Month: July 2016

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

by

In today’s First Reading Hosea describes the hardened soul as like a field that needs to be tilled and blessed with rain in order to produce fruit. Like ground that needs to be turned over and dug and broken up for cultivation, the hardened soul resists the rain of justice, understood in this context as grace, that enables it to achieve a virtuous life. If you seek justice the Lord will rain it down upon you. If you seek a life of grace the Lord will bless you with it in abundance, but you have to do your part.

Let’s ask Our Lord today for the humility to soften the soil of our souls in order to welcome his grace.

Readings: Hosea 10:1–3, 7–8, 12; Psalm 105:2–7; Matthew 10:1–7. See also Tuesday, Wednesday ,and Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time; 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B; Thursday and Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary time, and 1st Week of Advent, Saturday.

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

by

In today’s Gospel Our Lord just cannot stop healing. He still cannot stop healing, and now he does it through the laborers that he asks to work in the harvest. A harvest is ripe as the result of previous effort: the Lord has been working in those hearts, sowing his grace, and offering healing and redemption to every soul through his sacrifice on the cross. He continues to lavish those spiritual gifts of healing through his sacraments, now that his earthly ministry has concluded.

His detractors see demonic power at work, but it is simply jealously and over-rationalizing what they don’t understand. The crowds see wonders and praise God for them. The people have heard of the power of God in the Scriptures since they were children. Now they see it present and active, conquering sickness, overcoming the power of evil. Today’s Responsorial Psalm reminds us, the new Israel, that “The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.”

With a simple faith and trust you too can see the hand of the Lord working in your life and in the lives of others. Trust in the Lord and he will act.

Readings: Hosea 8:4–7, 11–13; Psalm 115:3–10; Matthew 9:32–38. See also 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday and 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, Year II

by

In today’s First Reading the Lord reminds us that he envisions his relationship with Israel as a marriage covenant. When Israel strays in worshiping Baal instead of the Lord, Our Lord’s love and fidelity to Israel do not diminish in the slightest, despite Israel’s “adultery.” He does not leave this marriage on the rocks. Through Hosea he describes his desire to take Israel to someplace quiet where they can be alone and he can help his spouse to fall in love with him again and to never let the rival lover, “Baal,” cross her lips or her thoughts again.

Even today Our Lord sees his relationship with us, his Spouse the Church, in terms of a marriage covenant. Great spiritual masters of the Church have described a life of holiness as striving for a spiritual matrimony between the soul and God. That implies loving no one in our life the same way we love the Lord.

If we feel a little estranged from Our Lord, let’s go with him into the “desert,” the solitude of our heart, and let him breathe life back into our relationship. As Paul reminds us, nothing can separate us from the love of God. He will always welcome us back into his loving embrace.

Readings: Hosea 2:16, 17c–18, 21–22; Psalm 145:2–9; Matthew 9:18–26. See also 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

by

Today’s readings are such a big sell for welcoming the Gospel when it is preached to us that we have to scratch our heads at why anyone would not accept it. The benefits are described as the peace and security you felt as a child on your mother’s lap (First Reading), joy (Second Reading), healing from illness (Gospel), liberation from the power of evil (Gospel), and our names being written in Heaven (Gospel).

It’s Paul who presents reveals the “fine print” of the arrangement: we have to be crucified to the world, and the world crucified to us. Our Lord in today’s Gospel describes the fate of those rejecting his disciples as worse than that of Sodom, which was the epitome of debauchery and depravity. It’s not easy to become crucified to the things of this world; it means not letting them have sway over us or they’ll only lead to our destruction. In faith and hope we have of focus on the benefits of welcoming Christ, following him, and making him known.

Let’s not only welcome Our Lord’s disciples into our world and our life, but become his disciples as well. The laborers are few.

Readings: Isaiah 66:10–14c; Psalm 66:1–7, 16, 20; Galatians 6:14–18; Luke 10:1–12, 17–20. See also Tuesday, Wednesday ,and Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time; 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B; Thursday and Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary time, and 1st Week of Advent, Saturday.

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

by

In today’s First Reading Amos evokes imagery that could take us back to the Garden of Eden: a time where the earth’s blessings were abundant and effortless, before, as a consequence of the Fall, Adam and Eve condemned themselves and their posterity to having to eke an existence out of an unforgiving soil (see Genesis 3:17–19). Amos invites us to dream of a lasting and fertile land ready for a plentiful harvest that almost cultivates itself.

We don’t have to just envision such an image as one of the end times. When we live a spirit of Gospel poverty we see the things of daily life as blessings, and we are content with far less. We don’t fall into the rat race of always wanting the latest iPhone, a better car than our neighbors, or a mansion. In short, we realize how blessed we are to have anything at all.

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us count out blessings and dream in Christian hope of the blessings that are to come.

Readings: Amos 9:11–15; Psalm 85:9ab, 10–14; Matthew 9:14–17. See also Friday after Ash Wednesday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, and 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.