Sunday
September 1st

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Dt 4:1-2, 6-8:
Moses said to the people: “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. In your observance of the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

2nd Reading: Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27:
Dearest brothers and sisters: All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Gospel: Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23:
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. — So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”

He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Reflection:
External acts are markers that convey what is happening in the internal forum of a person, what the person thinks, feels or desires. In the case of the ritual acts of purity performed by every devout Jew, it is done to remain pure and holy in the sight of Yahweh. But this desire for ritual purity must have a basis in our daily lives. Acting out the ritual is no substitute for a life lived in holiness. The actions become empty and devoid of meaning. Holiness becomes a production number and a sham.

This is what Jesus tried to tell the religious leaders: that ritual acts of holiness for the sake of the action has no salvific import. What are my own ritual acts that I sometimes substitute for real holiness? Today is a good day to start cleaning up the internal clutter that blocks my path towards holiness. A visit to the confessional box is a good option to follow. Loving Father, direct my time, talent and energies to things that really matter. May I not be fascinated too much by external appearance that I have no time to cleanse my internal space. May I seek holiness mostly from within and may everything I do outside be rooted from within. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Monday
September 2nd

1st Reading: 1 Cor 2:1-5:
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Gospel: Lk 4:16-30:
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

Reflection:
What is most shocking to the Nazarenes is not that Jesus had already lavished his miracles on other cities of Israel; it is rather that, appealing to the example of Elijah and Elisha, those great prophets of the past, Jesus asserts his right to perform miracles also for the benefit of pagans: a prophet does not restrict his favors to his homeland. To the Jews, who were aware of being the Chosen People, it was unthinkable and scandalous that the Messiah, the Messenger of God to Israel, could be interested in pagans. And so, his declaration seems blasphemous to them, deserving death by stoning.

Jesus will often meet with this attitude in the course of his ministry. If God has chosen us to be his sons and daughters through baptism and Christian education, it is not because he is not interested in the pagans; it is because he wants to use us in attracting the pagans to the true God through our good example. And if God, without out intermediary, gives us to some pagans more graces than he gives to us, then we should not be scandalized by his kindness. We should rather give glory to such a kind God “who wants everybody to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4).

Tuesday
September 3rd

St. Gregory the Great

1st Reading: 1 Cor 2:10B-16:
Brothers and sisters: The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Gospel: Lk 4:31-37:
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

Reflection:
Some Christians are not a little embarrassed when they read stories of exorcisms in the gospel like the one we have in today’s gospel reading. They are so influenced by secular thought that they are ready to relegate any mention of demons to the Dark Ages. They are tempted to accept the sweeping statement of rationalist thought which claims that Jesus and his contemporaries naively called demonic possession what were simply cases of hysteria or of psychosomatic illness. Jesus’ “exorcisms” were, therefore, merely natural cures of nervous disorders. However, a close study of the gospels contradicts the rationalist theory at every turn.

When the gospels give general statements on healings and exorcisms, they usually (78% of the time) distinguish between sickness and demonic possession. And Mark, our earliest gospel, never confuses the two. In the 14 different gospel passages presenting specific exorcisms, 8 out of 14 (or 57%) are devoid of terminological confusion and clearly distinguish healings from exorcisms. The rest of the texts present some slight confusion (3 texts) or considerable confusion (3 texts). We also have 15 gospel passages in which Jesus is said to have performed healings and in which these healings are described without the least reference to demonic influence.

Wednesday
September 4th

1st Reading: 1 Cor 3:1-9:
Brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man? Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?

What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor. For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Gospel: Lk 4:38-44:
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them. At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.”

But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Reflection:
The following reflections are meant to complete yesterday’s reflections, which attempted to refute the rationalist interpretation of Jesus’ exorcism as mere healings of psychic disorders. The behavior of Jesus is very different when he is dealing with a merely sick person and when he is dealing with a possessed person. In the first case he speaks kindly and encouragingly to the patient, and displays the greatest compassion for him or her. In the second case, he speaks harshly and mordantly, not to the victim of the demon (who does not seem to be aware of what is going on), but rather to the entity which possesses the body of the victim and speaks through the victim.

When a merely sick person confronts Jesus, his or her behavior is very different from that of a possessed person. In the first case, the person is fully conscious, speaks humbly and respectfully to Jesus, acts with normal calm. But, in the second case, the speaker is not the victim of the possessing entity, it is the entity possessing the victim. Often enough that entity will betray a supernatural knowledge of Jesus’ real identity. How can mere mental illness explain this? (For a thorough treatment of this question, cf. Nil Guillemette, “Exorcisms or Healings?” in Your Heart’s Treasure (Manila: Paulines, 2010), pp. 112-142).

Thursday
September 5th

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

1st Reading: 1 Cor 3:18-23:
Brothers and sisters: Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: God catches the wise in their own ruses, and again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

Gospel: Lk 5:1-11:
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

Reflection:
In today’s gospel reading, we see that, even though Peter is a sinner, Jesus makes an apostle of him. Our sins, when they are humbly confessed, do not drive Jesus away from us. Only pharisaism, the conviction of being holy and above reproach before God draws up an insurmountable barrier between God and his creature. In this gospel passage we hear Simon say to Jesus: “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.”

The same temptation of discouragement threatens us many times. We are then on the point of giving up. Yet perhaps we are only minutes away from a miraculous catch of fish! Let us therefore listen to the voice of Christ telling us to put out into deep water: keep on going, start again! This narrative reminds us of the peculiar conditions in which apostleship is exercised in the Church. When Jesus was not with Peter, Peter did not catch anything; but from the moment that he took Jesus on board, he caught a great many fish. This is an example illustrating the truth that, without Jesus, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). But, with his help, anything is possible. As Paul says, “I can do anything in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

Friday
September 6th

1st Reading: 1 Cor 4:1-5:
Brothers and sisters: Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself; I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord. Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.

Gospel: Lk 5:33-39:
The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Reflection:
In today’s gospel reading Jesus refers to himself as our bridegroom. And indeed he is. Here perhaps some super-macho male Christian might feel uneasy at the thought of being anyone’s wife, however divine and transcendent that someone might be. But such a reaction is really unwarranted. Our bodies are either male or female, and consequently are attracted to and are meant to complete the gender they happen to lack. But our soul is different. In reference to God it is decidedly feminine (even grammatically it seems to be of the feminine gender in most languages) and feels spontaneously attracted to God as a bride to her bridegroom.

This human trait is universal and has been described by countless spiritual authors. For instance, a Carthusian monk writes in the same vein in his book The Way of Silent Love: “God,” he says, “never surfeits us with the gift of himself but creates in us an ever larger capacity for love and, having done this, he replenishes us with a desire, a thirst, more ardent still. And it will always be this way with God for eternity without end, because God is without end. If we arrive at the end, it is not God” (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1993, p. 28).

Saturday
September 7th

1st Reading: 1 Cor 4:6b-15:
Brothers and sisters: Learn from myself and Apollos not to go beyond what is written, so that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over against another. Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings without us! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might become kings with you. For as I see it, God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and men alike.

We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment. I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

Gospel: Lk 6:1-5:
While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Reflection:
When we say that Claire and Jane have “reconciled,” we usually mean that both women have modified their position from one of hostility to one of friendliness. They have both been reconciled to each other—the verb being used in the passive voice. However, when it comes to our relationship with God, things are very different. God never needs to be reconciled to us, because he always loves us perfectly, even as he loves the demons in Hell, according to the greatest doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas. We need to be reconciled (i.e. changed) to God, but not God.

This state of affairs is perfectly reflected in the letters of the apostle Paul. With absolute consistency, not once does he say that God has been reconciled to us. As in today’s first reading, he insists that “God has reconciled you (to him).” Why is this? Because God has never been hostile to us, he has never ceased loving us, he has always been turned toward us, even while we were turning our backs on him by our sins. As Paul writes so poignantly: “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God” (Rom 5:10).