34th Week: Nov 24-29
Nov 24 Monday: Saint Andrew Dũng Lạc, priest and martyr, and companions, martyrs: Lk 21:1-4:
The context: 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles 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)
Nov 25 Tuesday: Saint Catherine of
Alexandria, virgin and martyr
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: 1) 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. We need 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/)
Nov 26 Wednesday; Luke 21:12-19:
The context: Today’s Gospel gives us 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
advised 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 warned,
would be locked up in prisons and brought for trial before kings and governors.
Jesus assured them that the Holy Spirit would give them words of defense and
witness-bearing. (In the Acts of the Apostles, we read how Stephen
was given the wisdom to bear splendid witness to Jesus in Jerusalem). Since
there would be divisions in families between believers and non-believers, Jesus
declared, close relatives would betray their Christian family members to the pagan
authorities and cause their martyrdom. But Jesus assures the disciples in
today’s Gospel passage and us, that our 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/white 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/)
Nov 27 Thursday: Thanksgiving Day in USA (Use
any readings from the Mass “In Thanksgiving to God” (943-947) See below
Thanksgiving Day material for Ordinary Time Gospel and reflections}
Introduction: Today is a day of National Thanksgiving in the United States of
America: 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 his personal 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, timely help and
encouragement. d) To our pastors, teachers, doctors, soldiers, police, and
government officers for the sincere life-saving services they render us.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Nov 27 Thursday:(Ordinary Time Wk 34; Outside the U.
S.) Luke
21:20-28: The Context: Using biblical and apocalyptic images Jesus
foretells the brutal attack of the Roman army on the city of Jerusalem that
would be fulfilled forty years later, killing most of its helpless residents
and demolishing the Temple. Jesus combines the destruction of Jerusalem with
events preceding the end of the world because most of the Jews believed that if
the Temple were destroyed, their world would end. In his prophecy Jesus
attributes the faithlessness of the chosen people and their moral corruption as
the main causes of the destruction. That is why Jesus calls it as the “time
of punishment” and “days of retribution.” Jewish prophets
Isaiah (63:4), Jeremiah (5:29), Hosea (9:7) and Daniel (9:27) gave their
prophetic warnings about the future destruction of Jerusalem and its residents.
The temple was desecrated by the Greek Antiochus IV Epiphanes from 167 to 165
BC. The “horrible abomination” perhaps refers to an inscription
placed on the portal of the temple dedicating it to the Roman god Olympian
Zeus. Jesus warns that these desecrations will be repeated by the Romans. Many
will be murdered, and other healthy residents will be led away into captivity
to Rome and other pagan territories. The holy city itself, its Temple in ruins,
will be trampled on by the Gentiles. Then Jesus speaks of various cataclysmic
and apocalyptic signs to signal the end of the world using the Hebrew Biblical
images which conclude with Daniel’s vision of the “Son of Man” riding
on a cloud coming with great power and glory. But Jesus gives assurance to his
loyal followers that it is a time for them to “stand up straight and raise
your heads, for your redeeming is near at hand”.
Life messages: 1) Sufferings and tribulations are part and
parcel of Christian life. They should help us to reflect on the end of our
lives and the final end of our world and to live by the vision and values of
the Gospel, sharing agape love with others and rendering them humble and
sacrificial service.
Nov 28 Friday: Luke
21:29-33:
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/)
Nov 29 Saturday: Luke
21:34-36:
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 obtaining strength from God through
prayer, so that we may be freed 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, talking to Him, and doing what He asks.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
