Wednesday

14th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Hosea describes the hardened soul as like a field that needs to be tilled and blessed with rain in order to produce fruit. Like ground that needs to be turned over and dug and broken up for cultivation, the hardened soul resists the rain of justice, understood in this context as grace, that enables it to achieve a virtuous life. If you seek justice the Lord will rain it down upon you. If you seek a life of grace the Lord will bless you with it in abundance, but you have to do your part.

Let’s ask Our Lord today for the humility to soften the soil of our souls in order to welcome his grace.

Readings: Hosea 10:1–3, 7–8, 12; Psalm 105:2–7; Matthew 10:1–7. See also Tuesday, Wednesday ,and Thursday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time; 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B; Thursday and Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary time, and 1st Week of Advent, Saturday.

12th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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Today’s First Reading reminds us that despite all the good intentions in the world we need help to be objective in seeking and doing good. Josiah, the unnamed king in today’s First Reading, was trying to reform and restore worship in Israel, and in renovating the Temple the “book of the law” was rediscovered (books from the Old Testament, probably the first at least), and Josiah realized how fare Israel had drifted from what their Lord had expected of them.

Imagine a world where the Bible itself was lost and re-discovered. Many of the good cultural inroads that Christianity has made, to the benefit of not just believers, but all of society, have been lost or have been forgotten. As in the case of the First Reading, it is not any one person’s fault: an entire people had forgotten their identity and their heritage and just drifted into whatever the prevailing public fashion dictated. Our Lord in today’s Gospel warns us against false prophets and bad trees; it takes scratching beneath the surface to see them for what they truly are. As believers we must shape our opinions and our lives based on the Christian faith and the teachings of the Church, not on the whims of a society often fickle and superficial.

I invite you to take the “Josiah” challenge: Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are readily available online. Crack or click them open and examine your life to see whether your covenant with the Lord needs renewing. You may be surprised.

Readings: 2 Kings 22:8–13, 23:1–3; Psalm 119:33–37, 40; Matthew 7:15–20. See also 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.

11th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, and alms giving are meant for him, not for publicity. He suggests ways to ensure our purity of intention: by donating without fanfare, fasting without letting anyone see you sweat it, and praying without making it a public display. In this way we are showing that those acts of devotion are between us and God, no one else.

Even if we do those acts away from prying eyes we can involve others the right way: by offering up our donations, fasting, and prayers for them and for their intentions. We can also offer them to God simply to thank him for all the blessings he has bestowed on us and others.

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us pray without ceasing for the benefit of him and others.

Readings: 2 Kings 2:1, 6–14; Psalm 31:20–21, 24; Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18. See also Ash Wednesday and 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

10th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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Elijah shows the Israelites, and reminds us, in today’s First Reading that there is only one God, no matter how many prophets may say to the contrary. At the encouragement of their king, Ahab, the Israelites have opted to follow Baal, since that deity seems to have numbers and success, yet they are suffering from a drought as a result of abandoning the Lord. They haven’t completely written off the Lord, but they remain on the fence, so Elijah suggests a way to test whom they should truly worship.

The prophets of Baal have numbers (450), elaborate rituals, and dry weather. One spark would be enough to set the whole thing off, but, as Scripture reminds us today, “no one answered, and no one was listening.” Elijah soaked the Lord’s altar with water to show that it wouldn’t be some chance spark that lit it, and with one prayer the Lord sent down fire to consume it all. One prophet and one prayer was enough for the Lord to respond.

People worship many things today–money, power, pleasure, nature, themselves, etc.–but none of those things are God, and none of them will grant what they truly desire. Our Lord knows what we need before we ask. Try that one prayer to the Lord and you may be surprised at the response.

Readings: 1 Kings 18:20–39; Psalm 16:1b–2b, 4–5b, 8, 11; Matthew 5:17–19. See also 3rd Week of Lent, Wednesday and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.

9th Week of Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Year II

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In today’s First Reading Paul encourages Timothy to stoke up the fire he received through ordination, a gift to enable him to fulfill his vocation. As Paul reminds us, Christ saved us and called us to a holy life, and that desire stemmed not from something we earned, but from his saving designs and the gift of his grace. Paul is speaking not only to his colleague, but to his successor; in prison it is easy to see the day when someone else has to take up your work, and Timothy would be understandably concerned if his friend and mentor was imprisoned and the work of spreading the Gospel was left to him. Yet it would be soon, and Paul encourages Timothy to not let his concerns defeat him, but instead to stoke up the fire of love that conquers all in order to embolden him in his noble calling and mission.

Our Lord calls us all to help him spread his Good News, each according to his condition or state of life. This is not something we do out of a strained sense of obligation, a narrow-minded attitude reflected in the limited understanding of marriage and its obligations that the Sadducees try to present today to Jesus as a problem discrediting the possibility of the Resurrection. Rather, it is something that stems from the new life that we have received in Christ. We may not all be called to be priests, but we are all called to stoke up the fire of the gifts we’ve received from Our Lord in order to share the Gospel with zeal and enthusiasm.

If you consider the gifts you’ve received from God to just be obligations piled upon more obligations, ask Our Lord today to stoke up in you the fire of his love so that you see a life of holiness and evangelization as a mission, not just a burden. It will pave the way for an unexpected joy.

Readings: 2 Timothy 1:1–3, 6–12; Psalm 123:1b–2f; Mark 12:18–27. See also 9th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday and 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday.