Sunday
September 7^th

23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

1^st Reading: Wis 9:13-18b:
Indeed, who can know the intentions of God? Who can discern the plan of the Lord? For human reasoning is timid, our notions misleading; a perishable body is a burden for the soul and our tent of clay weighs down the active mind.

We are barely able to know about the things of earth and it is a struggle to understand what is close to us; who then may hope to understand heavenly things? Who has ever known your will unless you first gave him Wisdom and sent down your holy spirit to him?

In this way you directed the human race on the right path; they learned what pleases you and were saved by Wisdom.

2^nd Reading: Phlm 9-10, 12-17:
Yet I prefer to request you, in love. The one talking is Paul, the old man, now prisoner for Christ. And my request is on behalf of Onesimus, whose father I have become while I was in prison. In returning him to you, I am sending you my own heart.

I would have liked to keep him at my side, to serve me, on your behalf, while I am in prison for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your agreement, nor impose a good deed upon you without your free consent.

Perhaps Onesimus has been parted from you for a while so that you may have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but better than a slave. For he is a very dear brother to me, and he will be even dearer to you. And so, because of our friendship, receive him, as if he were I myself.

Gospel: Lk 14:25- 33:
One day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, “If you come to me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple.

“Whoever does not follow me, carrying his own cross, cannot be my disciple. Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you: ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks.

“In the same way, none of you may become my disciple, if he doesn’t give up everything he has. However good the salt may be, if the salt has lost taste, you cannot make it salty again. It is fit for neither soil nor manure. Let them throw it away. Listen then, if you have ears!”

Reflection:
At the time of Paul, human slavery was universally practiced throughout the Roman Empire. People were bought and sold like any commodity. The Christians of the time, being a very small fraction of the population, were in no position to oppose slavery. If they had, they would antagonized the whole world against the Christian faith.

Nevertheless, by treating slaves as “brothers” in the word of Paul as we have it in today’s second reading, they sowed a revolutionary seed which in time would uproot slavery.

Now something must be said about the circumstances that led Paul to write to Philemon. The latter had a slave called Onesimus, who had run away and who had ended up in Rome, where under the influence of Paul, he converted to Christ. Paul kept him on as an aid for a while, but decided to send him back to Philemon (to whom he still legally belonged), with the hope that Philemon would take him back, not just as a slave but as a brother in Christ.

Paul could ask this of Philemon because the latter was himself a convert of Paul and, therefore, owed him the treasure of his Christian Faith. This letter is a masterpiece of a gentle tact which all of us should imitate in our dealings with each other.

Let us ask the Lord to give us the courage to fight against all forms of enslavement. Today let us give our support to a cause promoting some form of freedom: freedom from drug abuse, child molestation, wife beating, prostitution, etc.

Monday
September 8^th

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1^st Reading: 1 Cor 5:1-8:
You have become news, with, a case of immorality, and such a case, that is not even found among pagans. Yes, one of you has taken, as wife, his own stepmother. And you feel proud! Should you not be in mourning, instead, and expel the one who did such a thing?

For my part, although I am physically absent, my spirit is with you and, as if present, I have already passed sentence on the man who committed such a sin. Let us meet together, you and my spirit, and in the name of our Lord Jesus, and with his power, you shall deliver him to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit be saved in the day of Judgment.

This is not the time to praise yourselves. Do you not know that a little yeast makes the whole mass of dough rise? Throw out, then, the old yeast and be new dough. If Christ became our Passover, you should be unleavened bread.

Let us celebrate, therefore, the Passover, no longer with old yeast, which is sin and perversity; let us have unleavened bread, that is purity and sincerity.

Gospel: Lk 6:6-11:
On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralyzed right hand, and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees watched him: Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If he did, they could accuse him. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man, “Get up, and stand in the middle.”

Then he spoke to them, “I want to ask you: what is allowed by the law on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all.

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored, becoming as healthy as the other. But they were furious, and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.

Reflection:
At the time of Jesus, whenever a Pharisee was asked: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good?” he would answer: “Not if it is work (except in immediate danger of death).” In other words, for him the ritual/legal order prevailed over the moral order.

What was Jesus’ answer to the same question? “Yes, unconditionally, even when there is no danger of death, because the one thing that decides whether or not an action should be allowed on the Sabbath is its moral goodness.”

In other words, for Jesus the moral order prevails over the ritual/legal order. For him, it cannot be the meaning of the Sabbath precept to prohibit a morally good act such as an act of love, because the omission of a good action is itself evil. And the Sabbath rest was instituted only by reason of God’s loving interest in the welfare of humans.

These considerations form the background of today’s gospel reading. Rules—including God’s commandments, of course—are for the total good of the human person. As the apostle Paul teaches: “All things are yours… and you are Christ’s (1 Cor 3:21-23).”

Tuesday
September 9^th

1^st Reading: 1 Cor 6:1-11:
When you have a complaint against a brother, how dare you bring it before pagan judges, instead of bringing it before God’s people?

Do you not know, that you shall one day judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you incapable of judging such simple problems?

Do you not know, that we will even judge the angels? And could you not decide everyday affairs? But when you have ordinary cases to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church! Shame on you!

Is there not even one among you wise enough to be the arbiter among believers? But no. One of you brings a suit against another one, and files that suit before unbelievers. It is already a failure that you have suits against each other.

Why do you not rather suffer wrong and receive some damage? But no. You wrong and injure others, and those are your brothers and sisters.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Make no mistake about it: those who lead sexually immoral lives, or worship idols, or who are adulterers, perverts, sodomites, or thieves, exploiters, drunkards, slanderers or embezzlers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Some of you were like that, but you have been cleansed, and consecrated to God and have been set right with God, by the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of our God.

Gospel: Lk 6:12-19:
At this time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to him, and chose Twelve of them, whom he called ‘apostles’: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.

Coming down the hill with them Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of his disciples were there, and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

And people troubled by unclean spirits were cured. The entire crowd tried to touch him, because of the power that went out from him and healed them all.

Reflection:
“At this time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God.” The evangelist Luke regularly presents Jesus praying at important moments of his ministry (Lk 3:21; 6:12; 9:18, 28; 11:1; 22:32, 41; 23:46), eight times in all.

This practice of Jesus should set us thinking. If he, “true God from true God,” in the words of the Creed, feels the need to pray, do we not have a much greater need than he?

The topic of prayer is always a source of uneasiness for most of us. Why? Because our conscience tells us that we do not pray enough. Why not? Because, we answer, we cannot find the time to pray, due to our busy schedule.

Such an answer betrays a wrong approach to prayer. If we wait to be able to find the time to pray, we will rarely or never pray, because too many things will crowd prayer out of our lives. The right approach to prayer is something like this: “I will make time for prayer and give it the top priority of my day.” An iron determination of this sort should inspire us.

Wednesday
September 10^th

1^st Reading: Col 3:1-11:
Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths.

Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.

Gospel: Lk 6:20-26:
Then, looking at his disciples, Jesus said, “Fortunate are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Fortunate are you, who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Fortunate are you, who weep now, for you will laugh.

“Fortunate are you, when people hate you, when they reject you and insult you and number you among criminals, because of the Son of Man.

“Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. Remember, that is how the ancestors of the people treated the prophets. But alas for you, who have wealth, for you have been comforted now. Alas for you, who are full, for you will go hungry. Alas for you, who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

“Alas for you, when people speak well of you, for that is how the ancestors of the people treated the false prophets.

Reflection:
Imagine this scenario. Two men happen to guess the number being drawn at the National Lottery. The prize is ten million dollars. So the two men end up with five million dollars each. A substantial sum on any reckoning.

Now one of these two men is a multi-billionaire. The five million he won will add about one percent to his present worth. That’s peanuts for him. The other man is a ditch-digger for city sewers. With his backbreaking job he can hardly support his wife and five children.

When people hear of the good fortune of these two men, everyone will rejoice over the ditch-digger’s good fortune and will forget about the multi-billionaire. Why? Because it is the ditch-digger who will benefit most from his lottery win. His whole life will be transformed for the better henceforth.

This imagined scenario (which does happen every now and then) can explain why Jesus calls “fortunate” the poor, the hungry, the mourners, etc. It is not because he glorifies these conditions. It is because these conditions will improve drastically with his coming because we, his disciples, will see to it that they improve.

Thursday
September 11^th

1^st Reading: Col 3:12-17:
Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body.

And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Gospel: Lk 6:27-38:
Jesus said to his disciples, “But I say to you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly.

“To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt. Give to the one who asks and if anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.

“Do to others as you would have others do to you. If you love only those who love you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners love those who love them.

“ If you do favors to those who are good to you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners do the same. If you lend only when you expect to receive, what kind of graciousness is yours? For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to receive something in return.

“But love your enemies and do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return. Then will your reward be great and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High. For he is kind towards the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”

Reflection:
Here is the most radical of Jesus’ instructions to his hearers, and probably the most difficult of all to do: “Love your enemies and do good to them.” What makes it so important in human affairs? Many problems in the world, past, present and future, could have been/could be avoided. The world would be a more peaceful place to live in.

Love of enemies invites one to be extravagantly and extraordinarily generous. It goes beyond the “reciprocity system” being practiced during the time of Jesus: “I give you something/favor; I expect something in return from you.”

Extreme generosity overturns this system and replaces it with: “I am willing to give, even without anything in return.” It is selfless. The motivation for giving is not the favorable return that will be received, but the pure joy and unconditional love flowing from the love of God.

Extravagant generosity means the willingness to give to anyone in need, and it goes to the extent of wishing/ doing good to one’s enemies. In the reciprocity system, one sees the self as the end point; the action terminates back to the self, not on the other. On the other hand, love and generosity see the other as the endpoint, the sole beneficiary of the action.

Friday
September 12^th

1^st Reading: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14:
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.

I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: Lk 6:39-42:
And Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master.

“So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it? How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t remove the log in your own? You hypocrite!

First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye.”

Reflection:
It is an old saying that a tree is judged by its fruits. Someone may present a virtuous appearance. But how do they speak of others? How do they treat others? Our outward deeds reveal our inward condition. Whether we do good or bad, we draw on what is stored in our hearts.

Yet we are quick to focus on what others do and say without examining ourselves. Perhaps it is our own sins and weaknesses that enable us see others’ failings with such accuracy!

Saturday
September 13^th

1^st Reading: 1 Timothy 1:15-17:
Beloved:
This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.

To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Gospel: Lk 6:43-49:
No healthy tree bears bad fruit, no poor tree bears good fruit. And each tree is known by the fruit it bears: you don’t gather figs from thorns, or grapes from brambles.

Similarly, the good person draws good things from the good stored in his heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart. Why do you call me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do what I say?

I will show you what the one is like, who comes to me, and listens to my words, and acts accordingly. That person is like the builder who dug deep, and laid the foundations of his house on rock. The river overflowed, and the stream dashed against the house, but could not carry it off because the house had been well built.

But the one who listens and does not act, is like a man who built his house on the ground without a foundation. The flood burst against it, and the house fell at once: and what a terrible disaster that was!”

Reflection:
Every now and then we come across controversial figures. Controversial because their ideas on the Christian life are new and startling, a bit shocking to staid believers, but greatly praised by more adventurous Christians. How do we assess such controversial figures?

In today’s gospel reading Jesus gives us a criterion which enables us to assess correctly the people who claim a role of ideological leadership among Christians: “Each tree is known by the fruit it bears,” Jesus tells us. And he specifies: “A good person draws good things from the good stored in his heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in his heart.”

Well and good. But what are the “good things” Jesus is referring to? Here Paul can help us when he teaches us about the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit,” he writes to the Galatians, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

 Previously, he had written that the opposite fruits are: “immorality… sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions… drinking bouts, orgies” (vv.19-21)

With these criteria, we can assess any controversial figure.