Sunday
August 18th

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Prv 9:1-6:
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”

2nd Reading: Eph 5:15-20:
Brothers and sisters: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Gospel: Jn 6:51-58:
Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Reflection:
The Lord’s bread of life discourse is one of the contentious arguments He has with the Jews who insist on a literalist’s approach to the words of Jesus. If this is the case, the claims of Jesus are hard to believe. The eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood to have life would be an absurd and macabre assertion. However, Jesus speaks on a different plane. He points to the manna that temporarily saved wandering Israel in the desert when they were hungry as a bread of temporary relief. It rained from heaven. He who came from heaven descended as the bread that will usher eternal life. To understand Him means to draw from various sources of knowledge such as history, customs and traditions.

This is the main conflict He has with the Jews. They use elementary brain process of literal thinking while Jesus employs multiple brain operations of the creative and symbolic thinking. These two brain operations are hard pressed to meet. This inevitably led to open conflict and hostility. Bread is a nourishing food. It is actually delightful to eat if we know where to source it. Today, I will try to share good bread with those close to me. I will make an effort to bake or buy one to be enjoyed with friends. And perhaps, I will make a pitch of inviting them to a mass some time where we can enjoy the bread of life, Jesus Himself, during communion time.

Monday
August 19th

St. John Eudes

1st Reading: EZ 24:15-23:
The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, by a sudden blow I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes, but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears. Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead, bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread. That evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I had been commanded. Then the people asked me, “Will you not tell us what all these things that you are doing mean for us?”

I therefore spoke to the people that morning, saying to them: Thus the word of the Lord came to me: Say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: I will now desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold of your pride, the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul. The sons and daughters you left behind shall fall by the sword. Ezekiel shall be a sign for you: all that he did you shall do when it happens. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord. You shall do as I have done, not covering your beards nor eating the customary bread. Your turbans shall remain on your heads, your sandals on your feet. You shall not mourn or weep,

Gospel: MT 19:16-22:
A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Reflection:
In today’s gospel; reading Jesus asks a rich young man to give up his wealth so as to follow him more closely. Now, since Jesus did not ask this of other followers of his (Lazarus and his two sisters, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Zaccheus, the rich ladies who sponsored his ministry) (cf. Lk 8:3), there was no doubt that the young man was enslaved to wealth. In other words, his wealth was an idol he worshipped. Because, at the bottom, an idol is anything you give your heart to, anything on which your life is focused—other than God.

But nowadays there are many idols competing for our hearts. Surely one’s career can easily become such an idol. Because in our times there are many people—men and women—who live for their career, for the money it brings, for the power and the prestige that come with a high-sounding title and position. Whatever our idol happens to be, it must be ruthlessly discarded because it will always disappoint us eventually. We are made for God and nothing less will ever satisfy our hearts. “Our heart is restless, Lord, until it rests in you” (St. Augustine, Confessions I: 1).

Tuesday
August 20th

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

1st Reading: Ez 28:1-10:
The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: Because you are haughty of heart, you say, “A God am I! I occupy a Godly throne in the heart of the sea!”— And yet you are a man, and not a God, however you may think yourself like a God. Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that is beyond you. By your wisdom and your intelligence you have made riches for yourself; You have put gold and silver into your treasuries.

“By your great wisdom applied to your trading you have heaped up your riches; your heart has grown haughty from your riches– therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a God, Therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom, they shall run them through your splendid apparel. They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea. Will you then say, “I am a God!” when you face your murderers? No, you are man, not a God, handed over to those who will slay you. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners, for I have spoken, says the Lord God.

Gospel: Mt 19:23-30:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Reflection:
Picture yourself entering a big supermarket or a big department store. There your eyes are assailed by rows upon rows of the newest products the market place offers, be it food delicacies of all kinds or fancy gadgets of all types. What do you feel then? Are you dazzled by such a spectacle? Are you tempted to get your hands on some of the products exhibited on the shelves? Do you feel a tremendous urge to go on a shopping spree and to buy everything in sight? If so, then you are not a free person.

You are in the throes of greed and you are worshipping the idol WEALTH. Because an idol is anything to which your heart belongs. Be it pleasures, honors, reputation, fame, power—it does not matter. It is a form of WEALTH and you are its slave. That is why in today’s gospel reading Jesus warns us that the rich cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. Why not? Because the door of the kingdom is narrow (Mt 7:13-14). And, if you carry any kind of WEALTH with you, you simply cannot pass through. You must leave your idol behind. Are you willing to do that?

Wednesday
August 21st

St. Pius X

1st Reading: Ez 34:1-11:
The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, in these words prophesy to them to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep? You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured. You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you Lorded it over them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts.

My sheep were scattered and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; my sheep were scattered over the whole earth, with no one to look after them or to search for them. Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have been given over to pillage, and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast, for lack of a shepherd; because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep; because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. For thus says the Lord God: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.

Gospel: Mt 20:1-16:
Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Reflection:
“Don’t I have the right to do as I please with my money?” God is free, his freedom is sovereign. Otherwise he would not be God. But his freedom is not the arbitrary whim of a tyrant. God does not use his freedom to weigh merits and allot to each person only what he or she deserves to receive according to strict justice. He uses his freedom to go beyond all justice and to pour himself out in superabundant generosity: “Why are you envious when I am kind?”

We can always, if we are absolutely bent on it, assert our so-called rights before God, appealing to his justice and only to his justice. But then we run the risk of obtaining justice—and only that. The secret for being overwhelmed by his favors is to throw away the account books in the trash can and depend on his kindness. On the last day the latecomers in the Kingdom will admire what God will have done in the lives of the early comers. But it will be without envy. And the early comers will marvel at the munificent forgiveness bestowed on the latecomers. But it will be without envy. Together the ones and the others will be swallowed up in the glory of the sun’s rays.

Thursday
August 22nd

Queenship of Mary

1st Reading: Ez 36:23-28:
Thus says the Lord: I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it. Thus the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you. For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Gospel: Mt 22:1-14:
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”‘ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Reflection:
In today’s gospel reading Jesus tells us a parable in which God invites us to his table. And his meal is not a stingy one. It is a banquet. For our God is a generous God, who gives lavishly, without ever tiring. Furthermore, this banquet is a wedding banquet. God is a lover, someone madly in love with humankind. In the Old Testament we see him presenting himself as a suitor wishing to marry Israel.

To this people he offers a covenant, and a covenant bridal in character: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name” (Is 54:4). In the New Testament Jesus shows that this marriage is carried through in his person. The whole history of the relationship between God and us is thus a love story. God confides to us the innermost of his heart: “I love you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). And what he asks of us in return, the first commandment which includes all the other, is to love: “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart” (Dt 6:5). It cannot be said that God is complicated.

Friday
August 23rd

St. Rose of Lima

1st Reading: Ez 37:1-14:
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and led me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? I answered, “Lord God, you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord.

I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them. Then the Lord said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

Gospel: Mt 22:34-40:
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Reflection:
Today’s gospel reading presents the opponents of Jesus questioning him on a hierarchy of commandments. Jesus invites them to look towards God and people. Not a tape recording, but a live broadcast. The problem is no longer to acquire a clear conscience; the problem is to love. And so, what about the essential? The essential always has a face. That of a husband or a wife, those of children and parents, those of neighbors and coworkers, those more distant of people with whom we must struggle for a more humane society.

The essential is also, at the same time, the face of all faces, that of Him whom Jesus has called Father so that all of us may know that we are all sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. How does one concretely love one’s neighbor? It is not so much a matter of feelings (some natural antipathies are almost insurmountable) as a matter of attitudes and actions. St. Paul describes in the following terms what is true charity: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things” (1 Cor 13:7). When we seek to excuse the neighbors’ faults, when we always hope that they will improve (whatever appearances), when we accept them as they are—then we really love, then we are true sons and daughters of God.

Saturday
August 24th

St. Bartholomew

1st Reading: Rv 21:9b-14:
The angel spoke to me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west. The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

Gospel: Jn 1:45-51:
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Reflection:
Nathanael combines two attitudes which we rarely meet together but which actually represent the ideal for anyone in search of the truth: he is both critical and open-minded. When Nathanael reacts to Philip’s grand claims of having found the Messiah by the rejoinder, “Can anything good come from Nazareth,” he is merely being critical. He neither rejects out of hand his friend’s claim (which would be pure, unfounded skepticism, since he has not looked as yet into the matter), nor does he accept it unquestionably (which would amount to being gullible).

He merely manifests a healthy doubt, which in the circumstances is the right attitude to adopt. On the other hand, he does follow Philip’s suggestion to “come and see,” which shows that he has an open mind. Although Philip’s story is almost unbelievable, Nathanael does in fact agree to check it out. All this is confirmed by Jesus’ warm praise of Nathanael: “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” In other words, Jesus is saying in a Semitic turn of phrase that Nathanael is an honest man. Honesty and critical open-mindedness are still the best attitudes for anyone interested in finding the truth.