23rd Week: Sept 5-10:
Sept 5 Monday (St. Teresa of Calcutta= Mother Teresa)
The context: Today’s Gospel describes miraculous healing performed by Jesus one Sabbath as a public violation of
Sabbath laws, in order to prove that God’s intention for the Sabbath was for
His people to do good and to save life rather than to
do evil or to destroy life. The incident and the reaction: Ex 20:8 and Dt
5:12 instructed the Jews to keep the Sabbath holy. But the
scribes and the Pharisees hadamplified God’s law on the Sabbath,
misinterpreting it and making it burdensome for the common people through
man-made laws. Jesus wanted to demonstrate in public the original intention of
God in declaring Sabbath holy. For Jesus, the Sabbath was a day of rest on
which Israelites were meant to adore God, to learn and teach His laws, and to do
good to/for others. Hence, Jesus took the liberty of healing a man with a
withered hand in the local synagogue immediately after the worship service,
thus infuriating the scribes and the Pharisees.
Life messages: 1) Our Catholic “Sabbath”
observance of participating in the Eucharistic celebration on Sunday is meant
to recharge our spiritual batteries for doing good to/for others and avoiding
evil. 2) Our Sunday observance is further meant to be an offering of our lives
to God on the altar, to praise God, to thank Him for His blessings, to ask
God’s pardon and forgiveness for our sins, to present our needs before the
Lord, and to participate in the Divine Life by receiving Holy Communion. 3) It
is finally a day to spend with the members of the family and to help our
neighbors in the activities of our parish and neighborhood.
Sept 5: Labor Day in the U. S. The first Labor
Day was observed on September 5, 1882, to celebrate the social and economic
achievements of American workers and to give them a day off on the last day of
the summer. Today, Labor Day unofficially signals the beginning of a new
“school” year of work and study and the end of the “lazy days of summer.” It
was President Grover Cleveland who signed a bill into law on June 28, 1894,
declaring Labor Day a national holiday.
1) It is a day to acknowledge the dignity and
necessity of labor and workers. We participate in the creative act of
God by the various forms of work we do using our God-given talents, a) The
Bible presents God as working six days in the creation of the world and
commanding Adam to work six days and rest on the seventh. b) Jesus, God’s Son,
was a professional carpenter. c) Most of Jesus’ apostles were fishermen, and
Paul was a tentmaker. d) In his inaugural speech in the synagogue at Nazareth,
Jesus expressed his preferential option for the poor – the working class and
those who cannot work. Work is necessary for our own well-being, for health of
body, mind, and spirit. It enables us to be independent and to help those who
are less fortunate and unable to work. e) Works of charity are the main
criteria of our Last Judgement: “Whatever you did to one of these least
brethren you did to Me.”
2) A day to remember the Church’s teaching on
the nobility of work and the necessity of just wages. In the encyclical, Laborem
exercens (September 14, 1981), Pope St. John Paul II instructs
us that all of us are called to work together for a just society and a just
economy which allow us all to share God’s blessings. He reminds us that
governments should see that the greed of a minority does not make the life of
the majority miserable. He advises labor unions to fight for social and
economic justice, better wages and better working conditions.
3) It is the day to remember and pray for the
jobless people: There are thousands without work and millions more who are
underemployed, working at part-time jobs or jobs that do not pay a decent wage.
Society has a moral obligation to reduce joblessness because it is through work
that families are sustained, children are nurtured, and the future is secured. Joblessness
is also a clear threat to family life.
4) It is an appropriate time to acknowledge and
bless the temporal and spiritual work that our parishioners do for
their families, for their neighbors, and for the parish community. It is also a
day to remind ourselves that our workplace gives us an opportunity to practice
what we believe, and to display a level of integrity that matches our Faith,
thus witnessing to Christ.
5) It is a day to pay attention to a warning:
The warning is that we should be aware of the danger in work. If not properly
oriented it can make us workaholics: we may turn work into our God or may use
it as an escape mechanism to run away from spouse, children, and neighbors.
Thus, on this Labor Day, let us try to realize the dignity
of work, the necessity of work, and the danger involved in work. Let us thank
the Lord for the talents and work he has given us to do. Let us pray that we
may find joy and satisfaction in our work, realizing that we are co-creators
with God and stewards of His creation. By offering our work for God’s glory,
let us transform our work to prayer. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 6 Tuesday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives a
short account of the call of the Apostles and of the preaching and healing
mission of Jesus. Jesus was the first missionary, sent by His Father with the
“Good News” that God his Father is a loving, merciful, and forgiving Father Who
wants to save everyone through His Son, Jesus. Today’s Gospel describes how
this First Missionary selected and empowered twelve future missionaries as
Apostles to continue his mission.
Special features: Jesus selected very ordinary people, most
of them hard-working fishermen with no social status, learning, or political
influence. Jesus was sure that this strange mixture of people would be very
effective instruments in God’s hands. Matthew was a hated tax collector serving
the Roman Empire, while Simon the Cananaean was a Zealot, a fanatical
nationalist or terrorist of those days, determined to destroy Roman rule by any
means. The others were mostly professional fishermen with a lot of good will,
patience and stamina. It was only Jesus‘ love for them and their admiration and
love for Jesus that united them. Jesus selected them after a night of prayer
and gave them His own Divine powers of healing and exorcism and made them a key
part of His own Messianic mission of preaching the “Kingdom of God.”
Life Messages: 1) God wants to show us that a
calling for ministry, or a vocation to priestly or religious life or family
life, is an initiative of God. 2) As Christians we have the same mission that
Jesus entrusted to his Apostles. 3) We fulfill this mission of preaching the
word of God, primarily, by living out Jesus’ teachings and by promoting and
helping world-wide missionary activities of the Church.
(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 7 Wednesday:
The context: Luke presents the Sermon on
the Plain as following immediately upon the choosing of the twelve
Apostles. Today’s Gospel passage, taken from Luke’s Sermon on the
Plain, teaches us that true happiness or beatitude lies in the
awareness of who we are and what we are supposed to do. The eight beatitudes
Jesus gives in Mathew, like the four in Luke, contradict the ideas of “real”
happiness prevalent in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day (and in our modern
society as well), according to which wealth, health, power, pleasure, and
influence are the “true” beatitudes.
The Beatitudes: Jesus instructs his disciples in
the paradoxical blessedness of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution, which
contradict our natural expectations in every way. Blessed are those who are
poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced because in
poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, His providence; in sorrow, true
happiness; and in persecution, true joy. Experiencing these miseries opens the
way for us to receive the true riches….the food, comfort and
acceptance we find only in His love and His presence here and in His Kingdom
forever. The Beatitudes are commands for how we should live, and what we should
do. What makes one blessed is not simply poverty or hunger or sadness or
suffering for one’s Faith, but commitment to Jesus and His spirit of sharing.
Life messages: 1) We need to
respond to the challenges of the Beatitudes in our daily life. Millions
are starving, persecuted, and homeless, leading hopeless lives. When we reach
out to help them, we are living out the Beatitudes. In addition, Jesus
tells us that we are serving him in these suffering people. We
are also loving our neighbors as Jesus loves us. That is why we are
told that we will be judged on the basis of our acts of mercy and charity (Mt
25:31-46). 2) Let us also remember that each time we reach out to help the
people who are needy, sick, and/or oppressed, we give them the experience of
God’s love for them. 3) Just as the Apostles were called to minister to
society’s untouchables, so all Christians are called to minister to the
untouchables, the discriminated against, and the marginalized in our own
modern society, so that they may meet God’s love in human flesh.
Sept 8 Thursday (Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary):
Life magazine estimated that the prayer “Hail Mary” is said
two billion times every day, and each year five to ten million people make a
pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Many others visit
Marian sites elsewhere in the world. Mary is prayed to as advocate and helper,
and even in the sports arena there is a reference to her power: the last
desperate pass by a losing football team was once called a “Hail Mary pass.”
Mary is also venerated by Muslims. It is reported that when the Prophet
Muhammad cleared the idols out of the Kaaba in Mecca, he allowed only a fresco
of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus to remain. In every Muslim mosque,
the “mihrab” or prayer niche in the wall is dedicated to Mary. In the Qur’an,
she is described as having been sent as “a mercy for the worlds.”
History: As one of the oldest Marian
solemnities, this feast is based on the second century (A.D. 175), apocryphal
book Protoevagelium Jacobi (The Pre-Gospel of James),
which reflects the traditions of the early Church, although it is not
considered an inspired book. According to this book, Mary’s parents were
Joachim and Anna. Mary was born either in Jerusalem or in Sephoris, three miles
north of Bethlehem. The Annunciation is believed to have taken place
later in the house of Mary’s parents. The feast originated in the fifth century
in Syria or Palestine. St. Romanus of Syria is supposed to have brought it to
Rome. The Roman Church adopted it in the 7th century and fixed
it on September 8th. It is found in the 8th and 9th century
Gregorian Sacramentary.
Importance: The feast is the birthday
celebration of the mother of Jesus, our Heavenly Mother, and the Mother of the
Church. It is the birthday of an ordinary woman who was chosen to become the
Mother of an extraordinary Divine Child. The Church celebrates the death day of
a saint as his/her feast day, considering it his/her “birthday in Heaven.” The
three exceptions are Jesus’ birthday (Christmas), Mary’s birthday (September
8), and John the Baptist’s birthday (June 24). Mary’s birthday is celebrated
because of her Immaculate Conception. John the Baptist, in Elizabeth’s womb,
was filled with the Holy Spirit during Mary’s visitation of Elizabeth. We honor
Mary because God has done great things for her (Lk
1:49), a) by choosing her as the mother of Jesus His Son, b) by filling
her with His Holy Spirit twice, c) by making her the embodiment of all virtues
(“full of grace”), and our Heavenly Mother and d) by allowing her
to become the most active participant with Christ, her son, in our redemption.
The readings: (Mi 5:1-4 or Rom 8:28-30; Mt 1:1-16,
18-23). Romans 1:3 states that Mary was a descendant of David,
and Matthew’s genealogy in today’s Gospel also supports this truth.
Life Messages: 1) Let us, as
Mary’s children, give a suitable birthday gift to our Heavenly Mother. Every
mother wants her children to inherit and acquire all her good qualities. Hence,
the best birthday gift to Mary is for us to become holy children of a Holy
Mother. 2) Let us make this day a day to start practicing Mary’s
virtues. Let us practice her virtues of a) trusting Faith in the power of
God (“nothing is impossible for God’); b) perfect obedience to the
will of God (“be it done to me according your will”); c) the spirit
of sacrificial and sharing love; and d) the acceptance of suffering with
one hundred percent commitment to her heroic mission. (Fr. Tony)
Sept 9 Friday: (St. Peter Claver, Priest, U. S.
A.)
The context: In today’s passage, taken
from the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus
condemns our careless, malicious and rash judgments about the behavior,
feelings, motives, or actions of others by using the funny examples of one
blind man leading another blind man and one man with a log covering his eyes
trying to remove a tiny speck from another’s eye.
Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No
one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole
truth, and only He can read the human heart. Hence, only He has the ability,
right, and authority to judge us. 2) We do not see all the facts or
circumstances or the power of the temptation which has led a person to do
something evil. 3) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total
fairness cannot be expected from us. 4) We have no right to judge because
we have the same faults as the one we are judging and often to a greater degree
(remember the critical man with a wooden beam in his eye?) St. Philip Neri
commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for
the grace of God.” Abraham Lincoln said that only he has the right to criticize
who has the heart to help (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Additional reflections: Click on
Sept 10 Saturday:
The context: In today’s passage, taken
from the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus
teaches the necessity for cultivating a strong Christian moral character as the
foundation of our Christian life. The teaching: In the
first part of the Gospel, Jesus teaches us that the good fruits of Christian
virtues, like love, mercy, forgiveness, and service, result only from an
upright character trained in and cultivated by the repeated practice of Christian
principles. Jesus compares good works with figs and grapes and reminds us that
thorny shrubs and bramble bushes cannot produce them. In the second part,
Jesus gives us two warnings: that we must match our profession of Faith with
actual obedience to the will of God, and that we must build a life on the firm
foundation of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus emphasizes the truth that we should not
be mere hearers of the word of God, but also consistent doers of that word. In
other words, our profession of Faith should be matched by our practice. Jesus
compares mere hearers of the word to a foolish man who built his house on a
sandy foundation, and the doers of the word to a wise man who built his
house on strong and solid rock.
Life messages: 1) We need to be men and women of character with the courage of our religious convictions, doing what is right at all times. Such persons are honest and reliable before God, themselves, and their neighbors. 2) We need to build our family on a strong Christian foundation. There can be no great marriage and no great family without a solid foundation, and that foundation begins with the husband and wife doing, and being, the love of Christ for each other and for their children. 3) We need to get ready to face the storms of life: Jesus wants us to follow his words and to build our lives and our families on these words. He wants us to be ready for the storms of life, including, among others, the current Covid-19 pandemic, economic downturns, pension defaults, war, depression both mental and economic, relationships that fade, the deaths of those who love us and whom we love, devastating illness, and protracted disease. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)