Saturday

19th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading the Lord scolds those who believe children are simply the victims or beneficiaries of their parents’ actions and nothing more. The Israelites had adopted a “born to lose” mentality that was not the plan of the Lord. Parent and child would be responsible for their own actions. Sadly today for many parents children are seen as the fruit of mistakes they’ve made: children are lucky to be born in a society that only wants them when convenient and tries to prevent them from coming to term when they’re not.

Our Lord wants to bless children to show us that they are a blessing. He wants them to be born, to come to him in Baptism, and to lead holy and happy lives. We must not be an obstacle to that, nor should we permit society to do so. We help them approach Our Lord by letting them live their childhood in innocence and not letting society rob them of it.

Let’s pray and work so that every child is born, is loved, and is helped to know and experience Our Lord.

Readings: Ezekiel 18:1–10, 13b, 30–32; Psalm 51:12–15, 18–19; Matthew 19:13–15.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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Jeremiah and John the Baptist in today’s readings have a lot in common: they’re both prophets, and they’re both surrounded by people who do not like what they have to say, yet are hesitant about doing something about it because they sense deep down that it is the truth.

Jeremiah convinced the people and the princes that he was innocent and sent by the Lord. The priests and prophets did not agree, but they respected or feared the people. Herod was afraid of the people too, because he knew they considered John the Baptist a prophet. Everyone would have been happy if both prophets had kept their mouths shut, but they needed the truth, whether they accepted it or not. We know what happened to John in the end; Jeremiah was eventually taken by force into Egypt with the remnants of Judah and it’s not know clearly how he died.

Are you willing to stick your neck out for the truth? To save another from himself? Let’s not be shy about being counter-cultural for the sake of the Gospel.

Readings: Jeremiah 26:11–16, 24; Psalm 69:15–16, 30–31, 33–34; Matthew 14:1–12. See also 4th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, Passion of St. John the Baptist, 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, and 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

16th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord teaches us that evil will be present in the world until the last days of Judgement, when its fruits are measured. Since evil festers in peoples’ hearts, it is not always seen on the surface. Things may seem to be okay, even normal, but, just as good is at work in the world, like the wheat, trying to grow into something good, evil is at work doing the opposite, preying on the good in parasitic way to serve nothing other than itself, like a weed.

Jeremiah’s in today’s First Reading is sent to the Temple itself to warn Israel that they are being weeds, not wheat, in the sight of the Lord. They’re counting on the Lord to never abandon them, but the Lord is warning them that he’ll do exactly that if they do not amend their ways. This warning reminds us that while we live on this earth we can become wheat, not matter how long we’ve been weeds,or vice versa. Our Lord doesn’t just help believers to become wheat; through our testimony, and his, of an upright and moral life and the difference between right and wrong, without sophisms, we help everyone to go beyond appearances and examine the forces in this world that are truly good and truly evil.

Jeremiah today warns us that we can appear observant while still being a weed. Ask Our Lord today to help you go beyond appearances, deep into the roots of your soul, and become a source of good fruit again if you’ve strayed.

Readings: Jeremiah 7:1–11; Psalm 84:3–6a, 8a, 11; Matthew 13:24–30.

15th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Micah paints the portrait of those who scheme to get what they want. They are so obsessed with gaining something that they lay awake at night (the “couches” of the reading) and are ready to put their schemes into action first thing in the morning. It doesn’t matter who they cheat; they want what they want. In the context of today’s First Reading their greed for land is even worse, because it means taking people’s birthright simply to increase their wealth. The allusion to marking out boundaries by lot in the assembly of the Lord refers to the fact that it was the Lord himself who parceled out the Promised Land when the Israelites first arrived; losing your land meant you had no share in the Promised Land.

The Lord warns schemers through Micah that scheming narrows your vision so much that you become blind to greater threats. In this case, all the conspiring is swept away when the land for which they were willing to sell out their brothers is taken by invaders and they go into servitude. When we are driven by greed the Lord is almost obliged, for our own good, to strip away from us that which we covet.

Compare the schemers of the First Reading to Our Lord in today’s Gospel. He is at the mercy of schemers too, and is prudent in doing his work, but his work is focused on healing others and striving quietly and gently for justice to reign in the world. It is no coincidence that we call him the Prince of Peace. Let’s always side with the real winner and not be schemers.

Readings: Micah 2:1–5; Psalm 10:1–4, 7–8, 14; Matthew 12:14–21. See also 15th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Isaiah experiences the Lord’s enormity and his own unworthiness to be his messenger. It is a recurring theme in the Old Testament that anyone who should look upon the Lord’s face would die. Isaiah thinks his moment of judgment is at hand. Imagine his surprise when the angel declares him cleansed from his sin and Isaiah eagerly offers himself to be the Lord’s prophet.

In today’s Gospel we see Our Lord encouraging his disciples to be his messengers and to not be afraid of the treatment they’ll receive when they share what they’ve heard and stand up for him. The Lord’s enormity does not mean only transcendence or distance from his creatures: he is close to us, by becoming man, but also because he cares for all of creation and especially us, his most beloved creations.

Through the Lord’s loving care, in his Providence and in Person through his Son, we have nothing to fear. Let’s be his disciples with the same enthusiasm we’ve seen today in Isaiah.

Readings: Isaiah 6:1–8; Psalm 93:1–2, 5; Matthew 10:24–33. See also 14th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.