Wednesday

9th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that God doesn’t play politics: he is the lord of life and history. To consider him a political player is simply beneath him. The Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap him into expressing a political opinion on paying a census tax to Caesar, which some saw as sacrilegious and others saw as their civic duty (or, at least, something that kept them out of hot water with the Romans). Jesus gets right to the point: if Caesar wants to mint coins and tax his subjects, let him have his coins. God doesn’t need Caesar’s coins: he doesn’t “need” anything, because he already has it all. Everything comes from him.

To be fair, in Our Lord’s time on earth the lines between civic and religious duty were blurred. By giving to Caesar what is his and to God what is God’s, Jesus is reminding us that each of those two things are important on their own level, but they are not on the same level. The real danger comes when civil authority tries to go beyond minting coins and thinks it can mint the truth: within a few decades after Jesus’ death Christians would be martyred for refusing to acknowledge the emperor as a god or to participate in the state religion in opposition to their own beliefs. Declaring the state as all-knowing, just as imposing one expression of religion as the definitive one, ignoring the freedom to believe as you choose, is an attempt to mint the truth, and it is trying to give to Caesar what is really God’s. God is the source of all truth, and he has woven the truth into his creation so that all men of good will, aided by him, can find it and follow it.

Sadly there are still many attempts today to mint the truth: religious fundamentalism imposed by force, attempts to redefine basic natural institutions, such as marriage, etc. Let’s ask for the wisdom and the courage to always see what is due to God, what is due to “Caesar,” and to fulfill our true obligations to both.

Readings: Tobit 2:9–14; Psalm 112:1–2, 7–9; Mark 12:13–17.

8th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year I

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James and John in today’s Gospel are on a different wavelength than Our Lord: Jesus has just told them of his impending Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and all they are thinking of is the glory and the share of the glory they’ll receive. Jesus warns them that they are not on the Christian wavelength of glory: it is through the Cross that we achieve the only glory that matters–serving and pleasing God in gratitude for all he has done for us.

James and John are on the wavelength of ambition; Jesus is on the wavelength of service. In the exercise of authority it is very easy to switch from one to the other, usually in the direction of ambition, which is driven by self-interest either to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of others. James and John’s ambition provokes an immediate reaction from the other disciples: they know ambition when they see it and see their ambitions being infringed upon as well. When Jesus asks James and John whether they are prepared to receive the same baptism as him, and drink the same chalice, he is asking them whether they’re ready to suffer. In the end they will, to their credit: James was beheaded, as the Acts of the Apostles recalls, and John was exiled and imprisoned and, according to tradition, miraculously survived an attempt to execute him. But Jesus also touches on the key to not switching from the wavelength of service to ambition: recognizing that if you seek any place or path for your life, it should be out of a desire to serve, and, ultimately, you don’t have a right to it. Even Jesus himself takes the place and the path willed by the Father, and he does so as an example to us.

Let’s strive today to seek the place and path for our lives where we can best serve others, not just ourselves.

Readings: Sirach 36:1, 4–5a, 10–17; Psalm 79:8–9, 11, 13; Mark 10:32–45.

7th Week of Easter, Wednesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord continues to pray to the Father for the disciples who he must soon leave behind, just as Paul is saying his final farewell to the elders of Ephesus in the First Reading. Part of human life is the moment where our work here ends and we go, God-willing, to meet Our Heavenly Father. As believers we know that even then we’ll still be involved in the lives of those we’ve left behind: they’re not untouched by having us as a part of their life, and if we persevere in the faith and join the saints in Heaven we can continue to look down upon them from above and to intercede for them, just as Jesus does in today’s Gospel and does now for all eternity at the right hand of the Father.

The one thing that can go wrong in this plan is not reaching where God wants us to go: Jesus warns against the influence and action of the “world” and the “Evil One” and he knows we need God to protect us from the evil that always put obstacles in our path. Paul entrusts the elders and the flock to God so that they stand firm against threats to the flock, threats that see them as nothing more than a free lunch, and those who present appealing lies and false teachings as if they were true. We must be vigilant, but we also know that God is on our side. Jesus may not live among us in the way he did two thousand years ago, but he is still spiritually and sacramentally with us, and his Gospel continues to shape our lives as the truth that will protect us from the wolves, the “world”, the Evil One, and from false teaching, aided by our pastors and deacons.

Let’s pray for our pastors and deacons today, and that we all remain true to the Gospel and have the strength to resist whatever wants to come between us and Our Lord.

Readings: Acts 20:28–38; Psalm 68:29–30, 33–36b; John 17:11b–19.

5th Week of Easter, Wednesday

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grapevine

Our Lord reminds us in today’s Gospel that the Christian life, like a cultivated vine, depends on the trunk in order to grow and develop instead of withering on the vine. Part of this involves imitating Christ and following his teachings: he reminds us today of the need to have his word remain in us, but also the need for us to remain in him and he in us, a constant flow of divine life. The cultivated vine in today’s Gospel represents the communion of life with God that we must maintain in love. When we stop loving God and loving others this vital flow is cut off, and if everything at first seems the same, soon enough our life starts to wither.

A sacramental life is what fuels a Christian life. Through the sacraments we establish, maintain, and, when necessary, restore this vital communion with God. We’re more fortunate than plants: sometimes they are beyond a little water in order to perk back up. It’s never too late to return to a sacramental life. It’s true that someone cut off from Christ in this way for an extended period of time has a long road ahead to make amends and overcome the vices that can become very entrenched when practiced for a long time, but the vital flow is restored: through our love we reconnect to God’s love, in faith we know the vital flow of grace is opened again to us, and in hope we know that as long as we keep striving to change and remain in Christ we will succeed with his help.

Let’s take a moment and examine our sacramental life today. Are we going to the Eucharist at least every Sunday and Holy Day Obligation? Are we going to Confession when our conscience tells us something is wrong? It’s never too late to reconnect with God through the sacraments as the best way to help us grow as Christians.

Readings: Acts 15:1–6; Psalm 122:1–5; John 15:4a, 5b; John 15:1–8. For another reflection on today’s Gospel, see 5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle B.

4th Week of Easter, Wednesday

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Readings: Acts 12:24–13:5a; Psalm 67:2–6, 8; John 12:44–50. Note: April 29 is also the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena.

Our Lord reminds us today that he is not just another source of self-help tips in order to help us be more fulfilled in life. He describes himself as the light. Anyone who has experienced a blackout or stumbled around in a dark room fumbling for a switch knows that without the light what awaits is paralysis, afraid to take any step that might lead to anything from a stubbed toe to a deadly fall. If he tells us where to step, what lies ahead, independently of whether we believe him or not, his words are as true as daylight, and the consequences will also be true.

We’re always free to accept Our Lord’s light and word in our lives, just as we’re free to reject them, but as he warns us today, ignoring him doesn’t mean he’ll exact a price: the fact that we turned our back on the truth exacts a price all its own. Ignorance is not bliss.

If we’re trying to close our eyes to something Our Lord is pointing out, or trying to ignore something he’s telling us in the hope that it’ll go away, let’s ask him today to help us open our eyes and adjust to the brightness of his light, and to listen to what he wants to tell us.