Episodes
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
September 4 - Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time : Hating our own life
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
Tuesday Aug 30, 2016
First Reading Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29
Humble yourself and you will find favor with God
Responsorial Psalm Psalm68:4-7,10-11
The just rejoice and exult before God.
Second Reading Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24
You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Gospel Reading
Luke 14:1,7-14
We have yet to comment on the phrase “hating our own life”. This is justan extension of the earlier part. Jesus wants our lives to be lived in totaltruth and love. Our lives are not to be determined and manipulated byattachments, desires, ambitions or fears and anxieties which can become verymuch part of ourselves. We are to live in total freedom. “None of you can be mydisciples unless he gives up all his possessions.” It is the ability to let go,even of health and life itself. Any aspect of a person or anything that lessensthat freedom to follow truth and love is to be “hated” and transcended. Today'steachings are addressed to people who have not yet made the option fordiscipleship but are considering it. It reminds Luke's Christian readers of thechoice they have already undertaken.
Wednesday Aug 24, 2016
August 27 - Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time : Take the Lower Place
Wednesday Aug 24, 2016
Wednesday Aug 24, 2016
First Reading Isaiah 66:18-21
Nations of every language shall come to see my glory.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117:1-2
Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Second Reading Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13
Whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.
Gospel Reading
Luke 13:22-30
In the Gospel of Luketoday we also hear Jesus talking about humility. Our Gospel acclamation todaysays “I am meek and gentle of heart.” Indeed this quality of humility is onefor which Jesus is very much a role model. We often talk about how Jesuslowered himself to become like us – a God becoming a man! How much more humblecould he be? So when Jesus talks about humility we know that he is “walking thetalk”! This idea is actually a theme in Luke, and it is the same theme that weread in the first reading: The greater you are, the more you must humbleyourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord. Luke startedthis theme in the first chapter with the beautiful Magnificat of Mary we heardtwo weeks ago: He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hassent away empty. He will end it with Jesus at the Last supper taking on therole of servant.
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
Tuesday Aug 16, 2016
First Reading Isaiah 66:18-21
Nations of every language shall come to see my glory.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117:1-2
Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Second Reading Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13
Whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.
Gospel Reading
Luke 13:22-30
“The gate to perdition is the devil,through whom we enter into hell; the gate of life is Christ, through whom weenter into the kingdom of Heaven. The Devil is said to be a wide gate, notextended by the mightiness of his power, but made broad by the license of hisunbridled pride. Christ said to be a strait Gate not with respect to smallnessof power, but to His humility; for He whom the whole world contains not, shutHimself within the limits of the Virgin’s womb” (St. John Chrysostom).
Monday Aug 15, 2016
Monday Aug 15, 2016
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church. On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, exercising papal infallibility, declared in "Munificentissimus Deus" that it is a dogma of the Church "that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." As a dogma, the Assumption is a required belief of all Catholics; anyone who publicly dissents from the dogma, Pope Pius declared, "has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith." The "Magnificat," which we find in Luke's Gospel, indicates that the praise of the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, intimately united to Christ her son, regards the Church of all times and places. The evangelist's report of these words presupposes that the glorification of Mary was already present at that time and that he saw it as a duty and task of the Christian community for all generations. Mary's words tell us that it is a duty of the Church to recall Our Lady's greatness in faith. This solemnity is, then, an invitation to praise God and to look to Our Lady's greatness since we know who God is by gazing about the faces of those who are His.
Thursday Aug 11, 2016
August 14 - Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time : Fire upon the Earth
Thursday Aug 11, 2016
Thursday Aug 11, 2016
First Reading Jeremiah 38:4-6,8-10
Jeremiah is punished for criticizing the wealthy for their corruption and theirinjustice to the poor.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 40:2-4,18
A prayer for God's help
Second Reading Hebrews 12:1-4
Let us persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyesfixed on Jesus.
Gospel Reading
Luke 12:49-53
Jesus makes an important statementin today's Gospel.
a. "I have come to bringfire on the earth." This is not the fire of destruction, the fire thatravages rain forests every year. It is the fire of heat and light. It is thefire that cleanses and purifies. It is the fire of God's presence as in theburning bush that Moses saw, as in the pillar of fire that accompanied theIsraelites in the desert, as in the tongues of fire at Pentecost where thebringing of fire was mandated to the disciples, to the Church, to all of us. Asa purifying fire it can also bring pain and purification but it ultimatelyleads to conversion and liberation.
c. "I have come not tobring peace but division." It is especially painful to hear the Gospelspeak of families being broken up because of Jesus. But this is less a prophecyor an expression of God's will than a description of the Church's very realexperience from the time the Gospels were being written down to our own day. In many countries, both Christianindividuals and Christian communities are seen as a threat to governments,various power groups and other religious groups. We saw this in practicallyevery Communist regime during this century: the Soviet Union, the East Europeansatellites, China and Vietnam. And these governments had reason to fear eventhough Stalin mockingly asked once how many divisions the Pope had. Yet it wasthe faith of Christians, who, without firing a shot (Stalin was right), wassignificantly instrumental in the collapse of Communism in Central and EasternEurope. Yet, in the long history of the Church, how many families have sufferedbecause members became Christians? Most of us – especially those who have livedin non-Christian or anti-Christian societies – probably have met someone whowas rejected by their family for becoming an active Christian. And, notinfrequently, persecution comes even from other Christians, from within theChurch itself. And how many people realize that there have been more martyrsfor the faith in the supposedly advanced and civilized 20th century than in allthe preceding centuries!
Thursday Aug 04, 2016
August 7 - Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Being Faithful & Being Prepared
Thursday Aug 04, 2016
Thursday Aug 04, 2016
First Reading Wisdom 18:6-9
The Hebrew people awaited the salvation of the just.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 33:1,12,18-22
Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Second Reading Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19
We will look for the city designed and built by God.
Gospel Reading
Luke 12:32-48
Today the Gospel speaks to us -as the first theme- of the need to be prepared since our God is a God who comes, a Godwho visits us. He can come to us in many ways. For example through theSacraments, through the Word of God, through the Priest, through the Communitygathered for worship, through the poor, the sick and the lowly, He could comeand speak to us through our live events and experiences etc etc. Are we readyto welcome him in all these modes of his coming? The second theme for todayspeaks to us the need to be faithful at all times. Thus Mother Theresa ofCalcutta would say : "God did not call us to be successful, but to befaithful." It is not what we do that matters at the end but how far wehave been faithful to Him and His Gospel. Let us ask God for the grace to beprepared all the time to welcome Him and that we be faithful we He callsus.