23C22.    Wisdom 9:13-18b.     “Who can know God’s counsel?  God’s wisdom or capacity to see the entirety of truth, because God is infinite and we are finite, is beyond our capacity to grasp the whole of truth on our own.  It is presumptuous to think we can do better than God; and yet, human beings do it all the time.  Only when we think as God thinks and not as human beings do, do we truly get it right. (Matthew 16:23c) “And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”

Luke 14:25-33.  Jesus said to the crowds, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  Jesus also said in John 13:34: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”  The measure of our loving as followers of Jesus is to love as Jesus loved and NOT to love out of our natural human desire and out of our human relations as families and spouses.  It is that we do as Jesus does and not as human beings do that we are Christ followers or Christians.  We are commanded to love God with every bit of our being.  (Matthew 22:37)  All other loves must flow from our love of God and not from our earthly relationships.  “Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”  Our cross is to live as Jesus calls us to live and not as our human nature or intuition calls us to live.  “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”  Everything belongs to God and nothing belongs to us that does not first belong to God.

Philemon 9-10, 12-17.  Paul, who is at this point imprisoned, appeals that the slave Onesimus, who had run away from his master, be graciously accepted back by his owner.  “So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.”  Paul is calling him and us to act as our loving God acts.

 

23C19.    Wisdom 9:13-18b.  The Book of Wisdom says: “For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.”  This earth offers many good things but we must always pay a price.  Often the goods of this earth cost more than the goodness they give us.  On the other hand, what our God gives us is worth more than anything this world can give.

Luke 14:25-33.   Jesus say in this gospel: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  And Jesus finishes with the words: “In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciples.” The word ‘hate’ should be understood as meaning renouncing anything or anyone as belonging to me, as my personal possession and not to God.  I believe what Jesus is in effect saying is that nothing and no one, not even our very selves, belong to us but only to God.  That is the cross and cost of being a follower of Jesus.  He is the Creator and the Maker.  Everything good, at its very root, comes from God and God alone.  He has not given us anyone or anything so that we can live in our world as the master and  sole owner.  What we have is on loan to use to make it all the better through the Holy Spirit working in us, ready to give it all back with the gain that we, with divine help, have achieved.  This world, our human nature and the devil demand that we see ourselves as being in charge and in possession, as it were, god of our own world.  To have God as truly God, it is all his.

Philemon 9:10, 12-17.  Tradition understands Onesimus, as someone who was of utmost usefulness to Paul, to be a runaway slave who fled his owner Philemon, without permission, to serve Paul.  Paul writes this epistle or letter to Philemon graciously requesting that Onesimus be welcomed back without punishment and be given his freedom to be received by Philemon as a brother Christian.  This reading carries through with the theme that all, at their very root, belongs to God and to no one else.  When we live on earth with this way of thinking then God will take us from this earth one day as his possession, as his child to be a part of his household in heaven..

22C22.    Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29.  “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”   The less we occupy the center of our lives, the more room there is for God to be at the center.  The less we are what our lives are all about, the more God is able to be what we are all about.

Luke 14:1, 7-14.   “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  The Latin root of the word humble is humus which means soil, dirt or earth.  On the one hand, humble can mean that we are as low as one can go; on the other hand, humble can mean we stand with our two feet on the ground or truth of reality.  That second meaning allows us to stand in our almighty God from whose love of us we can draw a strength that no one can take from us.  When we recognize the poverty of living on our own without God, we can instead choose to live in the riches that God has for us.  Secondly, when we try to achieve on our own what we seek to have for ourselves, we will have nothing that is worthwhile.  However, when we work in the power of God for what God wants us to achieve, we will have an overabundance of everything that is good.  Humility is not demeaning ourselves but rather living and working with God so that our personal worth is truly genuine and lasts forever beyond the grave.  Don’t spin your wheels in the mud of this world’s ways but gain the traction that only the solid earth of God’s life in us can give.

Psalm 68.    “God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.”  “In your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.”

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a.   The Old Testament image of God at a distance on the top of mountain in a dense cloud is in contrast to the Jesus who walked among his people healing their illnesses.  Our God is the God who dwells within us and in our midst close to us and intensely engaged in our lives throughout the day each day.

22C19.   Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29.  “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are; and you will find favor with God.” To be humble really only means that we live with our hearts and minds in planted in reality, in what genuinely is, as opposed to what we would like to fantasize. The word ‘humble’ comes from the Latin word ‘humus’ that means ground, earth, soil.  Therefore, to live and think humbly means to live with our two feet firmly planted on the ground, on what is real. This world, our dealings with human beings and our very own human nature that seeks pleasure and avoids pain can lead us to construct within our hearts and minds a very unreal world.  Being delusional and not genuinely realistic has always been more fun than any drug that has been and will ever be sold on the streets.  Avoiding reality and living in a fantasy that makes us feel good, pain free, is a choice that all too many make.  Demanding of ourselves that we respond to what really is, can be painful and upsetting.  However, in the end living the truth and not a lie will make us healthy, whole and holy. God is ready to help us do that.  As God, he alone can see the whole of reality, the fullness of the truth.  In seeking to avoid reality that we may find it painful to accept, we may naturally choose to delude ourselves by changing the world we choose to live in within our minds by constructing a pain-free fantasy filled world in our minds.  Pain is not enjoyable but life in this world demands that, with God’s help, we will not only live through the bad times but prosper because we endured, as Jesus did on the cross.

Luke 14:1, 7-14.   The social culture among those of high standing was to take pride in one’s elevated stature among the upper echelon and demand that their position was recognized by their peers.  Jesus was indirectly trying to get them to realize that what truly matters was what God thought of them and not their peers.  Those who live humbly before God will be exalted by the One whose opinion of us really counts for something.  The recognition they sought from their peers would disappear at one’s death but the rewards that God gives for one’s good works, especially for the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, will last forever.

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a.   God does not come as “a blazing fire and a gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them but, rather humbly yet at the same time majestically, as a magnificent vision of “the heavenly Jerusalem and countless angels” with God the Father, Jesus and the saints.

21C22.    Isaiah 66:18-21.   God will show his glory to all peoples so that they will worship him in Jerusalem with the Hebrews.

Psalm 117: “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”  “Praise the Lord, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples!”

Luke 13:22-39.   Jesus says that many will attempt to be saved but will be too weak to be strictly adherent to Jesus.  They will think that it was enough to have had some passing acquaintance with him and that it was adequate to just be a Jew to be saved.  They will see the Hebrew prophets in heaven along with many non-Jews but they will be cast out.  Salvation is only achieved by being submissive and obedient to Jesus.

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13.   We are exhorted to remember what God has taught us: to suffer through the trials and difficulties that God has sent us so to learn the lessons that God has given us.  “At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Jesus, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect (holy), he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  (Hebrews 5:8-9)  God will show his glory to all who live as his children.

21C19.   Isaiah 66:18-21.   “I come to gather the nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory.”  God now chooses all peoples as his people and not just the Hebrews.

Luke 13:22-30.   “Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”  The narrow gate is that one must do the will of God and nothing else.  Jesus said in John 15:14, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”  We must strive, make every effort or do our utmost to obey the will of God.  In verse 27 b & c, Jesus said, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me all you evildoers!”  They were friends of Jesus socially but not friends of the will of God.  They let him walk into their lives as acquaintances on the street but not into their hearts as the source of their life.  They did not come to Jesus from or out of a life lived in God but from some other source that treated God as someone only tangentially relevant to their lives.  Their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah earned them the title, ‘evildoers’. For that they will go to a hell that is a “wailing and grinding of teeth,” while their ancestors will go to the ‘kingdom of God’.  While they were born into the people of God, they will not get the inheritance that was to be theirs because they did not choose to follow the will of God so as to enter through the narrow gate.  Others, who were not born into the people God but nonetheless did “strive to enter through the narrow gate,” “will recline at table in the kingdom of God.”

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a.   “Endure your trials as ‘discipline’; God treats you as sons.”  “At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit or righteousness to those who are trained by it.”  In Hebrews 5:8 we read, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”  God gives us life to be lived advancing day by day on the road to heaven.  Daily we follow Jesus who gives us the Holy Spirit so to enable us to grow spiritually in a material world that poses many great obstacles to our entering “through the narrow gate.”  In Matthew 19:25c-26, the disciples said, “’Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible’” Paul writes in Philippians 4:13, “I have strength for everything through him who empowers me.” The joy that problems and difficulties give us is that by necessity we are driven to be much closer to God than peaceful times can ever do.  We are forced to go back and back to God to train our mortal flesh to be spiritual.  When the day our judgement comes, let us make God proud of the work he has done in us and through us.

20C22.    Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10.  This is that classic battle between the forces of good and evil.  Jeremiah, as spokesperson or prophet for God, was speaking against those who were not following the will of God and so they tried to put Jeremiah to death.  Jeremiah was rescued as God intervened for him through a royal court official.

Luke 12: 49-53.  “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.’”  Jesus, “the Messiah, the Son of God” (John 20:31b) was sent into this world to conquer the world (John 16:33c) and to protect those who belong to God (John 17:12) from those who belonged to the world and who hated those who belonged to God. (John 15:19) The symbolism of baptism that Jesus speaks of is one in which the adult person who is being baptized submerges into the water as a sign of his dying to all that is not of God to rise out of the water to live a new life in all that is of the Lord.  So baptism here symbolizes the death and resurrection that Jesus would go through to condemn Satan and conquer the forces of this world. (John 16:11 & 33c)

Hebrews 12:1-4.  The image of ‘running the race’ is one pushing ourselves to the limit to put out our very best as the way of living our faith.  It is natural ‘to go with the flow’ and just live life as an everyday routine.   Instead Jesus is calling on us to be on fire with the love of the Lord, to be the salt that makes the flavor our faith come alive and to be the light that brings to light the glory of Lord who is life for us.  Life is a “struggle against sin” because the devil, the world and our own bodies make sin look delicious.  “For the sake of the joy” that lies before us in heaven and the joy of walking now in the Lord, let us endure the many crosses that this world can put in our path.

Psalm 40.   “Lord, come to my aid!”   “You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, hold not back!”

20C19.   Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10.   Jeremiah had prophesized that, since the King of Jerusalem had made an alliance with Egypt against the Chaldeans, the Chaldeans would defeat Judah and take everyone into captivity.  For this, Jeremiah was hated and thrown into a muddy cistern to die.   However, God was merciful by sending a court official to get the king to have Jeremiah drawn out of the cistern so that he not die there.

Psalm 40.   God had come to the aid of Jeremiah and will come to the aid of anyone who calls out to him.  He is our help and deliverer.

Luke 12:49-53.  “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were blazing!’”  In John 12:31, 14:30 & 16:11, Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of this world who will be judged and condemned. Those who are followers of this world, its ways and its leader, Satan, are dedicated to fighting against Jesus and his followers to the very end.  Jesus said to Pilate in John 18:36: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  Jesus’ followers do not belong to this world (John 17:14) any more than Jesus does.  There can be no peace between Satan and his followers and Jesus and his followers, only war to the end.  To be at peace with Jesus means to be at war with Satan and what is his, this world.  “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”  The baptism Jesus is referring to is the fire of pain and death in which he will be immersed and subjected to by Satan and this world.  Waging war against Satan and this world has and will always give us pain and suffering but will also always result in glorious victory for those who remain loyal to the Lord.

Hebrews 12:1-4.  Paul writes, “Persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.”  What can be a more wonderful way to grow in holiness than to have in mind and heart that I am now following Christ, saying within ourselves, “Lead me, Lord, lead me!  Jesus said to his first Apostles, “Come, follow me.” The ordinary daily tasks of life and even the seductive temptations of sin can lead us to lose focus on the Lord.

 

19C22.    Wisdom 18:6-9.    The Hebrews in slavery in Egypt put their faith in their God who was to deliver them.  They waited for salvation to come because they knew that the Lord was their God and they were his people.

Luke 12:32-48.  Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”  However our God will only give the kingdom to those who treasure God as their God and not to those who instead of treasuring God are in love with the things of this world.  Look with great desire for the day when the Lord will call us to be with him forever.  Live and wait in expectation for him to call us to be completely his in heaven.  Always live ready to be called to judgment at any moment.  Make certain you do not get caught up in the pleasures of this world.  If you do, you will not be ready to enter the next.  To whatever degree we are lost in the things and ways of this world we will be purged or cleansed in Purgatory to make us ready to enter into our Father’s kingdom.  God does not waste his time and energy pouring his grace into us to help us to become his true sons and daughters without demanding results in our spiritual growth. Jesus said in Matthew 5:48: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  For the love he has poured into us he demands that we become loving.  “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19.   “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”  Faith is that by believing in God I already have what is hoped for even though I do not have it physically in hand.  Faith is trusting that God is true to being our Father whose love cannot fail.  Faith means that we are willing to wait on God’s good pleasure confident that we will never be denied God’s goodness.

19C19.   Wisdom 18:6-9.   The Hebrew people had sworn their commitment to God because they had the faith that God would never let them down.  “Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes.”

Psalm 33.   “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.”  The Lord “is our help and our shield.  May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.”

Luke 12:32-48.  In this Gospel Jesus is calling upon his people to enthusiastically prepare themselves to be called to judgement by acting in way that is pleasing to God, our Lord and Master. For those who do so, they will be rewarded; those who do not, they will be punished.  Jesus also makes it clear that there will be proportionality.  To the degree that we do not serve God’s will, we will to that degree be punished.  Finally Jesus says, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  In other words, those who have received more graces from the Lord, more will be expected of them.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19.  Believing that something is true because we put our trust in someone (God) who says and knows that it is true; but, not seeing or finding from our own investigation that it is true, is faith.  Abraham believed the promise God made to him, that from Abraham there was to be God’s own people, who were to be given their own homeland.  Abraham entrusted his future into the hands of God without having any evidence or proof that he had outside of the fact that God said it.

Seeing is not so much believing as it is knowing because we see for ourselves and have the truth. Faith is not k

nowing but trusting that some else knows.  Believing means that we don’t see or know the truth firsthand yet believe because we surrender our judgment into the hands of the one in whom we entrust our belief that they have given to us the knowledge of the truth, a knowledge that we did not have on our own.  Faith requires that we surrender the judgment of what is true to the one in whom we entrust ourselves. God knows firsthand but we do not.  We trust that God is passing on to us the truth that God himself knows.   Living each day trusting in God leads us to become people of a deeper and deeper faith in God because he shows his infinite faithfulness all the way to our heavenly homeland.  He is an ever faithful Father.  At times he allows our faith to be challenged as he did with Abraham in the case of his son Isaac; but the challenges will help us to be evermore trusting in the Lord, as he enables us to work through those challenges.  Isaac’s spared life was a symbol or sign to Abraham that God never fails those who entrust themselves to him.