Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to his disciples: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”

Jesus presents two types of people in today’s Gospel reading in two separate parables: first, the good tree that bears good fruit and the rotten tree that bears rotten fruit; second, the one builds a house on a foundation of rock and the one builds a house without a foundation. These opposites are exaggerations of life as it is lived, or as one moves through different moments of life. Jesus exaggerates for the sake of making clear that I should not only call out to him in prayer but hear and do his will. However, the exaggerations are at times a direct reflection of who or what I turn to when life’s storms come.

Lord, help me understand that no one but the Son of God could claim the truth that if life is not based on you during these times, destruction will come. This is you speaking to me as the Second Person of the Trinity, the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. You know me, and you know that there are times I call out to you, “Lord, Lord” but fail to do what you command. Help me understand how to remain in you through prayer, through your word, and through the Eucharist and other sacraments. As Saint Paul says in the first reading, this unity is the cup of blessing that we bless, participation in the Blood of Christ; the bread that we break, participation in the Body of Christ.

Lord, keep me in your care today. When the river bursts, I don’t want to come to you out of urgency and desperation and cry, Lord, Lord. Instead, let me love you by hearing your word and doing your will. But whatever anguish I face today, let me come to you first and ask for help as I speak your name. In either case, at ease in the day or facing trials, let me come to you. Be the foundation of my day; be in me. Holy Spirit, guide my words and actions.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

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.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is addressing the disciples and not the scribes and Pharisees this time. At the end of the passage, he calls the brother hypocrite who tries to remove the splinter in his brother’s eye without noticing the wooden beam in his own eye. If Jesus calls the disciples to this standard, then it is also me he is calling; and if it is the hypocrisy of the disciples he is calling out, how much more so is he calling it out in me?

God, help me understand the logic of your love. It is not enough that you convict in me what sets up barriers between us but that you want me to be fully trained to become like you; that is, free of hypocrisy and living in your truth.

Quiet me, Lord. See how easily I am disturbed by thoughts that fly through my mind. You are there, you are always there, when I turn my attention to other things—good things, things you created for joy in this life but also things that lead me off course. Breathe in me today as I breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit, the breath of peace, the end of longing that finds you waiting for me. As the psalmist says, “My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Like the sparrow who finds a home and the swallow a nest, let me find rest in you today.

Readings

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Today, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first reading sets up a contrast between the earthly, human scope and God’s majestic reach and power. God, who brought about Mary’s immaculate conception, chose the small to do great things. The reading from Micah says God’s greatness “shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.” From the Gospel reading, Joseph is caught up in God’s plan and drawn away from the smallness of human affairs and mere civil obedience. The angel tells him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.” Do not be afraid! How many times did Jesus say that before and after the resurrection?

God, help me understand to listen out for your voice, to know when it is time for me to put my plans aside to do what you ask me to do. Joseph and Mary humbly heard what you asked of them and obeyed. In their example of humility, I want to learn to be humble so that I can also hear your voice and be fearless in following you. Without humility, do I have a chance of hearing you at all?

It seems right, Lord, to ask you what I can do for you today. Joseph, thinking he was doing the right thing, sought to divorce Mary quietly until the angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home. Mary, who lived a life free from original sin, must have asked you throughout her young life how she could serve you. At the Annunciation, the angel told Mary not to be afraid and that the power of the Most High would overshadow her. She replied, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Teach me, Lord, to recognize the smallness of my reach in relation to yours; teach me to know and do your will.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

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.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus takes great swaths of humanity and examines the blessings and woes that life brings us. I can’t help thinking that in my own experience, I am the blessed and I am the one to whom Jesus says, “Woe.” Out there, far from what I know, is poverty and hunger, despair, and persecution. Instead, I have known comfort, have had good food, have laughed, and been loved. By comparison to world standards, I am rich, I am filled, I laugh, and I have known people who speak well of me. How, then, do I live the Beatitudes if this is the case? At times, I am spiritually impoverished, hungry for God’s word and his guidance, and have wept for loss of what is or what once was. Even more, people I know do in fact hate me for what I profess about my faith.

God, help me learn to understand and live the Beatitudes. If I am poor, there are others who are poorer; if I am hungry for you, there are others hungrier; if I weep, how many others weep for pain that seems to see no end? And in my time others have died because of your name. Help me recognize the way of the Beatitudes in everyday life. What can I bring when opportunity comes—most often and mostly within my own family—but the spirit of love and healing for the poor, the hungry, and the downtrodden? If I fail to do this in my family, what hope do I have of helping the marginalized made invisible, those starving to death, the truly desperate, and those physically persecuted for the faith? The Beatitudes take in the small and the great and give great leeway in taking action out of love, encompassing everyday aches and pains—little discomforts—and by the same means, extreme anguish and pain.

God, I know you hear me. I am hungry for your word and your presence. I think by the Beatitudes you are teaching me that I am poor anywhere I go if you are not present, that I am hungry in everything and that nothing satisfies except you, that all is empty frivolity unless you are in it, that to be excluded for your name’s sake is to dwell in your shelter and abide in your shadow. Teach me, Lord, to know your peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings