Ordinary Time

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

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Salvadora persica

When Our Lord begins his public ministry the core of his message is that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and conversion and faith in the Gospel are needed. In today’s Gospel he gives us two parables to understand what the Kingdom of God is: the sowing and reaping of grain and the growth of a mustard seed. By teaching in parables he is trying to explain deeper spiritual realities using the every day realities that his listeners understand. The Gospel reminds us that he also gave more explanations in private to the disciples: deeper spiritual realities are understood more fully through parables and explanations, but since they ultimately refer back to the deepest mystery–God–they’re never completely fathomable.

The Kingdom of God reflects this profundity: it is reflected in the Church and her work, but it also the whole work of salvation, of God conquering hearts, one by one, throughout the centuries, until his reign of love endures forever in the hearts of those who welcomed it. The example of the grain shows us that this requires cultivation, waiting for the right time to reap the spiritual harvest of our labors, but also that God does the heavy lifting: the growth that is quiet, slow, and unseen, at times even when we’re not doing anything, comes from him and from his grace working in our souls and in the souls of others. The example of the mustard see shows that it starts small: in Jesus’ earthly ministry it went from him, to twelve disciples, then to thousands by the time narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and to the whole world and throughout history. The Kingdom doesn’t just represent something small that has an incredible capacity for growth and expansion; like the cool shade of the mustard plant it makes room for everyone to find rest and consolation, because God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Let’s pray today for the grace to cultivate the Kingdom of God in our hearts and for the insight to find our place in it. It’s not just something in the future: it is growing here and now.

Readings: Ezekiel 17:22–24; Psalm 92:2–3, 13–16; 2 Corinthians 5:6–10; Mark 4:26–34.

10th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that making a promise or giving testimony is a powerful thing. The promises we make give witness to who we are, and the witness we give is a testimony to how seriously we take our promises. We’ve all experienced how unedifying it is when someone swears something to be true, promises to deliver on something, and then is revealed to have lied or fails to deliver, and not just because of circumstances beyond their control. When something is as simple as “Yes”or “No,” as Our Lord teaches us today, there’s no room for spin, for sophistry, for fine print, or for establishing little grey areas in our conscience instead of admitting we can or can’t deliver on something or whether we know or don’t know something.

Our Lord gives a laundry list of things the people of his day were using as collateral to show how serious they were about the oaths they made. He also puts his finger on the problem: that collateral is not theirs, nor is it under their control. It’s not as common today, but when someone swears “on my life,” or any other number of things or people, we are put on a guard, exactly because they are swearing on something over which they have no control or ownership and usually as a way of convincing others of their sincerity.

The easiest way to be sincere, as Our Lord reminds us today, is simply to be sincere: it’s the simplicity of a yes or no attitude to life, one that leaves no room for deceiving ourselves or others. Let’s ask Our Lord today to achieve that level of simplicity with ourselves and with others.

Readings: 2 Corinthians 5:14–21; Psalm 103:1–4, 9–12; Matthew 5:33–37.

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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In today’s Gospel the tip of the soldier’s lance and the words of St. John the Evangelist converge in pointing out something to us that the Church has contemplated throughout her history: the Heart of Christ, wounded out of love for us, but loving us unconditionally and without every diminishing. The point of that lance is the concluding punctuation mark to the Passion of Our Lord, but the story of love behind it continues, in each and every heart, throughout salvation history and into eternity. The more the Sacred Heart of Jesus is wounded by humanity, the more is shown how deep that Heart’s love is toward each and every one of us.

In the First Reading the Lord describes his love for Israel, a love spurned, like the wounded heart of a father who only wants to care for his child and in exchange receives indifference and rejection. In the Lord’s words we see how justice in his heart says a price should be exacted for such treatment, but also that love is the true driving force behind everything he does, and he cannot love his children any less, no matter what they do. In the Second Reading St. Paul prays that we have the strength to comprehend and know the love of God. It we truly realized how much God loves us, from the hardened sinner to the saint one step from Heaven, we’d die at the thought, not only from whatever we’ve done to wound his heart, but what others have done as well.

In contemplating the Sacred Heart, wounded out of love for us, we also know what is the most pleasing to his Heart: to show him that we appreciate his love by loving him and loving others, and by showing Our Lord that we “get it” by making reparation for all those people who spurn and reject him, knowingly or unknowingly. Let’s live this day contemplating the Heart of Jesus and trying to console him through our own love and understanding toward him and toward others.

Readings: Hosea 11:1, 3–4, 8c–9; Isaiah 12:2–6; Ephesians 3:8–12, 14–19; John 19:31–37.

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10th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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A common recurring defense today for a watered down life ethic is, “hey, at least I’m not killing anybody.” Our Lord reminds us in today’s Gospel that not killing anybody is good, but we have to go way beyond that if we don’t want to be Pharisaical. When we can say, “hey, at least I don’t hate anybody,” we’re getting closer to the mark. In a violent world maybe sometimes we look the other way at times in the face of a lack of kindness, but Our Lord today reminds us to go the distance and not only not kill anybody, but actually be kind to everybody.

When tempers flair and rash words are said the best thing to do, as Our Lord teaches, is to try to make amends as soon as possible and simply apologize. If we live a life of cruel and cold justice, focusing especially on the justice due to us, we’ll be in for a surprise when the eternal Judge brings us to “court” by the same harsh standards to which we held others. As Our Lord’s prayer reminds us, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us be a little less rash in our thoughts and actions toward others and a lot kinder, especially when we’re mistreated.

Readings: Matthew 5:20–26.

10th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In today’s First Reading Paul describes the old covenant, the one of Israel, in terms of death and condemnation and something that would fade away, but also as something glorious. It was a prelude to an even more glorious and enduring covenant, one qualified by God, spiritual, and life-giving through the power of the Spirit, a ministry of righteousness.

In this process the old covenant was not pointless; God doesn’t do anything pointless, everything is part of his loving plan for us. Our Lord in today’s Gospel reminds us of that. He hasn’t come to simply discard the old covenant, the “law and the prophets,” as never having had any purpose at all. Rather, he puts the old covenant’s purpose into context. Israel made an effort, sometimes mixed, to stay faithful to the covenant the Lord had established with them on Mt. Sinai. In other writings Paul describes the law stemming from this covenant as something educational for the immature: a preparation for something greater. The new covenant established by Christ and lived in Christianity is indebted to that process, which is why we often speak of a Judeo-Christian heritage and the Bible consists of the Old and the New Testaments. In the first centuries of Christianity certain groups tried to expunge any trace of Judaism from Christianity, and they were ignoring Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel. In his own words he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them.

Let’s ask Our Lord to help us today to understand the purpose of the traditions we live as Christians in order to live our faith more fully and not be quick to discard them as pointless. Christianity is not meant to fade away.

Readings: 2 Corinthians 3:4–11; Psalm 99:5–9; Matthew 5:17–19.