Tuesday in the First Week of Advent, November 30, 2021

The Feast of St. Andrew

Matthew 4:18-22

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

St. Andrew was a young, unmarried man living with his brother Simon and his family in a seaside town of Galilee at the time the Lord called him.  His father, Jonah, would not have been alive at this time.  Unlike Simon’s, which was Hebrew, Andrew’s name was Greek.  He and Philip are the only two Apostles who have Greek names but no second Hebrew name.  This reflects his origin in Galilee, which bordered Greek-speaking lands and where Greek indeed was often spoken.  He was a very religious young man and followed John the Baptist in Judea, as we read in the Gospel of St. John.  He was the first of the future Apostles to meet Jesus, directed to him by John the Baptist.  At that meeting, Andrew spent several hours with the Lord, talking.  What he heard excited him, and he hurried to tell his brother Simon that he had found the Messiah (cf. John 2, 49).  It is unclear whether Simon also followed John or if Andrew went back to Galilee to tell him.  Andrew and Simon (later named “Peter”) probably followed the Lord intermittently for a while after that, with Jesus calling them when he wanted them.  In the Gospel for today’s Mass, Jesus issues a definitive call.  

For three years he followed the Lord throughout the length and breadth of Galilee and Judea, his faith growing and his expectations increasing.  Along with the others, he expected the Messiah to restore the kingdom of Israel, and he was prepared to fight for it.  The arrest of the Lord and his subsequent Passion and Death must have crushed him, and he fled and hid with the others.  During the forty days following the Resurrection, the Lord taught him and the other Apostles about the Church and the sacraments.  After Pentecost, he made his way north, preaching the Gospel in Greece and the area around the Black Sea.  According to ancient tradition, he was crucified in southern Greece around the year 60.

In the Gospel reading, St. Matthew tells us that to follow Jesus, Simon, Andrew, James, and John left their nets, their boats, and their families.  We can understand these in the spiritual sense as their sins and bad habits; their financial security; and their previous understanding of themselves.  “Nets” signify sin and bad habits because they are heavy and weigh us down, they promise us good, and they seem easy to get free from.  The fishing nets that Andrew was accustomed to would have been difficult to work with.  It had to be washed and cleaned after the night’s work was done.  It also had to be repaired regularly.  Sin weighs us down and makes us filthy.  It also promises us some perceived good.  And we think we can walk away from it whenever we want, although we have become its slaves.  It is hard to give up financial security for any reason, but we do when we see an opportunity for education, a better job, or a better job location.  Andrew gave this up in hope of a kingdom.  He did not receive a position in the kingdom he initially hoped for, but gained eternal life in the Kingdom of Jesus.  When we give up something for God, he will grant us a reward beyond anything we can hope for on earth: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,  neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2, 9).  In giving up his family and of having a family of his own, Andrew gave up his understanding of himself in order to be defined by Christ.  We often know ourselves from our families and their heritage.  We are the son or daughter of so-and-so, we went to this school, we lived in this city, we knew these people.  But to follow the Lord whole-heartedly, we become all his — the slave of the Lord, as the Blessed Virgin Mary acknowledged herself to be.  Thus, we follow his will and not someone else’s will or their expectations for us.  We are all his.

The traditional collect for the Mass on this day:

We suppliantly entreat your majesty, O Lord, that, even as the blessed Apostle Andrew was unto your Church a preacher and ruler, so now with you may he be a perpetual intercession for us.  Amen.

 Monday in the First Week of Advent, November 29, 2021

Matthew 8:5-11

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

“When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him.”  Luke 7, 2 tells that it was the servants of the centurion who came to him.  This may mean that the centurion came with servants and that he remained at a distance while his servants spoke directly with Jesus,  But the event is not significantly altered whatever did happen.  The main point here is that a Gentile — an officer in the Roman army of occupation, no less — has asked the Lord to cure his servant, and the Lord agrees to do so, and even states his desire to go to the servant in the Gentile’s house.  This would have shocked his followers, particularly as this event took place early in the Lord’s ministry when his disciples as yet had little experience with his lack of interest in the things the Pharisees saw as very important.

The following link and information will take anyone interested to the live St. Matthew’s Gospel Bible Study tonight at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  We have just begun to look at the Sermon on the Mount.

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

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”  This sentence can be literally translated from the Greek as: “Lord, my servant has been placed in my house, a paralytic, tormented vehemently.”  It sounds as though the servant was suffering from an injury.  The verb I have translated as “has been placed” could also indicate that the man suffered a fall.  It does not mean “is lying”.  Evidently he has suffered in this way for several hours or even a few days.  “I will come and cure him.”  We note the Lord’s direct speech.  He does not waste a single word.  He does not make an excuse for not coming or demand that the servant be brought to him — his condition must have been such that transporting him was out of the question, anyway.

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”  It is possible that the centurion noticed the murmuring of the crowd after Jesus said that he would go to the servant.  But Luke provides a useful detail for us.  He quotes certain bystanders as informing him that, “He loves our nation: and he has built us a synagogue” (Luke 7, 5).  The centurion may have known that a Jew would not enter the house of a Gentile.  This poses a dilemma for which the centurion offers a way out.  It is the sort of simple solution only faith can imagine: “Only say the word and my servant will be healed.”  We have so many seemingly intractable problems in our lives and in our society to which faith would point an answer, but it does not occur to us to appeal to it.

“For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.”  The centurion sees Jesus in the same terms as he sees himself, as a man “subject to authority” but also having others subject to him.  It is interesting to speculate as to what authority the centurion might have thought Jesus was subject.  Evidently the centurion sensed that Jesus had a special relationship with God in that he took “orders” directly from him.  The words of the centurion help us to think about how we unconsciously picture Jesus, whether as an officer, a father, a boss, a doctor, or anything else.  Knowing that we do this allows us to go beyond the mundane visions we have of him and to begin to see him as he is shown us in the Gospels.  “And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  The centurion now compares the injury or the illness of his servant to the soldiers and slaves he commands: as he orders them about with every expectation that they will do as he instructs, so he understands that Jesus can command illnesses and injuries.  We are able to peek into this man’s mind and see how he looks at the world.  At the same time, we see him expressing his faith in these terms.  

“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.”  That is, he registered amazement for the benefit of his disciples.  “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”  Now, we should note here that Jesus is speaking of the centurion’s faith in him and his power to heal, not faith in Judaism or the Law.  The centurion has, in fact, placed himself under the Lord’s command in asking him to heal his servant.  It is a profound act of faith for the Gentile to do this.  Accounting the Gentile as “faithful” and as having faith greater than that of his own disciples must have disturbed and upset a number of them.  The Lord says further: “I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”  The Lord is speaking of Gentiles joining the banquet in heaven after the Resurrection.  By the time Jesus was born there was widespread belief in a resurrection at the time of the Messiah, but that only Jews would enjoy it.  What the Lord does is to imply that there would be a great number of righteous Gentiles in heaven.  Early in his ministry, the Lord Jesus shows that he will be governed by no one’s fantasies about how the Messiah is to act or speak.

We can learn much from the centurion with his simple and solid faith.  He teaches us to obey.

The First Sunday of Advent, November 28, 2021

Luke 21:25–28, 34–36

Jesus said to his disciples: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The English word “advent” comes from a Latin word meaning “a coming”, “an approach”, or even “an arrival”.  In the Season of Advent, we Christians celebrate the historical event of the Son of God’s Birth, and we intensify our preparations for his coming again through fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.  It is unfortunate that in modern times, in the West, the penitential practices of Advent have been reduced or forgotten.  In the East, they still carry these out in the weeks before Christmas, including periods of fasting and abstinence.  Through penance we assist others while gaining control of our passions, and this is a very pleasing gift to present to God on the anniversary of his Birth.  That penance is necessary for the proper celebration of Christmas is shown in the example of the Wise Men: prayer, through their marveling at and following the star; fasting, through their long pilgrimage to a foreign land, during which food would have been strictly rationed; and almsgiving, through the giving of gifts to the Infant Christ who was born in a cave and laid in a manger.

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass begins with the Lord’s description of tribulation and persecution.  In the last times there will be a ferocious onslaught against the faithful.  Many natural disasters and wars will occur st the same time.  We think sometimes that the world is falling apart now, but it will be far worse at the end.  

God permits tribulations for our good, however.  Here is what St. Albert the Great teaches about them in his Commentary on the Book of Revelation: 

“Tribulation is profitable because it cleanses the soul from sin.  As Gregory said of Blessed Benedict: ‘He healed the wound of his soul with the wound of his body.’  Tribulation also shows the love of God.  Sirach 30, 1: ‘He who loves his son, continuously applies the rod to him.’  It also enlightens the understanding.  Isaiah 28, 19: ‘Vexation alone will give meaning to what you hear.’  It increases charity.  Psalm 4, 2: ‘In tribulations, you have loved me.’  It perfects virtue.  2 Corinthians 12, 9: ‘Virtue is perfected in weakness.’  It also makes men hasten for rewards.  Psalm 15, 4: ‘They hastened after their infirmities were multiplied.’  Finally, it acquires a heavenly kingdom.  Matthew 5, 10: ‘Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ ”

Tribulation also makes us vigilant, as the Lord desires us to be: “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”  We can think of ourselves as traveling and needing to stay alert, for we are traversing now through the soul-endangering perils of the present world towards the bright country of heaven.  Let us grow in strength and self-mastery in the time God has granted us.

 

 Saturday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 27, 2021

Luke 21:34-36

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The Lord Jesus here concludes his teaching on the end of the world, his second coming, and the great judgment, admonishing his disciples to live a radically different way from other people: waiting patiently and alertly.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.”  This is more literally translated: “Pay attention lest at any time your hearts be loaded down with drunken dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of everyday life, and that day should befall you unexpectedly.”  Jesus warns us of three activities that will keep us from waiting as we should.  “Drunken dissipation” can be understood in the literal sense, meaning living in such a way that a person wastes his time, energy, and wealth chasing pleasure; and it can be understood spiritually as avoiding Mass and prayer but chasing the latest health fads, throwing oneself into one’s career, and accepting esoteric beliefs in place of Catholic doctrine.  “Drunkenness” means regular abuse of alcohol or other drugs as well as seeking other sensual pleasures.  “The worries of everyday life” means that we devote ourselves to our daily routine and to overcoming obstacles to doing this as they crop up and so  forget God and the eternal realities.

“And that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”  A trap is a trap only for the unwary.  It may threaten even those on the watch for it, but these will be able to jump away at the moment it snaps shut.  The unfaithful lurch about from one pleasure or distraction to the next and will experience the second coming as a trap in which they are suddenly caught.  They will strive to talk their way out of their confinement by saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?” (Matthew 25, 44).  But it will be too late for them.

“For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.”  The Greek has “will come upon” rather than “will assault”.  That dread day will come upon the wicked as a day of wrath and, indeed the just will stand in awe.  But “if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4, 18).  The day will come upon all who are left alive at the end of the world as well as upon all the dead, whose souls will rise with their bodies for judgment.   

“Be vigilant at all times.”  That is, not only should we stay awake, but we must also stay alert.  We do this through directing all of our actions to God’s will so that in whatever work he finds us, it will please him: “Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find working” (Matthew 24, 46).  In remaining vigilant we should consider how the Lord says that he will come as “a thief in the night” (cf. Revelation 16, 15).  That is, as though he is trying to catch us unaware.  Thus, we cannot nod even for a moment.  

“Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”  The Greek has, “Pray always”.  On our own, we cannot hope to maintain the strict vigilance the Lord warns us to have, but with the help of God’s grace we can do all things.  We must continually ask for this grace and then cooperate with it, keeping in mind that the only thing that matters is heaven.  Let others say that “the journey is the main thing”.  We know that if we do not arrive our destination, heaven, the journey is without meaning.  The “tribulations” the Lord speaks of are the temptations of this life as well as persecutions.  The worst of the persecutions will take place shortly before the Lord comes again.  At that time we will “stand before the Son of Man”: “The Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed. My spirit trembled; I, Daniel, was affrighted at these things” (Daniel 7:13–15).  The Prophet Daniel only saw the Son of Man as his Judge, but we know him as also our Redeemer.  Let us stay awake, then, in virtue and prayer, not dreading to see the Lord when he comes, but living in hope all the days that remain to us here.

 Friday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 26, 2021

Luke 21:29-33

Jesus told his disciples a parable. “Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

“Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.”  The Lord Jesus continues to speak of the end of the world and the final judgment.  Here, he teaches us that not only can we learn that the end has come, but we should do so.  He gives the crowd the everyday example of the fig tree.  “When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near.” Although the prospect of the world ending causes fear among the ungodly, it is like the arrival of the summer for the faithful.  Fig trees go dormant or “hibernate” during the winter.  Their leaves turn yellow and fall off, their bark goes very dry and, for all the world, they look dead.  Spring brings a remarkable transformation with green leaves and buds.  Even the bark softens.  Keeping in mind that the fig tree signifies Israel, we can interpret this sign as the Church, the new Israel, debilitated and gone underground through a savage, worldwide persecution, and emerging into a respite granted by Almighty God.  This most terrible of persecutions will itself be a sign of the coming end, and the peace afterwards shows that the time is imminent.

“When you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.”  For the faithful, the end of this world and of this life is not to be feared.  It brings the Kingdom of God, where they exult with the angels and their fellow saints.  Throughout their lives, they washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 7, 14).  In heaven, the saints will experience unimaginable happiness.  As St. Paul tells us, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Thus, the persecution, as bad as it will be, is a sign of the glory that is to come to those who persevere.  The fig tree will appear dead, but it is preparing itself for the spring.  

“Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”  There will be no further messiah or savior to look for.  The Lord Jesus declares here that his coming into this world marks the sixth and last age or generation of the world, as St. Augustine describes it.  The Lord’s second coming will inaugurate a seventh generation or age — the eternal Sabbath — in which the just shall rest from their labors: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, says the Spirit, they may rest from their labors” (Revelation 14, 13).  

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  Listening with the ears of his original hearers to the Lord speak in this way, we are confused and disturbed:  Who can say such a thing?  Is this man greater than heaven and earth so that his words will outlast them?  But if they put these words and his mighty deeds together, they would know that this was the Son of God, the Word who was to come into the world (John 1, 1).

 Thursday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 25, 2021

Luke 21:20-28

Jesus said to his disciples: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those within the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city, for these days are the time of punishment when all the Scriptures are fulfilled. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”

St. Luke lays the Lord’s teaching on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans alongside his teaching on the end of the world.  We should understand a new paragraph beginning after verse 24  (“. . . until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled”).   St. Matthew does the same in his Gospel.  Very possibly Luke thought that the end of Jerusalem would lead directly to the Second Coming of the Lord.  Even so, the meaning of the Lord’s words is not affected.  We simply read them, aware that the two teachings are set next to each other in the text.  We can also see the teaching of the fall of Jerusalem as signifying the final persecution of the Antichrist against the Church.

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand.”  Less than forty years after the Lord’s Death and Resurrection, provoked by the plundering of the Jewish Temple by the Roman governor, the Jews revolted.  Initially, the revolt succeeded and the Holy Land was freed from Roman occupation.  In the next year, however, the Romans returned and began the reconquest.  After subduing Galilee and most of Judea, the Romans laid a siege to Jerusalem which lasted seven terrible months.  At last, with the Jewish food stores gone, the Romans broke into the city and destroyed it utterly.  The Lord Jesus here warns the people, many of whom would live to see this happen, that divine intervention would not save it from the Romans.  “Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.”  The Lord may have meant the mountains across the Jordan River.  The city was doomed, but those who listened to Jesus might spare themselves.  The Jewish Christian community did in fact leave at this time.  “Let those in the countryside not enter the city, for these days are the time of punishment when all the Scriptures are fulfilled.”  Typically, when a foreign army entered a territory, those living in the country fled to the safer environs of the walls of the nearest city.  The Lord is saying that this will not save anyone in the coming war because all the cities and forts will fall to the Romans.  For safety, one had to leave the territory altogether.  The Lord emphasizes that heaven will not intervene on the side of the rebels, for punishment has come upon them.  “Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people.”  Women who are pregnant and nursing are most vulnerable to any sort of abuse but in time of war will have a terrible time even if they choose to flee the country.  The Lord seems to remind the people of this to make his warning more urgent to them: Leave when the war breaks out and do not be deceived by the early success.  Get out before the Romans return.  “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles.”  Not only will the rebel soldiers be defeated and killed, but civilian populations will be put to the sword or enslaved, as indeed happened.  “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles.”  As in the days of Jeremiah, the people and their leaders would trust in their belief that the city enjoyed divine protection because of the Temple.  “Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”  That is, until the end of the world, for the present “age” or “times” is that of the Gentiles.  By 70 A.D. and the Fall of Jerusalem, Christian missionary efforts, such as those of St. Paul, had turned largely from the Jews to the Gentiles.

While the revolt against the Romans is a historical event which the Lord foretold, we can also understand the war of the Jews against the Romans as the final persecution of the Antichrist and his forces against the Christians.  It will commence successfully with many believers of little faith apostatizing.  It will seem that the Church will be wiped out completely.  Yet after the Church is purified of “false brethren” (cf. 2 Corinthians 11, 26) the Lord will rise up and kill the Antichrist (that is, “Jerusalem”, in this interpretation) and the persecution put down completely.  A short time of peace will then be granted the Church before the end of the world.  

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.”  This can be understood as heresy, schism, and scandal among the leaders of the Church in the last age, as the Venerable Bede taught, but also as the physical disassembly of the universe at the end of time: “And the city [the New Jerusalem] has no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine on it. For the glory of God has enlightened it” (Revelation 21, 23).  “People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”  Many of those who had no thought of God in this world and who lived only for the pleasures of this world will die of fright.  They will be like the merchants who grieve and despair in Revelation 18, 16-17: “Alas! alas! that great city, which was clothed with fine linen and purple and scarlet and was gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls. For in one hour are so great riches come to nought!”  

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  The old creation has passed away and now the Son of God arrives in glory with the angels and the saints to judge the world.  All who ever lived will be gathered before him and there shall be no further evasions, denials, or disbelief, for “every eye shall see him, and they also, who pierced him” (Revelation 1, 7).  The sight of him will overwhelm all, and will cause jubilation among the just and such dread among the wicked that they will cry out to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (cf. Luke 23, 30).

“But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”  Jesus is speaking to those who will persevere in their faith, come what may.  At the end of our lives on earth, having withstood and overcome the temptations of the devil, the enticements of the world, and our own fallen human nature, we will “stand erect” in the light for the wicked to see as unconquered, with our heads “raised” in victory to gaze with the most sublime love upon the Love of our lives.

 Wednesday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 24, 2021

Luke 21:12-19

Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

“They will seize and persecute you.”  Today’s Gospel reading continues the Lord’s teaching on the end times.  St. Luke does not quote the Lord here as identifying why “they” are in this line.  He moves directly from the Lord’s words about the un-creation of the physical world to the great persecution near the end of the world.  Missing from the lectionary reading, however, are the words “before these things” — before the end of the physical world — which are found in the text of the Gospel of Luke 21, 12.  Thus, in order of time, the persecution will come, a period of rest for the Church (as described in Revelation 20, 1-3, and then the break up of the natural world.

This persecution of which the Lord speaks will be waged throughout the world by the Antichrist and his minions.  It will be the most savage of all the persecutions.  “They will seize and persecute you.” Literally, the Greek translated her as “they will seize you” means “they will lay their hands upon you”, which is a little more graphic.  “They will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.”  The persecution will be carried out by religious as well as political enemies.  This will be done for the sake of the Lord’s name.  We need to keep in mind as we read this that the Apostles are hearing this for the first time.  It completely conflicts with their expectations of glory for glory for the Messiah and his followers.  And the Lord Jesus has only hinted at the fact that he will come again for judgment, that the Messiah will judge.  This was also not expected by the Apostles or any of the Jews who understood that God would appear to judge.  In their understanding, the Messiah was not the divine Son of God nor would he judge.  “It will lead to your giving testimony.”  But even the arrest of the believers will result in the spread of the Faith.

“Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.”  The believer must know the doctrine of the Faith and be able to explain them, but not to prepare an elaborate defense or speeches.  The Son of God will validate the truth of the Gospel by working through those who believe in him, using their lack of rhetoric and experience in court to silence those who oppose him, just as an artist who uses the crudest tools to create a masterpiece shows his greatness as an artist.  

“You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends.”  The Greek translated here as “handed over” can also be understood as “betrayed”.  We recall here how the Lord earlier taught that he had come to bring division into the world, and not peace, but a sword (cf. Matthew 10, 34-36).  The hatred of Christ and his teachings will reach such depths that family and friends will turn in their loved ones to be killed.  “They will put some of you to death.”  “Some”: the Greek, strictly speaking, means “not all” will be killed.  The persecution will end while a portion of the faithful still live.  “You will be hated by all because of my name”.  Again, no one taught that the Jewish Messiah would be the cause of persecution.  His advent meant victory, not disaster.  The Apostles would have been struggling with this teaching.  Who is this?  But they did not account him as a madman because they had heard him preach and seen his miracles.  They did not walk away, nor did they try to argue with him, although they had in the past (cf. Matthew 16, 22 and John 11, 8).

“But not a hair on your head will be destroyed.”  Having just taught that many of his followers would die in the persecution, he teaches them that they will be kept safe.  He uses the word “head” here to speak of the soul.  Despite the most strenuous efforts of their persecutors, they cannot harm the soul of the believers cause him to lose his salvation.  Matthew 10, 28: “Fear ye not those who kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul.”  “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”  This verse sums up the message of the Gospel of Matthew, several of the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation.  Practicing the faith in one’s daily life, come what may, believing in the Lord Jesus despite threats and persecution, brings salvation.  To have faith in Christ is to commit to believing, no matter what.  It is not much to believe when times are easy, but when we believe in the face of mortal peril or terrible temptation, that is true faith.

We must pray for perseverance and work for it as well be enduring gladly the small things we are called upon to suffer for Christ now, and for the perseverance of the many Christians suffering today in many parts of the world. 

 Tuesday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 23, 2021

Luke 21:5-11

While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”  Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”

According to Jewish expectations of the time, the Messiah, whose arrival was due any time, would be born of the House of David, purify the worship in the Temple, and wage a war of independence against the Romans.  He would then rule Israel for a thousand years, after which there would be the resurrection of the dead and a great judgment.  The Lord’s words to the Apostles, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down”, would have shocked them.  He was telling them that everything they had been raised to believe about the future of Israel was false.  This came harder to them because they believed firmly that he was the promised Messiah.  If anyone would know the future of Israel, he would.  They must have been crushed, and minutes may have passed before they could speak.  This is how we are to hear their muted questions to him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”  Though this went against what they always been told, they believed him.  But they were struggling.  

“See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!”  We are reading these words with hindsight: when he says this, we are thinking about the Lord’s return in glory.  But he had not taught his Apostles that he would come again, to this point.  He had taught them that he would be arrested, beaten, killed, and that after his Death he would rise, but not yet that he would return in judgment.  He would do this a little later in his discourse.  But what would his words have meant to the Apostles just then?  He was telling them that they were to accept no one outside their company as speaking on his behalf.  (For us today, this means to accept no claims from outside the Church about the Lord coming).  The Lord tells them, in addition: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”  The expected war against the Romans was thought to come at the beginning of the Messianic age, but when Jerusalem rose up (as it did in 66 A.D.) they were not to think this signaled his return.

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”  All of these events have taken place regularly since the creation on the human race, except for the mighty signs that “will come from the sky”.  Wars and plagues do not signify his immediate coming back to the earth but signify that sin and its effects will continue to build up, requiring a judgment.  We can also understand the natural catastrophes of which the Lord speaks as the signs of the world continuing its “passing away”: “Heaven and earth will pass away” (Matthew 24, 35), and: “The first heaven and the first earth was gone: and the sea is now no more” (Revelation 22, 1).

The Lord teaches us that “we have not here a lasting city: but we seek one that is to come” (Hebrews 13, 14).  With whatever time we have left we ought to make ourselves ready for our migration to heaven.

 Monday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 22, 2021

The Feast of St. Cecilia

Matthew 25:1-13

At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples: Then will the kingdom of heaven be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom and the bride. Five of them were foolish and five wise. But the five foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, while the wise did take oil in their vessels with the lamps. Then as the bridegroom was long in coming, they all became drowsy and slept. And at midnight a cry arose, 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go forth to meet him!' Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The wise answered, saying, ‘Lest there may not be enough for us and for you, go rather to those who sell it, and buy some for yourselves.’ Now while they were gone to buy it, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Finally there came also the other virgins, who said, ‘Sir, sir, open the door for us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Amen I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The link for the online Bible Study on Monday night, 7:00 PM Central Time, 8:00 PM Eastern time, is:

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

The Meeting ID is: 380 664 5258; and the Passcode is: 140026.  We will continue our study of the Gospel of St. Matthew.  Anyone can join in!  Questions are encouraged!

The Gospel reading for ordinary time scheduled for today tells the story of the widow with the two coins, which we have considered recently.  The above is the proper Gospel reading for the Feast of St. Cecilia as found in the traditional Latin Missal.  This reading allows us to reflect on both virginity, as St. Cecilia is a virgin, and also the end of the world, which is a theme in the ordinary readings as we enter Advent.

“Then will the kingdom of heaven be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth.”  Virgins and lamps are connected by the Lord in this verse.  We can understand from this that a Christian can see farther and more clearly than anyone else by virtue of her virginity.  That is, her virginity is a “lamp” that shines in the darkness, illuminating for her in a particular way the dangers that may lie in her path — and also the Bridegroom, that is, the Lord Jesus, when he arrives.  The “lamp” of her virginity also frees her so that she may act in ways others cannot because they are more or less hindered by the darkness.  In other words, she is free to serve the Lord in ways others who have various responsibilities connected with their state of life cannot.  This freedom is found in its perfection in the Blessed Virgin Mary and is seen in her absolutely free readiness to give her assent to God in the Annunciation as well as in her going “in haste” to her relative Elizabeth, whom she learned was pregnant.   Virginity in itself does mot sanctify a person or make someone wiser than another.  It makes a higher level of sanctity and wisdom possible, but only for those who use it, so to speak, in the service of God.  It means little as an end in itself.  And so in the parable Jesus speaks of five wise and five foolish virgins.  These were granted this special call to serve him, but only half of them did.  These wise ones proved themselves wise in doing so for they were received into the wedding feast.  The others possessed the same means to serve but they wasted these in their preference to serve themselves.  They rejected the Bridegroom and the wedding feast in favor of a little self-indulgence.  

We can see this parable in another way: that from early childhood the wise virgins admired a certain man.  He was handsome, intelligent, of good family, and was generous to all.  They dreamed of marrying him or of at least helping with the wedding feast if he married another.  And when his marriage was announced, they rejoiced for him because of their love for him, rather than to feel badly for themselves.  When he chose them to be the virgins to light the way for him on the night of the wedding feast, they rejoiced again.  Out of love for him they made all their preparations and were resolved to remain awake all night waiting for him if necessary.  Just the chance to serve and to be included in the feast, near him and sharing in his joy was motivation for them.  And when human nature crept up on them so that they did sleep for a short time, their dedication made them ready, and they lit their lamps quickly.  The light given forth by their lamps hardly equaled the glow of happiness in the faces of these virgins.  They lit the way to his door and went in with him in exultation.

This was the virginity of St. Cecilia.  It is said that even at the wedding her parents forced her into she sat apart from family and friends and sang to God in her heart, for he was ever present to her.  Her “lamp” enabled her to see what others could not, despite their wealth, power, and nobility.  She was guarded by an angel whom her husband was able to see after he was baptized.  Realizing the special call she had received from God, he did not attempt to consummate the marriage with her.  She remained constant in her virtue and clear in her vision throughout her arrest and the attempts to put her to death for her faith in Christ.  As was said of St. Perpetua, her near contemporary, “Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit.”

Though not all are called to virginity, yet all are called to chastity and can offer themselves to God according to their state in life.  With our eyes set on his Son and our hearts poised to serve, we can give him the wedding gift of ourselves in purity of heart.

 The Solemnity of Christ the King, Sunday, November 21, 2021

John 18:33b–37

Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The Apostle John was fascinated with the way his Master spoke, particularly in how he used ordinary human words as signs of divine realities.  This fascination led him to include in his Gospel episodes which the other Evangelists, taken with other aspects of the Lord’s life and preaching, did not.  For example, John writes of the Miracle at Cana and the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus, in which Jesus uses the words “wine” and “birth” to mean much more than commonly understood.

In the Gospel reading for the Mass in honor of Christ the King, Jesus and Pilate wrangle over the meaning of “king”.  Pilate looks this man from Nazareth over and asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Now, when Pilate was given the accusation against Jesus, Pilate understood “Jews” as the inhabitants of Judea, not in terms of members of a religion.  The Lord’s answer strikes us as curious, and It must have astonished Pilate, who was used to prisoners quailing pathetically before him: “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?”  Jesus is asking him what he thinks the term he has used means.  Is it what he thinks it means or what the Sanhedrin thinks it means?  For the Sanhedrin, the question is a religious one, and Pilate would not care less about it.  If it is a political question, Pilate would be interested.  At the time, there was no king of the Judeans.  The last one had been Herod the Great.  Was this man, then, a descendent of Herod the Great?  It should be pointed out that the Lord never claimed to be the “king of the Jews” or Judeans in any way; neither did the Pharisees or high priests ever accuse him of making such a claim, until now.

“I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”  Pilate is saying that he is not a Judean, but a Roman,  and does not consort with Judeans.  They, however have handed him over for judgment.  But it is not a crime if Jesus is truly a descendent of Herod the Great.  What, then, has Jesus done?  He has not raised up any armies against the Romans.  Indeed, he is not known to Pilate st all.  The Lord answers Pilate with an assertion, more than an answer: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”  His assertion, though, comes in the form of a paradox, as far as the Roman is concerned.  Jesus continues: “If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.”  Jesus confirms that he is a king, but not one that is a threat to Rome or anyone else “of this world”.  Jesus also reveals that he could not be the king of the Judeans because his followers would be fighting against them at this moment.  Perhaps Pilate stood silently here, considering what sort of man this was.  But by his own words, he represented no threat to Rome.  If he did, the Judeans would not have handed him over for judgment.  They would be rallying to his side.  Then Jesus said again, “But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  

“Then you are a king?”  Pilate is intrigued now.  He sounds more like Nicodemus in John 3:9, when Jesus has spoken of the need to be reborn — another seeming paradox: “How can these things be done?”  Jesus replies “You say I am a king.”  He says, This is your word.  But when I say “king” it means something different than when you say “king”:  “Amen, amen, I say to thee that we speak what we know” (John 3, 11).  Pilate can only think of political kings, while the Lord is claiming to be something more.  The word “king” is merely a sign of the divine reality.  Jesus explains, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Others are “brought into this world; but the true King comes into it of his own accord and teaches the truth about the world.  His rule transcends space and time.  It threatens only the wicked.  His followers do fight for him, but it is an internal fight against temptations and fallen human nature.  

The world seeks to enslave us in the coils and chains of its politics and lies.  Let us look beyond all of us to the only One who has a rightful claim on us, the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ.

 Saturday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 20, 2021

Luke 20:27-40

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, “If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.”  Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

The Lord performed great wonders while he walked the earth.  He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.  He cast out demons that had long infested people.  He fed thousands from a basket of fish and bread.  And he raised the dead.  All these he did in public.  They deeply impressed the people who saw them.  Even those who opposed him could not deny what he did, but attributed his power to the devil.  But you and I did not see them.  As we read testimony by eyewitnesses in the Gospel, we can be moved and astonished, but the effect is not the same as it would be if we had seen these miracles ourselves.  On the other hand, we can read his words, and even without the sound and force of his voice behind them, and even in translation, they can shake us and awe us.  Simply from reading his words we can know deep within ourselves that this is God speaking.  The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is a very good example of this.

“Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus.”  The Lord has entered Jerusalem and is teaching in the Temple precincts.  The people are “hanging” on his words, as we know from Luke 19, 48.  The Sadducees, a relatively small sect which had assumed the operation of the Temple, despised the Lord for teaching about the resurrection.  They see this doctrine as a heresy and vigorously resist the Pharisees, who also teach it.  Their animosity was so heated on this teaching that riots brokeout over it (cf. Acts 23, 6-9).  They attempt here to discredit Jesus as a teacher by proposing to him a legal riddle.  They preface their riddle by quoting Moses: “If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother” (cf. Deuteronomy 25, 5-6).  They then describe a situation governed by this injunction: “There were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless.”  The Sadducees must have felt very clever at this point.  They next spring their trap, as they thought it to be: “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?”  

The Lord’s answer must have stunned them.  “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”  He gives an authoritative answer that goes beyond the Scriptures, telling them what no one but God and the angels could know.  He also throws the crude, materialist vision of heaven the Sadducees had back in their faces.  The majesty of what the Lord has revealed simply makes ridiculous what the Sadducees offer.  The Lord does not stop to allow them either to sneak away or to try to regroup: “They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”  His words blow out the smoke of false teaching so that all who hear him can revel in the light he brings.  The Lord does not merely and with ease destroy the teaching of the Sadducees, but reveals to the people something about the life in heaven that is beautiful, sensible, wise, and convincing.

But the Lord is not done yet.  He reveals something of the life of God: “That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  The Sadducees did not accept the works of the Prophets into their Scriptures but held only the Pentateuch, or Torah, as the inspired word of God.  Thus, the Lord does not quote from the Prophets with them, but from the books which they did accept.  Even Moses, he tells them, believed in the resurrection of the dead.  How do we know this? Because “he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”  We must note the present tense of the verb: He is the God of Abraham, not, He was.  That is, Abraham still lives and awaits the resurrection, as does Isaac and Jacob.  God is still the God of Abraham, after all these centuries, he says, and this can only be because Abraham, though dead, yet is alive.  Nor did Almighty God cast off Abraham and the other Patriarchs after they died so that they wander among the deep shadows of Sheol, but he remains their God after their life on earth as much as he had always been.

The Lord’s words shine with brilliance and simplicity.  They make us think, when their truth dawns on us, that only God could have said this and spoken in this way.  We fall to our knees in wonder, “Never did any man speak like this man” (John 7, 46). 

 Friday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 19, 2021

Luke 19:45-48

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.

According to the Gospels, Jesus went straight to the Temple once he entered Jerusalem at the beginning of his last week on earth.  His followers would have expected this, for in their understanding the Messiah was to purge the Temple and restore true worship, and then to declare that the kingdom of Israel was restored with himself at its head.  Thus, the anxiety of the Pharisees in Luke 19, 39.  Going to the Temple and expelling the merchants doing business in the courtyard seemed exactly what the Messiah was supposed to do.  In fact, his actions meant that the worship in the Temple with its animal sacrifices had served its purpose as a sign and had now come to an end: the true worship of God with its offering to the Father of his Body and Blood, was about to be inaugurated.

“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’, but you have made it a den of thieves.”  The Lord quotes from Isaiah 56, 7.  The whole verse runs: “I will bring them [the faithful Jews] into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for all nations.”  Almighty God promises to give joy to those who obey his Commandments in his house of prayer.  His glory will be their glory.  He says that their sacrifices will please him.  The dead animals offered up at that time represented the one making the offering, and so “a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51, 19).  That is, a heart emptied of its pride, and a will conformed to the will of God.  

Jesus particularly declares the Temple God’s “house of prayer” in opposing the merchants, contrasting it with the “den of thieves” the merchants and their backers, the Sanhedrin, had made it.  A den of thieves is a dangerous place for any person to go.  Because it is hidden, a person could walk into it unwary, realizing his mistake only when it was too late.  In this den, within the rocky hills of Judea, all sorts of evil would be planned, and in this hideout the bandits felt safe.  Here also they would divide their loot and celebrate their successes.  The Lord is declaring that this is what the Temple had become, with the Sanhedrin and Pharisees as the thieves.  It is as if they lured the innocent believers into their den in order to rob and kill them.  That is, they take their money and endanger their souls with false teachings that draw them away from God.

“And every day he was teaching in the temple area.”  The Lord began to cast out the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees with his teaching that enthralled crowds who had thirsted all their lives for the truth about God.  “The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death.”  These thieves could not abide a single challenge and so banded together to find the best way to eliminate the One who showed them for who they were.  “But they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.”  Out of desperation they would finally try to use the hated procurator Pilate to do their work for them.  But what was this teaching that so inflamed them?  Was this man from Nazareth preaching a war with Rome and announcing that he was a king?  No, rather, he taught the people to love God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. Instead of inciting his followers, he was calming them.

“All the people were hanging on his words.”  They clung to his words as though they were jewels — or the ropes of rescue ships.  His words were life to them.  Perhaps many still expected him to restore the kingdom, but all his words were about God.  

The freer from sin we are and the more prayerful, the more we will hang on his words, too, for it will seem to us as we read them that we are hearing him speak them to us.  So let us cast out the vices from us, his temples, and become ourselves true houses of prayer.

 Thursday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 18, 2021

Luke 19:41-44

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

The Gospels tell us of only two times the Lord Jesus wept: at the death of his friend Lazarus, and here.  This tells us of how personally he took his rejection by the people he had shown the most love for, over the centuries.  Time and again he had sent them prophets and judges to sway them and lead them when they forsook the simple Commandments he had given them.  They cast him aside in the wilderness for a golden calf after he had sent ten mighty plagues against Egypt on their account and led them across the Red Sea to safety out of reach of Pharaoh’s chariots.  They grumbled against him after he had miraculously fed them there, where no other food was to be found.  They gave him up for the worship of alien gods after he had incredibly handed over to them the land of Canaan in which to dwell.  They signaled their lack of trust in him by demanding a king even during the time of Samuel, their greatest judge.  Later, they clung to their idolatry despite the warnings of the prophets of national destruction if they persisted in it.  And, finally, it had come to this, that a few days after the Som of God wept over them, they would cry out against him, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” in the face of the Roman procurator’s wish to let him go free (cf. Luke 23, 21-22).

In the Lord’s words read at today’s Mass, we see the horror of sin and the dreadful fate of the one who clings to it.

“If this day you only knew what makes for peace.”  Jerusalem, that is, the unrepentant soul, does know what makes for peace.  Through the Prophet Micah, the Lord has said, “I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Verily to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6, 8).  And here, God had come to walk humbly with his people, showing them with his own actions, which everyone could see, how to do judgment and to love mercy. But still they did not “know” this in their own actions.  They were like children who watched but did not apply what they saw to themselves.  “But now it is hidden from your eyes.”  The love of their God was hidden from the eyes of the hearts of the unrepentant, that is, they hide themselves from it, “That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them” (Mark 4, 12), as the Lord said, adapting Isaiah 44, 18.  They hide themselves from his love so that they can avoid the hard work of admitting their sins, begging forgiveness, doing penance, and changing their lives.

“For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you.”  The coming end of our lives is like an army assembling before the walls of a city and erecting siege-works.  We know we are getting older and weaker, that our formerly robust strength is failing us.  From the walls of our city we can see the enemy, out of range from our own weapons, calmly, methodically, preparing for our destruction.  The unrepentant see, but do nothing else.  “They will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.”  Every avenue of escape — to repent — has been closed off for them, and they do nothing but sit, waiting for their doom.  “They will smash you to the ground and your children within you.” That is, the unrepentant sinner and any hope he had of living his accustomed life. “They will not leave one stone upon another within you.”  No chance of respite or recovery will remain.  

“Because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”  The time of our visitation, of God’s grace, is now.  The history of the world is filled with the stories of men and women of every time and condition who could have saved themselves from some terrible fate, but did not lift a finger to do so, in spite of repeated warnings.  We have the urgings of the Son of God himself, and whatever time left he grants us.  We pray for our own conversion and for that of even the most abandoned sinners.

 Wednesday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 17, 2021

Luke 19:11-28

While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’ His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’ He replied, ‘Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came and reported, ‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.’ And to this servant too he said, ‘You, take charge of five cities.’ Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ He said to him, ‘With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.’ And to those standing by he said, ‘Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.’ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’ He replied, ‘I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.’” 

After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.

The parable that is read for today’s Mass is similar to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, 14-30, and this has caused some scholars to think it is the same.  But this is not so.  The Lord tells this parable before he arrives at Jerusalem and he does so for the reason St. Luke gives: the people “thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately.”  That is, the Lord explained to the people in this way that the kingdom they awaited so fervently would not be established in this first coming of his, but in his second coming. The Lord told the Parable of the Talents, on the other hand, as part of his teaching on the end of the world and on the great judgment at that time.  The Lord told the parable in Luke first, then, before entering the City, and adapted it later in order to teach on another matter.  This shows the genius of the Lord’s parables, that they can be adapted to different situations, audiences, and teaching.  

“A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.”  Jesus speaks of himself here, and that he will ascend into heaven, after his Resurrection, to obtain the Kingdom from God his Father, and then, at a time of his choosing, he will return to earth.  “He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’ ”  The number ten signifies totality, and so the Lord gives all his servants the commandment to live faithfully and the grace with which to do so.  “His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ ”  That is, those wicked leaders and demons who considered themselves the Lord’s equals or betters through their pride and envy, and so are here called “his fellow citizens”.  “But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.”  The nobleman, now king, said he would return and he did.  Here, the Lord returns to the earth in glory and majesty and the angels gather together all his servants so that they may render an account to him.  “The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’ ”  Now, the Greek text tells us exactly how much each servant received: a mina, worth about $500 in today’s money. The first slave thus earned $5000 by trading with his mina.  This is a remarkable profit, and the king is pleased, and the reward is breathtaking: “Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.”  From slavery to ruling ten cities!  The second servant comes next, perhaps a little nervous because he has not gotten such a profit.  But the king is pleased with this servant too: “You, take charge of five cities.”  Again, a stupendous reward well out of proportion with what the servant has done.  We see how the Lord rewards our faith and good works on earth, raising us up from the dust of which we are made to glory in heaven.  

The last servant, who has seen the others rewarded as a result of their labor, is filled with trepidation for he has put forth no labor at all.  He trembles as he tries to excuse himself: “Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding man; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.”  This servant tries to blame his master for his own failure.  The master is not pleased: “With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding man, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.”  At the last judgment, the Lord will not waste any words with the wicked for they do not deserve them and they know full well that they chose to reject him rather than work for him.  These words, then, are meant for us to hear so that we might understand the teaching.

“Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.”  That is, the wicked lose everything and have no more chance, at the time of the judgment, to repent and do penance.  When the master tells his attendants to give the gold coin to the man with ten, they are astonished.  The king says to them, “I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”  Those who are strong in the faith through continual prayer and repeated good works will profit through perseverance, while the wicked who does not attempt to do the will of God, even in favorable times, will lose what faith they may have once had.  “Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.”  These are those who never possessed faith, rejecting it out of hand, and enticed the wicked to act with greater wickedness.  The devil and his angels are among them.  They are said to be “slain” in that their loss of heaven and their condemnation into the fiery darkness is permanent.

We see here the eagerness of the Lord to overwhelm, as it were, those who are faithful to him.  The holiness we obtain on earth may be a “very small” matter when compared to that of Almighty God, and yet he gives to those who have striven for it a place in the brilliance of his eternal Kingdom.  And let us labor to gain the ten minas simply in order to please him who is the love of our lives.