Christ spoke of his body as a temple



Origen of Alexandria
Priest, Ancient Christian Writer and Martyr

An excerpt from his Commentary on John

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. It seems to me that Jesus meant the Jews in this episode to stand for sensual men and those desirous of carnal and sensual things. These Jews were angry at his expulsion of the people who were turning his Father’s house into a market. So they asked for a sign to justify these actions, a sign that would show that the Word of God, whom they refused to accept, was acting rightly. The Savior’s reply combines a statement about the temple with a prophecy about his own body, for in answer to their question: What sign can you give to justify your conduct? he says: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

Indeed, I think that both the temple and the body of Jesus can be seen together as a type of the Church. For the Church is being built out of living stones; it is in process of becoming a spiritual dwelling for a holy priesthood, raised on the foundations of apostles and prophets, with Christ as its chief cornerstone. Hence it bears the name “temple.” On the other hand, it is written: You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. Thus even the harmonious alignment of the stones should seem to be destroyed and fragmented and, as described in the twenty-first psalm, all the bones which go to make up Christ’s body should seem to be scattered by insidious attacks in persecutions or times of trouble, or by those who in days of persecution undermine the unity of the temple, nevertheless the temple will be rebuilt and the body will rise again on the third day, after the day of evil which threatens it and the day of consummation which follows. For the third day will dawn upon a new heaven and a new earth when these bones that form the whole house of Israel are raised up on that great day of the Lord, when death has been defeated. So the resurrection of Christ, accomplished after his suffering on the cross, embraces the mystery of the resurrection of his whole body.

For just as that physical body of Christ was crucified and buried, and afterward raised up, so in the same way the whole body of Christ’s holy ones has been crucified and lives no longer with its own life. For each of them, like Paul, makes his boast of nothing else but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he has himself been crucified to the world, and the world to him. But each Christian has not only been crucified with Christ and crucified to the world; he has been buried with Christ too, as Paul tells us: We have been buried with Christ. But as though already in possession of some pledge of the resurrection, Paul goes on to say: And we have risen with him.



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




 

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week
in Ordinary Time



“Jesus then went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee He taught them on the sabbath…” (Luke 4:31.)

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

“People who cannot be brought by argument to the sure knowledge of him who by nature and in truth is God and Lord may perhaps be won by miracles to a quiet obedience. Therefore helpfully, or rather necessarily, he often completes his lessons by going on to perform some mighty work. For the people of Judea were not ready to believe. They snubbed the words of those who called them to salvation. The people of Capernaum had this character especially. For this reason the Savior reproved them. He said, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hell.” Although he knows them to be both disobedient and hard of heart, nevertheless he visits them as a most excellent physician would visit those who were suffering from a very dangerous disease and endeavors to rid them of their illness. He himself says, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, only those who are sick.” He taught, therefore, in their synagogues with great freedom of speech. For he had foretold this by the voice of Isaiah: “I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth.”” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 12)



Collect
God of might, Giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of Your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
You may nurture in us what is good
and, by Your watchful care,
keep safe what You have nurtured.
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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The truth of the Lord endures for ever



Thomas à Kempis
Priest

An excerpt from a The Imitation of Christ

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

You thunder your judgments upon me, O Lord; you shake all my bones with fear and dread, and my soul becomes severely frightened. I am bewildered when I realize that even the heavens are not pure in your sight.

If you discovered iniquity in the angels and did not spare them, what will become of me? The stars fell from heaven, and I, mere dust, what should I expect? Those whose works seemed praiseworthy fell to the depths, and I have seen those who once were fed with the bread of angels delighting in the husks of swine. There is no holiness where you have withdrawn your hand, O Lord; no profitable wisdom if you cease to rule over it; no helpful strength if you cease to preserve it. For if you forsake us, we sink and perish; but if you visit us, we rise up and live again. We are unstable, but you make us firm; we grow cool, but you inflame us.

All superficial glory has been swallowed up in the depths of your judgment upon me. What is all flesh in your sight? Can the clay be glorified in opposition to its Maker? How can anyone be aroused by empty talk if his heart is subject in the truth to God? The whole world cannot swell with pride the man who is subject to truth; nor will he be swayed by the flattery of all his admirers, if he has established all his trust in God. For those who do all the talking amount to nothing; they fail with their din of words, but the truth of the Lord endures for 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

 

 

Labor Day (USA)



Antiphon
“May Your favor, O Lord, be upon us, and may You give success to the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17)


Collect
O God,
Who through human labor
never cease to perfect and govern
the vast work of creation,
listen to the supplications of Your people
and grant that all men and women
may find work that befits their dignity,
joins them more closely to one another
and enables them to serve their neighbor.
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.


Responsorial Psalm
Prosper the work of our hands! (Psalm 90:17).


Scripture excerpt
“Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed. On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.” (Genesis 1:26-2:3)


Reflection
Today’s reflection is an excerpt from Saint John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Labor). Click here for the text of the entire encyclical

“The truth that by means of work man participates in the activity of God himself, his Creator, was given particular prominence by Jesus Christ-the Jesus at whom many of his first listeners in Nazareth “were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? ... Is not this the carpenter?’” For Jesus not only proclaimed but first and foremost fulfilled by his deeds the “gospel,” the word of eternal Wisdom, that had been entrusted to him. Therefore this was also “the gospel of work.” because he who proclaimed it was himself a man of work, a craftsman like Joseph of Nazareth. And if we do not find in his words a special command to work-but rather on one occasion a prohibition against too much anxiety about work and life - at the same time the eloquence of the life of Christ is unequivocal: he belongs to the “working world”, he has appreciation and respect for human work. It can indeed be said that he looks with love upon human work and the different forms that it takes, seeing in each one of these forms a particular facet of man’s likeness with God, the Creator and Father. Is it not he who says: “My Father is the vinedresser,” and in various ways puts into his teaching the fundamental truth about work which is already expressed in the whole tradition of the Old Testament, beginning with the Book of Genesis?



On the basis of these illuminations emanating from the Source himself, the Church has always proclaimed what we find expressed in modern terms in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council: “Just as human activity proceeds from man, so it is ordered towards man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society, he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources, he goes outside of himself and beyond himself. Rightly understood, this kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered ... Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine plan and will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the human race, and allow people as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it.”


Such a vision of the values of human work, or in other words such a spirituality of work, fully explains what we read in the same section of the Council’s Pastoral Constitution with regard to the right meaning of progress: “A person is more precious for what he is than for what he has. Similarly, all that people do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood, and a more humane ordering of social relationships has greater worth than technical advances. For these advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves alone they can never actually bring it about.” This teaching on the question of progress and development – a subject that dominates present day thought-can be understood only as the fruit of a tested spirituality of human work; and it is only on the basis of such a spirituality that it can be realized and put into practice. This is the teaching, and also the program, that has its roots in “the gospel of work.”




Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time



“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free...” (Luke 4:18.)

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

“He says, “He sent me to preach the gospel to the poor.” The “poor” stand for the Gentiles, for they are indeed poor. They possess nothing at all: neither God, nor the law, nor the prophets, nor justice and the rest of the virtues. For what reason did God send him to preach to the poor? “To preach release to captives.” We were the captives. For many years Satan had bound us and held us captive and subject to himself. Jesus has come “to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind.” By his word and the proclamation of his teaching the blind see. Therefore his “proclamation” should be understood not only of the “captives” but also of the “blind.”

“To send broken men forth into freedom.” What being was so broken and crushed as man, whom Jesus healed and sent away? “To preach an acceptable year to the Lord.” But all of this has been proclaimed so that we may come to “the acceptable year of the Lord,” when we see after blindness, when we are free from our chains, and when we have been healed of our wounds.” (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, 32.)



Collect
God of might, Giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of Your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
You may nurture in us what is good
and, by Your watchful care,
keep safe what You have nurtured.
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


Top





I taught my prophets



Thomas á Kempis
Priest

An excerpt from his work, Imitation of Christ

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time


My son, says the Lord, listen to my words, the most delightful of all words, surpassing all the knowledge of the philosophers and wise men of this world. My words are spirit and life and cannot be comprehended by human senses alone. They are not to be interpreted according to the vain pleasure of the listener, but they must be listened to in silence and received with all humility and great affection. And I said: Blessed is the man whom you teach, Lord, and whom you instruct in your law; for him you soften the blow of the evil day, and you do not desert him on the earth. The Lord says, I have instructed my prophets from the beginning. Even to the present time I have not stopped speaking to all men, but many are deaf and obstinate in response.

Many hear the world more easily than they hear God; they follow the desires of the flesh more readily than the pleasure of God. The world promises rewards that are temporal and insignificant, and these are pursued with great longing; I promise rewards that are eternal and unsurpassable, yet the hearts of mortals respond sluggishly. Who serves and obeys me in all matters with as much care as the world and its princes are served? Blush, then, you lazy, complaining servant, for men are better prepared for the works of death than you are for the works of life. They take more joy in vanity than you in truth. Yet they are often deceived in their hope, while my promise deceives no one, and leaves empty-handed no one who confides in me. What I have promised I shall give; what I have said I will fulfill for any man who remains faithful in my love unto the very end. I am the rewarder of all good men, the one who rigorously tests the devoted.

Write my words in your heart and study them diligently, for they will be absolutely necessary in the time of temptation. Whatever you fail to understand in reading my words will become clear to you on the day of your visitation. I am accustomed to visit my elect in a double fashion, that is, with temptation and with consolation. And I read to them two lessons each day: one to rebuke them for their faults; the other to exhort them to increase their virtue. He who possesses my words yet spurns them earns his own judgment on the last day.



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

 

 



When Jesus’ Cross is absent,
life becomes rocky even for the Rock



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

“You duped (פָּתָה, pathah) me, O LORD,
and I let myself be duped;
You were too strong for me, and you triumphed.”
(Jeremiah 20:7)


“He [Jesus] turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind (ὀπίσω, opiso) me, Satan (σατανᾶ, Satana)!
You are an obstacle (σκάνδαλον, scandalon) to me.
You are thinking not as God does,
but as human beings do.””


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


Dupe is an interesting translation in the New American Bible of the Hebrew ָּתָה, (pathah). The Revised Edition of the New American Bible uses the verb seduce, which is closer in meaning to the original. Either way, dupe or seduce do not seem appropriate ways to describe God’s manner of dealing with humanity, especially a person like Jeremiah who is doing God’s work as a prophet. What is certain though, Jeremiah is quite angry with God. In the verses leading up to today’s proclamation, we learn that Jeremiah has been arrested and put in stocks for doing God’s work. Jeremiah seems confused - ‘I do the Lord’s work and this is the thanks I get?’ Isn’t this the same question many of ask when misfortunes come our way. ‘Why are you doing this to me God, I’m one of your good ones?’

Jeremiah rightly terms his entrance into ministry as a seduction. Jeremiah sees, hears and senses a Presence that ignites a life within in a way that even he finds hard to explain. He knows the pleasure of speaking on God’s behalf [technically what the Hebrew word nabi (prophet) means] yet has not come to grips with the fact that fidelity to the Word often involves suffering. The misfortunes, detours and derailments of life are products of a fallen, yet redeemed world. But some sufferings are the result of opposition to the Word as well as sin. The graced-task, not just for the prophet but anyone involved in a covenant relationship with God, is to experience suffering as redemptive. 

Like Jeremiah, Peter must continue responding to Jesus' formative work. As part of last week’s Proclamation, Jesus Himself rejoiced in His Father’s work as Peter responded to Jesus, “You are the Messiah (Christ), the Son of the Living God.” It certainly was a moment of revelation sparked joy even to the point of Jesus declaring Peter to be Rock. But what exactly does it mean to confess Jesus as Messiah? In what seems to be an instant, Peter reverts to a non-revealed way of knowing Jesus. When Jesus speaks about His redemptive suffering, Peter’s knee-jerk reaction is to ‘stand in front’ of Jesus and “trip” Him as He journeys to Jerusalem, the place of His Passion, Death and Resurrection. Note carefully the text. When Peter balks at Jesus’s words concerning suffering, Jesus commands Peter to “get behind (ὀπίσω, opiso).” What has happened? Peter lost his bearings as to where he is to be relative to Jesus. The disciple is always behind the Master. Recall Moses and his incessant plea to God to see the Divine Face. When Moses was permitted eventually to gaze upon God, the choreography was quite clear. Moses was placed in a cleft (a cut out) in the rock, God’s hand covered Moses and withdrew in time to see only the back of God. When the disciple is anywhere except behind the Master, the disciple becomes a scandolon (scandal, obstacle). Scandolon in Jesus’s day was graphically and tragically described as ‘putting a rock in the path of a blind person.’ The horror of that picture fills us with indignation. And yet that is precisely the stinging word that Jesus addresses to Peter.

This background is important to understand Jesus’s address to Peter as "Satan." There is no soft-pedaling this one. Even from a linguistic point of view, Jesus addresses Peter as Satan (the vocative case in Greek). The difficulty is that when many people hear the word "Satan," images abound of a red-hoofed creature wielding a pitch fork against a backdrop of sky and ocean wrapped in fire. For others, “Satan” is the ‘little bad voice’ on one shoulder competing with the good angel on the other shoulder prompting one to do certain things. Some may recall the 1970's comedian Flip Wilson and his famous quip, "the Devil made me do it" or more recently Dana Carvey’s portrayal of "Church Lady" and her propensity to make Satan solely responsible for all sin. While not denying the role of the Tempter in the choice to sin, Satan works tirelessly to thwart the plan of redemption by attempting to remove the Cross from a believer’s life. When Satan is viewed as just ‘the bad voice,’ Satan actually accomplishes more. Mind and heart succumb to the diabolic corruption that attempts discipleship without the Cross. Without Jesus and His experience of the Cross, there is no transformation of sin as one remains trapped in a self-centered world. In such a world or way of living, there is no love. 

Jesus’ words to Peter, the Rock, are not sugar-coated. The blunt words sting and probably left Peter thinking, ‘what just happened? I thought I was doing something nice for my Friend, wasn’t I?’ Rather quickly, Peter's life and relationship have become somewhat rocky. Admittedly the Cross is not attractive and its pain is repulsive to our nature. Yet the Cross of Christ stands in the Christian center. Without the Cross, there is no transforming of our nature because the ‘work’ of the Cross is essentially the first commandment Jesus gives at the start of His Public Ministry, "Be converted (μετανοεῖτε, metanoeite [Mark 1:15])." The Cross draws one from self to Other, not just in actions but also in words and thoughts. Thinking, speaking and acting gradually become less self-centered and more focused on the other - AND - as good as this truly is, the Cross of Jesus redeems all. Yes, a world of greater selflessness would be wonderful, but that selflessness can only occur as the fruit of redemption, a redemption won by Christ, Christ crucified. Jesus’ insistence on the Cross is not to create a utopian society but a community of people "bought back" from death to life eternal in transforming love.






Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time



“He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do...” (Matthew 16:23.)

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

“Responding to Peter’s ignorance as one opposing God, Jesus said, “Satan,” which is Hebrew for opponent. If he had not spoken to him from ignorance nor of the living God when he said, “Never, Lord! This must never happen to you!” then he would not have said to him “Get behind me,” as if speaking to someone who had given up being behind him and following him. Neither would he have called him “Satan.” Satan had overpowered the one following Jesus in order to turn him aside from following him and from being behind the Son of God, to make him, because of ignorant words, worthy of being called “Satan” and a scandal to the Son of God, “not thinking in the ways of God but of humans.” (Commentary on Matthew, 12.)




Collect
God of might, Giver of every good gift,
put into our hearts the love of Your name,
so that, by deepening our sense of reverence,
You may nurture in us what is good
and, by Your watchful care,
keep safe what You have nurtured.
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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The Lord has had pity on us



Saint Augustine of Hippo
Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from a Homily 23

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Happy are we if we do the deeds of which we have heard and sung. Our hearing of them means having them planted in us, while our doing them shows that the seed has borne fruit. By saying this, I wish to caution you, dearly beloved, not to enter the Church fruitlessly, satisfied with mere hearing of such mighty blessings and failing to do good works. For we have been saved by his grace, says the Apostle, and not by our works, lest anyone may boast; for it is by his grace that we have been saved. It is not as if a good life of some sort came first, and that thereupon God showed his love and esteem for it from on high, saying: “Let us come to the aid of these men and assist them quickly because they are living a good life.” No, our life was displeasing to him. He will, therefore, condemn what we have done but he will save what he himself has done in us.

We were not good, but God had pity on us and sent his Son to die, not for good men but for bad ones, not for the just but for the wicked. Yes, Christ died for the ungodly. Notice what is written next: One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. Perhaps someone can be found who will dare to die for a good man; but for the unjust man, for the wicked one, the sinner, who would be willing to die except Christ alone who is so just that he justifies even the unjust?

And so, my brothers, we had no good works, for all our works were evil. Yet although men’s actions were such, God in his mercy did not abandon men. He sent his Son to redeem us, not with gold or silver but at the price of his blood poured out for us. Christ, the spotless lamb, became the sacrificial victim, led to the slaughter for the sheep that were blemished—if indeed one can say that they were blemished and not entirely corrupt. Such is the grace we have received! Let us live so as to be worthy of that great grace, and not do injury to it. So mighty is the physician who has come to us that he has healed all our sins! If we choose to be sick once again, we will not only harm ourselves, but show ingratitude to the physician as well.

Let us then follow Christ’s paths which he has revealed to us, above all the path of humility, which he himself became for us. He showed us that path by his precepts, and he himself followed it by his suffering on our behalf. In order to die for us—because as God he could not die—the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The immortal One took on mortality that he might die for us, and by dying put to death our death. This is what the Lord did, this the gift he granted to us. The mighty one was brought low, the lowly one was slain, and after he was slain, he rose again and was exalted. For he did not intend to leave us dead in hell, but to exalt in himself at the resurrection of the dead those whom he had already exalted and made just by the faith and praise they gave him. Yes, he gave us the path of humility. If we keep to it we shall confess our belief in the Lord and have good reason to sing: We shall praise you, God, we shall praise you and call upon your name.




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

 


Saturday of the
Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time



“To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one—to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately ...” (Matthew 25:15.)

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

“The man who is the landowner is actually the Creator and Lord of all. The Word compares the time the landowner spends away from home in the parable to either the ascension of Christ into heaven or at any rate to the unseen and invisible character of the divine nature. Now one must conceive of the property of God as those in each country and city who believe in him. He calls his servants those who according to the times Christ crowns with the glory of the priesthood. For the holy Paul writes, “No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God.” He hands over [his property] to those who are under him, to each giving a spiritual gift so that he might have character and aptitude. We think that this distribution of the talents is not supplied to the household servants in equal measure because each is quite different from the other in their understanding. Immediately they head out for their labors, he says, directly indicating to us here that apart from the procrastination of one they are fit to carry out the work of God. Surely those who are bound by fear and laziness will end up in the worst evils. For he buried, Jesus says, the talent given to him in the earth. He kept the gift hidden, making it unprofitable for others and useless for himself. For that very reason the talent is taken away from him and will be given to the one who is already rich. The Spirit has departed from such as these and the gift of the divine gifts. But to those who are industrious an even more lavish gift will be presented.” (Fragment 283)



Collect
O God,
Who cause the minds of the faithful
to unite in a single purpose,
grant Your people to love what You command
and to desire what You promise,
that, amid the uncertainties of this world,
our hearts may be fixed on that place
where true gladness is found.
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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