Ordinary Time

18th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord has just heard the new that his cousin, and his prophet, has just died on account of him. His Heavenly Father has permitted it as part of the plan of salvation, and, as all the Old Testament prophets before him, John the Baptist was condemned to death for bearing God’s message. Our Lord himself is the message of God, the Word, so he knows a similar fate awaits him. When he goes off for some silence and solitude, he seeks time with his Heavenly Father to process everything that has happened, just as we should when we’re faced with tragedy and sorrow in our life.

Today’s Gospel doesn’t say why he went off to pray, or what he said, but his actions speak volumes. Unlike Moses’ frustrated attitude today in the First Reading when the Israelites complain again and say they’re sick of the bread God is sending them from Heaven, Our Lord doesn’t ask the crowds seeking him to come back later and respect his time of prayer and mourning; he cured them, and didn’t send them off to worry about their own food, but provided for them personally. Even faced with sorrow and tragedy he had time for others, and gave himself to them completely, as one day he would do on the Cross.

We’ve also lost a loved one, someone who died because of us: Jesus. Every time we see a crucifix or celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass we remember exactly that. Let’s have the same attitude in gratitude for his sacrifice: an unconditional love and concern for others, even in moments of tragedy and suffering.

Readings: Numbers 11:4b–15; Psalm 81:12–17; Matthew 14:13–21.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time,Cycle B

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In today’s Second Reading Paul reminds us that when we become believers in Christ we can no longer live to same way. In today’s Gospel we see Jesus extending that invitation to the crowds for whom he had just multiplied the loaves and fishes, but yet they were still seeking a sign like the one recalled in today’s First Reading. The Israelites wanted their bellies filled, and complained, and were even willing to return to slavery just to have a full stomach. The people who sought Jesus in today’s Gospel still want nothing more than a full stomach, but Our Lord is trying to help them see what they really crave is what that full stomach gives them: life, not just for a few decades, but for eternity.

As Jesus reminds them, full stomachs didn’t enable those Israelites under Moses to live forever, even though the Lord provided them with manna to eat. Our Lord wasn’t just speaking metaphorically when he said he was the bread of life: every time we receive the Eucharist we know that he is the Bread of Life, and we know that one day that we’ll never need to fear dying of hunger or anything else ever again. Like the Israelites in the First Reading the people were still seeking signs, but now the moment had come for faith, a faith that lead to no longer living as the Gentiles did, just focused on immediate needs and concerns of this life and not seeing the bigger picture where this life is a pilgrimage toward eternal life. The Israelites who grumbled in the desert in the First Reading didn’t live to see the promised land due to their lack of trust in God; the people in today’s Gospel are being extended an opportunity to one day enter into the true Promised Land, but they have to trust the new Moses–Jesus–to lead them.

Let’s renew our faith today in Jesus as the Bread of Life and continue our pilgrimage here on earth, knowing that nourished by this Bread we’ll one day enter the Promised Land.

Readings: Exodus 16:2–4, 12–15; Psalm 78:3–4, 23–25, 54; Ephesians 4:17, 20–24; John 6:24–35. See also 3rd Week of Easter, Monday and 3rd Week of Easter, Tuesday.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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Our conscience is a voice inside of us, counselling us on what to do and what to avoid doing. There are those in our lives who try to help us to second that voice, helping us to see what is good, and what is true. There are also those who don’t really help us in the spiritual or moral life, and they try to drown out that voice, probably because they stopped listening to it in their own souls a long time ago, or are trying to drown it out themselves and want company. When stories of Our Lord in today’s Gospel begin to spread, Herod thinks it’s John the Baptist, back from the dead. Was he haunted by what he did to him? God knows.

John tried to second the voice inside of Herod urging him to do the right thing: to not treat his brother’s wife as his own, to be courageous when tough truths had to be acknowledged. Herod, despite all his power, was enslaved by an unhealthy relationship, by public opinion, and by a desire for Herodias’ daughter. Herodias knew how to manipulate him for her own ends: she hated John for testifying to the truth, and little by little Herod gave in to her desire to punish John. When Herod drew the line at killing John, due to his fear of public opinion, Herodias engineered a situation where another public would respond badly if he didn’t kill John, a situation in which he let himself get entangled due to his desire for Herodias’ daughter. In having John beheaded he was also drowning out the voice of the true and the good in his soul, aided by Herodias, who wanted to silence that same voice as well.

Circumstances and bad influences can hinder us from following that good voice of conscience in our soul, but that same voice reminds us that, in the end, our decisions are our own, and we must take responsibility for them. Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us hear his voice in our souls, to listen to it always, to second it in the lives of others, and to avoid those things, people, and places that try to drown it out.

Readings: Leviticus 25:1, 8–17; Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 7–8; Matthew 14:1–12.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday

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Having a life-changing experience of faith is much like taking a journey: you learn so much, but those who haven’t made the journey and haven’t had the same experience don’t share the same enthusiasm. With our family and friends we’ve journeyed together for years; for some it’s been a journey of faith, for others just lives shared along the way. So when we make this sudden “journey” and experience of faith and conversion it’s understandable that they may be skeptical, even incredulous, when we change our life and suggest they change theirs. We should all be headed in the same direction–Heaven–and we need to help each other get there on the best path possible. If we think we know a shortcut, of course we’re going to try to share it. In the case of sharing the faith, it’s not just a question of faith in God, but our friends and loved ones having faith in us as well: a lack of faith in either will be an obstacle for them.

In today’s Gospel Jesus, who’s not only been to Heaven and back, but started there before he came here, is trying to share the faith with those he’s known and loved the most in his earthly life. They didn’t believe he was any more than the carpenter’s son they’d known for years. They’d heard he’d done amazing things, but they didn’t believe. His message was to repent and believe in the Gospel, and they were offended that someone they thought they knew since he was little should suggest something like that to them, independently of whether his words were true or not.

If this happened to Our Lord we shouldn’t be discouraged if we received the same skepticism from our family and friends when we try to share our faith with them. They may see us as arrogant, judgmental, even weird, but we must continue with patient endurance to help them see how much God means to us and wants to mean to them. Let’s ask Our Lord to open the hearts of those we love who are not living the Gospel so that they can make the journey of conversion and faith as well.

Readings: Leviticus 23:1, 4–11, 15–16, 27, 34b–37; Psalm 81:3–6, 10–11b; Matthew 13:54–58. See also 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord describes the “Kingdom of heaven” with regard to the end game. If we understand the Kingdom as not only the work of salvation, but all the other natural goods that in some way result from that work–a healthy society, solid families, true concern for the spiritual and material needs of others, etc.–we can understand how it is not just identified with the people who are actively working to be a part of it and to extend it. All kinds of “fish” end up in the “net.” Like any society there are good members and bad members, and part of society’s duty is to help all its members be good members of society, even, when necessary, through penal measures applied to those who are bad with the hope of helping them to reform themselves and to not present a danger to themselves or to society.

At the end of history, when the work of the Kingdom has definitively run its course and reached everywhere Our Lord wants it to be (and that, in the end, is everywhere and everyone), no one will remain unaffected or beyond its reach. That could be a chilling thought if we didn’t remember that the Kingdom equates to salvation and a good and just order of things that spreads and takes hold forever. Each person in the end chooses how they’ll end up in the Kingdom, in that “net”: the bad will have squandered all their opportunities to be good and will be cut off from the goods of the Kingdom forever. The good, through their efforts and God’s aid and mercy, will enjoy a beatific life: they will possess God and receive all the promises Our Lord made on the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matthew 5:1–12) in full. We must work for the good of others, not just our own good, but in the end each person will stand or fall on his or her own merits and no one will be able to ride on another’s coat tails at the moment of Judgement.

Let’s thank Our Lord for all those opportunities he gives us daily to be good, and let’s pray and work for the conversion of sinners so that we may all one day be found worthy to be a part of the the Kingdom forever.

Readings: Exodus 40:16–21, 34–38; Psalm 84:3–6a, 8a, 11; Matthew 13:47–53.

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