Thursday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 11:28–30

Meditatio

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

    Probably few people reading this book have ever plowed a field with a yoke of oxen, churning the soil to prepare it for planting. But everyone has sat in a classroom, writing in notebooks, taking tests, or watching the hands of the clock sweep off the minutes until the bell would ring. In fact, the classroom image is closer to what Jesus is talking about in today's Gospel passage. Consider this other Scripture text, "… gain, at no cost, wisdom for yourselves. Submit your neck to her yoke, that your mind may accept her teaching. For she is close to those who seek her, and the one who is in earnest finds her" (Sir 51:25–26). This text aligns acquiring wisdom with being under a yoke. That image is in the background of Jesus' saying that his burden is light.

    Jesus is inviting us to go to his school, the school of wisdom. Today's Gospel needs to be read together with yesterday's, in which Jesus tells us about knowing his Father. Only Jesus reveals the Father to us. That is where wisdom lies. In the school of Jesus, we can learn about what really matters in life. In today's society, education offers people a boost up the ladder of success. That is surely important to pursue in the business of making a living. But what about making a life?

    Jesus offers all of us the knowledge that we need to succeed in making a life. In his school, we can all have scholarships and we can all be honor students. He imparts knowledge freely to anyone who wants it. He teaches us about love. He'll ask us to ponder questions like this: at the end of life, how will we see the times we made selfish choices, and the times that we sacrificed ourselves for someone else? On the balance scales of life, love outweighs everything else. Jesus the Teacher will help us tip the scales in the right direction.

Oratio

    Jesus, you are the Teacher of truth, Wisdom incarnate. Teach me to value what really matters in life. Don't let me get so caught up in pursuing other things that I forget that love is what counts most. Help me to build up my family relationships and pay attention to the needs of the people around me.

Contemplatio

    "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."

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

Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio
    Matthew 11:25–27

Meditatio

“… you have revealed [these things] to the childlike.”

    Today’s Gospel passage is consoling. It speaks to those of us who may feel that living the spiritual life is beyond our ability. With a myriad of Scripture commentaries available and an even greater array of books and Web articles on prayer, the path to union with God can seem downright intimidating and overwhelming.

    But Jesus is telling us that exactly the opposite is true. He’s giving us the Good News that the way to God is actually uncomplicated. It’s not restricted to the educated and elite. It’s for everyone. It’s for you and me. The only prerequisite for the journey is a spirit of childlike simplicity.

    Jesus tells us that the Father has handed everything over to him. Jesus is the one who chooses those to whom he wishes to reveal his Father. And he’s chosen to make this magnificent revelation to us! Isn’t it a relief to know that we don’t need a master’s degree in theology or Scripture to really get to know and love Jesus, his Father, and their Spirit? All we need is an open and trusting heart—one that longs for divine light and love.

    The Father has been gracious enough to reveal his Son to us, sending him to live among us, and providing us with the Gospels, the Church, and the lived examples and teachings of the saints. Jesus, for his part, has revealed his Father to each of us through his every action and word. Let’s praise them both today for the gift of divine revelation. Let’s rejoice in the humility and simplicity of spirit that opens us up to God.

Oratio

    Jesus, how good and comforting it is to know that you never expect more of me than I have to give. You ask me to come before you and your Father as a child—expectant and full of trust. My neediness and helplessness only serve to attract you to me. Help me to remain childlike in spirit. Show me that the way of simplicity and confidence is also the way to divine knowledge and grace.

Contemplatio

    Lord, let me know you more and more!

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

Thirteenth Sunday

First reading: The Call of Elisha (1 Kings 19:16b, 19–21)

This story is clearly chosen by the Church to pair with the latter part of the gospel reading, or even possibly in reverse, for Jesus’ call to the unnamed disciple seems to be modelled on Elijah’s call to Elisha. Elisha must have been a rich man to have 12 yoke of oxen ploughing his field—a large field and a hefty herd. Elijah’s gesture of throwing his mantle over Elisha is to claim Elisha as his own. When Elijah is taken up to heaven his mantle falls on Elisha again, giving him a double share of his spirit. By slaughtering the oxen and burning the tackle, Elisha destroys his own livelihood, but he is allowed to take leave of his family before taking up the life of a prophet. Elijah was a fearless prophet of Israel, inspired by the vision of God (at the cave on Mount Horeb) and uncompromisingly defending the rights of God against idolatry (the prophets of Baal) and injustice even by the king (Naboth’s Vineyard). He was expected to come again to herald the final coming of God, and many saw him in John the Baptist. Elisha was perhaps more a political operator, furthering God’s plans by the appointment of rulers.

Question: Does Elijah think that Elisha is too slow to respond? Do you?

Second reading: Freedom to Love (Galatians 5:1, 13–18)

Paul is still, as last Sunday, warning the Galatians against regarding themselves as bound by the Jewish Law. This is an external restriction, whereas Paul wants them to be led only by the interior Spirit of God, which will lead them in the paths of love. It is important to understand correctly the distinction between the flesh and the Spirit. The sins of the flesh are not merely ‘carnal’ sins like sex, greed and overindulgence. They include also such things as rivalry, jealousy, quarrels and malice. So ‘the flesh’ is more generally self-indulgence and lack of self-discipline, perhaps unrestrained natural desires. These are not in themselves evil, but they need to be harnessed and directed by the impetus of the Spirit. By the same token, the Spirit is the life of Christ in us, and motivates everything that leads to Christ, not only—as Paul here lists—‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control’, but also everything that builds up the community in love, loving guidance, teaching, the healing touch, as well as the more striking gifts like speaking in tongues. In 1 Corinthians, he explains that each member of the community has a special gift, and all these are needed for a healthy community.

Questions: What gifts can you contribute to the life of your Christian community? What gifts do you lack that you see in people around you?

Gospel: Uncompromising Discipleship (Luke 9:51–62)

The latter half of Luke’s gospel, as Jesus embarks on his great journey to his death at Jerusalem, is marked by Jesus’ teaching on the difficulties and challenges of discipleship. Right at the beginning comes the little lesson that the disciple must not be surprised or take vengeance at rejection. Then three lessons on the uncompromising demands of discipleship. These are not ‘counsels of perfection’, but demanded of every disciple of Jesus. First, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The disciple has no right to creature comforts. Second, perhaps the most counter-cultural of all Jesus’ demands, for burying a dead father was regarded as a sacred duty, and yet not even this may stand in the way of a response to the call of Jesus. Third, a more rigorous condition than even Elijah demanded of Elisha, no backward glance even to bid the family farewell. Not even the most sacred of natural ties may stand in the way of the demands of following Jesus. These conditions may seem unfeeling and unacceptably harsh: Jesus expresses his teaching with maximum vigour. This is partly the nature of the Semitic language, which rarely uses a comparative, ‘more than …’ It is either day or night, no dusk! But we must beware of softening what must remain hard.

Question: Can there be a clash between family loyalty and loyalty to Jesus?

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The Sunday Word: A Commentary on the Sunday Readings (Wansbrough, Henry)

St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop

St. Augustine of Canterbury is referred to as the “Apostle of England.” He was prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on Rome’s Coelian Hill when Pope St. Gregory the Great sent (596) him and about thirty monks to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine and his monks landed in Kent during the summer of 597. Because Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had been a Christian before her marriage, the king readily permitted the missionaries to preach in his kingdom. The king likewise gave the monks a house and a church in Canterbury. Through Augustine’s preaching, Ethelbert became a Catholic (597) as did many of his subjects. Augustine established his see at Canterbury—the only Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdom on that island—built the first cathedral there, and sent missionaries and bishops to other parts of England. Augustine’s ministry in England lasted only seven years; he died on May 26, 604 or 605. Because he planted the seeds of the Catholic Church in England, St. Augustine is also known as the Father of the Church in England.

St. Gregory VII, Pope, Religious

Before becoming pope, St. Gregory worked closely with five other popes. His name was Hildebrand, and he was born in Tuscany in about 1021. He then went to Rome, where he became a monk, probably at Santa Maria on the Aventine. When Pope Gregory VI (1045–46) was forced into exile (1046), Hildebrand accompanied him to Germany. When Pope Leo IX (1049–54) was elected, he called Hildebrand to Rome and made him treasurer of the Roman Church. Pope Leo and his successor Pope Victor II (1055–57) both used Hildebrand for special papal missions. Hildebrand subsequently worked closely with Pope Nicholas II (1058–61) and Pope Alexander II (1061–73), and after Alexander’s death, he himself was elected pope on April 22, 1073, by popular acclaim. Pope Gregory was a man of exceptional ability and sought to promote reform within the Church by renewing decrees against clerical marriage and simony, and to abolish lay investiture, that is, secular control over the appointment of bishops and abbots. When Emperor Henry IV of Germany (reigned 1056–1106) ignored the pope’s orders and appointed bishops, Gregory excommunicated (1076) him and forbade him to exercise royal powers. Gregory reconciled him to the Church only after the emperor had submitted at Canossa (January 1077). When Henry later (March 1084) seized Rome, Gregory was forced to go south to Salerno, where he died on May 25, 1085. Today’s prayer speaks of the courage and the love of justice that distinguished Pope Gregory, and thus it recalls what are said to be the pope’s final words: “I have loved justice and despised iniquity, and because of this I die in exile.”