Friday

32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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If you’ve ever heard the expression “cafeteria Catholics” (Catholics who pick and choose what teachings they like), there’s always the danger of heading right out of the back door of the cafeteria and no longer being Catholics at all. In today’s First Reading John doesn’t bring any new teaching, just a reminder of an old teaching and a warning. We know from all of John’s writings that charity has a central place in the teaching he received from the Lord, and just as he heard from the lips of Our Lord in the Last Supper discourse (see John 13:34–35; 14:15,23–24), he reminds us of the connection between love and obedience. Our Lord doesn’t just command us; he teaches us how we truly love. We show our love by having faith in his teaching.

Part of that love is being faithful to John’s teaching about Our Lord; someone is contradicting the teaching of Our Lord to such a degree that he or she is denying the Incarnation (“those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh”). When John describes this as deceitful and the antichrist he is teaching that those who teach contrary to the true teaching regarding Christ become anti-witnesses, so to speak. With this loss of faith and contradictory testimony they lose God too.

Ask Our Lord today to help you not stray into the cafeteria and stay “all in” regarding his teaching.

Readings: 2 John 4–9; Psalm 119:1–2, 10–11, 17–18; Luke 17:26–37. See also 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

31st Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul laments those who have not only turned their backs on the Cross of Christ, but have become its enemies. The Cross implies sacrifice, but a sacrifice made with a higher and nobler purpose in mind. When Paul refers to those who consider their stomach their god he may be referring to the same Judaizers who obsess with dietary strictures and laws, or simple gluttony, but when we turn our backs on the Cross, or become its active opponents, we are putting ourselves first and ridiculing anyone who doesn’t do so.

“Stomach worship” today doesn’t just refer to those who overindulge in double cheeseburgers; it refers to any number of body worshipers, from those seeking six-pack abs to those so worried about perfect health that they are a source of suffering for themselves as well as others when they’re wishes aren’t fulfilled. Goals become more and more petty the less noble they are. When we strive for a comfortable life the little discomforts just become more pronounced. If we accept our crosses, even the little ones, even the small discomforts have meaning and are easier to bear.

Let’s ask Our Lord to bear our crosses, big and small, and let that “stomach” grumble once in a while.

Readings: Philippians 3:17–4:1; Psalm 122:1–5; Luke 16:1–8. See also 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C and 31st Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

29th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul encourages the Ephesians to practice the virtues that will ensure their unity in serving the Lord, in the faith, and in baptism: humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Christians have not always lived these virtues and it has not only undermined our unity, but also undermined our mission. We still all share one Lord and one baptism: every Christian through Baptism is incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, but through historical disagreements in East and West we no longer agree on the fullness of faith and how it should be lived and put into practice. We don’t all share the same articles of faith, worship, or governance; those three elements all stem from our faith in how Our Lord has handed on the faith to the Apostles and to us through the centuries.

Paul’s exhortation today is a call to duty to all Christians today. We must be one. To strengthen and full restore Christian unity we must come together in humility, gentleness, patience, and love, just as Paul teaches us, and we will overcome our differences and disagreements because the mission demands it and it is not just Paul’s desire, but Our Lord’s as well. Let’s pray and work that one day we’ll once again profess one faith, celebrated on Eucharist, and be united under the same pastoral guidance.

Ecumenism involves discussion and frank dialogue, but it starts with virtue. Ask Our Lord to help you practice some “virtuous” ecumenism today. Every bit helps rebuild unity.

Readings: Ephesians 4:1–6; Psalm 24:1–4b, 5–6; Luke 12:54–59. See also 29th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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In yesterday‘s First Reading Paul, addressing the Ephesians, reminded us that we’ve been chosen to be holy and blameless in God’s sight since before the foundation of the world. Today he expounds on how we are chosen in Christ and for what we are chosen: we exist in order to praise God, and Our Lord helps us to do that. Praising God may not seem all that exciting a vocation, but how many people do we applaud when they simply entertain us, and how much more has God done for us to merit praise?

The Lord doesn’t expect praise in a vacuum, just as we normally applaud someone who has accomplished something, whether noble or entertaining. We praise the Lord here on earth because we’ve already received the “first installment,” as Paul describes it, of our redemption. When we believe and are baptized our redemption begins, right here, right now, and Jesus was a hero to make it happen. That merits our praise now, and we can only imagine how much more we’ll want to praise God in eternity when our redemption is complete, free from sin, death, and fear.

Let’s meditate on the “first installment” we’ve received in our life today and give Our Lord a round of applause.

Readings: Ephesians 1:11–14; Psalm 33:1–2, 4–5, 12–13; Luke 12:1–7. See also 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday and 14th 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.