Saturday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 14:1–12

Meditatio

“… he feared the people …”

    Whoever is attentive to the daily liturgy will come across this horrible story of the death of John the Baptist three times during the year, including its memorial on August 29. You would think once would be enough. Why does the Church repeat it? Perhaps it is because we need to face it. It’s a sad story of a pointless death, and we don’t want to think about it too much. But if we look at it honestly, we might see something of Herod in ourselves.

    Matthew’s account has an interesting difference from Mark’s version. Mark says that Herod imprisoned John on account of Herodias, but didn’t want to kill him and in fact had a strange attraction to listening to him. Matthew ascribes different motives to Herod. He says that Herod wanted to kill him but feared the popular outcry that might result, because the people regarded John as a prophet. Herod did not want people to regard him as a prophet-killer.

    Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great and tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, seems to be a powerful person. He has the power to imprison John and even to execute him. But who is actually more powerful—John bound and in prison, or Herod who acts first from pressure from Herodias, then out of fear for what people will think, and then to save face in front of his guests? Herod is pitiable. He is like the “reed swayed by the wind” (Mt 11:7) that Jesus contrasts to John. John only moves where the Spirit blows. His power comes from an interior freedom to fearlessly do what he is called to do.

    Who are we more like? How interiorly free are we? How often do we make decisions based on our values and what we discern God is asking of us? And how often do we instead look outward—at what people will think, or whom we want to get even with, or how to make a good impression?

Oratio

    Jesus, Herod is such a despicable character that I don’t even want to think that I might be like him in some way. But sometimes I let popular opinion and currents sway my choices. I want to be more like John the Baptist. I want to have the interior freedom to live as who I am—a child of God. Where can I find the self-confidence and faith to live this way? Where can I find the courage? Implant in me the firm conviction of being loved and called by you.

Contemplatio

    In making choices today, I want to be interiorly free.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

St. Peter Chrysologus was born in Imola, Italy, in about 400, and in about 431 he became bishop of Ravenna, at that time the imperial capital of the West. He was an acquaintance of Eutyches (371?–455), the originator of the Monophysite heresy (i.e., that there are not two natures, divine and human, in Christ, but only one, divine). When Eutyches asked Peter to speak out in his favor, Peter wrote to Eutyches insisting that in the matters of faith it is always necessary to adhere to the teaching of the Bishop of Rome. Eutyches’s teaching was eventually condemned at the Council of Chalcedon (451). During his life, Peter gained a reputation for being an exceptional preacher, as today’s opening Mass prayer affirms. There are 183 extant sermons attributed to him, and many of them deal with Christ’s Incarnation. Because of his eloquence, he was given the additional name Chrysologus, or “golden-worded.” This epithet first originated in the seventh century and most probably in imitation of the epithet given to St. John Chrysostom (see September 13), that is, “golden-tongued.” Peter Chrysologus is thought to have died, perhaps at Imola, on July 31, in about 450. Pope Benedict XIII proclaimed him a doctor of the Church in 1729.

Friday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 13:54–58

Meditatio

“… their lack of faith.”

    This Gospel scene presents Jesus to us after he has traveled around Galilee gaining fame and popularity by teaching with authority and performing mighty deeds. Jesus might have hoped for a warm, supportive welcome from the people of his hometown, who had known him since his youth. But any hope of comfort or sympathy quickly disappears when he is faced with their suspicious questions and lack of faith.

    What is this lack of faith? What exactly are they lacking? What is it that his neighbors cannot believe? Could it be that they are stuck in their own narrow ideas of God? Are they so convinced that they know how God should reveal himself that when God does reveal himself in a concrete, visible way in Jesus, they can’t recognize him?

    Perhaps they haven’t lived in a relationship with God. To be “in relationship” with someone means that the parties continually reveal themselves to each other. It would be unreasonable to think I really know anyone through and through. The other person always remains somewhat of a mystery to me, no matter how long we have known each other or how much of ourselves we have shared. How much more true is this of God, who is totally other!

    Perhaps Jesus’ admonition regarding their lack of faith refers to their lack of a living, growing relationship with God. Perhaps Jesus is inviting them to realize that no one has the last word on how God should be, act, or reveal himself. It is we who must remain open, longing to understand who he is and how he acts in our lives and in the world, ready to assent to what he does show us about himself, because he is God.

Oratio

    Jesus, sometimes I think I know you. I also think I know who the Father is and can recognize how he acts in my life. But how often I limit you because of my human and somewhat narrow vision. How often I may be lacking in faith because my relationship with you is based on my self-constructed image of you. Help me, instead, to see the reality of yourself that you are revealing to me day by day. Help me to live today open to what you will teach me about yourself, about the Father, about my relationship with you.

Contemplatio

    “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24).

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

St. Martha

Martha lived together with her sister Mary and brother Lazarus in Bethany, a town about two miles distant from Jerusalem. Our Lord loved these three very dearly (John 11:5) and often visited their home (Luke 10:38), where Martha, perhaps the elder sister, welcomed him with her usual gracious hospitality and ministered to his needs, as the second of today’s Gospel readings (Luke 10:38–42) narrates. It was, however, at the time of their beloved Lazarus’s death, as the first of today’s Gospel readings (John 11:19–27) tells the story, that Martha made her powerful confession of faith in Jesus, a confession very similar to that made by Peter, when he and Christ were near Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:16). Our Lord asked Martha whether she believed if he were “the resurrection and the life.” “ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world’ ” (John 11:27). The prayers of the Mass today allude to the service of Christ, a service similar to that which Martha had shown him.

Thursday of Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 13:47–53

Meditatio

“Do you understand all these things?”

    In this chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus explains the kingdom of heaven. He has taken the Twelve aside to offer a more intense explanation, first of the weeds and wheat, then of the mustard seed, the buried treasure, and the fine pearls. Now he speaks to them of the wide net thrown out by the fishermen. The Twelve are to be fishers of men—in fact, most of them are fishermen by profession—and they will have to use a large net, throw it out over the waters and haul in as many fish as possible. When they proclaim the kingdom they will have to reach out to as many people as can hear. An attempt will be made to include everyone in the kingdom, but not all will be chosen. As with the fish, a division is made: they “put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.”

    Jesus is explaining not just the kingdom of God on earth, but also the Last Judgment, when the good and bad will be separated. The wicked will be taken by angels to the “fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth,” in other words, the sufferings of separation and regret.

    Jesus paints a vivid picture for the disciples of the urgency of their mission. They must bring his message to everyone—preach it as far and wide as possible so that many people (ourselves included) will accept the Good News and be ready for the great judgment. “Do you understand all these things?” Yes, they say. Then, he says, you must be “like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” Distribute to your hearers all knowledge: the wisdom of our tradition and the spirit of the Good News. How often do we thank the Master for sending these fishermen, and those others throughout history, to share the heart of his message with us?

Oratio

    Dear Master, thank you for providing fishermen who would pursue the catch down through the ages of your Church. Let us docilely receive your word, humbly submit to what you desire, and intelligently live it out in our lives. And may we, inspired by the head of the household in your story, embrace what is new, and treasure what is old in our tradition. Enrich us, mind and heart, so we, too, will become fishers of the men and women of today.

Contemplatio

    My mind and heart await your word.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 13:44–46

Meditatio

“… out of joy …”

    These two verses are packed with significance for the disciples of Jesus, bringing us joy and encouragement. In describing the kingdom of heaven for us, Jesus gives us not only an image, but also something we can relate to.

    First, this description involves two things that are related to each other: a treasure (or pearls), and a seeker. The seeker finds the treasure and makes that treasure the focal point of his or her desire. He or she wants that treasure more than anything else in the world.

    But the seeker cannot yet obtain the treasure, because he or she is not prepared to purchase it. So the seeker goes away in order to sell whatever it takes to be able to purchase the treasure.

    This parable is about us. We are the ones who have found a treasure. That treasure is the heart of the kingdom: Jesus. But we are not prepared to purchase the treasure, and Jesus does not expect us to be so prepared. The kingdom of heaven consists of the treasure, and the seeker, and the process of selling what needs to be sold, and returning to take possession of the treasure.

    Preparedness, or the ability to live all of the demands of the Gospel, is not a requirement for the kingdom of heaven. The preparedness to obtain the treasure is the consequence of the kingdom of heaven. Knowing that we don’t have to be completely prepared can give us joy—the fuel that drives us to continue selling what we need even to the point that it hurts. Our unpreparedness, our ongoing letting go of what prohibits us from completely being in possession of the treasure—that is the kingdom of heaven.

Oratio

    Jesus, you are the treasure I have found, and the pearl I long to possess. Not only are you the treasure, but also the currency and purchaser of what I need to sell. I know that I’m not ready to possess you. I must sell so many things: fear, unkindness, anxiety, anger, sin. Nourish my longing for you, O Lord, so that it may be stronger than these things I need to sell. With each thing I sell I know you will rejoice with me. That too gives me strength to carry on. Amen.

Contemplatio

    Jesus, my treasure lies in you.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 13:36–43

Meditatio

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun …”

    During World War II, Hungary had largely avoided Nazi pressure to persecute the Jews until the spring of 1944, when Adolf Eichmann arrived on the scene. During six weeks of terror, from mid-May to the end of June 1944, Eichmann sent almost 450,000 Hungarian Jews to their deaths. Yet a Swedish diplomat named Raoul Wallenberg managed to get many Jews out of Hungary on Swedish passports. His tireless efforts saved around 30,000 people. His reward? When the Soviets rolled into Hungary, they took Wallenberg prisoner and he disappeared into a Soviet gulag. No one knows exactly what befell him. Despite efforts to get him released, he was never freed and he died, deserted and alone, in a Soviet prison or labor camp.

    A cynic would say that no good deed goes unpunished. But today’s Gospel offers comfort to all the Raoul Wallenbergs of the world, and to all those who were herded into cattle cars and dumped into gas chambers. Evil will not triumph. Evil will not have the last word. No matter the degree to which justice is perverted in this world, justice will be done in the next. In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus counsels us to have patience now, for we are still in the time of mercy. While it lasts, God never stops calling his wayward children to repentance. But at some point the judgment will come, and the angels will reap the harvest of the earth. Some wrongs will never be righted on this earth. But they will be righted—not in our time, but in God’s. And that should reassure us that though it tarries, the day of justice will not be put off forever. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

Oratio

    Jesus, this Gospel makes me fear the day of reckoning, but at the same time I find it comforting. I don’t like to dwell on the face of evil in the world. Yet I cannot deny its existence and I can’t make sense of it. You tell us quite plainly that the enemy, the devil, is at work in the world sowing seeds of evil. But the power of your love is stronger than the power of evil. In the end, your love will triumph. Lord, I believe in your love and its power to overcome evil. Increase my faith.

Contemplatio

    “Explain to us the parable.”

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

SS. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Joachim and Anne are the traditional names given to the parents of the Virgin Mary. These names do not appear in the canonical Gospels, but come from the Protoevangelium of James (about 170–80), a second-century apocryphal gospel, without historical value. In this work, Joachim and Anne are portrayed as old and childless, and one day while Anne was at prayer, an angel appeared to inform her that she would bear a child. The angel proclaimed the same message to Joachim as he was in his desert hermitage. Inasmuch as Joachim and Anne were chosen by God to be the parents of the immaculate Mother of God, it is not unreasonable to attribute holiness to them as well. Devotion to St. Anne preceded devotion to St. Joachim. By the middle of the sixth century, a church was dedicated to her in Jerusalem, built on the traditional site of her home, and about the same time a church was dedicated (550) to her in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Her feast was celebrated in Rome by the eighth century, but it became popular in Europe with the return of the crusaders, who brought the devotion back with them. A feast honoring St. Joachim was first introduced in the fifteenth century. The popularity of devotion to SS. Joachim and Anne is easily explained by their close connection to Mary, and because they were the grandparents of our Lord, they also share in being members of the extended Holy Family.

St. James, Apostle

St. James was born in Galilee, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John (Matt. 4:21). His mother may have been the Salome mentioned in Mark (Mk. 15:40) and Matthew (Mt. 27:56). James was a fisherman, as were his father and brother, and it was while he was preparing his nets that our Lord called him to follow him (Matt. 4:21–22). Our Lord nicknamed the brothers Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, probably because both had manifested their tempers; when a certain Samaritan village refused to accept Jesus and his teaching, the brothers suggested that they should call down fire from Heaven and destroy it (Luke 9:51–56). Together with Peter and John, he witnessed two important moments in our Lord’s life: the transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Mark 9:2–8) and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32–42). Tradition maintains that after Pentecost James evangelized Samaria and Judea, and even traveled as far as Spain. He was arrested and beheaded by order of Herod Agrippa I in 44 (Acts 12:1–2), and supposedly he was buried in Jerusalem. James was the first of the apostles to die for Christ, thereby making good his “We can,” when our Lord, in today’s Gospel (Matt. 20:20–28), asks him and John: “Can you drink of the cup as I am to drink of?” To distinguish him from the other James, also an apostle, he is often called “the Greater,” to indicate either that he was called by our Lord before the other or that he was the elder.

St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest

St. Sharbel Makhluf is the first Maronite saint to be included in the Latin Church’s calendar. He was born, the youngest of five children, in the tiny mountain village of Bika’Kafra, Lebanon, on May 8, 1828. At his baptism, he was given the name Youssef (Joseph). His family was of peasant stock and were members of the Maronite Church. Young Youssef was brought up in a religiously devout family; his paternal uncle was a deacon in the parish church, and two of his maternal uncles were monks of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Youssef learned to read and write by attending classes held in the town square beneath the large church oak. When not in class, he helped in the fields or watched over the family’s small flock. As he grew older, he joined the church choir in singing the office and the liturgy. He made frequent visits to his uncles at the Monastery of St. Anthony at Qozhaya, and there he joined in singing the monastic office. In time, he too thought of becoming a monk, but his mother was of a different opinion. He was needed in the fields, and she did not want to lose her youngest child. But Youssef had a mind of his own and knew what he wanted in life, and thus he awaited his hour.

One Sunday morning in 1851—he was now twenty-three years of age—without revealing his plans to anyone, he rose early, and taking nothing with him quietly left home and walked all day to the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfuq. No one greeted him on his arrival; he had not notified them of his coming. When he did meet a monk, he merely informed him: “I would like to become a monk.” After a short interview, the superior accepted him as a postulant. Eight days later, he received the habit and changed his name to Sharbel, after an early martyr of Antioch. For his second year of noviceship, he was sent to the Monastery of St. Maron at Annaya, a four-hour walk away. There he pronounced his vows in 1853, and subsequently he was sent to study theology, in preparation for the priesthood, at the Monastery of St. Cyprian of Kfifan. There he spent six years and was fortunate in having Fr. Nehmetallah Kassab El Hardini (1808–58) as his spiritual director. Fr. El Hardini was not only an excellent spiritual guide but was also known for his holiness. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Sharbel was ordained on July 23, 1859, and shortly thereafter returned to the monastery at Annaya. He spent the next sixteen years there. When he was not working, he was praying; he kept prolonged fasts, ate but one meal a day, and preferred silence. He had two favorite books, the Bible and Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ. A desire gradually grew within him to give himself more completely to God, and thus he requested to live as a hermit. Permission was granted in 1875, and he moved into the Annaya hermitage, where he spent his remaining twenty-three years. He became a man of ceaseless prayer. He celebrated his last Mass on December 16, 1898, during which he felt a pain in his chest. When he completed the consecration, he suffered a stroke. He died on December 24. During his life, the local people looked upon him as a saint and in this they were not in error, for miracles soon began occurring at his tomb. His fame spread not only among Maronites, but throughout the entire Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1977.

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time—Year C

Lectio

    Luke 11:1–13

Meditatio

“When you pray, say: Father …”

    I once read that all the sound waves of our earth go out into the cosmos. If we could invent a “collector” strong enough, we could conceivably collect and listen to Jesus, in person, praying the Our Father. Be that as it may, I think the apostles were spellbound to witness Jesus’ absorption and joy in prayer, and as friends would, asked him to show them how to do this. Jesus gave us a precious jewel that can never be surpassed in beauty and meaning when he gave us this prayer.

    As our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus is Healer, and he heals us in the deepest parts of our being, in our relationships. Jesus shares his heavenly Father with us. He shares the relationship that forms the core of the life of the Godhead with us. He wants us to know the Father as Our Father, to begin the lifelong quest for this awareness with the words of this prayer. A child can say this prayer, and Jesus wants us to realize that we will always be the children of the heavenly Father. The Father will feed us, forgive us, help us to forgive others, and protect us from trials that would overwhelm us. This relationship is so fundamental that Jesus wants his followers to have the security of his Father’s love as the grounds of their being.

    How many children, for various sad reasons, have not experienced the protection and care of their fathers or mothers and feel themselves to be painfully alone, sometimes for their entire lives? Even with a healthy upbringing, a person can often feel alone.

    We can always turn to our Heavenly Father, who waits for us to ask, seek, and knock. He waits, not with censure, but with attentive, eternal love. He waits, not with goodies, but with eternal life and joy. He waits, not to deny us, but to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Oratio

    Father, when I use the prayer Jesus gave us, I feel somehow that I am slipping my hand into yours, and that I will be safe. Life then becomes easier, because I face it with you. I thank you for sending Jesus to redeem us and let us know our real identities, that we are all your children. I ask your Son and my Savior to help me to grow in likeness to you, so that when I arrive at the shores of eternal life, it will be a true and eternal homecoming.

Contemplatio

    “… how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)