Thursday

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord explains the willingness and commitment of Our Heavenly Father toward us using the examples of friendship, persistence, and paternal love. A good friend knows that if he is in a fix he can count on his friends to help him out. The friend asking for bread today is passing along the opportunity to be a good friend: he welcomed a guest into his home in the middle of the night, and he needs help to provide for that guest. Yet even if his friend refused at first, his persistence would pay off: that shows the friend, even if inconvenienced, is a friend who’ll come through. It is the friendship that gives the confidence to ask, repeatedly if necessary.

God is our friend; we can ask him for whatever we need, and he’ll respond as a friend should. However, Our Lord reminds us today that our relationship with God goes even farther: he is Our Father, and no father would give his child misfortune instead of a blessing. In today’s First Reading the Israelites are lamenting among themselves that apparently that the wicked are prospering while and they are not being rewarded for being faithful to the covenant–they’re not praying to the Lord, but the Lord is listening. Through Malachi the Lord encourages them to persevere, just as a son working for something difficult who continues to press forward, trusting in his father. To persevere in their fidelity they must continue to have faith that the Lord cares for them as a Father.

Ask today and you will receive; maybe not on your timetable, maybe not as you’d have expected, but the Lord as friend and Father will provide for you what you truly need.

Readings: Malachi 3:13–20b; Psalm 1:1–4, 6; Luke 11:5–13.

26th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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The sending of the Seventy-Two in today’s Gospel is reminiscent of the sending of the Twelve. In the Acts of the Apostles Luke also recalls the Apostles commissioning the Seven (Acts 6:1-6). Each of these groups has a particular role, but together the show the Church beginning to grow and expand. With the calling of the Seventy-Two Luke shows that even in Our Lord’s time on earth there was more work than the Twelve could handle. They learn this lesson and aren’t shy about appointing the Seven when the need arises.

Everyone is called to help in the work of evangelization and the building up of the Church, but not necessarily in the same way. Our Lord made distinctions based on needs, and so throughout history the Church has also called others to aid the bishops as the successors of the Apostles: priests and deacons.

Let’s keep all sacred ministers of the Church–bishops, priests, and deacons–in our prayers today.

Readings: Nehemiah 8:1–4a, 5–6, 7b–12; Psalm 19:8–11; Luke 10:1–12.

25th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel it’s fascinating that Herod, one of the most powerful men in Palestine, does not have a clear idea of who Jesus is and seems unable to meet him. It’s safe to say, considering what happened between him and St. John the Baptist, that this inability is self-inflicted. He’s not willing to do what it takes to know and encounter Our Lord.

Sin is a lack of communion with God; it makes him unintelligible and it takes us somewhere where he can’t go. Certain lifestyles isolate us from God, and we have to take the steps necessary to restore communion with him, to approach him once again, to try and understand him once again. Somewhere deep in Herod he knew that if he really wanted to find out about Our Lord, and see him, something in him had to change, and he wasn’t willing to do it. It’s funny that people see a virtuous life sometimes as putting a leash on your lifestyle, but a sinful life does worse: it convinces you that by accepting a leash–some vice, some destructive pleasure, some little concession to your principles–you’ll be freer. Eventually you don’t try to go beyond the limits imposed on you by the leash because, deep down, you know it’s there and don’t believe it’s possible to cast off that leash again and recover true freedom.

Herod stayed on his leash; he didn’t try to test its limits in order to get closer to Our Lord. Let’s ask Our Lord to help us cast off those “leashes” that separate us from him. He’ll help us cast off the leash and be truly free again.

Readings: Haggai 1:1–8; Psalm 149:1b–6a, 9b; Luke 9:7–9. See also Passion of St. John the Baptist and 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

24th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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Conversion in the spiritual life is when life takes a turn for the better. The Christian life is a life of conversion, whether we have turned away from a life far from God and full or sin, or have been lifelong believers who received deeper understanding of who God is and all he’s done for us. A life of conversion means life will constantly be taking turns for the better, not necessarily in the area of material things, health, etc., but in a holy life with God in Christ that blooms, little by little, into eternal life.

In today’s Gospel we see a contrast between a converted sinner–the sinful woman–and someone who is observant, but is not living much of a spirit of conversion–Simon the Pharisee, as is reflected in how coldly he treats people, as if he is doing them a favor of tolerating their flawed existence. Conversion leads to charity: love for God and love for others. The “sinful” woman is abounding in it after a life of things she thought were loving, but were simply sin. She is experiencing a strong moment of conversion and Our Lord is the means through which she shows her appreciation to God. It’s not just because Our Lord was nice to her when everyone else was not; in his own words, it is her faith that has led to her conversion and the gift of forgiveness.

Conversion is a journey; we never forget where we’ve been, and, God-willing, we never forget where we’re headed. Let’s examine all the turns for the better Our Lord has granted us in our life, turns for the better in the true sense of the word: turns toward God and away from sin. If we’ve been blessed with a good life, let’s thank him. If we’ve been freed from a life of sin, let’s thank him even more. Wherever our starting point, he has been with us every step of the way and deserves our love and thanks.

Readings: 1 Timothy 4:12–16; Psalm 111:7–10; Luke 7:36–50.

23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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Today’s society is plagued by ways of losing your temper, inspired by the principle of “don’t get mad, get even”: people go postal, get road rage, drop f-bombs, go ballistic, send flame mails, and are branded as trolls online. Our Lord in today’s Gospel tells us the Christian response to people who get on our nerves: “don’t get mad, get praying,” talk to your manager if you’ve got a problem, keep driving calmly and forgive the guy who’s tailgating you, watch your mouth, take a walk and cool off, send that e-mail draft or destructo-comment to the trash unpublished. In biblical language that is translated in terms of “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another,” as St. Paul teaches in the First Reading today.

In today’s edgy, thin-skinned, irritable society that is a tall order. It’s not something we can accomplish overnight, but the best way to help us reconquer these virtues again is to contemplate Christ crucified when we think we’re about to blow. Our Lord didn’t just preach this in today’s Gospel; he lived it. None of us have been mistreated as badly as him and he bore with it all and forgave everyone who sought it (even desired to forgive those who didn’t). Contemplation is not simply remembering; it is seeing the scene in your mind, with Christ, and not just once. It is through contemplation and grace that we achieve the recollection to help us keep from losing control, and in contemplating Christ crucified little by little we realize how beautiful charity toward others and despite others is, and how petty we can often be.

If feel like you’re going to blow today, find a Crucifix and ask Our Lord for the grace to handle that situation as he would: with endurance and forgiveness.

Readings: Colossians 3:12–17; Psalm 150:1b–6; Luke 6:27–38.