Month: June 2016

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord teaches us that chastity starts in the heart. The eyes are the windows to our soul, and if we start ogling and fantasizing a radical response is needed if we are to preserve our chastity and keep our hearts pure, since no one can intervene regarding the hidden desires of the heart except ourselves.

A highly sexualized culture should not provoke our surrender, but our vigilance. The key to living chastity of heart is to form the habit of de-sexualizing what we perceive, and knowing our weakness when this is impossible. The object of desire in front of us is someone’s sibling, spouse, or parent; by de-objectifying them they are perceived as persons again who deserve the same esteem and respect we’d expect for ourselves.

Let’s ask Our Lord today for a greater purity of heart.

Readings: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11–16; Psalm 27:7–9c, 13–14; Matthew 5:27–32.

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that charity matters just as much as justice does. We’re easy to anger when we feel someone has wronged us, but it is exactly in those moments where we should strive not to fall into rash condemnations. It’s no coincidence that we begin each celebration of the Eucharist with a Penitential Act for what we’ve done, and exchange a sign of peace before we receive Holy Communion. We may still be upset, but if we have the inner disposition of trying to forgive or seek forgiveness it’ll give us a deeper peace, a peace that can be nourished by receiving the Eucharist into reconciliation.

Our Lord today also invites us to consider the other’s position when we’ve been wronged or have wronged. We need to put ourselves on “test trial” to see how right we really are, and how wrong the other might actually be. It may be a moment of humility where we realize that maybe we weren’t as entitled to what we thought, or might be overreacting to a slight that was more imagined that real.

Let’s ask Our Lord for the meekness and humility that helps make charity matter in our lives.

Readings: 1 Kings 18:41–46; Psalm 65:10–13; Matthew 5:20–26. See also 1st Week of Lent, Friday and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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Elijah shows the Israelites, and reminds us, in today’s First Reading that there is only one God, no matter how many prophets may say to the contrary. At the encouragement of their king, Ahab, the Israelites have opted to follow Baal, since that deity seems to have numbers and success, yet they are suffering from a drought as a result of abandoning the Lord. They haven’t completely written off the Lord, but they remain on the fence, so Elijah suggests a way to test whom they should truly worship.

The prophets of Baal have numbers (450), elaborate rituals, and dry weather. One spark would be enough to set the whole thing off, but, as Scripture reminds us today, “no one answered, and no one was listening.” Elijah soaked the Lord’s altar with water to show that it wouldn’t be some chance spark that lit it, and with one prayer the Lord sent down fire to consume it all. One prophet and one prayer was enough for the Lord to respond.

People worship many things today–money, power, pleasure, nature, themselves, etc.–but none of those things are God, and none of them will grant what they truly desire. Our Lord knows what we need before we ask. Try that one prayer to the Lord and you may be surprised at the response.

Readings: 1 Kings 18:20–39; Psalm 16:1b–2b, 4–5b, 8, 11; Matthew 5:17–19. See also 3rd Week of Lent, Wednesday and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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The widow in today’s First Reading shows great faith that her act of charity toward Elijah will not cost her life or the life of her son. The effects of the drought that Elijah announced on the Lord’s behalf in yesterday‘s First Reading are now taking effect, and Elijah himself no longer has a source of water as a result. Sometimes we believe that the Lord’s service shouldn’t have a personal cost, but circumstances put it directly on our lap. Elijah and the widow have to make a decision, and they decide to believe in the Lord. As a result, both are provided for, as well as the widow’s son.

The simple belief and trust that God will provide is enough make our lives like the salt and light Our Lord describes in today’s Gospel. When we trust in God to provide we are more generous, and that generosity is a great light in a world that is at times darkened by those concerned about their immediate interests and future. No one knows their future, but if we work with God, we know it will be a bright future.

Let’s pray today for the generosity to be a light in the world of hope.

Readings: 1 Kings 17:7–16; Psalm 4:2–5, 7b–8; Matthew 5:13–16. See also 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Monday, Year II

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In the Beatitudes of today’s Gospel Our Lord encourages those suffering persecution for being witnesses to him, comparing their mission in adversity to that of the prophets. Even today Christians have a prophetic mission, described by the constitution Lumen Gentium (n. 35):

“Christ, the great Prophet, who proclaimed the Kingdom of His Father both by the testimony of His life and the power of His words, continually fulfills His prophetic office until the complete manifestation of glory. He does this not only through the hierarchy who teach in His name and with His authority, but also through the laity whom He made His witnesses and to whom He gave understanding of the faith and an attractiveness in speech so that the power of the Gospel might shine forth in their daily social and family life. They conduct themselves as children of the promise, and thus strong in faith and in hope they make the most of the present, and with patience await the glory that is to come. Let them not, then, hide this hope in the depths of their hearts, but even in the program of their secular life let them express it by a continual conversion and by wrestling ‘against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness.'”

Elijah in today’s First Reading prophesied a lack of rain and went into hiding at the Lord’s command with the promise of the Lord’s support. There are many Christian refugees in the world simply because they let the power of the Gospel “shine forth in their daily social and family life.” Let’s pray and work to aid our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters and also be bold in proclaiming the Gospel in our daily life.

Readings: 1 Kings 17:1–6; Psalm 121:1b–8; Matthew 5:1–12. See also All Saints and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

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