Year I

12th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord teaches us that the real measure of the spiritual merit of our actions are whether those actions are in conformity with the will of God. Some would interpret that as depriving us of any free will or possibility of making decisions for ourselves, but as the First Reading shows us, God works with our decisions, even when they’re bad decisions: Sarai regretted the outcome of her suggestion to her husband that by today’s standards we know to be a bad one, but the Lord sent Hagar back to Sarai with a promise that she’d have a a great son and a many descendants. If God blesses in a bad situation that stemmed from bad decisions, we can only imagine how much he’ll bless us when we try staying united to him and doing what we think would be the most pleasing to him.

If we’ve never really spoken with him in prayer we’ll just be going through the motions. Prayer is not just reciting some words, it is also asking him for the grace to know him and his will for our lives. The solid foundation for the “house” of our lives is the will of God and knowing him. That provides a stability that goes beyond mortgages, health issues, even death itself. When we build on our knowledge of him and his will there’s nothing to fear from any storms in life that may buffet us, even when we’re broke, sick, in a difficult family situation, etc.

Let’s pray today for a deeper knowledge of Our Lord and his will in our lives in order to stay on a solid foundation.

Readings: Genesis 16:1–12, 15–16; Psalm 106:1b–5; Matthew 7:21–29.

12th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord warns us that not everyone is enthusiastic or necessarily open to receiving the Gospel message. Some are openly hostile to the Christian message. Sharing the Gospel requires slow and patient work as well as prudence, and it is not easy, because we imitate Christ, and his earthly ministry culminated on the Cross. It’s a fine line between not shying away from martyrdom and deciding whether sharing something holy and valuable with those who not only don’t appreciate it, but may be openly hostile about it, will really achieve the results we’d hope.

The things of God are both holy and valuable, as represented by the pearl in today’s Gospel. Dogs and swine in the Bible often represent anger, obstinacy, and impurity and represent people who are hostile or impure. Not only will angry, obstinate, and impure people not appreciate holy things or valuable things, but may react violently if such things are offered. Jesus’ teaches us to do to others as we’d hope they’d do to us, and for some souls that is the way to help them draw closer to God: a kindness and consideration that may win them over instead of going straight to doctrine. We have to be on guard against taking the approaches of “dogs” or “swines” either.

Let’s pray that we find and stick to that narrow road and narrow gate Our Lord points out to us and ask him to enlighten us as to the best way to help each soul find them as well.

Readings: Genesis 13:2, 5–18; Psalm 15:2–4b, 5; Matthew 7:6, 12–14.

12th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday

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The ancient Romans had a saying that no man is an apt judge of himself. We have a legal system, courts, and judges because when we enter into disputes we look for somebody to judge our case with impartiality and objectivity, based on the facts. Even then we know that sometimes justice is not done despite all those efforts, which is why alongside those courts and judges there’s a system of appeals. Our Lord in today’s Gospel reminds us to be on guard against making rash judgments and meting out condemnation. In the Lord’s Prayer he tells us to pray to be forgiven as we have forgiven others. When we let ourselves be drawn into a logic of mutual recrimination and condemnation no one remains unscathed, because so often we too merit condemnation for having judged and condemned another unjustly.

Jesus invites us today to examine ourselves and acknowledge that we have a lot of faults and failings, and we should focus on fixing them before we think of focusing on the faults and failings of others. Our own efforts to be good and holy people will give us an extra dose of objectivity in evaluating others’ actions in order to help them, not just to condemn them. Rash judgments are easily fired off about others in a world of quick and globalized communications. To counter our tendency to judge others rashly, harshly, and quickly we need to be as ready to forgive others as we would hope that they would forgive us. Tempering our judgments with virtue and mercy is the key to not being drawn into a logic of condemnation. It’s the difference between being judgmental and practicing fraternal correction out of concern for the person who has erred.

Let’s pray today for the grace to not get sucked into the blame game and to have a fraternal attitude toward others, especially those whom we feel have offended us in some way.

Readings: Genesis 12:1–9; Psalm 33:12–13, 18–20, 22; Matthew 7:1–5.

11th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord directs our attention to the signs of God’s Providence in the present in order to not worry about the future. He could have provided for the oxygen we need to breathe by creating lots of molds and fungi, ugly green splotches, but instead he created magnificent trees, flowers and meadows that receive the sun and rain they need to grow and fulfill their purpose in the grand scheme of things in a beautiful way. Thinking about the future can be a source of anxiety and uncertainty if we lose sight of the signs around us every day of how God has created all things to be good and arranges them to help them achieve good ends and often in a beautiful way. He knows what we need before we even ask.

He has also traced out a path to goodness and beauty for our lives, but, unlike plants and animals, he has given us the gift of freedom and responsibility for our actions. We can work with him to help goodness and beauty grow and endure in a lasting way: not just the necessary needs of life that people sometimes worry about too much, but the sum of all noble dreams and aspirations in God’s loving and saving plan that he calls his Kingdom. Goodness and beauty for humanity are justice and love for all who choose to welcome them and strive for them in their lives.

Let’s not just ask Our Lord today for his Kingdom to come; let’s ask him to show us how we can help him to make it a reality.

Readings: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10; Psalm 34:8–13; Matthew 6:24–34.

11th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord puts us on guard against treasuring things in our hearts that will not endure and will blind us to the bigger picture: the true worth of things, the ones we love, where we fit in the grand scheme of things, and the primacy of God. Golden ingots and junk bonds both pass away, just at different rates and with different risks, and the true treasure we should be striving for is Heaven, which is not only eternal life, but a life filled with joy at spending eternity with the real treasure: God and the ones we love. When our hearts and gaze are fixed on that, everything else is put into perspective: possessions, situations, and circumstances all become means of investing in a joyful eternal life for ourselves and for others. Living a life of virtue expands our horizon and keeps us focused on doing the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people out of love for God.

Our Lord puts us on guard today against the alternative to a desire for Heaven and for virtue. When someone is in the grips of vice, we describe them as blinded: blinded by pride, by greed, by ambition, by lust, by hatred, etc. That blinding process begins with a sort of vitiated myopia that fixes the heart on something secondary, blurring everything else in view, distorting our vision and blinding us to the bigger picture. People often in the grips of vice cannot see a way out of their situation: it seems impossible to them to change. The help and example of virtuous people is that ray of sunshine that they need to entertain the thought of a way out of their predicament and start bringing things again into proper focus. If vice narrows our view and our heart, virtue expands them again to all the rich possibilities of life from here to eternity.

Let’s thank Our Lord today for all the examples of virtue we’ve seen in our lives, and ask him to help us broaden our horizons again if we’re suffering from spiritual myopia.

Readings: 2 Corinthians 11:18, 21–30; Psalm 34:2–7; Matthew 6:19–23.