Month: October 2016

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul uses a striking allegorical interpretation of Scripture to warn the Galatians against turning away from the Gospel by embracing secondary religious practices of Jewish origin that preceded the Gospel. What’s shocking about this interpretation is that he associates the covenant at Mt. Sinai as akin to Hagar, the slave girl with which Abraham had a son, as a covenant of slavery that continues to enslave. Mt. Sinai was where the people of Israel were constituted. He contrasts this with a covenant made from “Jerusalem above”: from Heaven that represents a promise made and fulfilled. The son begotten of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, was the fulfillment of the promise made by the Lord that Abraham and Sarah in their old age would have an heir. They were free and had faith in the Lord’s promise, despite a few bumps along the road. That faith was free and continued to keep them free through the generations.

The Galatians run the risk of enslaving themselves and perpetuating their slavery by focusing exclusively on superseded secondary religious practices and not on faith. Just as Paul used the example of the disciplinarian a few days ago, just sticking with past practice is like never taking the training wheels off you bicycle or letting your parent stop steadying your ride. They very thing that helped you in one moment of your life now shackles you and holds you back. You may make some progress, but wobbling and dragging unneeded weight behind you the whole time. It presents a moment of decision of whether you’re going to live your faith with spiritually maturity or just go through the motions as “fire insurance.”

Our Lord promised that the truth, his truth, would set us free. Let’s ask him today to help liberate us from anything that might be holding us back spiritually, and for the strength to pull off that ball and chain ourselves if we’re our own worst slaver.

Readings: Galatians 4:22–24, 26–27, 31–5:1; Psalm 113:1b–5a, 6–7; Luke 11:29–32. See also 1st Week of Lent, Wednesday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday, and 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

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In today’s readings we have two people who’ve received healing from God and recognize the need to thank him, and nine who should know better and don’t. Naaman is so grateful for being healed of his leprosy that he wants to take some of the Promised Land back home to Syria with him. Before we were baptized we too were spiritually unclean. It was not our fault, like all lepers, but we were spiritually sick and rotting nonetheless. Just as Naaman washed himself in the Jordan we washed ourselves at the Baptismal fount and were made spiritually clean, our sins washed away. Just as Naaman took a little of the Promised Land with him to always remember to whom he owed his healing, our Promised Land, the seed of eternal life, is sown in Baptism and remains with us as long as we don’t forget and act against the gift we received.

The Samaritan in today’s Gospel went back to Our Lord when he realized he was clean. The fact that he is a Samaritan makes it even more astounding: Jews wanted nothing to do with Samaritans, and vice versa. They had their own worship and he would have probably returned to his own people to be certified clean, just as the other nine, if they were Jews, would go to the Temple so that the priests, as required by Mosaic Law, certified their healing. Yet the nine, despite all they’d received, didn’t thank Our Lord. Ingratitude hurts, and these men has as much for which to be thankful as the Samaritan and Naaman did. Just as the Rich Young Man turned away from Our Lord and drifted from anonymity to oblivion in the Gospel account, so these nine are only remembered for what the Lord did for them, for their lack of gratitude, and for the grace of God that they let pass by: friendship with Christ.

Every one of us has been healed in Baptism. Are we grateful? Like Naaman our gratitude should not be a one-time thing. It should become an attitude that we translated into unceasing praise and worship. Let’s recall the wonders Our Lord has worked today and renew our gratitude and praise for all he has done for each one of us.

Readings: 2 Kings 5:14–17; Psalm 98:1–4; 2 Timothy 2:8–13; Luke 17:11–19. See also 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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Today’s Gospel touches on the theme Paul has been developing in the First Readings of this past week: it’s not lineage that puts us in God’s good graces, but faith. That woman in the crowd considers Mary blessed because she is the mother of Christ, but Our Lord knows that the true source of Mary’s blessings is that she has done God’s will, and has done so from the Annuciation to the Assumption and beyond.

The Lord knew that after the Fall humanity would not be able to recover all at once, which is why he gradually prepared them to receive the Gospel in the flesh, his Son. The people of Israel and the Law were means to that end. Humanity had to be helped to achieve a certain spiritual maturity before it could go beyond the Law, which was like someone helping it stay steady as it worked out how to restore the spiritual balance in life.

The “disciplinarian” Paul mentions in today’s First Reading was a mentor in charge of a child’s formation and education in the ancient world. He was like that hand on the back of the bike when you were learning to ride, and some day, perhaps even unperceived, he’d take his hand off the bike and you’d ride alone for the first time and then forever after. When the child grew up the disciplinarian was no longer needed, because he’d been taught how to ride the bike. The laws of balance and gravity would still bring a fall if they weren’t heeded, but now the adult could ride on his own.

A rich life of faith is the same. We are helped to achieve spiritual maturity and then Our Lord lets us roll. That requires faith that if he takes his hand off the bike it is because we are ready. It doesn’t mean we ignore his will, just that we don’t need as much direct help in following it. This is not just a question of physical age: the Galatians were risking immaturity because they were clinging to the Law and losing sight of the Lawgiver. Christian life is a liberation. Ask Our Lord to help you find your balance.

Readings: Galatians 3:22–29; Psalm 105:2–7; Luke 11:27–28. See also 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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Even the Jews of Paul’s time recognized that people who did not have a Jewish heritage were attracted to their religion, but they didn’t understand it exactly to mean that the blessings the Lord promised to Abraham were meant for more than the people of Israel. Some who “converted” to Judaism in Paul’s time would always be a second-class citizen because they were not blood descendants of Abraham. Paul refers to the blessings promised to and through Abraham in today’s First Reading and explains that to become a descendant of Abraham in the salvific sense all you needed was faith, not lineage.

Abraham was reckoned as righteous because of his faith, not because of his lineage. In the liturgy we refer Abraham as “our father in faith” for this very reason. Paul today is encouraging the Galatians to not treat themselves like second-class citizens. Through their faith in Christ they, and we, connect to that lineage of faith that brings salvation. The “law” to which Paul refers is religious practice done without faith in Christ, as we considered yesterday. Without the grace won by Christ the Jews were not able to persevere in their religious practices, and neither would we.

Our faith will help us weather anything, of we let it. Let’s ask Our Lord to help us grow in faith and stay a part of Abraham’s lineage of faith.

Readings: Galatians 3:7–14; Psalm 111:1b–6; Luke 11:15–26. See also 3rd Week of Lent, Thursday and 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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Paul reminds us in today’s First Reading that it is not just something that saves us, but someone. Without faith in Christ our baptism would have been nothing more than a wash of the forehead, because without faith in Christ he cannot act on our behalf. Every religious practice, from holy water to the Eucharist, is an opportunity for Our Lord to work some spiritual good in our lives, but only if we muster even a little faith in him to do so.

The Galatians in today’s First Reading were being beguiled by a lot of religious practices that seemed to be a guarantee of salvation, but Paul showed them the danger of putting their faith in their actions and not putting their faith in Christ. We have to work with Christ to ensure our salvation.

Take stock today of your religious observance and ask Our Lord to see whether you are just going through the motions or living a life of faith in him. Let the Holy Spirit help you live a life of the Spirit.

Readings: Galatians 3:1–5; Luke 1:69–75; Luke 11:5–13. See also 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C, 1st Week of Lent, Thursday, and 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.