Seventeenth Week

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.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading the Lord presents Israel to Jeremiah as if it were clay being molded. Wet clay can be spun into all sorts of shapes until it is fired into it’s final shape; then it hardens and will shatter if you try to shape in into something else. The Book of Genesis describes man as being molded from dust and into God’s image and likeness (see Gen 1:26, 2:7), much like wet clay. When man does good he reflects the image of God in him and makes God praiseworthy in the eyes of others; when he does bad, he disfigures it and makes others question the “artist.” The more man is disfigured, the more society is disfigured, because evil makes its mark, and peoples’ conception of God becomes disfigured too.

In today’s First Reading the Lord describes his patient and repeated efforts to shape Israel again into what it should be, just as a potter keeps working the clay until the shape he desires is formed. Christ is the image of the invisible God (see Col 1:15): in becoming man he shows us the pattern for being and living the image and likeness of God. We present a very interesting project; imagine a  clay that is always trying to shape itself, even as the potter is trying to help it take form. Our choices always shape us, but Our Lord also always shows us the choices we should make to form ourselves into something that gives glory to God. He also shapes us with his grace, if we let him.

Let’s pray for a greater docility to what the “potter” wants to shape of us and our lives.

Readings: Jeremiah 18:1–6; Psalm 146:1b–6b; Matthew 13:47–53. See also 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord presents two parables to help us understand what the Kingdom of heaven is like. The first (like a treasure hidden in a field) reminds us that its worth is something that takes us by surprise and is found in the most unexpected of places. Someone hid that treasure and you’ve received the good fortune of finding it. It doesn’t come free, and it doesn’t come cheap: if you’re willing to spend everything on obtaining it, it must be of more value that what you already have. This first comparison teaches us that the Kingdom of heaven should put everything we have, everything we are, into perspective. When we invest ourselves completely the returns will be unimaginable.

In the second comparison we’re reminded that the Kingdom of heaven, like finding a great pearl after a lifetime of smaller ones, is something comparable to all the things we value in this world, but much greater in comparison. The Kingdom of heaven is not going to be something totally different from the “treasures” we hold and experience in this life. When we seek the true, the good, and the beautiful in this life, we are paving the way for the Kingdom, already present in those things, to come to full fruition.

Let’s ask Our Lord to help us evaluate what we treasure in this life and to keep an eye out for the hidden treasure he wishes to reveal to us.

Readings: Jeremiah 15:10, 16–21; Psalm 59:2–4, 10–11, 18; Matthew 13:44–46.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s readings we’re reminded of a problem that has haunted us and philosophers since the Fall of Adam and Eve: the problem of evil in the world. Everyone perceives that the world is not exactly as it should be. Jeremiah in today’s First Reading laments seeing his society wounded, good people suffering as a result of it, and an apparent absence of God. Every believer struggles with this in his or her own life. Our Lord teaches us in today’s Gospel of evildoers and “all who cause others to sin”: a source not only of sorrow, but of temptation. Why be good when being evil seems so alluring and “everyone’s” doing it?

Jeremiah questions whether the Lord is present at all anymore in the face of such misery, but Our Lord gives the response in today’s Gospel, and not just in words. He is present, teaching, leading, and sanctifying, even though many do not realize it because they don’t believe in him. He also teaches us that the Lord is perfectly aware of the wheat and the weeds in the world, and when he doesn’t act it is often to prevent a greater evil by violating the freedom to be good or to be evil of everyone involved. The moment of Judgment will come for the good and the evil, and it will be just. The good will have built on their freedom and become truly free; the evil, weighed down by their vice, will be enslaved by it forever and suffer for their deeds.

While acknowledging the evil in the world, let’s focus on doing good and being good. Evil will not have the last word.

Readings: Jeremiah 14:17–22; Psalm 79:8–9, 11, 13; Matthew 13:36–43. See also 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

17th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C

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In today’s First Reading Abraham gives us an example of perseverance in prayer and teaches us how we should pray. It should not be a vending machine attitude, but one that seeks to understand God instead: “Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?” It should be persistent, but respectful. As in the Gospel, Hallowed be the Name of Our Father in Heaven. Not making demands. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Abraham seeks to understand more and more the depth of God’s justice: 50 just souls, 45, 30, etc. Not haggling or making deals. In the end his prayer is heard, and God does justice for even fewer than Abraham dared to ask.

Our Lord teaches us his prayer in today’s Gospel to help us remember how to pray and for what we should pray. When we pray we must always seek to know God more deeply. Jesus, especially on the Cross, continues that conversation with God that Abraham had so long ago by showing us how far God in his justice and mercy is willing to go for us. We try to be the happy beneficiaries of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians: “… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:17-19). As  we go deeper in prayer, we come to understand that God is a God of justice, but one of love and mercy as well. So we strive to be just, and to show mercy as a way of expressing our appreciation for the mercy shown to us every day.

Often it is that perseverance in prayer that helps us understand ourselves and our motivations for which we are praying.  Our Lord gives the example of the friend showing up in the middle of the night and nagging for some bread to feed a friend who has come late from a journey. The friend at the doorstep was not just persisting for himself. He was persisting on behalf of someone else. Our prayer must be for others as well as for ourselves. Jesus tells us that the friend in bed does it due to the persistence: he does it to get his friend off his porch. He gives that example to show how much more God answers our prayers when we persist, because we can ask a million times and God never stops loving us. He always listens to our prayers.

We pray for what we want, and God in the end always gives us what we really need, even when it is not necessarily what we wanted. When that becomes hard to accept, the recipe for accepting and thanking God is to see how others have benefited as well from us not getting exactly what we want. Many times when we see the needs of others we realize that those things we thought we couldn’t live without are not that important after all. At other times we pray for the right things in the right way, but our prayers don’t seem to be answered. In those moments we have to ask God to help us see the bigger picture: someone out there needs the suffering we endure when our prayers are not answered, and God does reward us in those moments.

I invite you to make the resolution today in a moment of silence to ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify the one intention that is nearest and dearest to your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you explore your motivations for asking for that intention, and don’t be afraid to change it if that is what God is calling you to do and you know it will benefit others. Remember that Jesus teaches us that everyone who asks will receive, and everyone who seeks will find. When we keep that in mind, we will always persevere in our prayer.

Readings: Genesis 18:20–32; Psalm 138:1–3, 6–8; Colossians 2:12–14; Luke 11:1–13. See also First Week of Lent, Tuesday and Thursday; 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday; and 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.