Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus must have read the hearts of the Pharisees and scribes who complained. To them, he addressed the parable of the one lost sheep among a hundred and the woman who lost and found one coin among ten. By comparing sinners to the lost sheep and the lost coin, Jesus makes irrelevant whether one is a tax collector, sinner, or scribe or Pharisee (that is, follower of the law). At one time or another in life, I have counted myself among the ninety-nine sheep, while at other times (especially in retrospect), I see that I was the one lost in the desert.

Thank you, God, for the example of Saint Martin de Porres, whose memorial is celebrated today. Martin, a Dominican, daily cared for the sick and the poor while doing tasks in the kitchen and infirmary. He was a friend of Saint Rose of Lima. Through your grace, Lord, help me offer the work of this day—all its difficulties—as a means to repent of anything that separates me from you. Help me see in the midst of the day when it is time to make a metanoia, a return to you.

Jesus, Good Shepherd, when I am hard of heart today, come find me and bring me back into your peace. Let me recognize and welcome any of the lost you send me.

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

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

Jesus said to the crowds: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

In today’s reading for All Souls Day, Jesus describes to the crowds his intention for all who believe in him, following the will of his Father. When we die we face our particular judgment. Saint Paul puts it this way in the second reading: “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.” God prepares a place of everlasting life for all who believe in him and who look to him intently in this life. To look to, from the Greek word theōrōn, means “to discern or intensively acknowledge.” In this life, Jesus invites everyone to look upon him every day with a loving gaze, to behold him, the Son of God so that we may have eternal life. After life on earth, Jesus may call us to further purification in purgatory. As Father Burke Masters says, reflecting on All Souls Day, purgatory is a purification, a way to prepare us to see God face to face with all the saints. Jesus said to the crowds, and he says to me, to all: “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.”

God, help me call to mind today the souls who have gone before me to see you face to face, remembering to pray for them and to ask for their intercession: my parents, my family members and friends of the family, those who have died recently, those dead who are unremembered. The souls of the just, Lord, are in your hand. “They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead,” says the reading from the Book of Wisdom, “But they are in peace.” God, give me the grace to use today as an opportunity to be in communion with them; it is to choose to believe in you rather than in the power of death and that your Son will raise us on the last day. I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. I believe, Lord, in the hope of resurrection; help my unbelief.

God, the souls of the just are in your hand; they are yours. Thank you for your perpetual care of them. Because the day will have a way of turning my attention away from you and obscure my ability to see you, I have the peace of trusting in your mercy and love. Set before me today a means of seeing you in the opportunities and people you present to me, despite what the day demands. Thank you, God, for being present always—stay with me!

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

Solemnity of All Saints

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

The readings today reflect what sainthood is, who the saints are, what they long for (to see God face to face), and how Jesus calls us to sainthood. The first reading from the Book of Revelation describes John’s vision of heaven, where a great multitude stands before the throne and the Lamb. Saint Paul says, “We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” In the Gospel acclamation, Jesus invites all who are burdened to come to him to find rest. In the Gospel reading, Jesus shares the beatitudes with the disciples and the crowds who followed him, promising to the blessed that their reward in heaven will be great. It seems a little overwhelming to consider all of this; yet, the Communion of Saints intercedes for us in a way that brings us closer to the Father. As Saint Thérèse of Lisieux says of the intercessory prayer of the saints: “I want to spend my Heaven doing good on Earth.”

God, help me understand that as I celebrate today’s Solemnity of the Saints the particular path you see for me to bring me to sainthood—something you desire for every one of your children. I feel humbled to know that in the midst of an ordinary day, I have the means to lead me to greater sanctity, not by any of my own doing but by every good you give me in this life. Let that realization deepen my need to follow the lives of the saints and call upon them to intercede for me as I discern from among choices the path that leads to you. When the way is difficult, let me take heart that the striving, the suffering, and even the persecution is purposeful and redemptive. As Pope Benedict XVI said of saints: “They are all in joy, in a festival without end, but, like Jesus, they achieved this goal passing through difficulties and trials, each of them shouldering their own share of sacrifice in order to participate in the glory of the Resurrection.”

Lord, I long to see your face. I long to see the face of those I no longer see in this world but am confident I will see in the next. Through the Blessed Sacrament, I participate in that joy already, knowing that you care for those you call your children in mercy and love, and in the hope of the Resurrection. “Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever.”

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0CYfJg8-Jw

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading are an invitation to authentic selflessness. What is there to gain by inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to dine with us at a banquet? Although Jesus speaks to the Pharisee, he also speaks to everyone who would read and hear the Gospel. It would be unusual for a lunch or dinner to be held for the sake of inviting the marginalized, but the meaning is both literal and and figurative. It would be equally unusual to go through an entire day without encountering someone who is brought low or incapacitated in some way. Those people, the everyday encounters, are the ones to whom Jesus says give without expecting repayment.

Today, God, I will feel the pressure to pursue my own interests and complete all I hope to complete in a neat package. It won’t be that easy. There will be interruptions, requests, coworkers and family members who will call me away from that aim. The words of Saint Paul from today’s first reading are a strong antidote to any delusions I might have about carving out a path of selfishness: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.” God, help me welcome rather than shun the interruptions of others. Instead, let me find God in those moments, getting my attention. As the psalmist says, “In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.”

God, I am anxious about the day and its tasks. Be my strength. I will forget you during the day and this moment with you will fade. Be present as you are present always in the Blessed Sacrament. How can I repay you, Lord, for quieting my soul?

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