Wednesday

31st Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord presents the need to renounce the two most precious things in our life in order to be able to successfully follow him: our family and our life as it stands without him. If he calls us to follow him, it means putting other things on hold and embracing sacrifice and difficulty for something greater. When he teaches us today to hate our family and life as it stands he does not mean abandoning them or harming them; he means practicing a healthy detachment from them where God’s will comes first because God knows best and wants the best for everyone, including those we love.

If we don’t form this healthy detachment he warns us we may not have the spiritual resources to finish what we started or to succeed. He uses two images: a construction project discontinued for lack of funds, and a battle lost for not have sufficient forces to win or the foresight to seek a diplomatic solution instead. Everyone wants to build something with their life; Our Lord wants us to build a life with him, and he knows that requires the spiritual resources that only come from detachment, sacrifice, and discernment. Our life is a battle at times, a struggle to succeed, and detachment, sacrifice, and discernment are what enable us to succeed in what truly matters: love for God and love for others.

Let’s examine our lives today with the Lord’s help and see whether anything in our lives might be preventing us from being the success he wants us to be.

Readings: Romans 13:8–10; Psalm 112:1b–2, 4–5, 9; Luke 14:25–33. See also 15th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

29th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel Peter asks Our Lord to explain the teaching we heard in yesterday‘s Gospel: was the teaching about vigilance only for the Twelve, or for everyone? Our Lord repeats the need for vigilance, and then explains the fate of servants who do not their master’s will. As believers we are servants of God and servants of others, but that doesn’t take away our freedom: we can be faithful servants or rotten ones. The choice is ours, but with that freedom comes responsibility.

Our Lord presents three bad examples of servants: a servant who acts out of malice and disqualifies himself, a servant who knows what is expected and doesn’t do it, and a servant who doesn’t know what is expected and doesn’t do it. All these servants are punished, but each according to the degree of their mistake. Malicious servants are completely cast out: they’re numbered among the “unfaithful”–these are the slaves of sin that Paul refers to in the First Reading who think they’re are free in their actions, but are only heaping sorrow upon themselves. Servants who know what to do, but don’t are seriously punished–like the servant who buried the talent (see Luke 19:11–27 and Matthew 25:18,24-30) entrusted to him by his master when he was expected to invest it, the master condemns him for his timidity and lack of simple effort. Lastly, servants who didn’t know what to do also receive punishment: ignorance is not bliss. They may have been hindered by their ignorance, but Our Lord is clear that they too should have known what to do and done it.

Our Lord at the end answers Peter’s question: Peter really wants to know what’ll happen to him and the apostles if they’re unfaithful, and Jesus speaks to that point. Every believer has been entrusted with a mission to serve God and spread the Gospel, but not all of them in the same way and to the same degree. What every believer has in common is that, for them, the mission will be demanding. Let’s examine today whether we consider following Christ to be demanding. If we don’t, Our Lord teaches us the ways today to examine our lives and make any necessary corrections: to see if we’re serving self-interest and sin more than him, whether we’re doing what he expects of us, or whether there’s something that he expects of us and we don’t realize it. In prayer the Holy Spirit will help you find out, ask the Spirit to shed light on your life.

Readings: Romans 6:12–18; Psalm 124:1b–8; Luke 12:39–48.

28th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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In yesterday’s readings we saw that the Pharisee who judged Our Lord for not performing the ritual washing of hands opened himself up to receiving judgment. In today’s First Reading Paul elaborates on the teaching of Our Lord to not judge other unless we too want to be judged, but he focuses more on warning hypocrites that they won’t fool God. Our Lord today describes contact with the Pharisees who do not practice what they preach as being like unwittingly walking over a tomb: a source of contamination and ritual impurity for the Jews of that period. The case of someone who judges others while not worried about their own actions is even more dangerous; it transmits the message that hypocrisy and a double life are okay. As Paul reminds us, the judgments of God cannot be swept under the rug and forgotten.

The scribes in today’s Gospel are also also offended by Our Lord’s accusations; they too consider themselves immune to scrutiny. Our Lord today teaches us two ways to make sure that those in charge of the pastoral care of others can stay on the right track: that love for God be the motivation for all they do, and that they keep in mind that they will be held accountable just as much, if not more, by God for their good works as well as their evil ones. When a teaching is difficult to follow, they are there to help people to be faithful to it. When they establish some secondary rule or observance, it is for the good of all, not just for their own benefit. That’s the difference between power brokering and pastoral concern.

Let’s pray today for our pastors and for all those with religious authority so that they serve us always out of love for God and concern for others.

Readings: Romans 2:1–11; Psalm 62:2–3, 6–7, 9; Luke 11:42–46.

27th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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Today’s First Reading is the conclusion of the book of Jonah, who is a rare breed of prophet: a disgruntled one who carries out his mission grudgingly. As we’ve seen over the last few days’ readings, Jonah did not want to bear God’s message to the people of Nineveh, because there was bad blood between them and the Jews: it was the main city of Assyria, which eventually conquered and absorbed the Northern part of Israel into its empire. Jonah would prefer that such a menace be destroyed, but the Lord wants to give them a chance, and they take it when it is offered to them through Jonah’s warning.

Jonah bears a grudge against the Ninevites, and so he does his mission grudgingly. Ultimately in his prayer after seeing Nineveh’s repentance he tells the Lord that he resents the Lord’s compassion. At least he is maintaining communication with the Lord, who tries to show him the error of his judgment, but Jonah stalks off and sets up near the city to see if the Lord is going to destroy them or not: he still sets his hopes in something, but that something is not God’s will. He knows it’s not God’s will, but he doesn’t want to admit it. In the end Our Lord has to reach into Jonah’s narrow-minded and closed world to try and help him see the bigger picture: if the destruction of a little source of shade is so detestable to Jonah, shouldn’t the destruction of 120,000 people be even more detestable? The book of Jonah concludes with that thought, and we don’t know how Jonah reacted.

The Lord asks something of each one of us. If we’re listening, how are we trying to respond? Grudgingly? Our Lord is not shy about reaching into our narrow-minded and close world to draw us out into the bigger one. Let’s respond to Our Lord, and his plans, with generosity, casting aside all pettiness.

Readings: Jonah 4:1–11; Psalm 86:3–6, 9–10; Luke 11:1–4.

26th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday

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It’s hard to leave the things you know and love behind. We all crave security. In the First Reading Nehemiah misses his home country, but puts on a brave face until the king asks him why he is so sad, and he reveals to him his desire to return to Jerusalem from exile and rebuild. Nehemiah doesn’t want to ask, because he knows the exile is God’s will, but the Lord puts it in the king’s heart to perceive that something is wrong and indicate that his will is now for Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild. The time of exile is over.

In today’s Gospel there are disciples who want to help Our Lord, but without sacrificing a place to call home and being with their loved ones. He makes them choose. They won’t forget what or who they’ve left behind; it’s the very act of leaving someone or something behind that makes their discipleship fruitful. It would be cruel if it were not for a greater good, not only for them, but for those they love. Everyone has a place in the Kingdom of God that awaits them, but not everyone can reach it alone. We wouldn’t rest until our families and friends could achieve it, but that shouldn’t limit us to just seeking it for them. Therefore Our Lord calls us to help the friendless as well.

Our Lord knows the best way to help those we love. Let’s ask him today to show us, even if it implies sacrifice.

Readings: Nehemiah 2:1–8; Psalm 137:1–6; Luke 9:57–62.