The Solemnity of All Saints, Friday, November 1, 2024

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.” 

Beginning in the 300’s, Christians began to celebrate feasts dedicated to all the saints who perished in the Roman persecutions.  By the mid-700’s, in England, a feast for the saints, martyrs and non-martyrs, was celebrated on November 1.  The feast was officially placed on the Church calendar by Pope Gregory IV (d. 844).

The Second Reading for today’s solemnity is taken from The Book of Revelation (also known as The Apocalypse).  This book, according to the Venerable Bede (d. 735) consists of seven visions which tell the history of the Church from the time of the Apostles until the Lord Jesus comes again at the end of the world.  In the Reading we are given part of the second vision.  In it are found revelations to comfort those suffering persecution for the sake of Jesus Christ.  This particular revelation is of the Church of the saved: those still on earth and those victorious in heaven.  During the course of world history the saints suffer from many deprivations and attacks, and also from the forces of nature such as plagues, storms, and famine.  These are “marked” with the Sign of the Cross and as such their faith will be strengthened and guarded against any danger.  These saints are given the number “one hundred and forty-four thousand”, which ought to be understood as intended and not as an actual number.  That is, this number signifies the true number of the saints on earth.  They belong to the Church of God (“Israel”) spread over the earth (the “twelve tribes”).  

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”  John now sees the saints in heaven.  Their glorious appearance indicates their holiness: “They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.”  The white robes especially indicate the purity of their hearts.  The palms are ancient signs of victory: they have overcome the enticements of this world, the weaknesses of the flesh, and the temptations of the devil in order to conform themselves to Christ.  “They stood before the throne and before the Lamb.”  God the Father is seated upon the throne.  The Lamb is God the Son.  The Holy Spirit is also present before the throne, signified by seven lamps (Revelation 4, 5).  The saints behold the most wonderful sight of the very face of Love.  “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  This is the song of the saints in heaven.

“All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God.”   the “elders” and “four living creatures” signify the Church in heaven.  Traditionally, the elders signify the Apostles and the four living creatures, the Evangelists.  They witnessed to the Lord Jesus and in heaven they take their place before the throne of the Father and the Lamb, surrounded by the throngs of the angels.  “They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God.”  Rapt in wonder before the awesome God, they respond with worship, pouring their love into the One whose love cascades into them.  “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  The words of the blessed can hardly convey their impression of God’s glory.  “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.”  The time of “great distress” is this present life during which the believer suffers afflictions of all kinds and the grave temptations of the devil, who sees himself defeated in every saint who departs the world for heaven.  They wash the “robes” of their lives in the Blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, who poured out his Blood for the forgiveness of sins.

We ought often to meditate on the glory of the saints in God’s Kingdom and to see what can be ours if we persevere in the Faith.

 Thursday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 31, 2024

Luke 13, 31-35

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’   Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”  These Pharisees present that they have information that Herod wanted to kill the Lord Jesus.  They come to him as though doing him a favor.  However, evidence makes it unlikely that they speak the truth. In Luke 23, 8 we read that Herod “was desirous for a long time of seeing him, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him.”  It seems, then, that the Pharisees were merely trying to get him to leave their area.  Thus the darkness hates the light (cf. John 1, 5).  According to St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), in the Lord’s response, “Go and tell that fox”, the fox” is the Pharisee who gave him the false warning.  In fact, the Greek word translated here as “that” actually means “this”.  “That” refers to someone over there; “this” refers to someone close at hand.  In addition, by calling the Pharisee a “fox” the Lord intimates that he knows very well that he is trying to trick him.  The Lord’s treatment of the Pharisee is like that of his treatment of the Nazarenes who tried to kill him: he did not speak to them but went his way.  

“Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.”  Here the Lord tell the Pharisees to give a message to their lying colleague, but the message is meant for them as well.  The Lord is telling them that he will continue to work where and when he wants until he “accomplishes his purpose”.  The Greek for this last phrase means “I am perfected” or “I am completed”.  That is, until the Sacrifice of his life on the Cross.

“I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.”  The Lord’s “way” is his journey towards his Passion, a journey that began at the moment of his Incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.  He makes it clear that he shall face the unjust hatred of the authorities suffered by the Old Testament Prophets, especially Jeremiah, and will die at Jerusalem.  We should note that the Lord refers to himself as a “prophet”.  The primary work of the old Prophets was to warn the people to repent from their sins or that they would be destroyed.  This was at the heart of the Lord’s preaching:  “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1, 15).

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those sent to you.”  This brings to mind the lament over Jerusalem of the Prophet Jeremiah: “Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you.  This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart. My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!” (Jeremiah 4, 18-19).  “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”  That is, how many times, as a hen gathers her chicks, he would have gathered — saved — his people from “foxes” like the lying Pharisee.  Yet the people were unwilling to reject their false gods and to adhere to the Law.  “Your house will be abandoned.”  They will be offered the way to eternal life but they will reject it and live without it.  Their house will be abandoned not because the Lord has left them, but because they will leave him.  “But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  St. Cyril teaches that this time will come at the end of the world, when the Son of God returns for judgment.  It cannot mean the time when Jesus enters Jerusalem the Sunday before he dies on the Cross because he is still in the world then and can be seen by anyone who looks.

The wicked attempt to scare away the faithful so that they may not give witness to Christ through the example of their lives.  They also seek to entice us with the distractions and pleasures of this passing world.  Let us hold fast to our mission of witnessing to Christ so that we will be among those who celebrate when he returns.

 Wednesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 30, 2024

Luke 13, 22-30

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.”

“Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved?’ ”  This question has caused many tremble throughout the ages because it comes out of fear that we and our families may not be saved.  If only a few people will be saved, then what chance do I have?  This is what the questioner is really asking: “What are my chances of being saved?”  The Lord answers, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”  That is, Yes, you can be saved, it only if you enter through the narrow gate.  We ask: Why is the gate “narrow”?  The Lord answers that he calls the gate narrow because “Many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”  It is not narrow in the sense of itself it keeps people out, but because, for lack of strength, few people enter it.  The problem is not with the gate but with the people, in other words.  But what is this “strength” that so many people are missing?  The Greek word translated here as “strength” also means “force”, “power”, and “ability”.  We should think of all these meanings together, as in a muscular individual, with stamina, who has trained for various activities.  The spiritual equivalent is a person who has great faith accompanied with many good works, who has persevered through the trials of the earthly life.  For such a person, entrance through the gate is a simple matter.

“After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking.”  This parable reminds us of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25, 1-12).  The Lord is describing the aftermath of the great Judgment at the end of the world when the wicked are being carried off to hell.  They cry out to the Lord who has condemned them: “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”  They do not say, You preached in our streets and we converted our lives.  All the wicked claim is that they were in his proximity.  This pertains to the Pharisees of the day, some of whom hosted the Lord Jesus in their homes.  This pertains today to those who reject Christ and his Church, for Christ seeks to save them through his Church and its members.  To this plea the Lord will reply: “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!”  He will confirm the original condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25, 41).

“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.”  In the days before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the Prophet Jeremiah warned the people that they should not trust that God would save the city because his Temple was in it: “Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord” (Jeremiah 7, 4).  In the end, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed because the people did not repent from their sins.  It must have been a time of absolute horror as the Israelites understood what was happening to them, and why.  Here, far worse, the grief, the rage, the terror of the damned who look upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and saw that they were not with them.  They had taken comfort in the fact that they belonged to the children of Abraham, the Chosen People.  But in fact they had rejected Abraham through their sins and faithlessness.  This also warns us against complacency that just because we are baptized and go to church now and then that we will be saved.  “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.”  These are the despised Gentiles who accepted baptism and faith.  The lukewarm Christian who rejects certain doctrines because they are inconvenient or distasteful looks down upon those who carefully practice the Faith, believing all that God has revealed to us.

“For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  The “first” who will be “last” are those who considered themselves too good for religion and the laws of God, through pride.  There are others who are truly “first” but did not dare to imagine that they were.  Foremost of these is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who considered herself nothing more than the handmaid of the Lord.  She thought of herself as “last” or “the least”, but she is first in the Kingdom of God.

It is clear what we need to do in order to enter through the narrow way: to grow in faith and to increase in good works, and to persevere in Christ.  So let us set about this work so that one day we shall recline at table in the heavenly kingdom. 

 Tuesday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 29, 2024

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.”

Largely lost on us today, the Lord Jesus is teaching the crowds what the Kingdom of God is like in order to show that it differs greatly from the earthly kingdom of the restored Israel which the Pharisees have taught them to expect.  He does not describe the Kingdom in terms of ruling from the Nile to the Euphrates, nor does he speak of great palaces and lofty towers.  He does not speak of immense armies of Jews or of angels fighting the Romans.  Instead, he compares the Kingdom of God to “a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.”  The Lord chooses an image completely opposed to that which the Jewish people had been taught.  Those listening to the Lord must have wondered greatly at what he was saying.  He was speaking a very different language to them.  

“A mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.”  Ancient cultures primarily used mustard for medicinal purposes.  The Greek physician Hippocrates used it to treat lung diseases and congestion.  Other peoples applied it to arthritis and heart disease.  This was no mere condiment, but an important tool of the physician.  The Lord speaks of the minute size of its seed.  Indeed, it is tiny, averaging 1-2 millimeters (.o5 inches) in diameter.  Now, the man in the parable planted a single mustard seed and “when it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”  Some varieties of the mustard plant grow two or three feet, while others can reach as high as six feet.  The plant matures three to six months after the seed is planted, so it grows quickly.  We can say, then, that this medically beneficial plant grows to a good size from a tiny seed in a short time.  The Lord Jesus is describing how the Faith — the Faith through which we are saved — will spread, how the Church will grow, after he waters its tiny seed with his Blood. 

“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.”  Yeast is a living organism used to make bread dough rise.  It is also used in the fermentation process.  Ancient people, among them the Egyptians, thought of yeast as magical.  How it was able to make bread dough rise was not understood until Louis Pasteur’s work in the nineteenth century.  To the ancient Jews, then, it was mysterious, though common.  The woman in the parable kneaded a pinch of yeast into a batch of dough until it was spread throughout, and then the dough began to rise.  The Lord Jesus shows that the Faith will spread in a mysterious fashion.  The yeast signifies the grace that the Holy Spirit pours upon the Jews and Gentiles, in response to the prayers of the faithful, so that they may be converted to the Faith.  It would seem an impossible work, beginning with the Apostles, but by the time of the end of the Apostolic Age, many thousands of people had become Christians, and the growth was just getting started.

The Kingdom of God today exists on earth and yet is not of the earth, and its destiny is in heaven.  It is “not of this world” even while so many of its members are at parent living on earth in that they do not cling to the world but are making their pilgrimage from it to heaven.  Let us simplify our lives so that we may concentrate on this pilgrimage and arrive at our destination safely .

 The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Monday, October 28, 2024

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.

From the First Reading for today’s Mass: “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.

 Sunday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 27, 2024

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.

“Bartimaeus.”  Saints Matthew and Luke also relate this incident, but only Mark names the blind beggar.  This may mean that Bartimaeus was known to St. Mark in the early years of the Church, or even to the Apostle Peter, whose accounts of the Lord’s words and deeds Mark compiled in his Gospel.

“Sat by the roadside begging.”  The blind beggar signifies each of us, blinded by the bright but passing splendors and enticements of the world — careers, wealth, possessions, baser pleasures — and unable to know ourselves or how to live well, or the purpose of life.  We live in squalor and on whatever people give us, good or bad.  “On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth.”  The name of Jesus kindles hope in our hearts, for the name is familiar.  He is passing by, though, and will soon be gone.  That is, we do not know how much time we have to go to him.  “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”  We pray a simple prayer for help.  It goes out from the heart.  This is a prayer the Lord will hear above all the noise of the crowd.  “Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.”  Those who do not want us to be saved from sin but to remain mired in it with them seek to silence our prayers.  They cannot bear to see someone like themselves become clean and to depart for the way of Jesus.  The sight of a repentant soul tortures them with guilt.  But perseverance in prayer despite them makes us stronger and our prayer more pure.

“Call him.”  We notice here that the Lord does not go to the blind beggar.  He employs those around him to act as his heralds.  They cry out, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  Those who sought to silence him fall away.  Hearing that Jesus is calling him personally, “he threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.”  That is, he abandoned his former life completely and leaped up.  Life surged within him as he made his way, helped by many hands, to the Lord.  These heralds are those who believe in Christ and witness to him in their words and deeds.  They are the Holy Scriptures, the saints and angels, and sacred art.  They are all people, places, and things that bring us to Jesus, that remind us of him, that give us courage to open our hearts to him.

“What do you want me to do for you?”  Jesus wants the man to share in the work of his own salvation and so he asks him to answer a question to which he already knows the answer.  We should think what we would ask if the Lord were to ask us this question.  What is it that we most need?  The Lord asks an open question.  He does not ask, narrowly, “Do you want me to heal your eyes?”  He asks him to ask for whatever he wants.  “Master, I want to see.”  The blind beggar does not hesitate, does not make a speech about how deserving he is of a favor, does not attempt to flatter the Lord.  He makes a simple direct statement.  “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”  The Lord’s reply both grants the man’s prayer and commends him for his faith.  He commends him for cooperating with the abundant grace God gives to all of us that we should convert and follow his commandments.  Those around the man rejected this grace and tried to silence his prayers.  He persevered and grew in grace so that his prayer was strengthened.  Now he has the fullness of faith.  He is a new man.  He is a saved man: “Immediately he received his sight.”

“And followed him on the way.”  Bartimaeus does not go back for his cloak.  He does not even look back.  Nor do we, after our sins are forgiven through the Sacrament of Penance, return to the occasions of sin where we fell before, and we follow Jesus.  He is the way, the only way.  We use our new sight, the life of grace which enables us to avoid the pits and traps of sin and to go where Jesus leads us.  And we ourselves are now in the company of the Lord’s heralds who may hand others to him.

 Saturday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 26, 2024

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 Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.”  This incident does not appear to have been recorded in history.  However, it certainly does accord with what we know of Pontius Pilate, who instigated massacres against both the Jews and the Samaritans throughout his time as procurator in Israel.  The Jewish historian Josephus does mention how an attempt by Pilate to steal money from the Temple treasury tο fund an aqueduct resulted in a riot in which several worshippers were killed.  The people speaking to Jesus might have been referring to that event.  “The tower at Siloam.”  Siloam was a neighborhood in Jerusalem.  We have for our source on the collapse of the tower there only the Gospel of Luke.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?”  The Lord’s question indicates that the people were asking him the reason for why God allowed such terrible things as this to happen.   The people’s supposed that God was punishing them for some sin.  We see this same attitude in the Book of Job, where Job has suffered the loss of his family and property and his friends tell him that his were the cause.  The Lord disabuses the people of this notion: “By no means!”  He uses these incidents to teach a lesson: “If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  That is, without time for a last minute prayer of repentance.

“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard.”  Fig trees are common in the land of Israel and so the Lord might have simply meant a fruit tree, which the Hebrew word allows.  But we can also understand the fig tree as a figure for Israel, as the Jews themselves did, or as the individual sinner.  “He came in search of fruit on it but found none.”  The Lord brought the Hebrews into the Promised Land and gave them the Law.  But Israel did not bear fruit: they lapsed into adultery on occasion and otherwise disobeyed the Law God had given them.  They even rejected the Redeemer he had sent to them.  Or, a person was baptized and brought into the Church but fell away from the practice of the Faith.  “For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down.”  By these “three years” we can understand the three ages since Moses: the first, from Moses to David; the second, from David to the Fall of Jerusalem; the third, from the Fall of Jerusalem to the present day.  We can also see these as the three years of the Lord’s Public Life during which he called the people to repentance.  In terms of the sinner, these years might mean childhood, youth, and adulthood.  Through all this time, Almighty God had offered many opportunities for repentance, but these had been rejected.

“So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?”  The Father says this to the Son.  Jesus represents his Father as disgusted with the tree that does not bear fruit.  Its very presence in the garden grieves him and he wants it cut down and tossed outside the garden to rot.  This is unrepentant Israel, rejected by Almighty God — or, rather, God’s acceptance of unrepentant Israel’s and the sinner’s rejection of him.  But the Son intercedes: “I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.”  The Son cultivates the ground with his Cross and fertilizes the tree with his Blood: he offers his life for Israel and the sinner, and provides abundant graces for conversion.  But if even this is not enough, “You can cut it down.”  That is, at the Last Judgment.

 Friday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 25, 2024

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.”

“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 24, 2024

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 human language the Son of God deigned to use in his Incarnation could hardly express the ferocity of his desire to save the world.    And for the Lord, this saving meant to fill every heart with the fiery love for it that he had for them.  And this was no general statement: in that moment he was thinking particularly of each human person who would ever live.  We might think here of how the Lord characterized his relationship with each of us as a Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep and greatly rejoices upon finding it (cf. Matthew 18, 12-13).  He runs through the fields, ignoring any danger to himself, scanning the land as he runs.  He hurries until he is nearly exhausted lest it fall into a hole and die or become the prey of a lion.  When he finally locates the lost sheep he increases his speed and falls upon it, out of breath.  The Lord Jesus does this for each one of us, pursuing us with his grace.

“There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”  The Lord had mentioned this baptism on an earlier occasion when James and John asked to sit on his right and on his left when he came into his kingdom: “And Jesus said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?” (Mark 10, 38).  He was speaking of his Passion and Death.  The Greek word means “washing”: the Lord uses it to indicate that he would be washed with his own Blood.  But how he longs for this to take place!

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?”  The Prophet Isaiah calls him “the Prince of peace” (Isaiah 9, 6), meaning that those who possess him, possess peace.  But there will be some who are on fire in love with Jesus and some who will reject him and seek to extinguish the fire in others.  For this reason, even households will be divided: “From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three.”  Love for Jesus Christ will cause those who love him to shun sinful activities which they previously enjoyed with others, and those who are wicked will not be content to let them go their way.  The wicked will see themselves as indicted by the conversion of their family members or former friends, and so they must fight this by attacking them.  Even those sharing belief in God will be divided, such as when a son goes off to become a priest or a daughter enters a convent.  Parents may vehemently oppose this for completely selfish reasons.

The Son of God blazes with his love.  We pray that we may experience this blazing so that, on fire ourselves, we may return it.

 Wednesday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 23, 2024

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.”

Today’s Gospel Reading continues with the Lord’s teachings about the need to prepare properly for death and for the second coming.

“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.”  We can interpret our Lord’s words in two ways: if a person striving for holiness knew when, where, and how a temptation would arise, he would make himself ready to fight it; or, if a person knew the time of the day of judgment, he would put his life in order.  “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  As the Lord points out, we do not know when we will die nor when he will come again.  This must not lure us into a state of hyper-vigilance or of complacency.  As St. Paul teaches, “The time is short. From now on those who have wives should be as if they had none; and those who mourn, as though they did not mourn; and those who rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and those who buy as if they possessed no goods; and those who use this world, as if they used it not. For the form of this world is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7, 29–31).  We should go about our lives, that is, but we should be conscious of the fact that the end is coming.

To Peter’s question as to whether he was meaning this teaching for the people in general or for the Apostles in particular, the Lord gives an answer meant for the Apostles: “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 the leaders of the Church should be “wise and prudent” stewards of the Lord’s teachings.  Those who fulfill their Master’s command will receive a high place in the heavenly kingdom: “he will put him in charge of all his property.”  But the Church leader who yields to complacency and says, in effect, “My master is delayed in coming” and abuses his authority, living a life of sin, to the point even of causing scandal, will suffer the consequences.  When the Lord Jesus comes, whether in death or at the end of the world, he “will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful”, in Gehenna.  If we insist on acting like the unfaithful, we will be treated as 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.”  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.