Thursday

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.

16th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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Where there is water there is life. Any agricultural community will tell you that their livelihood depends on having a good and constant water supply. The Lord in today’s First Reading describes what he has to offer Israel in terms of an unending water supply: “living” water flows, it is not just still water stored in a cistern. Israel not only stopped drawing from the Lord as the source of life; they forgot about him completely after he had loved and protected them in the desert like a bridegroom and led them to a “garden land.”

The Lord is the source of our life. No substitutes. The Israelites in today’s First Reading tried to replace him with cisterns for holding water that didn’t even work. Anyone who has lived in a drought knows how the life simply dries up and withers with the lack of water: green plants turn to brown, livestock dies, and the earth dries and cracks, becoming inhospitable for planting. We must always stay close to the source of our life. Every bit of clean water we see should remind us of the day of our baptism when the Lord adopted us as his sons and daughters. He established a living flow of grace in us that only dries up if we distance ourselves from him, its Source.

If life seems a little dry or you are in full drought, seek out its Source. He is much closed than you think.

Readings: Jeremiah 2:1–3, 7–8, 12–13; Psalm 36:6–7b, 8–11; Matthew 13:10–17. See also 24th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday and 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

15th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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Many people today view the world through a dark lens, and paint it with a dark palette: darkness and death are the way they see the world. Isaiah in today’s First Reading brings justice into that metaphor as the light of dawn. Vigils in the darkness can seem the loneliest at times; it seems that instead of being sleep everything is dead, and there’s a nagging fear that the dawn may never return. In a world plagued with evil, injustice, and death it can seem that those trying to do justice are keeping watch for a dawn that some think will never come.

The dawn is that breath of fresh air when justice has accomplished something. A somber palette of shadows, little by little, gives way to a palette of colors as the sun starts to rise, and what seemed dead in the night is seen to be alive in the light of day. In today’s First Reading the Lord promises that setting out on the path of justice will make life easier for everyone. It will bring peace. It will shed light on the circumstances of daily light to improve them for ourselves and for others.

Nevertheless, Our Lord describes following him and seeking this justice as a yoke to bear. It requires our effort. Let’s persevere in hope as we strive to make justice dawn in our lives and in our world.

Readings: Isaiah 26:7–9, 12, 16–19; Psalm 102:13–14b, 15–21; Matthew 11:28–30. See also 2nd Week of Advent, Wednesday and 15th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

 

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading the Lord describes his relationship with Israel like that of a father toward his son. In the imagery Hosea uses we can imagine the Lord holding the infant Israel in his arms, and then standing behind Israel as a toddler taking his first wobbly steps. Just as a toddler Israel, even in his father’s arms, seemed oblivious to his father as he explores the new world around him, or, once he could walk, goes running off without any thought for danger. Israel became oblivious to the Lord who loved him as a father and often ran into danger with no regard.

The First Reading’s prophecy was a foreshadowing of the real relationship the Lord wanted to have with us: a Father loving his children no matter how they loved him in return. He comes as the Son to enable us to become his brothers and sisters and to become adopted children of God. Unfortunately we sometimes act just like Israel in today’s First Reading: oblivious to all the love he has shown us and often fleeing him into the very danger of soul from which he wants to protect us.

Let’s ask Our Lord today for a renewed awareness of the love Our Heavenly Father shows us every day, so that we let him lead us.

Readings: Hosea 11:1–4, 8e–9; Psalm 80:2ac, 3b, 15–16; Matthew 10:7–15. See also 1st Week of Advent, Saturday, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and 14th Week In Ordinary Time, Thursday.

 

13th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday, Year II

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In today’s readings we see two reminders that power and authority come from God, not from men. If we do any good work on the Lord’s behalf it is because the Lord empowers us to do so. In today’s First Reading the priest Amaziah trash talks the prophet Amos and implies that he has come to Bethel as a prophet as a career change, not a mission from the Lord. Even if the Northern Kingdom did not have faith in Amos, events would show that he had been sent by the Lord: everything he prophesied in today’s First Reading came to pass.

In today’s Gospel the main wonder is not that Our Lord could heal a paralytic. The healing of a paralytic is a sign ratifying the true teaching of the day: that the ministry and power of forgiveness could be entrusted to a man. When Our Lord uses the expressions “Son of man” and “authority on earth” he is not referring to his divine power to forgive, but his human authority entrusted to him by his Father as part of his mission on earth. The crowds understand perfectly: they glorify God for giving “such authority to men.” This ministry of reconciliation continues in the Church even today, but through the power and authority given by the Lord.

Our Lord has blessed us with many means to know his will and to be reconciled with him and with others. Let’s glorify him today for all the good he has done for us through his ministers.

Readings: Amos 7:10–17; Psalm 19:8–11; Matthew 9:1–8. See also 1st Week in Ordinary Time, Friday, 2nd Week of Advent, Monday, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, and 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.