Seventh Week

7th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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James in today’s First Reading reminds us that career planning can only get us so far, because we really never know what the future holds. We can plan the perfect college degree, the perfect career, only to suddenly fall head over heels in love and start a family, be struck down by cancer or an accident requiring extended treatment, discover a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life, or lose your job. Many people throughout the world today don’t even have a level of what we’d call normal stability, living in a broken family, poverty, or persecution and can’t even guess what the future holds for them.

Every good thing in our life is a gift from the Lord, and, as Job teaches us, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away (see Job 1:21-22). That’s not a truth to live in fear if we practice faith, hope, and love. God wills the good and helps us achieve it, but we can also help him achieve good as well by asking him what would please him. That’s why whenever we make plans we must be open to God’s will, knowing that he is a loving Father who has his children’s best interest in mind. Being in a Fortune 500 company or in a hospital bed suffering through chemotherapy are both opportunities to help others through our talents and our sacrifices.

Spend some time in prayer today considering the expression, “God laughs at man’s plans”; is there anything you’re planning for life that God may think is a joke? Ask him.

Readings: James 4:13–17; Psalm 49:2–3, 6–11; Mark 9:38–40. See also 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

7th Week of Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading James teaches us that outer conflicts stem from inner ones. Wars rarely remain within the confines of where they broke out; they always strive to spread and conquer new terrain in order to fuel their ambitions. Similarly, our selfish ambitions don’t just remain in our hearts or in our living rooms; they put us on a path to clashing with others pursuing their own selfish goals.

As James reminds us today, that path only leads to frustration, because seeking vain things is seeking empty things, and if those things can never satisfy us, we will always be at conflict within ourselves and with others. It’s a recipe for endless conflict with no end in sight. Loving the world to the exclusion of God is a road to nowhere; if we set our sights on the world, we set our sights on something that ultimately will pass away.

Let’s ask Our Lord to help us strive for what really will satisfy us: love for God, which will also instill in us a love for others. It’s the only thing worth fighting for and the only thing that will fulfill us forever.

Readings: James 4:1–10; Psalm 55:7–11a, 23; Mark 9:30–37. See also 19th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday and 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.

7th Week of Ordinary Time, Monday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading James encourages us to choose the wise path and not the selfish one. The wise path starts with wisdom, an understanding of the big picture, humility, an understanding of our role and place in the grand scheme of things, and a life of good works that reflects that we’ve understood well and lived truthfully.  The selfish path starts with jealously, a resentment and bitterness over what others have and we don’t, selfish ambition, seeking our own interests with no regard for others’, and an opinion of ourselves and our accomplishments that doesn’t reflect the truth, showing our lack understanding.

We’ve all known people who’ve chosen both paths, but James encourages us today to consider which path we’re on and whether we need to be more wise, through humility, and less selfish. That requires considering which path attracts us and is truly best for us and for others. We resist humility, gentleness, and peace when we see others striving to take it all with impunity, but we know in our hearts that peace and gentleness irradiate a serenity and goodness that would make even the most jaded ambitious person reflect on what he or she truly wants out of life.

We know the path to take. Let’s ask Our Lord to help us take it today and stay on it “without inconstancy or insincerity.”

Readings: James 3:13–18; Psalm 19:8–10, 15; Mark 9:14–29. See also 18th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

7th Week of Easter, Friday (2)

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In today’s First Reading we see how Paul (later in the Acts of the Apostles) will get to Rome. Roman citizens had the right to appeal directly to Caesar. Providence many times is the way Our Lord arranges various situations in order to achieve some greater good. In this case, a new Roman prefect in Palestine, Festus, inherits Paul’s case from his predecessor. Felix either didn’t want to resolve Paul’s case or didn’t have time to do it. Festus, apparently not knowing the local situation, sizes it up in Roman style: assess the situation, respect the rights (of Roman citizens), and don’t do anything rash.

Paul knows his rights and knows his work in Jerusalem is finished, so he makes an appeal to Caesar, knowing that means he’ll be taken in custody to Rome, the center of the known world and the best place to spread the Gospel far and wide, since so many roads lead there (and, therefore, lead back). The Lord told him in yesterday‘s First Reading that he would give witness there as well, so Paul, even while imprisoned, works toward that goal trusting in God’s Providence to help him along the way.

Even today God’s Providence is at work to help us and others to know and follow the Gospel. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit in these last couple of days before Pentecost to help us see God’s hand in the situations and circumstances we’re facing in order to better live and give witness to the Gospel.

Readings: Acts 25:13b–21; Psalm 103:1–2, 11–12, 19–20b; John 21:15–19. See also 7th Week of Easter, Friday.

7th Week of Easter, Thursday (2)

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Throughout the Acts of the Apostles Luke brings the protagonists of the Gospel over and over again before the Sanhedrin: the Apostles, then St. Stephen, and now St. Paul. The Sanhedrin threatened, punished, and murdered, but none of that stopped the Gospel from spreading: from that first group of fearful disciples in Jerusalem the Church is now spread throughout Asia Minor and has just made her first fledgling steps into Europe. The Romans have imprisoned Paul because of the public disorder his visit to Jerusalem causes, but are also protecting him; due to his place of birth, Tarsus, he is a Roman citizen, and therefore afforded more legal protection than other subjects of the Roman Empire. Paul knows all the tools at his disposal: he knows his rights, and he knows the crowd, and he uses that to full effect. Even if he almost sparks another riot, it is a riot over accepting the truth.

Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish world, and now Paul has come full circle. From asking for letters from the Sanhedrin to persecute Christians (as Saul) he is now presenting them the core of the Gospel: the Resurrection, just as every disciple when faced with the Sanhedrin did, risking their life, reputation, and security. Paul had visited Athens, the cultural center of his world, with few results, and now the Lord was encouraging him to head to the undisputed center of his world: Rome.

The phrasing of this encouragement in Luke’s account is profound, “the Lord stood by him.” The Lord stands by us too. When it seems our belief is on trial it’s not a moment to put distance between us and those who would question and discourage us, but to present the heart of the Gospel message without fear, showing we believe it to be true by not fearing ridicule, imprisonment or death for what we believe.

Readings: Acts 22:30, 23:6–11; Psalm 16:1–2a, 5, 7–11; John 17:20–26. See also 7th Week of Easter, Thursday.