Words of the Word

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week
in Ordinary Time

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Luke 12:49.)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“He also said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” These flaming words from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ reveal the malice of sin. He also reveals the excellence of good actions performed for the glory of God and his Christ. Then we are ready for the baptism of water, which is a type of the cross, death, burial and resurrection from the dead.

One who is prepared to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit is one who has been born anew, who undergoes a change of residence, habits and associates so that, walking by the Spirit, he may be ready to be baptized in the name of the Son and to put on Christ.” (Concerning Baptism)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
grant that we may always
conform our will to Yours
and serve Your majesty
in sincerity of heart
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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We do not know what it is right to pray for ...

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Letter to Proba (Letter 130)

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

You may still want to ask why the Apostle said: We do not know what it is right to pray for, because, surely, we cannot believe that either he or those to whom he wrote did not know the Lord’s Prayer.

He showed that he himself shared this uncertainty. Did he know what it was right to pray for when he was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to bruise him, so that he might not be puffed up by the greatness of what was revealed to him? Three times he asked the Lord to take it away from him, which showed that he did not know what he should ask for in prayer. At last, he heard the Lord’s answer, explaining why the prayer of so great a man was not granted, and why it was not expedient for it to be granted: My grace is sufficient for you, for power shines forth more perfectly in weakness.

In the kind of affliction, then, which can bring either good or ill, we do not know what it is right to pray for; yet, because it is difficult, troublesome and against the grain for us, weak as we are, we do what every human would do, we pray that it may be taken away from us. We owe, however, at least this much in our duty to God: if he does not take it away, we must not imagine that we are being forgotten by him but because of our loving endurance of evil, must await greater blessings in its place. In this way, power shines forth more perfectly in weakness. These words are written to prevent us from having too great an opinion of ourselves if our prayer is granted, when we are impatient in asking for something that it would be better not to receive; and to prevent us from being dejected, and distrustful of God’s mercy toward us, if our prayer is not granted, when we ask for something that would bring us greater affliction, or completely ruin us through the corrupting influence of prosperity. In these cases we do not know what is right to ask for in prayer.

Therefore, if something happens that we did not pray for, we must have no doubt at all that what God wants is more expedient than what we wanted ourselves. Our great Mediator gave us an example of this. After he had said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me, he immediately added, Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father, so transforming the human will that was his through his taking a human nature. As a consequence, and rightly so, through the obedience of one man the many are made righteous.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week
in Ordinary Time

“Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” (Luke 12:39.)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“We should look for Christ’s coming again from heaven. He will come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels. He has taught us saying that we must be like those who wait for their lord to return from the banqueting house, so that when he comes and knocks, they may open the door to him immediately. For Christ will return as from a feast. This plainly shows that God always dwells in festivals that are fitting for him. In heaven above, there is no sadness whatsoever since nothing can occasion grief. That heavenly nature is incapable of passion and of being affected by anything whatsoever of this kind.

We typically divide the night into three or four watches. The sentinels on the city walls, who watch the motions of the enemy, after being on guard three or four hours, deliver the watch and guard over to others. With us, there are three ages. The first is childhood. The second is youth. The third is old age. Now the first of these, in which we are still children, is not called to account by God but is deemed worthy of pardon, because of the innocence as yet of the mind and the weakness of the understanding. The second and the third—the periods of adulthood and old age—owe obedience and piety of life to God, according to his good pleasure. Whoever is found watching and well belted, whether by chance he is still young or has arrived at old age, shall be blessed. For he will be counted worthy of attaining to Christ’s promises.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 92)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
grant that we may always conform our will to Yours
and serve Your majesty in sincerity of heart.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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You will find everything in the Lord’s Prayer

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Letter to Proba

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

We read, for example: May you receive glory among all the nations as you have among us, and May your prophets prove themselves faithful. What does this mean but Hallowed be your name?

We read: Lord of power and might, touch our hearts and show us your face, and we shall be saved. What does this mean but Your kingdom come?

We read: Direct my ways by your word, and let no sin rule over me. What does this mean but Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

We read: Do not give me poverty or riches. What does this mean but Give us this day our daily bread?

We read: Lord, remember David and all his patient suffering, and Lord, if I have done this, if there is guilt on my hands, if I have repaid evil for evil. What does that mean but Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us?

We read: Rescue me, God, from my enemies, deliver me from those who rise up against me. What does this mean but Deliver us from evil?

If you study every word of the petitions of Scripture, you will find, I think, nothing that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray, then, we may use different words to say the same things, but we may not say different things.

We should not hesitate to make these prayers for ourselves, for our friends, for strangers, and even for enemies, though the emotions in our heart may vary with the strength or weakness of our relationships with individuals.

You now know, I think, the attitudes you should bring to prayer, as well as the petitions you should make, and this not because of what I have taught you but thanks to the teaching of the one who has been pleased to teach us all.

We must search out the life of happiness, we must ask for it from the Lord our God. Many have discussed at great length the meaning of happiness, but surely we do not need to go to them and their long drawn out discussions. Holy Scripture says concisely and with truth: Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. We are meant to belong to that people, and to be able to see God and live with him forever, and so the object of this command is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and a sincere faith.

In these three qualities, “a good conscience” stands for “hope.” Faith, hope and love bring safely to God the person who prays, that is, the person who believes, who hopes, who desires, and who ponders what he is asking of the Lord in the Lord’s Prayer.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week
in Ordinary Time

“Gird your loins and light your lamps...” (Luke 12:35.)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“The girding of our loins signifies the readiness of the mind to work hard in every thing praiseworthy. Those who apply themselves to bodily labors and are engaged in strenuous toil have their loins girded. The lamp apparently represents the wakefulness of the mind and intellectual cheerfulness. We say that the human mind is awake when it repels any tendency to slumber off into that carelessness that often is the means of bringing it into subjection to every kind of wickedness. When sunk in stupor, the heavenly light within the mind is liable to be endangered, or even already is in danger from a violent and impetuous blast of wind. Christ commands us to be awake. To this, his disciple also arouses us by saying, “Be awake. Be watchful.” Further on, the very wise Paul also says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall give you light.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 92)

Collect

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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On the Lord’s Prayer

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Letter to Proba

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

We need to use words so that we may remind ourselves to consider carefully what we are asking, not so that we may think we can instruct the Lord or prevail on him.

Thus, when we say: Hallowed be your name, we are reminding ourselves to desire that his name, which in fact is always holy, should also be considered holy among men. I mean that it should not be held in contempt. But this is a help for men, not for God.

And as for our saying: Your kingdom come, it will surely come whether we will it or not. But we are stirring up our desires for the kingdom so that it can come to us and we can deserve to reign there.

When we say: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking him to make us obedient so that his will may be done in us as it is done in heaven by his angels.

When we say: Give us this day our daily bread, in saying this day we mean “in this world.” Here we ask for a sufficiency by specifying the most important part of it; that is, we use the word “bread” to stand for everything. Or else we are asking for the sacrament of the faithful, which is necessary in this world, not to gain temporal happiness but to gain the happiness that is everlasting.

When we say: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, we are reminding ourselves of what we must ask and what we must do in order to be worthy in turn to receive.

When we say: Lead us not into temptation, we are reminding ourselves to ask that his help may not depart from us; otherwise we could be seduced and consent to some temptation, or despair and yield to it.

When we say: Deliver us from evil, we are reminding ourselves to reflect on the fact that we do not yet enjoy the state of blessedness in which we shall suffer no evil. This is the final petition contained in the Lord’s Prayer, and it has a wide application. In this petition the Christian can utter his cries of sorrow, in it he can shed his tears, and through it he can begin, continue and conclude his prayer, whatever the distress in which he finds himself. Yes, it was very appropriate that all these truths should be entrusted to us to remember in these very words.

Whatever be the other words we may prefer to say (words which the one praying chooses so that his disposition may become clearer to himself or which he simply adopts so that his disposition may be intensified), we say nothing that is not contained in the Lord’s Prayer, provided of course we are praying in a correct and proper way. But if anyone says something which is incompatible with this prayer of the Gospel, he is praying in the flesh, even if he is not praying sinfully. And yet I do not know how this could be termed anything but sinful, since those who are born again through the Spirit ought to pray only in the Spirit.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Memorial of
Saints John de Brébeuf and
Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“He was correct when he did not listen to the man who, in disagreement with his brother, said, “Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” He said, “Master, tell my brother.” Tell him what? He said, “To divide the inheritance with me.” The Lord said, “Speak, man.” Why do you want to divide it except because you are human? Whenever someone says, “I am of Paul,” but another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not merely human? “Tell me, man, who has appointed me a judge of the inheritance among you? I have come to gather, not to scatter.” He said, “I say to you, guard against all greed.” Greed wants to divide, just as love desires to gather. What is the significance of “guard against all greed,” unless it is “fill yourselves with love”? We, possessing love for our portion, inconvenience the Lord because of our brother just as that man did against his brother, but we do not use the same plea. He said, “Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” We say, “Master, tell my brother that he may have my inheritance.” (Sermon 265.)

Collect

O God,
Who chose to manifest the blessed hope
of Your eternal Kingdom by the toil of
Saints John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and
their companions and
by the shedding of their blood,
graciously grant that through their intercession
the faith of Christians
may be strengthened day by day.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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May I die only for you, Jesus, who willingly died for me

North American Martyrs

Jesuits Missionaries

An excerpt from his Spiritual Diaries
Saint John de Brébeuf

Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered.

Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name. I vow before your eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, before your most holy Mother and her most chaste spouse, before the angels, apostles and martyrs, before my blessed fathers Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier - in truth I vow to you, Jesus my savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant.

I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit. For this reason, my beloved Jesus, and because of the surging joy which moves me, here and now I offer my blood and body and life. May I die only for you, if you will grant me this grace, since you willingly died for me. Let me so live that you may grant me the gift of such a happy death. In this way, my God and savior, I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it. My God, even if all the brutal tortures which prisoners in this region must endure should fall on me, I offer myself most willingly to them and I alone shall suffer them all.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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Surprise, surprise, surprise —
a Gentile King is the Anointed ... the Messiah!

Note: Today is WORLD MISSION SUNDAY, a very important Sunday in Ordinary Time. Given the importance of mission in the Church as it reflects an essential work of Jesus, Scripture Readings and Prayers may be different in your parish. What follows below is based on the Scriptures and Prayers for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
Subduing nations before him,
stripping kings of their strength,
Opening doors before him,
leaving the gates unbarred…”

Isaiah 45:1
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Lord speaks and addresses him by name. He is the Lord’s “anointed” (Hebrew, מָשִׁיחַ mashiach, this is the same root for Messiah). The Lord grasps his “right hand.” He conquers. He strikes fear among leaders of nations. He is “chosen.” He is given a mission that all people may know “I am the Lord and there is no other.” Sound familiar? Perhaps it is Isaiah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. No. Perhaps it is one of the kings of Israel? No. He is Cyrus, the pagan, gentile king of Persia. This point becomes even more interesting as we take a crash-course in a particular period of Israel’s history.

The historical context of the Isaian proclamation this Sunday is the era of the Babylonian Captivity, second only to the Exodus as a pivotal event in Israel’s life as the Chosen People. The Babylonians conquered Israel in 587 BC (the Northern Kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians about 134 years earlier, 721 BC). Despite repeated warnings from the prophets to return to living the Covenant faithfully and devoutly, many in Israel preferred a life of pleasure and instant gratification. Covenant living was too hard and certainly inconvenient. Such a way of living was also an embarrassment when it came to wanting to be like everyone else. Israel once again ‘forgot’ that she was different: she was set-apart (Hebrew, qadosh which eventually is translated “holy” in English) but wanting to be like her neighbors, Israel forsook monotheism and its radical demands of living. Yes, God is One – AND – monotheism requires that this oneness of life be demonstrated in how one as an individual and as a community lives. Morally weakened, Israel had no power born of a disciplined, covenant way of living to battle an enemy. Not only did Jerusalem fall to the Babylonians, but the glorious Temple of Solomon lie in ruins. The movers-and-shakers of society were rounded up and marched back to Babylon to be assimilated into a new culture. The elderly, sick, criminals, women and children were left behind in Jerusalem. As the Babylonian conquers returned home, they gave Jerusalem and her inhabitants one last gift: salted water supplies and fields. Those who were left behind died from dehydration and starvation.

One can only imagine the state of mind that gripped the Israelites living in captivity. It began to dawn on them gradually that the reason for the destruction of Jerusalem was their own sinfulness and lack of attentiveness to the demands of Covenant living. But it was now impossible to atone for those sins. Even if they could get back to Jerusalem there was no Temple within which to offer a fitting sacrifice. To say that Israel was depressed was certainly an understatement. They needed an infusion of hope and that was the mission God entrusted to Isaiah (see chapter 40).

One can appreciate Israel’s reticence to immediately embrace Isaiah’s hope-filled words. They seemed too good to be true, and human nature knows that if something is that good, chances are it will backfire. Israel could also point to obstacles: mountains, valleys and rugged terrain. Isaiah proclaimed boldly that the obstacles would be transformed (not destroyed) by the hand of God. Practically speaking, people wondered how they would be able to leave from under the Babylonian rule; they were, after all, prisoners of war. That changed in 539/538 BC when Cyrus (King of Persia), known in history as “the Great,” conquered Babylon. Unlike many leaders before him, Cyrus believed it made good political sense to permit people to hold onto their culture, their way of life and even their religious beliefs and practices. So long as people paid their taxes and kept the peace, the Persian government was happy. Cyrus believed that if people could keep their customs, such would reduce civil unrest and make the task of managing an empire far easier than imposing a particular culture or exiling whole groups of people to foreign lands. With Cyrus as sole ruler, Israel travelled home and began to rebuild the temple, with the intentional and bountiful assistance of Cyrus.

On one level, this appears as a ‘happily ever after story’ since everything works out in the end. Yet within the context of Isaiah, there is much about Cyrus and his work that is important for believers of any age – ours certainly included – to take to heart for the good of the salvation of all. There is the temptation for people of religious traditions, especially those with a substantial human history to live by the ‘11th commandment:’ ‘we’ve always done it this way. God can’t certainly act in any other way.’ Intellectually we know that such a commandment never made it to the list but our ways of thinking, speaking and acting reveal otherwise. Historically, we can look back and marvel at the hand of God and give thanks for great thinkers and leaders such as Cyrus. Yet at the time, how many in Israel’s camp would have tolerated the good talk about Cyrus? He was a pagan, a gentile and not numbered among the Chosen People as Israel understood it at that time. Many, no doubt, considered Isaiah a heretic when he delivered the prophetic Word naming Cyrus an anointed, a chosen and one entrusted with a Divine mission. Hindsight is 20-20 and when we’re in the thick of things, it is hard to think outside the box. When life as we know it is crashing in all around us, we naturally revert to the familiar and fight change at all costs. Yet the covenant-person and covenant-community must be properly attentive and discern the will of God in the present time. Thankfully in this setting, Israel was docile and pliable enough to discern the movement of God in their lives and in the world. It resulted in a joyous return home and the rebuilding of a cherished culture and life in what would be the iconic Second Temple.

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads and
to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“He [Jesus] said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew 22:21-22)

In an ancient work known as the Incomplete Work on Matthew, an anonymous Ancient Christian Writer (ACW) offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“The image of God is not depicted on gold but is imaged in humanity. The coin of Caesar is gold; that of God, humanity. Caesar is seen in his currency; God, however, is known through human beings. And so give your wealth to Caesar but reserve for God the sole innocence of your conscience, where God is beheld. For the hand of Caesar has crafted an image by likenesses and lives each year by renewable decree. However, the divine hand of God has shown his image in ten points.

What ten points? From five carnal ones and five spiritual ones through which we see and understand what things are useful under God’s image. So let us always reflect the image of God in these ways:

I do not swell up with the arrogance of pride;

nor do I droop with the blush of anger;

nor do I succumb to the passion of avarice;

nor do I surrender myself to the ravishes of gluttony;

nor do I infect myself with the duplicity of hypocrisy;

nor do I contaminate myself with the filth of rioting;

nor do I grow flippant with the pretension of conceit;

nor do I grow enamored of the burden of heavy drinking;

nor do I alienate by the dissension of mutual admiration;

nor do I infect others with the biting of detraction;

nor do I grow conceited with the vanity of gossip.

Rather, instead,

I will reflect the image of God in that I feed on love;

grow certain on faith and hope;

strengthen myself on the virtue of patience;

grow tranquil by humility;

grow beautiful by chastity;

am sober by abstention;

am made happy by tranquility;

and am ready for death by practicing hospitality.

It is with such inscriptions that God imprints his coins with an impression made neither by hammer nor by chisel but has formed them with his primary divine intention. For Caesar required his image on every coin, but God has chosen man, whom he has created, to reflect his glory.” (Incomplete Work on Matthew, «Homily 40»

Background on Cyrus the Great for Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Collect

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen