Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:15.)

Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“That this is heavenly food is demonstrated by the person speaking: “I shall rain upon you bread from heaven.” Manna is a cause (aition), because God, who waters minds with the dew of wisdom, uses it as an instrument. And manna is a kind of matter (hyle), because souls that see it and taste it are delighted and ask whence it comes, manna which is more splendid that light and sweeter than honey. They can be answered with a chain of quotations from Scripture: “This is the bread that the Lord gave to you to eat,” and “This is the Word of God which God has established” or ordained. By this bread the souls of the prudent are fed and delighted, since it is fair and sweet, illuminating the souls of the hearers with the splendor of truth and drawing them on with the sweetness of the virtues.” (Letter 55)


View Words of THE WORD study of today’s Gospel

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. 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

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

“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 (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“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,
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. 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

Top

Jesus’ Signs: need for an urgent proper choice

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

“Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs (σημεῖα - semeia)
he was performing on the sick (ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενούντων - epi ton asthenounton).”

(John 6:1-2.)

θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

After a rather contentious battle with the crowds over healing on the Sabbath, His works, His relationship with the Father and believing, Jesus headed for the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The saintly Evangelist recorded that the crowds followed and apparently did so, not to continue debating Jesus, but because of the “signs He was was performing on the sick.” Such is the initiatory action that set the stage for what has come to be known as the “Bread of Life Discourse.”

σημεῖον (semeion), translated into English by the word sign, is an important aspect of the The Gospel according to Saint John. Many scripture scholars note the divison of this Gospel into the ‘Book of Signs’ and ‘the Book of Glory.’ Some of Jesus’ actions are recorded as signs, for example: Water to Wine at Cana (chapter 2), Healing of the Man born blind (chapter 9) and the calling forth of Lazarus (chapter 11). Other actions of Jesus are structurally similar to signs but are not explicitly termed such, for example: Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (chapter 5) and Jesus walking on water (chapter 6). While scholarly purests debate the actual signs and their number, in the Fourth Gospel the actions of Jesus from John 1:19 though the end of chapter 12 have a number of common elements.

Signs are ‘of the senses’ in other words, there is something touchable, tangible visible, etc... (might one even say sacramental?) about Jesus’ actions. Secondly, these signs satisfy or provide a remedy for a particular and immediate need. In the Jewish World of Jesus’ day, people would have understood this as ysh (yashaw often translated into English by the word salvation), that is, providing some element of the created world necessary for living. Thirdly, signs - as done by Jesus (an important point!) - ‘carry’ within them a means for being able to look beyond the immediate and ‘see’ or experience a deeper reality. This requires a choice by the recipient of the sign. One can choose to let the sign satisfy on one level without going any further.

Use a stop sign as a comparison. The physical reality of the octagonal red sign or word painted on the road surface calls a driver attention at an intersection. A driver must choose to halt progress. The stop sign or painted word has no power within itself to cause a driver to stop. There is no hook that springs from the sign, grabs an axle and prohibits vehicular movement until the road is clear. In order for the automobile to stap, a driver must make a choice to do so and complete that choice by applying the brake pedal. Jesus’ signs differ. While one must make a choice, the way He performs the sign embues the sign with power, a power initially to establish a connection - should she or he choose - with the Jesus. For Jesus, His signs are intended to spark a relationship with Him, what the Scriptures (especially Saint John’s Gospel) term believing. The concreteness of a given sign ordered initially to remedying a particular emptiness is intended ultimately to draw one into communion with the Person Jesus Who alone satisfies all the hungers of the human heart.

As chapter 6 opens, the crowd followed Jesus because of the “signs He was performing on the sick (chapter 5).” While particular ailments are mentioned in chapter 5 and throughout all the Gospels (for example: blind, lame and paralyzed) there is also the ‘generic’ sick (τῶν ἀσθενούντων - ton asthenounton). Taken from the verb ἀσθενέω (astheneo) and often translated into English as sick, scholars note that in antiquity (especially in terms of Greek medicine), ἀσθενέω (astheneo) meant “to be weak,” “a noticeable loss of strength” or “to be in a weakened condition.” In Greek and Jewish usage, the verb described not only physical fatigue that impeded movement but also a malaise when it came to living a moral or virtuous life (see Mark 14:38, “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”) ἀσθενέω (astheneo) usage, especially in the early Christian world, also noted a twofold aspect to the weakened condition: on one hand the loss of strength could be attributed to choices made that rendered one physically and morally weak. On the other hand, the human condition itself, fundamentally limited and dependent upon the Father (see Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”) is always in need of assistance to live physically and spiritually.

With their journey across the Sea and their inability (or refusal) to see the deeper meaning of the sign, Jesus makes use of food - 5 barley pieces and 2 morsels of preserved fish (not all that tasty, more on that in the weeks to come) - concrete elements of this world to be another sign hopefully leading the crowd this time to connect with Him. Stay tuned.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” (John 6:9.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel, Saint Romanus the Melodist writes:

“Master, we can find only five barley loaves;
No one of us brought anything into the desert,
But a child is here who has them.

O Lover of man, no other resource is possible for us.
For an enormous and boundless number of people,
O Man of pity,
How can these five loaves be sufficient?
In addition, he has two fishes.
But hurry and nourish them, since Thou art
The heavenly bread of immortality.”

When Christ heard these words of His disciples,
He answered them in this way:
“You are mistaken if you do not know
That I am the Creator of the universe;
I provide for the world;
I now know clearly what these people need;
I see the desert and that the sun is setting;
Indeed I arranged the setting of the sun;
I understand the distress of the crowd which is here;
I know what I have in mind to do for them.
I myself shall cure their hunger, for I am
The heavenly bread of immortality.

“Even though you consider carefully,
can you as mere men secure nourishment,
Or can you, though you are worried, feed the people?
Or, then, if you cannot feed them, have you the power to keep silent?

I, alone, as Creator take thought for all.
I exist as good, God before the centuries.
And I provide every kind of food for all people;

But you, on beholding the multitude, are worried,
And you do not consider the One who provides abundantly,
As I am set before all, offering
The heavenly bread of immortality.

“I know in advance what you are thinking
and what you are saying to each other,
As you see the people, the means of provision, and the hour.
You are reasoning, ‘Who will feed the entire crowd in the desert?’
Well, know clearly, friends, who I am.

I fed Israel in the desert;
I gave them bread from Heaven;
In a region without water,
I made water to flow from a rock;
Since I am the heavenly bread of immortality.”

(Kontakion on the Multiplication of Loaves, 13.)

Reflection on Jesus’ signs from this Sunday’s Gospel.

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. Amen.

/div>

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

 

Top

The Desert - more than vacational r and r: it is an experience of identity

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

“The apostles gathered together (συνάγονται, sunagontai) with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place (ἔρημον, eremon) and rest (ἀναπαύσασθε, anapausasthe) a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place (ἔρημον, eremon).
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.”

(Mark 6:30-34.)

θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

When last we left Jesus’ apostles, He sent them out to “preach repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them (Mark 6:12-13).” In the meantime, the Evangelist Mark records the events that eventually culminated with the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Even though these details are not proclaimed this Sunday, the message of the Baptist’s fidelity and the cost of that fidelity is integral to the apostles’ mission. When the scene shifts back to the apostles, they “gathered together (συνάγονται, sunagontai),” “reported (ἀπήγγειλαν, apeggeilan)” and were led “to a deserted place [to] rest (ἀναπαύσασθε, avapausasthe) a while.”

It would seem only natural for the apostles to report “all they had done and taught.” After all, they were sent out by Jesus Who gave specific instructions regarding attire and the work they were to do. The fact that they gathered – or more precisely, how they gathered is noteworthy here. The Greek verb συνάγω (sunago) can be translated “to gather” as it appears in this Sunday’s proclamation and it can also be translated “to cause to gather.” In this sense, ‘the gathering’ is the result of something (or here, Someone) else enabling the action to happen. In the case of the apostles, this is not only their common sense suggesting that it is a good idea to fill Jesus in on what happened. “To cause to gather” suggests that Jesus in the One Who gathers the apostles together. This sense of Another gathering others together is quite consistent with the background of Jesus’ Public Ministry. The Greek verb συνάγω (sunago) is part of the root family that includes the Greek noun συναγωγή (synagoge - synagogue). The synagogue is the place where the assembly (Hebrew, qahal) gathers. The qahal is the assembly that is convoked by God’s word, God’s summoning together. The point here is that the initiative lies clearly with God, not humanity. The coming together ‘to report’ or for that matter the coming together to worship is not of human origin. The ‘gathering’ is a response to a word and work that precedes the action and in essence makes the gathering possible. Thus more is afoot with a biblical gathering than meets the eye.

Likewise, Jesus’ word to the apostles to “rest a while” is interesting as well. The Marcan text gives at this point, no indication that the apostles expressed or felt any need for rest. We are not told at this time anything about the physical or mental weariness of the disciples. In fact, it appears from the standpoint of the text that Jesus’ response to their report is “rest a while.” The Evangelist Mark records no questions posed by Jesus to the apostles back-in from mission, only the reporting of the apostles. “Rest” is Jesus’ response to what they said and did on mission. Here again, a Greek verb (ἀναπαύσασθε, anarausasthe) can be translated “rest” as it appears in this Sunday’s proclamation. It may also be translated “to cause to rest.” Similar to the examination of συνάγω (sunago), “rest” is not an initiative of the apostles. Someone else is causing them “to rest.” True, we learn shortly about the “people … in great” coming from all directions and making it impossible for Jesus and the apostles to eat. There is more to the “rest” that Jesus causes than simply responding to weariness.

The Greek verb “to rest,” ἀναπαύω (anapauo), certainly conveys a commonly understood experience of refreshment or ‘a break from the toil and drudgery of work.’ Relaxing and relief are also common ways of translating ἀναπαύω (anapauo). Yet throughout the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition, ἀναπαύω (anapauo) conveys far more than physical or mental rejuvenation. “Resting” is a way of being, a way of existing in the Divine Presence (cf. Psalm 95). This “resting” is always a gift, not a reality that humanity can effect or cause on his or her own. Much more than mere refreshment or relief from the toil of work, Divine Rest is not only re-creative in the sense of Genesis, but because of where the “resting” occurs for the apostles, it goes to the core of their identity bound with and to the Person, Jesus. The desert (ἔρημος, eremos) – the place of rest that Jesus gathers His apostles – is not a way of avoiding the crowds and getting some ‘r and r.’ The desert is not a vacation or hiding place. The desert, consonant with Israel’s pivotal experience, is not just a place but an experience whereby God the Father bestows and renews one’s proper identity. Just as Israel became the chosen people of God in the desert and are forever known by that name, so also the desert in Jesus’ life, the life of His Apostles and the life of all His disciples through the ages are drawn to the desert by the Holy Spirit that the Father may bestow and renew one’s identity as a child of God.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“See, days are coming — oracle of the LORD — when I will raise up a righteous branch for David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.” (Jeremiah 23:5.)

Pope Saint Leo the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“There was only one remedy in the secret of the divine plan that could help the fallen living in the general ruin of the entire human race. This remedy was that one of the sons of Adam should be born free and innocent of original transgression, to prevail for the rest by his example and by his merits. This was not permitted by natural generation. There could be no clean offspring from our faulty stock by this seed. The Scripture says, “Who can make a clean thing conceived of an unclean seed? Isn’t it you alone?” David’s Lord was made David’s Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch sprang. He is one without fault, the twofold nature coming together into one person. By this one and the same conception and birth sprung our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of mighty works and true manhood for the endurance of sufferings.” (Sermon 26)

Collect

Show favor, O Lord,
to your servants and
mercifully increase the gifts
of your grace, that,
made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful
in keeping your commands.
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

All this was a sign of what was to come

Saint Ambrose of Milan

Bishop and Great Latin Father of the Church

An excerpt from his work, On the Mysteries

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The Apostle teaches you that our fathers were all covered by the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Further, Moses in his canticle says: You sent your spirit, and the sea overwhelmed them. You observe that in this crossing by the Hebrews there was already a symbol of holy baptism. The Egyptian perished; the Hebrew escaped. What else is the daily lesson of this sacrament than that guilt is drowned, and error destroyed, while goodness and innocence pass over unharmed?

You are taught that our fathers were covered by the cloud, a cloud of blessing that cooled the fire of bodily passions. A cloud of blessing: it is with a cloud of blessing that the Holy Spirit overshadows those whom he comes to visit. The Holy Spirit came at last upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, when she conceived for all mankind him who is redemption. This great miracle was prefigured through Moses. If then the Spirit was prefigured, is he not now present in truth, for Scripture tells you that the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ?

Marah was a spring of bitter water. When Moses threw wood into it, its water became sweet. Water, you see, is of no avail for future salvation without the proclamation of the Lord’s cross. But when it has been consecrated through the saving mystery of the cross, it is then ready for use in the laver of the Spirit and in the cup of salvation. Therefore, as Moses in his role of prophet threw wood into the spring of Marah, so also the priest sends out into the fountain of baptism the proclamation of the Lord’s cross and the water becomes sweet, ready for the giving of grace.

Do not then believe only what the eyes of your body tell you. What is not seen is here more truly seen, for what is seen belongs to time but what is not seen belongs to eternity. What is not comprehended by the eyes but is seen by the mind and the soul is seen in a truer and deeper sense.

Finally, learn from the readings we have gone through from the books of the Kings. Naaman was a Syrian; he was a leper, and could not be healed by anyone. Then a girl from among the captives said that there was a prophet in Israel who could cleanse him from the disease of leprosy. Taking gold and silver, we are told, he went to see the king of Israel. The king, on learning the reason for his coming, rent his garments, saying that it was really to find an excuse against him, for what he was being asked was beyond the power of a king.

Elisha, however, told the king to send the Syrian to him, and he would learn that there was a God in Israel. When he came, Elisha ordered him to bathe seven times in the river Jordan. Then Naaman began to reflect that the rivers of his own country had better waters, and that he had often bathed in them, and never been cleansed of his leprosy. This gave him pause, and he refused to obey the prophet’s instructions. But on the advice and persuasion of his servants he yielded and bathed, and was instantly made clean. He realized then that it is not waters that make clean but grace.

Here was a man who doubted before being made whole. You are already made whole, and so ought not to have any doubt.

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

 

Top

 

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

“Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.” (Matthew 10:41.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“This passage has a deeper meaning. One who has properly extracted the meaning of the apostle’s writing, and has not misunderstood it is receiving the apostle as well as Christ who speaks and dwells in the apostle and is the source of the apostle’s teaching. And since the divine mind of the Father is also in the Son, one who receives the word “of wisdom” and everything that is Christ is receiving God the Father of all things. The first part refers mystically to the new covenant, the last part to the old covenant. And if one believes that the prophets spoke wisely, not from their own understanding but because they were moved by the Holy Spirit, when one receives the meaning in them he possesses the prophetic Spirit and quite reasonably receives a prophet’s reward. And if one who understands righteousness and unrighteousness (and does not live unrighteously himself) receives a righteous person, that one is not only hospitable but righteous in addition. That one receives a righteous person’s reward. ” (Fragment 218)

Collect

O God,
Who show the light of Your truth
to those who go astray,
so that they may return to the right path,
give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians
the grace to reject
whatever is contrary to the name of Christ
and to strive after all that does It honor.
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

Top

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick — no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” (Mark 6:8.)

Prudentius (formally known as Aurelius Clemens Prudentius) poetically comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time “To wish for nothing more than need demands
Is rest supreme, with simple food and dress
To feed and clothe our bodies and to seek
No more than is prescribed by nature’s wants.

When going on a journey, take no purse,
Nor of a second tunic think, and be
Not anxious for the morrow, lest for food
The belly lack.

Our daily bread returns
With every sun.
Does any bird take thought
Of tomorrow, certain to be fed by God?” (The Spiritual Combat)

Reflection on Jesus’ summoning the Twelve and giving them His authority.

Collect

O God,
Who show the light of Your truth
to those who go astray,
so that they may return to the right path,
give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians
the grace to reject whatever
is contrary to the name of Christ
and to strive after all that does it honor.
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. 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

Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin

“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge...” (Matthew 10:29.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

”In this passage, Jesus demonstrates his foresight in all things. The word without refers not to will but to foreknowledge. Some things happen because of his direct will, but some happen merely with his approval and consent. And so on the literal level, he is showing the subtlety of his foresight and his previous knowledge of events.

On the spiritual level,15 however, a sparrow falls to the ground when it looks at what is below it and falls to earth, ensnared by the vices of the flesh, given up “to dishonorable passions.”16 It loses its freedom together with its honor. For a sparrow is either borne always upward, or else it comes to rest by alighting on mountains or hills (the hills are metaphors for Scripture). And such a person is one who has been raised aloft by the Word but has his mind on earthly concerns.” (Fragment, 212)

Collect

O God,
Who desired the Virgin
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
to flower among Native Americans
in a life of innocence,
grant, through her intercession,
that when all are gathered into Your Church
from every nation, tribe and tongue,
they may magnify you
in a single canticle of praise.
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

Top