Words of the Word

Ordinary Time Week 18: Saturday

“and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water.” (Matthew 17:15)

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

”If every disease and weakness which our Savior cured at that time among the people represents different symptoms in the soul, it stands to reason that by the paralytics are symbolized the palsied in soul, who keep it lying paralyzed in the body. By those who are blind are symbolized those who are blind in respect of things seen by the soul alone, and these are really blind. And by the deaf are symbolized those who are deaf in regard to the reception of the word of salvation. On the same principle it will be necessary that the matters regarding the epileptic should be investigated. This disease attacks those who suffer from it at considerable intervals, during which time he who suffers from it seems in no way to differ from the man in good health, at the season when the epilepsy is not working on him. You will find some souls that are often considered to be healthy suffering from symptoms like these in their chastity and the other virtues. But there comes a time when they are attacked by a kind of epilepsy, and then they seem to fall from their solid foundation and are seized by the deceits and other desires of this world.” (Commentary on Matthew, 13)

Collect

Draw near to Your servants, O Lord,
and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,
that, for those who glory in You
as their Creator and guide,
You may restore what You have created
and keep safe what You have restored.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

— Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest —
Ordinary Time Week 18: Friday

“For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.” (Matthew 16:27)

Saint John Chrysostom comments on this verse from today’s Gospel reading:

“Do you see how the glory of the Father and of the Son is all one glory? But if the glory is one, it is quite evident that the substance also is one. For if in one substance there be a difference of glory (“for there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory;” although the substance is one), how may the substance of those differ in which the glory is one? For he did not say, “In glory such as the Father’s,” whereby someone might suppose again some variation between the glory of the Father and the Son. Rather, he implies the entire perfection of the one God: “In that same glory, he will come,” for it to be deemed one and the same.

“Why are you afraid, Peter,” so he speaks, “as you hear of death? Then you will see me in the glory of the Father. If I am in glory, so are you all. Your interests are no way limited to the present life. Another sort of condition will take you up, a better one.” Nevertheless, when he had spoken of the good things to come, he did not neglect to speak also of the fearful things to come. He spoke of the judgment seat, and the inexorable account, and the inflexible sentence and the judgment that cannot be deceived.

Thus Christ’s discourse was not intended only to make people feel dismal, but it was tempered with good hope …. He reminded not only the sinners of punishment but also them that have done well of rewards and crowns.” (The Gospel of Matthew, «Homily 55»)

Ordinary Time Collect

May Saint Dominic
come to the help of Your Church
by his merits and teaching, O Lord,
and may he,
who was an outstanding preacher of your truth,
be a devoted intercessor on our behalf.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Ordinary Time Week 18: Tuesday

“It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” (Matthew 15:11)

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

”Now anyone who has come to this place in the text can agree that it is “not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man,” even if it is considered to be defiling by Jews. In exactly the same way it is “not what enters into the mouth” that makes the person holy. This is so even if that which is called the bread of the Lord is considered to make the person holy by some of the more impeccable disciples. The two cases are similar. It is not the food but the conscience of the one who eats with doubt about its propriety that defiles the person who has eaten. For “the one who doubts is condemned if one eats, because one is not eating from faith.” It is also like the case in which “nothing is pure to the one who is defiled and unbelieving.” The thing involved is impure not because of itself but because of the person’s defilement and unbelief. In the same way, that which is “made holy through the word of God and prayer” does not on its own account make the one who uses it holy. For if it did, it would also make holy the one who eats of the Lord “in an unworthy manner” and no one would become “weak” or “sickly” or would “sleep” because of this food. For this is what Paul showed in the statement, “Because of this many among you are weak and sickly and a significant number are falling asleep.” Therefore, in the case of the bread of the Lord, the one who uses it derives benefit when one shares in the bread with a mind that is undefiled and a conscience that is pure.” (Commentary on Matthew, 11)

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

— Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest —
Ordinary Time Week 18: Monday

“Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”” (Matthew 14:28)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“Peter is found to be of ardent faith at all times. When the disciples are asked who people say that Jesus is, Peter declares him to be the Son of God. Though mistaken in wanting to follow Christ to his Passion, he is not mistaken in his affection. He does not desire the death of him who a short time before he declared to be the Son of God. Peter is among the first to go up the mountain with the Savior and is the only one to follow him in his Passion. With bitter tears he immediately washes away the sin of denial that sprang up from fear. After the Passion when they were fishing in Lake Gennesaret, the Lord was standing on the beach, while the others were slowly sailing in the boat. He hesitated not for a moment. He put on his overgarment and plunged into the sea. And now, with the same ardor of faith he always had, the other apostles gazing in awe, he believes that he can do by the will of the Master what the latter could do by nature. “Bid me come to you on the water.” Just say the word, and immediately the waves will become solid. The body which of itself is heavy will become light.” (Commentary on Matthew, 2)

Collect

Almighty and merciful God,
Who made the Priest Saint John Vianney
wonderful in his pastoral zeal,
grant, we pray,
that through his intercession and example
we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ
and attain with them eternal glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

— Words of THE WORD —
Ordinary Time Week 18: Sunday

Antiphon

O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay. (Psalm 69:2, 6)

Gospel excerpt

“Taking (λαβὼν, labon) the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing (εὐλόγησεν, eulogesen), broke (κλάσας, klasas) the loaves, and gave (ἔδωκεν, edoken) them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds (Matthew 14:19).”

Reflection

A professor colleague and her family are members of an area Reformed Jewish Congregation. On her side of the family, many relatives are devout and observant. The Covenant and Synagogue are most important for family and proper living. On her husband's side of the family, a number of relatives are devout Catholics. Throughout the course of a year, each side of the family graces the insides of Synagogue and Church alike.

This colleagues and I met some time ago and she had a question: “First Holy Communion - that is a ‘big thing’ for Catholics, correct?” Knowing how this event has become so commercialized over the years I said with caution, “Yes ... and that is an interesting question.” She went on to explain that her family had been invited to a relative’s First Communion. “We went to the Church and the party afterward. I could not help thinking how ‘passive’ the whole event appeared.” “Passive?” I inquired. “Well, compared to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah in our Congregation, First Communion seemed to me to involve so little.”

The «Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes,» as the event has come to be known, has a singular distinction among the four Gospels. This is the only event in Jesus’ Public Ministry that all four Evangelists narrate. Mark and Matthew take the event a step further by recording it twice in their respective Gospels. All of this suggests the importance the early Christians saw in this event as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ total Gift of Himself in the sacrificial meal of the Most Holy Eucharist. Yet here is where things unfortunately get ‘dicey’ in the history of biblical interpretation and homiletic creativity. Many attempt, once again, ‘to figure out’ what exactly happened. Some, sadly, go so far as to say that the ‘miracle’ is not multiplication but sharing (anyone who has spent time in hot, humid Galilee knows that food stored in the fold of one's woolen garment is not suitable even for animals!). Even more tragic is that such an approach misses key actions that eventually help us to experience the Most Holy Eucharist as anything but passive.

When the Gospels present this event, when Saint Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper and when the Eucharistic Prayer is voiced, 4 actions are central: taking, blessing, breaking and giving. These are central to the event proclaimed this Sunday because they are central actions in the life of Jesus Himself. He gives Himself to be taken by His Father for the mission of healing love. Jesus is pronounced blessed by His Father as the “Beloved” and then broken in death that He might be given to all for our salvation as the quintessential model of love. The focus is not what ‘little we give to the Lord’ but first and foremost what Jesus has done for us in love that blows the limits of our psyche.

In this sense, the Most Holy Eucharist is quite an active event, especially when we grow more conscious of allowing ourselves to be taken, blessed, broken and given to others in the service of His Father's Kingdom. Pope-Emeritus Benedict summed it well: “the Eucharist can never be merely a kind of community builder. To receive, to eat of the tree of life thus means to receive the crucified Lord and consequently to accept the parameters of His life, His obedience, His yes, the standard of our creatureliness. It means to accept the love of God, which is our truth - that dependence on God which is no more an imposition from without than is the Son's Sonship. It is precisely this dependence that is freedom, because it is truth and love.” (In the Beginning, page 76)

Indirectly, my Jewish colleague stumbled upon a profound insight in terms of Jesus and the Gift of Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist. He is Gift: we do nothing and can do nothing to earn His presence and His love. Such may seem ‘seem’ passive as each of us does nothing to cause His presence and love to be showered upon us. Yet as He permits Himself to be taken, blessed, broken and given - these actions are far from passive. And in light of what He has graciously done for us, we act in the mode of response by consciously letting our lives be taken, blessed, broken and given in service to the building of His Body and the coming of His Father’s Kingdom. Thus in the end, our energies are directed not to ‘figuring out the miracle,’ but living the miracle as a response to the love Jesus has demonstrated for us in His passion, death and resurrection.

So ... how passive is this?

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

Ordinary Time Week 18: Sunday

“... and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.” (Matthew 14:19)

Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“They are ordered to sit down on the grass and, according to another Evangelist, to recline in groups of hundreds and of fifties. In this way from the repentance of the fifty, they ascended toward the perfect summit of one hundred. He looked up to heaven that he might teach them to keep their eyes focused there. He then took in hand five loaves of bread and two fish; he broke the loaves and gave the food to the disciples. By the breaking of the bread, he makes it into a seedbed of food—for if the bread had been left intact and not pulled apart and broken into pieces, they would have been unable to feed the great crowds of men, women and children. The law with the prophets are therefore pulled apart and broken into pieces. Mysteries are made manifest, so that what did not feed the multitude of people in its original whole and unbroken state now feeds them in its divided state.” (Commentary on Matthew, 2)

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

Ordinary Time Week 17: Saturday

“... for John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” (Matthew 14:4)

Saint Peter Chrysologus comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at today’s Mass:

“John aroused Herod by his moral admonitions, not by any formal accusation. He wanted to correct, not to suppress. Herod, however, preferred to suppress rather than be reconciled. To those who are held captive, the freedom of the one innocent of wrongdoing becomes hateful. Virtue is undesirable to those who are immoral; holiness is abhorrent to those who are impious; chastity is an enemy to those who are impure; integrity is a hardship for those who are corrupt; frugality runs counter to those who are self-indulgent; mercy is intolerable to those who are cruel, as is loving-kindness to those who are pitiless and justice to those who are unjust. The Evangelist indicates this when he says, “John said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip.’” This is where John runs into trouble. He who admonishes those who are evil gives offense. He who repudiates wrongdoers runs into trouble. John was saying what was proper of the law, what was proper of justice, what was proper of salvation and what was proper certainly not of hatred but of love. And look at the reward he received from the ungodly for his loving concern!” (Sermon 127)

Collect

O God,
Protector of those who hope in You,
without whom nothing has firm foundation,
nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance Your mercy upon us
and grant that, with You as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

— Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori —
Ordinary Time Week 17: Friday

“And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.” (Matthew 13:58)

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

“It seems to me that the production of miracles is similar in some ways to the case of physical things. Cultivation is not sufficient to produce a harvest of fruits unless the soil, or rather the atmosphere, cooperates to this end. And the atmosphere of itself is not sufficient to produce a harvest without cultivation. The one who providentially orders creation did not design things to spring up from the earth without cultivation. Only in the first instance did he do so when he said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation, with the seed sowing according to its kind and according to its likeness.” It is just this way in regard to the production of miracles. The complete work resulting in a healing is not displayed without those being healed exercising faith. Faith, of whatever quality it might be, does not produce a healing without divine power.” (Commentary on Matthew, 10)

Collect

O God,
Who constantly raise up in Your Church
new examples of virtue,
grant that we may follow so closely in the footsteps
of the Bishop Saint Alphonsus in his zeal for souls
as to attain the same rewards that are his in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

— Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest —
Ordinary Time Week 17: Thursday

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Matthew 13:47)

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

“Now, these things being said, we must hold that “the kingdom of heaven is similar to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind,” in order to set forth the varied character of the principles of action among people, which are as different as possible from each other. The expression “gathered from every kind” embraces both those worthy of praise and those worthy of blame in respect of their inclinations toward the forms of virtues or of vices. And the kingdom of heaven is compared with the broad and variegated texture of a net, with reference to the old and the new Scripture, which are woven together of thoughts of widely varied kinds.

And this net has been cast into the waves of the sea. The waves toss about persons in every part of the world as they swim in the bitter affairs of life. Before the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, this net was not wholly filled. The net expected by the Law and the Prophets had to be completed by him who says, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets; I came not to destroy but to fulfill.” The texture of the net has been completed in the Gospels and in the words of Christ through the apostles. On this account, therefore, “the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and gathered every kind of fish.” In addition to what has been said, the expression “gathered from every kind” may refer to the calling of the Gentiles out of every nation.” (Commentary on Matthew, 10)

Collect

O God,
Who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in Your Church
to further the greater glory of Your name,
grant that by his help we may imitate him
in fighting the good fight on earth
and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one 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

Ordinary Time Week 17: Wednesday

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

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

”Now a man who comes to the field, whether to the Scriptures or to the Christ who is formed both from things manifest and from things hidden, finds the hidden treasure of wisdom whether in Christ or in the Scriptures. For, going round to visit the field and searching the Scriptures and seeking to understand the Christ, he finds the treasure in it. Having found it, he hides it, thinking that it is not without danger to reveal to everybody the secret meanings of the Scriptures or the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And, having hidden it, he goes away. Now he is focused on the heavy labor of devising how he shall buy the field, or the Scriptures, that he may make them his own possession, receiving from the people of God the oracles of God with which the Jews were first entrusted. But when one taught by Christ has bought the field, the kingdom of God, according to another parable, is like a vineyard that is “taken from” the first and given to other nations bringing forth its fruits. The one who bought the field in faith, as the fruit of his having sold all else that he had, no longer was keeping anything that was formerly his. For they would be a distracting source of evil to him.

And you will give the same application, if the field containing the hidden treasure is Christ. Those who give up all things and follow him have, as it were in another way, sold their possessions. Thus by having sold and surrendered them and having received in their place a noble resolution from God their helper, they may purchase, at great cost worthy of the field, the field containing the hidden treasure.” (Commentary on Matthew, 10)

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