Tag: evangelio del dia

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.”

There is no part of today’s Gospel reading that is pleasant to dwell on. It’s all pretty grisly stuff. Yet, at the end of the passage, John’s disciples show love and respect for him by burying him and telling Jesus what had happened. In both the first reading and the Gospel, the figures in them are afraid and act out of fear. Although he was speaking the truth and asking them to repent, the princes and people of the city fear putting Jeremiah to death because they don’t want to bring innocent blood on themselves. In the end, they release him. In the Gospel, Herod the Tetrarch is described as afraid and distressed as he acts this out by not killing John but finally being pressured to “because of his oaths and the guests who were present.”

Thank you, God, for today’s examples from the readings. We have the people in the first reading and King Herod in the Gospel, who show us how not to live: in fear. And we have Jeremiah and John, who spoke the truth and faced death because of their belief in God. As uncomfortable or threatening as it is sometimes, I should never be ashamed to speak in truth to others about what is good and true, as revealed by your Son and through the teachings of the Church.

I know you want me to stay close to you, God. There is real evil in the world that wants to put to death those who love and serve you. Stay with me today because I know I will forget you when I hear of those who live in fear and see those who follow you as their enemy. I know you have many good gifts in store for me today because of your unsearchable generosity and mercy—a joy to carry with me throughout the day even as the truth is called into question. From the responsorial psalm, let me remember: “Lord, in your great love, answer me.”

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Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus: Reflection

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Before Jesus said these words to Martha, she said to him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” How else is Martha presented in the Gospel but as one who, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, is anxious and worried about many things. Yet, after Lazarus dies, Mary sits at home, while it is Martha who heard that Jesus was coming and “went to meet him.” Here, as she mourns the death of her brother, her anxiety and grief are evident but brought to Jesus because she knows he is the Son of God. Help me understand, Lord, that you present me with many opportunities each day to test my faith. Rather than say, “If you had been here . . . ,” give me the grace to believe that with you, anything is possible.

Lord, let me rest in you as I try my best to make a worthy dwelling for you. Having received you in the Eucharist, let me come back throughout the day to find with complete trust that you are always present.

What Jesus said to Martha long ago, he says to all who would hear him today: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus is not satisfied to broadcast a public service announcement for all who wish to follow him. Just as Jesus came to meet Martha, he comes to meet each of us wherever we are. When I go out to meet him in the midst of the day, will I say “Lord, if you had been here . . .” or “You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

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Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues to explain the kingdom of heaven to his disciples through parables. To describe to them the “end of the age,” he likens the sorting of fish after being collected from the sea to the separation of the wicked and the righteous in the fullness of time. In the first reading, God also has his hands upon his people when he says to Jeremiah: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.”

God, you gave me life and your hand remains in my life. Help me see that you are present every day in everything I do and that I need your grace to know and do your will. This is not to wallow in my limitations and sinful nature but to recognize you, Lord, in the gifts you present daily in the world around me and in the people I encounter. Most of all, help me understand the great gift of freedom that you have given me in bringing into reality the mystical body of Christ, the Church. To “live and move and have our being” in you, God, is to know joy.

The Gospel reading causes me to question how I use the things of this world. Do I want fame or wealth or professional success? Do I do what I do each day for the glory of God or to pursue an ever-shifting goal to succeed for the sake of success? What does that even mean to pursue and knock down goal after goal? Show me, God, to use the things of this world in a way that serves you and pleases you. I know I am free to do your will, and I choose to do it. Teach me your will; I am clay in your hands.

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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Reflection

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, and he prayed the Our Father. In a parable, he then compares prayer with the Father as one asking a friend for a loaf of bread at midnight. Just as his persistence results in his receiving the bread, so the disciple receives what he asks from the Father: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

The first and second readings show how God hears our prayers. Abraham asks God to show mercy to Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten of its inhabitants were innocent. In Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, he says we are brought to new life through baptism and forgiven of all transgressions. The refrain from Psalm 138 is “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” God, help me understand that in the account of you in today’s readings, you give us not only the very words your son used to pray to you but also the message of your mercy that spans generation after generation.

God calls to me today to rest in Him, to recline at Jesus’ side as the beloved disciple John did. It is a day of rest. Let me make a worthy dwelling for God in myself so that He can rest in me as I rest in Him.

Today I want to make myself present to others, not in a way that pesters them but makes my availability clear. I want to gather my family together and pray the rosary. God, if I ask for your grace to do these two things today, I know it will be done.

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Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.”

The first reading from Jeremiah fits perfectly with Jesus’ words from today’s Gospel reading: “Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” The disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the crowd in parables, and he says that knowledge has been given to the disciples but not to the crowds. This is difficult to understand because it seems that Jesus would want to speak to people clearly and not in parables. Saint Lawrence of Brindisi said the parables are like treasure God has hidden underground, “so that we cannot find it or unearth and possess it without great effort and diligence.”

God, help me understand that to know your will means bringing the hole I have dug for myself to you and asking you to fix it so it can hold water. Jesus’ parable seems pretty straightforward until I try to identify which of the seedbeds I am and realize I am and have been all of them. God, help me understand how to listen out for you during the day to remain in you and stay whole.

It is one of those days where finding early morning quiet time to pray didn’t work. I feel like something is missing, like I’ve forgotten to eat breakfast or double knot my shoelaces. It is good, then, when the desire is there that my brother invites me today to adoration.

Today there is so much I would like to do, so many peaks I’d like to ascend. But I know very well I won’t reach them. God, help me today realize that my way is not your way and if I slow down enough to hear you, I’ll go further than I imagined.

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Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”

The scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign, and he tells them there will be no sign except the sign of Jonah the prophet. He then goes on to describe his death and resurrection. Just as Jonah was in the heart of the sea, Jesus predicts the same amount of time being in “the heart of the earth.” The queen of the South, the queen of Sheba, came from far away to hear the wisdom of Solomon. By referring to the prophet Jonah and Solomon, Jesus says there is something greater than Solomon (prophecy and wisdom), which he brings to all people.

God, I imagine that your son was frustrated to respond to the scribes and Pharisees who demand a sign. According to Matthew, by this point in Jesus’ public ministry, he had cured many people, exorcised demons, and calmed the forces of nature. Word gets out! How many signs would he have to perform before the scribes and Pharisees believed in his divinity? And that unbelief goes on today. How many days do I put on self-reliance and fail to see God at work in my life and in the lives of those around me? In the first reading from Micah, it is clear what God does not want: burnt offerings, thousands of rams, or myriad streams of oil. Instead, he says, “You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Many voices rush in—what I should have said or done, what I will say or do. God is apart from that yet in it. Lord, I know you want me to walk humbly with you, so if only I let that expression of your love rest in my heart amid the day’s commotion, that will be my sign.

Today I want to live in the truth and realize that God has told me through the Word Incarnate, through the church, and through my conscience what is good. Let me not fall for the lie that what is good is relative or gray. Truth is goodness; goodness is truth. Knowing that is half the battle.

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Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known.”

Followed by a quotation from Isaiah to show how Jesus fulfilled what he had said, this excerpt from today’s Gospel reading shows Jesus doing these things: realizing that the Pharisees were trying to kill him, withdrawing from them, curing people around him, and warning them not to make him known. He does this to fulfill what Isaiah had said: “He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. . . . And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

God, help me understand that you have a purpose in mind for every time. There would be a time when Jesus contended with the Pharisees, but not yet. Instead, he withdrew from them and cured all he met who sought healing.

I am certain of one thing, Lord: I don’t fully understand what purpose you have in mind for me. Understanding your will has been and always will be a moving target because the experiences of life call for ever-shifting responses. There will be a time for me to contend and a time for me to work quietly to restore wholeness in relationships and responsibilities. As in Ecclesiastes: “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.” Teach me, Lord, my purpose in every situation and give me the grace to hear and do your will.

In the hours that follow this moment, unless I am vigilant, I will forget today’s reading and how it addresses my needs. Today I want to pause from time to time to consider that God takes delight in me as much as he does in his son: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him.” The question for me is, To what extend will I stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, proclaiming justice and bringing hope to those around me?

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Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot: Reflection

“Jesus said to his Apostles: ‘Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ ”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples about the conditions of discipleship. Rather than bringing peace upon the earth, Jesus says that he has come “to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother . . . and one’s enemies will be those of the household.” In that is the sword. The kind of division that Jesus brings results from placing father or mother or son or daughter above God.

Thank you God for sending your Son to draw a line in the sand, not to cause division but to show the way to everlasting life: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If Jesus was not the Son of God, he was a lunatic for saying, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” How else could he put loving him before loving mother or father or son or daughter?

In quiet moments set aside to spend time with God alone, my mind wanders all over the place. “Oh, the things I’ll do today,” it seems to say. I have to smile in the silence, not because I know I’ll find a way to accomplish all of my goals but because if I smile, maybe that will help me recall that I am in the presence of God alone in that moment. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t, but God stays put while I try to find him.

Is there one way I can think of to love God above all else today? Could it be fasting or going to adoration or putting my work aside to say a prayer in the afternoon? Today, the memorial of Saint Benedict, could it be that I offer my works, joys, and sufferings this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. Let me recall Saint Benedict’s wisdom in ora et labora (pray and work).

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Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Twice in these few statements Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” He tells the Apostles to proclaim on the housetops what he has whispered to them, to speak in the light what he has said in the darkness. I’m not sure why Jesus says that he has whispered to them and spoken in secret except to say that he sets an example by healing others in Matthew’s accounts of Jesus’ ministry and by nurturing them in baby steps toward discipleship: “No disciple is above his teacher.”

When he tells the Apostles not to be afraid, he refers to death and oblivion. Just as Isaiah describes the Lord’s mercy toward him and his people, addressing his fear (“Woe is me, I am doomed.”), Jesus addresses the fear of the Apostles. Don’t be afraid of physical death, he tells them; fear instead the death of both soul and body. He then gives the Apostles the assurance that not a sparrow falls without the Father’s knowledge and that they are worth more than many sparrows. When I see this through the filter of present-day conceptions of self-worth, the statement sounds demeaning, almost comical. Gee, thanks! I want to say. But when I call to mind my own limitations and falling into sin, it is comforting to know that only the Father sees all and knows my true worth.

As Jesus said to his Apostles, he would say to me: “You are worth more than many sparrows.” I am flesh and blood, body and soul whose every move the Father has knowledge of. Such tender care the Father has for me that all the hairs of my head—even the ones about to fall out—are counted.

The first reading from Isaiah describes the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne. The seraphim cry to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” If I could take time to see the beauty of the outdoors today, I wonder if I could quietly take that in and look around in gratitude to God for the gift of the natural world that surrounds me. “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.”

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Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.”

Jesus’ statement “so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” seems contradictory out of context. Yet, taking into consideration what he is asking the Apostles to do, he is giving them in these few words a survival strategy. The directive still applies today along with this supporting instruction: “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say.”

God, help me arrive at the full realization that in today’s Gospel reading, I hear the words of your son. In so many ways, he would have us not worry and be at peace. Can I bring that understanding to mind with me during the discord and strife, doubt and uncertainty that is certain to come today? I ask that the Spirit of the Father speaks and acts through me if I fail to be cognizant of this. I am, after all, able to be aware of only so much during the day, which does not in itself prevent me from being in God’s presence and bringing his peace to others.

I am capable of little alone. This I know from quiet moments in prayer when I try and fail to shut out distractions and racing thoughts, but God sets me straight as the day goes on. “’Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free, ’tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.” As the day goes on while I take care of the necessities of work and others’ needs, I’ll be given at that moment what I am to say and do. “Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.”

Today, another summer day I will only dream about in the middle of winter, I have lots of opportunities to bring simplicity into the day while being as shrewd as a serpent in choosing what I say and do in front of family and others. Let me be simple and wise today so that I can see the path that God opens for me.

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