Tuesday

33rd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In yesterday‘s Gospel we saw how important the crowd was in helping the blind man know that Jesus was near and meet him. Today the crowd, whether wittingly or unwittingly, is not enabling Zacchaeus to see Our Lord, and Zacchaeus has to resort to drastic measures. There are those in the crowd who already dislike him for being a tax collector, considered a sell out to the Romans and a corrupt man who profits by exploiting his own people. Zacchaeus doesn’t care about appearing ridiculous; he just wants to see Jesus. Our Lord rewards him by standing up for him before the entire crowd.

This doesn’t mean Zacchaeus was not a sinner. The crowd accuses him of it, and Our Lord himself says salvation has come to someone who was lost. Zacchaeus doesn’t even deny it, which is why he declares publicly that he is ready to make amends and to help the poor. If Zacchaeus had not managed to see Jesus, who knows what would have happened. When we size people up and find them lacking, or judge them, we mustn’t make that a pretext to write them off and not help them meet Our Lord. We shouldn’t close ranks and prevent them from drawing closer to the person for whom we’re together in the first place: Our Lord.

We’re not an exclusive club that is justified in excluding; rather, we are bearers of God’s Word who should lead anyone showing an interest to the Word himself. Let’s not be shy about helping people draw closer to Jesus through us, no matter what they’ve done in the past.

Readings: 2 Maccabees 6:18–31; Psalm 3:2–7; Luke 19:1–10.

32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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Everyone likes recognition for the work they do; some people even crave it, but Our Lord in today’s Gospel encourages us to be content with the fact that we’ve been able to serve another and perform our duties. There are many people in the world who’ll never get Employee of the Month, but who have done their work well. If that moment of recognition comes, Our Lord tells us what our attitude should be: humility. If recognition is the motivation for our service, it’s no so much service as trying to climb the social or career ladder, and that can lead to a false sense of entitlement that makes us frustrated when we should just be focusing on doing our job.

Sometimes service without recognition is hard. In the First Reading Our Lord reminds us that the souls of the virtuous suffered trials, sometimes apparent disaster, but in the end they were in the hand of God and shined, full of grace and mercy. We shouldn’t worry so much about receiving recognition; in the end Our Lord will give us the recognition we deserve as the good and just God that he is.

Let’s focus today on being useful servants who do their duty and not so much on being Employee of the Month. If we do, maybe we’ll get both. It’s in the Lord’s hands.

Readings: Wisdom 2:23–3:9; Psalm 34:2–3, 16–19; Luke 17:7–10.

31st Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord responds to someone dining with him who speaks about the beatitude of Kingdom of God with the parable of a king inviting people to a great feast. They’d already been invited to the feast, and now servants were sent to tell them it was ready. Obviously these invitees had a closer relationship with the king than just being his loyal subjects: they were invited to come, and didn’t feel obliged to come. The invitees ask to be excused, but really just gave excuses not to come: they’d known when the great dinner would be held and had made other plans. They either didn’t want to go or were simply indifferent about going: that showed what they thought of their king, both as their ruler and as their friend. Something or someone else came first.

Abandoned by his friends, the king invited other members of his kingdom, but not on the basis of friendship, just on the basis of a benevolence a king owes his people. In the end he also invites his subjects who are complete strangers to him, perhaps people not even a part of his kingdom at all. They benefit from the great dinner, but they cannot take the place of those the king wanted to partake of it, his invitees, those he wanted to acknowledge as his friends.

The Kingdom of God is not just something in the future: Christ the King invites us right now to come to the great feast with every celebration of the Eucharist, to show us how much we mean to him and to lavish spiritual joy and refreshment on us. Does a vacation rental come first? Taking the new car for a Sunday drive? Spending the weekend with your spouse? Let’s show Our Lord what he means to us by coming to his banquet frequently, knowing that someday we’ll enjoy a great and eternal feast with him and with our family and friends. Let’s also be those servants who go out and invite others to come to the feast which is already prepared for them and waiting.

Readings: Romans 12:5–16b; Psalm 131:1b–e, 2–3; Luke 14:15–24.

29th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord starts to shift to encouraging his disciples regarding his return at the end of time: the “wedding” of the Lamb is fulfilled in Heaven after his Ascension. He exhorts them to vigilance: ready to serve at any time, and under any conditions, day or night (hence the lamp), at home or travelling (hence girded for a trip). He tells them his return could be quick or be long, but that they should be ready, whether late at night or early in the morning.

He also describes how pleased he’d be to find them ready: can you imagine someone after a long trip making his servants sit down and waiting on them instead of the other way around? That shows even he considers himself the servant-in-chief. He wants his servants to share in the joy of a job well done.

Our Lord will return at the end of time, but for each of us, at the end of our life, we can expect an encounter with him as well. Ask yourself today how you’d react if Our Lord showed up right now on your doorstep. Is there anything to which you should have attended, but haven’t? Are you excited at the thought of his return? Persevere in hope and trust.

Readings: Romans 5:12, 15b, 17–19, 20b–21; Psalm 40:7–10, 17; Luke 12:35–38.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that good things start from within and work their way out. There is a difference between maintaining appearances and living the truth. In today’s First Reading Paul touches upon the fact that when things go wrong it is because something inside has gone wrong: everyone has an interior opportunity, either through seeking truth and good or welcoming in faith God’s revelation, of knowing the truth and doing good. When they do evil instead they ignore those encouraging voices and eventually try to convince themselves that the evil they are doing is good. No matter how much we mess up our consciences we always try to do what we think to be good: the question is whether it is truly good or not. Our actions reflect the good or evil that is inside of us. When we do good, it edifies others, but they have to interiorize it and make it their good as well–then our actions will also reflect that good. When we do evil we cast a shadow over this struggle in the hearts of everyone to see what’s truly good and act upon it: bad examples cloud our judgment of good and evil.

Jesus teaches us to not judge unless we want to be judged (see Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37). In today’s Gospel we see him applying that teaching. The Pharisee who invited him to dine thinks a ritual washing of hands is required to be good. Our Lord shows him that he’s turned a secondary religious custom into a way of judging and condemning others. The Pharisees never really understood the purpose of ritual washing: for them it was a sort of whitewash that allowed them to justify whatever else they did and consider themselves superior to others. They never stopped to think that maybe just because somebody doesn’t agree with their religious practices and opinion it doesn’t mean that person is evil.

Every person is on a quest for truth and goodness in their heart: we need to help them find it, just as Jesus was trying to help the Pharisee today. Sometimes that means saying clearly, as Jesus did, that something they’re doing is wrong–we’re called to help each other, not work out everything on our own. Let’s make an effort today to share the goodness and truth that others have shared with us, and not get hung up on secondary things that can cloud the true charity we’re expected to live.

Readings: Romans 1:16–25; Psalm 19:2–5; Luke 11:37–41.