34th Week: Nov 22-27:
Nov 22 Monday (St. Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr)
The context: There were 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles
that stood up against the wall of the Court of Women. They were intended to
hold the gifts of the faithful for the Temple treasury. As Jesus and his
disciples sat and watched the comings and goings of those offering their gifts
of support, they observed many wealthy worshipers placing significant sums into
the Temple treasury. But it was not until Jesus observed the tiny gift of
two lepta (equivalent to a couple of pennies), given by a poor
widow, that he was moved to comment on the proceedings.
Beginning with chapter 11 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is seen
confronting the Temple authorities and challenging abuses in the “organized
religion” of his time. Complimenting the poor widow in today’s Gospel, Jesus
contrasted the external signs of honor sought by the scribes with the humble,
sacrificial offering of a poor widow and declared that she had found true honor
in God’s eyes. The Gospel presents a poor widow who sacrificially gave
her whole
life and means of livelihood to God, symbolizing the supreme sacrifice
Jesus would offer by giving His life for others. The episode invites us to a
total commitment to God’s service with a humble and generous heart free from
pride and prejudice.
Life messages: # 1: We need to appreciate the
widows of our parish: Their loneliness draws them closer to God and to
stewardship in the parish. They are often the active participants in all the
liturgical celebrations, offering prayers for their families and for their
parish family. Frequently, they are active in parish organizations, as well as
in visiting and serving the sick and
the shut-ins. Hence, let us appreciate them, support them, encourage them, and
pray for them.
#2: We need to accept Christ’s criteria for judging people:
We often judge people by what they possess. But Jesus measures us on the basis
of our inner motives and the intentions hidden behind our actions. He evaluates
us on the basis of the sacrifices we make for others and on the degree of our
surrender to His holy will. What is hardest to give is ourselves in love and
concern, because that gift costs us more than reaching for our purses. (Fr.
Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Nov 23 Tuesday (St. Clement I, Pope
The context: Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus’
reaction to the comments the disciples had been making about the splendor of
the Temple in Jerusalem. The forty-foot tall pillars supporting the beams of
the front porch were made of solid marble. Most of the decorations and the
large vine on the front porch with six-foot long grape clusters were made of
solid gold plates, while the dome was gold-plated. But Jesus prophesied this
Temple’s total destruction. In AD 70, the Roman army invaded the city,
plundered everything valuable, set fire to the Temple, pulled down the City’s
walls, killed one million Jews, and took 97,000 healthy Jews as captives. Jesus
also gave the disciples warnings about false military messiahs and their
deceptive doctrines about overthrowing the Romans. Then Jesus listed some signs
of the end of the world, like wars between nations, earthquakes, famines,
plagues, and unnatural movements of the heavenly bodies.
Life message: We need to learn from the signs of
the times, like crises in morality, a culture of death, an increase in violence
and terrorism, the “normalization” of sexual deviations, the breaking down of
families, and the moral degradation of society, and to prepare ourselves for
the end times by living ideal Christian lives, helping others, sharing our
blessings with others, getting and staying reconciled with God and our
neighbors, and trusting in the living presence of Jesus in the Church . (Fr.
Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Nov 24 Wednesday (St. Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and
companions, Martyrs) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-andrew-dung-lac-and-companions : Luke
21: 12-19:12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and
persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be
brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be a time
for you to bear testimony. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds, not to
meditate beforehand how to answer; 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom,
which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You
will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and
some of you they will put to death; 17 you will be hated by all for my name’s
sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish.19 By your endurance you will
gain your lives.
The context: Today’s Gospel gives Jesus’
prophetic warning to the apostles and disciples about the sufferings they will
have to bear for their Faith in Him until Jesus’ Second Coming. Jesus
advises them to bear witness to Him in spite of persecutions, for those
persecutions would also encourage the disciples to flee to remote places and to
preach the Gospel among the Jews and the Gentiles. Believers, Jesus warns, will
be locked up in prisons and brought for trial before kings and governors. Jesus
assures them that the Holy Spirit will give them words of defense and
witness-bearing. (In the Acts of the Apostles, we read how Stephen
was given the wisdom to bear witness to Jesus in Jerusalem). Since there will
be divisions in families between believers and non-believers, Jesus declares,
close relatives will betray their Christian family members to the pagan
authorities and cause their martyrdom. But Jesus assures the disciples in
today’s Gospel passage that their suffering for Him will be amply rewarded.
Life messages: 1) Although we may not get a
chance to die for the Faith, we are invited to face “dry martyrdom,” a “living
death” as outcasts in our contemporary materialistic, secular, liberal,
agnostic, and atheistic society.
2) We are called to bear witness to Christ by loving those
who hate us, by showing mercy and compassion to those who hurt and ill-treat
us, by forgiving those who continue to offend us, by accepting our sufferings
without complaint, and by continuing to keep Jesus’ word in our lives. . (Fr.
Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Nov 26 Thursday (Thanksgiving Day in the U.
S. ): Lk 21: 20-28 & ( St. Catherine of Alexandria,
Virgin, Martyr) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-catherine-of-alexandria:
Nov 26 Thanksgiving Day: Introduction: Today
is a day of national thanksgiving 1) for the blessings and protection God has
given us; 2) for our democratic government and the prosperity, we enjoy; 3) for
our freedom of speech and religion; and 4) for the generosity and good will of
our people.
History: The winter of 1610 at Jamestown,
Virginia, had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for
help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived in the form
of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a thanksgiving prayer
meeting was held to give thanks to God. President George Washington issued the
first national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. President Abraham Lincoln, in
the midst of the Civil War, established Thanksgiving Day as a formal holiday to
express our thanks to God. In 1941 Congress passed the official proclamation
declaring that Thanksgiving should be observed as a legal holiday the fourth
Thursday of each November.
Biblical examples of thanksgiving: (1) Today’s
Gospel describes how one of the ten lepers Jesus healed, a Samaritan, returned
to Jesus to express his gratitude while the nine Jewish lepers did not think to
thank God and the One He had used to heal. Jesus asks the pained
question: Where are the other nine? The episode tells us that God,
too, expects gratitude from us. (2) In 2 Kgs 5:1-9 Naaman the
leper, the chief of the army of the Syrian king, returned to the prophet Elisha
to express his thanks for his complete healing from leprosy with a gift of 10
talents of silver, 6000 pieces of gold and six Egyptian raiments, as gifts.
When Elisha refused the gifts, Naaman asked for permission take home two sacks
of the soil of Israel to remember the Lord Who healed him, and he promised to
offer sacrifices only to the God of Israel. (3) Jesus’ example of
thanksgiving at the tomb of Lazarus: “Thank you Father for hearing my
prayer” (Jn 11:42-42). (4) St. Paul’s advice, “Give thanks
to God the Father for everything” (Eph 5:20).
The Eucharistic celebration is the most
important form of thanksgiving prayer for Catholics. In fact, Eucharist is the
Greek word for thanksgiving. In the Holy Mass we offer the sacrifice of Jesus
to our Heavenly Father as an act of thanksgiving, and we surrender our lives on
the altar with repentant hearts, presenting our needs and asking for God’s
blessings.
Life messages: 1) Let us be thankful and let us learn to
express our thanks daily: a) To God for His innumerable blessings,
providential care and protection, and for the unconditional pardon given to us
for our daily sins and failures. b) To our parents – living and dead – for the
gift of life and Christian training and the good examples they gave us. c) To
our relatives and friends for their loving support and timely help and encouragement.
d) To our pastors, teachers, doctors, soldiers, police and government officers
for the sincere service they render us. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Nov 27: Friday:
The context: Foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem
in AD 70, and the end of the world at an unspecified future time, Jesus warns
the disciples in today’s Gospel that tribulations are inevitable before the
Last Judgment and the coming of Jesus’ Kingdom. Jesus uses the small parable of
the fig tree to explain the point that we must be prepared for the time of
tribulation, Jesus’ Second Coming, and the Last Judgment. Fig trees
in Israel produce fruits twice a year, at Passover time and in autumn. The sign
of the ripening of their fruits is the appearance of fresh leaves on the tree.
The Jews believed that the Messiah would appear during the Passover period,
which coincides with the appearance of fresh leaves on fig trees. The
destruction of Jerusalem would be the end of their world for the Jews. So, the
generation in AD 70 saw the end of the world symbolically. Jesus wants us to
understand that the Kingdom of God will be near when wars, natural calamities,
pestilences, and unnatural movements of heavenly bodies occur. Except for the
last-named, these seem to occur in every age. Hence, we must be ever vigilant
and prepared.
Life messages: 1) We must be able to read the
signs of the times and stay in the kingdom of God by faithfully doing God’s
will every day of our lives. 2) We need to continue serving others in humility
and love and bearing witness to Jesus through the integrity and transparency of
our Christian lives. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Nov 27 Saturday:
The context: In St. Luke’s version of Jesus’
advice to the disciples before His passion and death, as given in today’s
Gospel, Jesus emphasizes that every Christian needs to be vigilant and prepared
because we cannot be sure of the time of our own death when we will be asked to
give an account of our lives. Vigilance consists in getting strengthened by
prayer so that we may be free from evil addictions and unnecessary attachment
to worldly pleasures. Jesus also instructs us to be vigilant because we do not
know the time either of our own death or of the end of the world and
Jesus’ Second Coming. St. Paul repeats this advice: “You are
not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (I Thes
5: 4).
Life messages: 1) We need to avoid spiritual laziness and indifference. 2) We need to be freed from excessive and crippling anxiety, needless worries and evil habits. 3) We need to get our strength from God by prayer, which means listening to God and talking to Him. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
