Jewish point of view that something as terrible as this could have happened only to sinners.  Whatever the case, he does not speak of the Romans or Pilate, but of the Galileans.  He points out that they were no different, in terms of sin, than other Galileans.  This could have happened to anyone, in essence.  Then he says, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  He teaches about spiritual death by speaking of physical death.   He seems to indicate here that the Galileans in some way could have avoided getting killed, for he tells the crowd that if they repent of their sins, they may yet escape damnation.

“Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them.”  The fact that Luke recounts the episode of the Galileans and this one with the tower of Siloam in such detail tells us that these events must have still been remembered and talked about at the time he was writing his Gospel.  Since he was writing it for Gentiles in Syria, the effects of these catastrophes must have been felt beyond Israel.  We have no information of the disaster involving the tower.  It may have been part of a fortress, but not even its location in Jerusalem is certain.  While the killing of the Galileans was murder, an accident seems to account for this loss of life.  The Lord’s point remains the same: we are all sinners and we must all repent or suffer eternal death. 

Luke informs us that the Lord next told a parable, and it directly connected to what he has just taught.  He speaks of a farmer who went out to a fig tree which he owned, and: “He came in search of fruit on it but found none.”  The farmer knows when it is the season for figs, and so he went to the tree in full expectation that he would find some hanging on the tree’s branches.  He then registers his frustration with a handy employee, who is actually a vine-dresser, not a “gardener”: “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.”  He gives a command: “So cut it down.”  By way of explanation, the farmer says, “Why should it exhaust the soil?” which literally means, from the Greek: “Why does it bring the earth to nought?”  That is, the tree fights against the purpose of the earth, which is to bring forth fruit.  Why does it do this?  In the farmer’s mind, it seems to have deliberately chosen to thwart the purpose for the earth’s creation.  

“Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”  The vine-dresser, who has no stake in the existence of the fig tree, intercedes on its behalf.  He will take on additional work in order to attempt to get fruit on it.  He will dedicate himself to this.  He lays out for the farmer the specific measures he will take.  It may bear fruit in the future.  If not you can cut it down.”  The Greek says, “You shall cut it down”.  The vine-dresser is not telling the farmer what he can or cannot do; he is saying what he knows he will do.  The farmer is the Lord Jesus.  The vine-dresser is the Church of the Gentiles.  The fig tree signifies the Jewish people, just as the cedar tree signifies the people of Lebanon.  The Lord is saying that for three years he has searched for “fruit” — faithful people — among the Israelites and has found “none” (a slight hyperbole, since a few — the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the Apostles, and others — followed him).  The Gentile Church pleads with the Lord to give it time to preach to the Jews.  We do not hear from Jesus what the “farmer” decided, but we know from history that this was the case.  Gentile Christians like Luke did preach to the Jews, but to little avail.

We can learn from these verses how necessary repentance is for our salvation, and that we must repent now while we can, for we do not know how long we have.  The fig tree was utterly oblivious to how close it came to its absolute end, and that only earnest pleading saved it — for a short time, unless it changed.

Friday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 22, 2021

Luke 12:54-59

Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?  Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass continues with St. Luke quoting the Lord Jesus regarding the end of the world.  

“When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does.”  Now the Lord proposes a very ordinary example of how we predict the weather.  All his hearers could relate to this, not just the erudite, but even slaves.  The weather pattern was stable and predictable.  A cloud rising in the west, from the Mediterranean Sea, meant rain.  Similarly, “when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is.”  That is, the air mass coming up from the desert.  Awareness of the signs of the weather was very necessary for a people dependent on locally grown grown crops and locally raised sheep, goats, and cattle.  And these were not the only signs the people knew to look for.  The key for us in understanding Jesus here is that people of all kinds were on the look-out for changes in the wind direction or the clouds.  In many cases, their survival depended on this.

“You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”  The Lord launches out against those who do not look for the signs of the end of the world, when their eternal souls would be at risk.  We must look at this word “hypocrite”.  It does not mean in the Gospels what we think it means.  It comes from a Greek word that translates a Hebrew word that means “the faithless”, or, “the godless”.  If we reread this passage we can see that the modern meaning of “hypocrite” does not make sense in it.  It makes quite a lot of sense if we understand it as describing people who could keep an eye out for the signs of the present time but do not.  They are conscious of their lives and property, but not of their souls, though they should be.  We should note that in his accusation, the Lord implies that it is easier to understand the signs of the present times than of the weather, which ought to give us all pause.  What are these signs of the present time, that we should watch for them?  The Lord, in Matthew 24, gives signs for the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and for the coming of the judgment.  We are to especially watch for false prophets and a fierce, world-wide persecution.  We might also consider a breakdown in society not only of law and order but of the belief that there is such a thing as right and wrong, as is the case today.

“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”  This begins a new saying which is not a continuation of the above, but is related to it.  “If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way.”  That is, if you have sinned against someone and you fear the final judgment, ask for forgiveness now.  “Otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison.”  Our real “opponent” is not the person we sinned against but our own pride, sloth, and intransigence.  We cannot rightly hope to enter heaven while dressed in these rags.  “You will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”  That is, until the fine has been paid, restitution made, or the debt made good, whatever the case may be.  The fact that a person might be released at some point, after a period of suffering in prison, refers to purgatory.  While we think of purgatory as a particularly Catholic doctrine, we can see its roots in Jewish apocryphal books written around the time of Jesus.  The phrase “If you are to go with your opponent” may be translated literally thus: “While you are going with your opponent.”  The distinction is important because we must know that we are currently going with our opponent to the magistrate — that is, that we are at the moment free but also aware that every step we take brings us closer to that judgment.  This, then, is the instant we must shed everything that holds us back from confessing our sins and seeking absolution and forgiveness.

 Thursday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 21, 2021

Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”  The Lord Jesus speaks dramatically and passionately here.  He himself is Fire that the Father has sent to the earth, and he longs to set it ablaze.  Now, he does not mean “the earth” in terms of the planet, but human beings who are formed from the dust of the earth.  He yearns painfully to “blaze” in us, with his love so that we might love him and one another.  In this way, he makes us “children of light” (1 Thessalonians 5, 5).  We should note how he says, “How I wish” it were burning now.  As Fire, he can hardly contain himself, but roars and lashes out with flame as though to increase.  We see this again in his next sentence: “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”  From fire he turns to water.  The Greek word translated as “baptize” may not have the primary meaning we understand today — that is, as referring to the sacrament — but rather as a washing, a pouring on of water, even a purging with water, as fire also purges in its own way.  This pouring of water can be understood as watering crops, so that the faithful, watered by the grace of God, may grow and bring forth fruit — converts.  But we can also understand this as meaning the Sacrament of Baptism, that the Lord is pained until the whole world receives his teaching and is converted.  “How great is my anguish!” the Lord cries.  Literally, he is saying, “How I am confined”, or, “compressed”, or “afflicted” until this is accomplished.  We see what he means in his relentless pursuit of souls up and down Judea and Galilee, with a few excursions into Samaritan and Gentile territory.  He hardly slept and only paused to eat when he was invited to do so by some follower or a curious (or scheming) Pharisee.  The Apostles were reduced to eating the heads of grain as they followed him from town to town, even on the Sabbath.  There was nothing he would not do, no place where he would not go, in order to save a soul.

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?”  As he has lived, so he expects his followers to live.  Their zeal for holiness and the spread of the Gospel would disrupt the comfortable routines of worldly people.  They would pose troubling questions to them about their lives and goals.  The effect of a saint on them would cause the people of the world to say, “He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, and his ways are very different” (Wisdom 2, 15).  If we think about it, the act of gardening or farming is a violent one, for the ground is torn up, fertilizer is put into it, and then seed, and plants not native to that soil grow from it.  This can be understood in the spiritual sense of a human person or of the world: the “tearing up” meaning repentance inspired by the word of the Gospel; grace being poured into the person or the world; the sowing of the “seed” as the full reception and acceptance of the Lord’s teachings; and the growth of the plants as living the holy life while remaining in the world, surrounded by temptations.  “No, I tell you, but rather division.”  The Greek word translated here as “division” might be better translated as “a breaking-up”, since Jesus means here the result of an act of violence, whereas “division” implies a clean separation.  The Lord seems to say that he came in order to cause a breaking, but this can also be understood that his coming inaugurates a breaking, but is not directly causative of it.  That is, the Lord does not break up families, but families break up as a result of some members following him and some rejecting him.

“From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.”  The Lord uses an uneven number, five, in order to show the nature of the break.  It is not an even, smooth division, but a jagged one.  A person must do violence against himself in order to be his follower (cf. Matthew 16, 24), and this has ramifications for a family as well as for a society.  Let us imagine if a very large number of people in our society sold their possessions in order to follow Christ, whether as laity or consecrated religious.  Our consumer-based economy would be sorely affected.  But ultimately this would work for the good of souls.  It might lead to a re-humanizing of our economy and society.

 Wednesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 20, 2021

Luke 12:39-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

The Lord Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was approaching and so it was necessary for all who hoped to enter it to repent.  The Gospels tell us that this was the primary message of his preaching.  All that they report him as saying is related to this theme.  Even when he teaches about himself, it is for the purpose of validating his teaching about the kingdom.  His teaching on the coming of the kingdom intensified as he drew nearer to Jerusalem on his last tourney there, and especially after he entered it.  His very dying on the Cross makes it possible for us to be washed from the sins of which we have repented so as to be saved in it.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we hear the Lord speaking earnestly about his return for judgment.  He does this out of his own ferocious love for the people of this world, not out of a desire to terrify them or to set them up for failure.  He appeals to his hearers using familiar terms: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.”  He denigrates himself in this verse, comparing himself to a thief.  (Indeed, he was crucified in the midst of two thieves as though he were their chief).  The Lord is saying here that if the owner of the house knew the exact hour for the break-in, he would be ready; how much more he should be ready at all times if he knew of the break-in beforehand but did not know the exact hour.  “At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  The Lord implies here that the reason the time of his coming for judgment was withheld was so that the faithful might be “prepared” for him at all “hours” of their lives — refraining from sin and performing good works.  “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”  Peter asks an odd question.  He seems to think that the Lord Jesus would reveal the time of his coming to his Apostles, who would be needed for the establishment of the kingdom at that time, to his earthly way of thinking.  Jesus provides an answer in the form of a parable: “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?”  The Apostles (and their successors) are to be the stewards.  They, as “faithful” and “prudent”, are to distribute the food ration at the “proper time” to the ordinary servants, the faithful: that is, to offer the Mass for them, to administer the sacraments to them, to preach to them — to provide for their spiritual nourishment.  They are to do these things at “the proper time”, regularly, throughout the days and the years.  They are not to lie around until the Master comes back and then suddenly spring into action.  If a steward plans to do this, his Master “will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.”  He is sent to the unfaithful because he has acted unfaithfully.  To the steward who is vigilant and feeds the servants as he is charged to do, the Master “will put him in charge of all his property.”  That is, he will reign with the Master.

“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely.”  The Lord makes a distinction between the servant who knew his Master’s will and the one who did not.  In the first case we have the leaders of our religion who have studied the Gospels and the Lord’s law so that they know his will for those who are called to be “stewards”.  In the second case, we have everyone else, the bulk of the faithful, who depend on the stewards to feed them so that they might know the Master’s will for them and have the strength to carry it out.  If the stewards do not perform their duty as they know they are supposed to do, they “shall be beaten severely”.  But those whose knowledge is lesser and “acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly”.  Their ignorance does not save them entirely because they act against their consciences in their actions, performing deeds which they did not need special instruction to know they were sinful.  These punishments could refer to those administered either in purgatory or in hell, depending upon whether they committed their sins with malice or simply through weakness.

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  The stewards — popes, bishops, priests, teachers — are entrusted with authority and the responsibility to lead the faithful to heaven.  The higher in office the steward is, the greater the graces given for carrying out these tasks, and so the greater the punishment for failing in them.  In this way, the Lord answers Peter’s question.  

Much is given to us all for living holy lives.  Let us never fail to sanctify ourselves through reception of the Sacraments and charitable works.