Sunday
September 8th

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Birth of the Virgin Mary

1st Reading: Is 35:4-7a:
Thus says the Lord: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

2nd Reading: Jas 2:1-5:
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

Gospel: Mk 7:31-37:
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Reflection:
Jesus was on a mission to proclaim the Good News but people with infirmities wanted a bit of His time. The deaf and the dumb sought redemption from his illness. He could not hear and had difficulty speaking. Jesus’ words though wonderful and uplifting could not have wrought its transformative power on this man. That is why Jesus had to heal him. And so he did, together with his friends who brought him to Jesus. No matter how much Jesus told them to keep all in secret, tongues were loosened. They were unstoppable in giving witness to the good things Jesus had done for them. If we but only allow Jesus to loosen our tongue, perhaps we too would joyfully proclaim His Good News to others.

Many people today are robbed of their capacity for self-expression. It could be an oppression coming from within or without. We can help liberate them by taking up their plight and presenting it in forums that might awaken a positive response from others. I could use my social network sites where I am enrolled to advance this cause. I can join discussion or cause oriented groups. There are many ways to loosen the tongues of others if I but only try. Lord, make me a voice of the voiceless, and encourage others to speak up for those whose tongues are tied. Give me the courage to mouth the truth that sets others free, in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Monday
September 9th

St. Peter Claver

1st Reading: 1 Cor 5:1-8:
Brothers and sisters: It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans– a man living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst. I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Gospel: Lk 6:6-11:
On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Reflection:
In the four gospels we find no fewer than seven Sabbath-healing stories (i.e. stories about healings occurring on the Sabbath). And so, one must conclude that these healings on the Sabbath were not mere coincidences; they are too numerous for that. All the more so that Jesus can observe on each of these seven occasions how upset his enemies become when they witness his behavior. Obviously, Jesus seeks on purpose to oppose their understanding of the Sabbath. What exactly is the problem here? It is simply this. The rabbis see a healing, even a miraculous one, as a medical intervention and consequently as a working activity, something forbidden on the day of the Sabbath.

Jesus challenges this view. He claims that there can be no time when it is prohibited to do good to another human being. In other words, there is no time when we are allowed to refuse to love. To refuse to love, under the specious excuse of obeying a law is at bottom to abet evil, to side with evil. This is a very serious matter. We are all tempted at times to refuse to perform a good deed when we could easily do so, and we then justify our refusal with all kinds of excuses. But oftentimes these excuses are merely a refusal to love.

Tuesday
September 10th

1st Reading: 1 Cor 6:1-11:
Brothers and sisters: How can any one of you with a case against another dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment instead of to the holy ones? Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Then why not everyday matters? If, therefore, you have courts for everyday matters, do you seat as judges people of no standing in the Church? I say this to shame you. Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough to be able to settle a case between brothers? But rather brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers?

Now indeed then it is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated? Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers. Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Gospel: Lk 6:12-19:
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

Reflection:
Christian faith does not rest on a dogma or any philosophical idea. It rests on a relationship with one person—the person of Christ. Everything else emerges from this personal and collective relationship with, and in Christ. Paul advises us: “Let Christ be your doctrine.“ In him dwells the fullness of God. To him all cosmic power and authority belong. In him all beings converge. He connects the heavens and the earth. Being one with God, he stands with us. Luke tells us poignantly: “Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood on a level place.“ One who is God stands on a par with us and calls us to be his disciples. Let us gather around him, reach out and touch him, and receive the power that comes out of him and heals us all.

Wednesday
September 11th

1st Reading: 1 Cor 7:25-31:
Brothers and sisters: In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. So this is what I think best because of the present distress: that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife. If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that. I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Gospel: Lk 6:20-26:
Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

Reflection:
How can people who are at the losing end like the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the likes be ever fortunate in this world? Isn’t it that they represent a sorry lot? That would probably be true if we set our sight only in the here and now, and in this world. But if we expand our horizon and include eternity, the words of Jesus make sense. They are true especially if we suffer all these because we follow Him faithfully. It is faith that makes us believe that a glorious future awaits those who suffer on behalf of the Lord. How to explain it might be a problem, limited as we are; but countless men and women have risked and found the word of the Lord to be true. And so we are not treading on new ground; a cloud of witnesses have been ahead of us. May their examples and their ultimate triumph inspire us to go on despite hardships and tribulations.

Thursday
September 12th

Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1st Reading: 1 Cor 8:1B-7, 11-13:
Brothers and sisters: Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him. So about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols: we know that there is no idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist. But not all have this knowledge.

There are some who have been so used to idolatry up until now that, when they eat meat sacrificed to idols, their conscience, which is weak, is defiled. Thus, through your knowledge, the weak person is brought to destruction, the brother for whom Christ died. When you sin in this way against your brothers and wound their consciences, weak as they are, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin.

Gospel: Lk 6:27-38:
Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Reflection:
In general, we will rarely have the opportunity of exercising love towards a national enemy. The “enemies” we meet most often in our daily lives are simply the neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances who have wronged or indisposed us in some small way. Such enemies are constantly at our side. Those are precisely the ones Jesus asks us to love. Those are the ones we have to help when we can, forgive from the bottom of our hearts. No doubt such an attitude has nothing “natural” or spontaneous about it. On certain occasion, we would rather die than shake hands with the person who has just wronged us.

But that is exactly what Jesus asks of us if we want to be his disciples: that we should die to our natural feelings and take on once and for all the magnanimous heart of Christ, he forgave his enemies on the cross. For we are called to become a new creation in him. If we accept to die in this way, we will discover a new life in him and be able to say with St. John: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers (and sisters)” (1 Jn 3:14).

Friday
September 13th

St. John Chrysostom

1st Reading: 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22B-27:
Brothers and sisters: If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel. Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.

I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it. Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

Gospel: Lk 6:39-42:
Jesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

Reflection:
“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?” This recommendation of Jesus raises a problem: We are all sinful people, since we all have “specks” in our eyes (or even big “logs” at times!). But do we have the right to go on correcting our brothers and sisters through preaching, counseling, advising, exhorting? Or if so, are we not then necessarily hypocritical? Perhaps the following considerations can provide some answers to the problem. First, we have the example of the apostles who, though still very imperfect (Phil 3:12; 1 Cor 9:27) and aware of it, nevertheless went on preaching.

Second, actually the preacher in no way claims to be perfect. In fact, he is preaching to himself just as much as he is preaching to others (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis n. 13; 1 Tim 4:15-16). And, if ever the preacher has illusions about his practice of what he is preaching on, he can always be sure that sooner or later he will be corrected by his colleagues (Gal 3:11-14; Presb. Ord. n. 8), by the faithful, and by life itself. Third, the saints themselves give us an example of honesty in this respect: they preached most often on what was their own personal problem, on what they naturally lacked: humility, chastity, etc.

Saturday
September 14th

Triumph of the Holy Cross

1st Reading: Nm 21:4B-9:
With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

2nd Reading: Phil 2:6-11:
Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel: Jn 3:13-17:
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Reflection:
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus during a conversation with a friendly Jew called Nicodemus, draws a parallel between the episode of the bronze snake mentioned in today’s first reading and his own destiny. He emphasizes two features which are found in both sides of the comparison. First, the metal snake was lifted up on a pole, and he himself will one day be lifted up on the cross. Secondly, the bronze snake was a source of life: all those who looked at it were immunized against the venom of the live snakes; likewise, he too will be a source of life in this world and in the next for all those who will look up to him with faith.

The lesson to be drawn from all this is very simple. All of us are victims of sin. From the time when Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden gave in to the temptation of the satanic Snake, humankind has been poisoned by pride, greed, lust, envy, laziness, gluttony, and all the other forms of sin. In all of us the poison of sin is present and undermines our spiritual organism. And so, our only hope is to go to Jesus, our doctor and healer.