Ordinary Time

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In yesterday’s readings we saw that the Pharisee who judged Our Lord for not performing the ritual washing of hands opened himself up to receiving judgment. In today’s First Reading Paul elaborates on the teaching of Our Lord to not judge other unless we too want to be judged, but he focuses more on warning hypocrites that they won’t fool God. Our Lord today describes contact with the Pharisees who do not practice what they preach as being like unwittingly walking over a tomb: a source of contamination and ritual impurity for the Jews of that period. The case of someone who judges others while not worried about their own actions is even more dangerous; it transmits the message that hypocrisy and a double life are okay. As Paul reminds us, the judgments of God cannot be swept under the rug and forgotten.

The scribes in today’s Gospel are also also offended by Our Lord’s accusations; they too consider themselves immune to scrutiny. Our Lord today teaches us two ways to make sure that those in charge of the pastoral care of others can stay on the right track: that love for God be the motivation for all they do, and that they keep in mind that they will be held accountable just as much, if not more, by God for their good works as well as their evil ones. When a teaching is difficult to follow, they are there to help people to be faithful to it. When they establish some secondary rule or observance, it is for the good of all, not just for their own benefit. That’s the difference between power brokering and pastoral concern.

Let’s pray today for our pastors and for all those with religious authority so that they serve us always out of love for God and concern for others.

Readings: Romans 2:1–11; Psalm 62:2–3, 6–7, 9; Luke 11:42–46.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that good things start from within and work their way out. There is a difference between maintaining appearances and living the truth. In today’s First Reading Paul touches upon the fact that when things go wrong it is because something inside has gone wrong: everyone has an interior opportunity, either through seeking truth and good or welcoming in faith God’s revelation, of knowing the truth and doing good. When they do evil instead they ignore those encouraging voices and eventually try to convince themselves that the evil they are doing is good. No matter how much we mess up our consciences we always try to do what we think to be good: the question is whether it is truly good or not. Our actions reflect the good or evil that is inside of us. When we do good, it edifies others, but they have to interiorize it and make it their good as well–then our actions will also reflect that good. When we do evil we cast a shadow over this struggle in the hearts of everyone to see what’s truly good and act upon it: bad examples cloud our judgment of good and evil.

Jesus teaches us to not judge unless we want to be judged (see Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37). In today’s Gospel we see him applying that teaching. The Pharisee who invited him to dine thinks a ritual washing of hands is required to be good. Our Lord shows him that he’s turned a secondary religious custom into a way of judging and condemning others. The Pharisees never really understood the purpose of ritual washing: for them it was a sort of whitewash that allowed them to justify whatever else they did and consider themselves superior to others. They never stopped to think that maybe just because somebody doesn’t agree with their religious practices and opinion it doesn’t mean that person is evil.

Every person is on a quest for truth and goodness in their heart: we need to help them find it, just as Jesus was trying to help the Pharisee today. Sometimes that means saying clearly, as Jesus did, that something they’re doing is wrong–we’re called to help each other, not work out everything on our own. Let’s make an effort today to share the goodness and truth that others have shared with us, and not get hung up on secondary things that can cloud the true charity we’re expected to live.

Readings: Romans 1:16–25; Psalm 19:2–5; Luke 11:37–41.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord, perhaps with a note of disappointment, reminds his listeners how in the past they marveled at things that were only a foreshadowing of what he wished to bring them. The prophet Jonah was miraculously kept alive in the belly of a large fish for three days; Our Lord would rise from death itself on the third day and not just go on living as we do, but live forever. Jonah warned the Ninevites that in three days they would be destroyed if they didn’t act; Our Lord offers a new life that with blossom into an eternal one if only those receiving his message repent and believe in the Gospel. Jonah went grudgingly to his mission, because he really didn’t want his listeners to be spared; Our Lord, in perfect unity of will with his Father, came to the world to save it, not condemn it, and he did so willingly.

The only question remaining is our response. The Ninevites repented and received a “stay of execution”; Our Lord offers us, as Paul reminds us in today’s First Reading, to believe and to carry his message of salvation not only to one people, but to all the nations, as his apostles. His invitation implies today not just conversion, but mission, and rewards beyond our imagination.

Let’s show ourselves today to not be a generation that continually seeks signs, but one that has faith.

Readings: Romans 1:1–7; Psalm 98:1b–e, 2–4; Luke 11:29–32. See also 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday and 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord gazes upon the Rich Young Man with love before he asks something of him that he knew would be difficult. The Second Reading today reminds us how God’s word has the sharpness of a sword, and, we can add, the precision of a scalpel: it finds exactly where the tumor is, knows where to make the necessary incision that makes our delusions fall away, if we let him perform the operation. When the Rich Young Man tries to flatter Our Lord a little Jesus is quick to chide him about his motives for such praise, and direct his thoughts to God.

Our Lord doesn’t see himself offering the Rich Young Man in today’s Gospel pain and sacrifice; he is offering him the path to a deeper love for God in exchange for the love he’s already received and shown. He’s telling him that it doesn’t matter how rich he is, or whether he is good or bad; God’s love for him is constant. If success and moral living don’t help us grow in our love for God, they don’t go far enough; they will not satisfy us. If the Rich Young Man had taken today’s First Reading (which did exist in his time) and replace the expressions “prudence” and “Wisdom” with “the love of God,” everything would have snapped into clarity. The wisdom he was truly seeking from Jesus was an awareness of the love God had for him, in which every other good thing would pale. He may have seen Our Lord as asking a costly sacrifice, but Jesus was asking him to invest the fruits of his success and goodness into something greater and for something greater.

Our Lord looks upon us with love no matter what we do, but he also invites us to follow him, draw closer to him, and love him more. Many times we see that through a filter of losing something, sacrificing something. We too need to contemplate the words of today’s First Reading. The Wisdom of God is what we need; everything else is an investment in that for which we’re truly searching. Let’s respond as the disciples did today and learn from the example of the Rich Young Man.

Readings: Wisdom 7:7–11; Psalm 90:12–17; Hebrews 4:12–13; Mark 10:17–30. See also 8th Week of Ordinary Time, Monday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, and 20th Week in Ordinary Time,Tuesday.

sacred_heart

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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In today’s Gospel the anonymous woman in the crowd is trying to put a finger on why Our Lord is so holy by praising the blessedness of her mother. If only she knew; Mary’s holiness, in addition to her own fidelity throughout her life, was thanks to the grace we know as the Immaculate Conception: it was in view of her son’s merits that she received the grace to be preserved free from all stain of original sin. It is thanks to her son that she is blessed, and, as she says in the Magnificat, she considers herself blessed from the moment she accepted God’s invitation to be her mother. God gets all the credit for her blessedness, which she put to good use in raising Jesus.

Our Lord, therefore, teaches them what the true source of his blessedness and his mother’s blessedness is: hearing the word of God and observing it. The Son came freely among us to save us because it was the will of the heavenly Father; he perfectly accomplished his Father’s will to our benefit. Mary at the Annunciation gave her fiat: that it be done to her according to God’s word. And for this fidelity and attentiveness to the word of God, all generations will call her blessed.

Jesus and Mary both present the path to us today for our blessedness, for a beatific happiness that comes from God alone: to hear and to keep the word of God in our lives. Let’s ask Our Lord to help us to listen to and to heed his Word; let’s ask Mary to help us in this as well through her example and her intercession.

Readings: Joel 4:12–21; Psalm 97:1–2, 5–6, 11–12; Luke 11:27–28.