Tuesday

32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul gives Titus advice for whom we’d call today the laity, with the exception of children, and from the virtues they should practice it should remind us that everyone in the Church is called to contribute, not only to the Church, but to society. Titus is encouraged to edify the faithful them by his example, but when our pastors are struggling they should be edified and encouraged by the example of the laity as well, especially those entrusted to them.

Paul reminds us that every member of the Church should focus on three things: temperance, justice, and devotion. Temperance is self-control in various areas of our life: in food and drink, in chastity, in patience. Justice is treating everyone fairly, not just in matters of money, but in family obligations and in respecting their dignity as human persons. Devotion is honoring not only God, but everyone we love, and making time for prayer and a sacramental life in order to help us live temperately and justly, bolstered by grace.

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us take stock today of our relationships and our virtue in order to not only be good Christians, but a source of edification for everyone we meet.

Readings: Titus 2:1–8, 11–14; Psalm 37:3–4, 18, 23, 27, 29; Luke 17:7–10. See also 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C and 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

30th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul uses the relationship between husband and wife to explain the relationship between Christ and the Church, and sheds light on Christian marriage as well. Paul once again describes the Church as the Body of Christ, and evokes the passage of Genesis where it’s explained that when man and woman come together in marriage they become one flesh (see Genesis 2:24). Each spouse should love the other as his or her very self: in that logic there’s no room for abuse. Whoever is at fault, both are affected.

Some may see a disparity in the language between how the husband should act toward the wife and vice versa in Paul’s teaching, but their radical unity doesn’t exempt one or the other from total self-giving and dedication, whether in making decisions or accepting them. In that way they imitate Christ and how he loved the Church as if she were his own Body. We refer to the Church as “she” because she is the Spouse of Christ. Our relationship with Christ and our fellow believers in the Church should be the same: whether we are exercising authority or heeding it, we are doing so out of love.

Let’s ask Our Lord to help us imitate him more closely today in his loving dedication to us, and pray for every married couple to love their spouse as they’d love themselves.

Readings: Ephesians 5:21–33; Psalm 128:1–5; Luke 13:18–21. See also 30th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday,  11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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Even today newborn Jewish males are initiated into their faith not just through their lineage, but through a ceremony of circumcision. Because of this ancient Jewish practice those who wanted to practice Judaism, even as adults, were required in Paul’s time to be circumcised. Paul is warning the Galatians in today’s First Reading that if they decide to embrace Jewish practices they are turning their backs on who’ll really benefit them spiritually: Our Lord.

Even today people sometimes choose to mix and match religion. Commitment is a foundation for belief. With circumcision the Galatians are committing to something other than Christianity, and by doing so, as Paul warns them, they are shutting themselves out of Christ’s life if they choose to do so.

Mix and match religion just leads us in circles. Let’s commit ourselves to Christ and the path he invites us to follow.

Readings: Galatians 5:1–6;  Psalm 119:41, 43–45, 47–48; Luke 11:37–41. See also 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul recalls the years immediately following his conversion on the road to Damascus, a conversion where all his fundamental convictions regarding God’s will for him were put to the test. The first thing Paul did was leave Judea and head into the wide expanse of deserts known as Arabia, and in that desert he realized that he was called to be more than just a disciple of Our Lord; he had a special encounter that made him Our Lord’s apostle in a way not quite like the Twelve.

He only met the apostles years later, as he also recounts to the Galatians. In other letters he’d already face criticism about being a second-class apostle, but he knew what Our Lord was asking of him and set out to do it, conferring with the other apostles years later. It didn’t matter, because the same Gospel the Twelve had received from Our Lord was given to Paul to spread among the gentiles, including the Galatians, who were now being encouraged incorrectly to adopt Judaic practices that Paul had not taught them.

How do you handle life-shattering events? Do you turn up the volume or top off the whiskey, or do you seek the solitude and silence to hear Our Lord’s voice more clearly and process what he is asking you to do with your life? It’s never to late to close the door, shut down the laptop, and simply have a conversation with Our Lord.

Readings: Galatians 1:13–24; Psalm 139:1b–3, 13–15; Luke 10:38–42. See also 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Sunday, Cycle C, St. Martha, 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday.

26th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord has to remind James and John, after a Samaritan village disrespected Our Lord and his disciples, that he wants salvation, not fulmination. The Old Testament has some rousing accounts of fulmination; Elijah called down fire on soldiers who’d come to him with attitude (see 2 Kings 1:10-12). James and John obviously wanted to relive the “glory days” of prophetism where the wicked were blown away, but that’s just a remnant of a mentality of the Messiah as someone who is coming to “clean house.”

It’s the Old Testament for a reason. You don’t bring Good News by calling down divine wrath. You bring Good News by announcing that liberation from sin is at hand for those who want it. The Samaritans today didn’t need further punishment; turning their back on the Gospel was worse than fulmination. They didn’t turn their back on Our Lord because he was the Messiah, but because they were at enmity with Jews in general. The results are the same: the grace of God passed them by.

Our charity, even when it is slighted, can open the door to grace for a soul. Let’s take Our Lord’s lesson to heart today and focus more on sharing the Good News and less on fulmination. Little by little that charity can win over even the most hardened soul.

Readings: Job 3:1–3, 11–17, 20–23; Psalm 88:2–8; Luke 9:51–56.