Ordinary Time

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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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

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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, Sunday, Cycle C

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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

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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.

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Amos warns those who’d cheat Israel for their own benefit that they’ll incur the greatest famine of all: a lack of the word of God in their lives. That may seem on the surface to be fine if the food and drink keep coming, but not having the word of God in your life is basically having no true or lasting meaning to call your own. Eventually the Old Testament prophets fell silent in the few centuries preceding the coming of Christ; Israel had to await its savior with no more prophets until John the Baptist.

In today’s Gospel we see the Word of God coming into Matthew’s life in a simple but powerful way. The fast from God’s word is over for Matthew and he eagerly accepts the word of God by following Our Lord and becoming not only his apostle, but one of his evangelists. In turn he brings the Word of God to his friends, who also have the opportunity to break the fast of their distance from God.

Fasting from the Word of God is never a good thing. If you’re feeling the emptiness, ask him to feed you with his Word and his sacraments again.

Readings: Amos 8:4–6, 9–12; Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131; Matthew 9:9–13. See also Saturday after Ash Wednesday, 1st Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, and  St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.