10th Sunday C

10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Readings: 1 Kings 17:17-24   Galatians 1:11-19        Luke 7:11-17

            In this Sunday’s readings both the prophet Elijah and Jesus raise to life the dead sons of two grieving widows.  These mighty deeds foreshadow the good news of the gospel: Jesus’ own victory over the powers of sin and death through his cross and resurrection and our hope of bodily resurrection.  Let us identify with the raised sons and the grieving widow mothers as we sing the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.

“I will extol you, O Lord, for you drew me clear/ and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.  O Lord, you brought me up from the nether world;/ You preserved me from among those going down into the pit” (Ps 30:2).

            The story of Elijah the prophet and the widow from Zarephath in 1 Kings manifests the life-giving power of the Lord’s word to defeat the powers of famine and death.   The widow is a pagan from Zarephath in the territory of Sidon who has trusted the Lord’s promise through Elijah that if she gives him a meal from her scanty fare of flour and oil in time of famine, “The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the lord sends rain upon the earth” (1 Kgs 17:7-16).  But now mysteriously her son falls sick and dies, and she presumes that despite her hospitality in hosting Elijah she has caused her son’s death by her sin.  In anger she chides the prophet, “Why have you done this to me, O man of God?  Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt and to kill my son?”   Elijah immediately orders that she give him her son and he carries him to the upper room where he was staying, lays him on his own bed, and calls out to the Lord in the following prayer: “O Lord, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son?”  He then stretches himself out over the child three times and calls upon the Lord, “O Lord, my God, let the life breath return to the body of this child.”  The Lord hears the prophet’s prayer and revives the child.  When Elijah returns the boy to his mother with the words, “See . . . your son is alive,” she proclaims that Elijah is indeed a man of God because “The word of the Lord comes truly from your mouth.”

            The Epistle from Galatians is part of Paul’s long apologetic defense of his apostleship to the Gentiles (1:10-2:21).  In this section he insists that his version of the gospel which did not demand circumcision and Jewish observance by the Gentiles comes directly through a revelation of Jesus the Christ and not through the human agency of the apostles in Jerusalem.  He also addresses the charges that he was once a persecutor of the Church of God by honestly admitting them.  “You have heard, I know, the story of my former way of life in Judaism.  You know that I went to extremes in persecuting the church of God and tried to destroy it. . . .”  His former zealous observance of Judaism makes his call to be an apostle to the Gentiles all the more remarkable.  In contrast to Luke’s dramatic versions of Paul’s call in Acts (see chs 9, 22, 26), Paul’s own description is quite simple and uses the language associated with the call of a prophet to the nations (see Jer 1:4 and Isa 49:1).  “But the time came when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his favor chose to reveal his Son through me, so that I might spread among the Gentiles the good tidings concerning him.”  Paul goes on to insist that he immediately began his apostolic mission in Arabia and Damascus and only three years later went to consult with Cephas (Peter) in Jerusalem.

            The story of Jesus raising up the dead son of the widow of Nain is unique to Luke’s gospel and is closely related to the story of the widow from Zarephath in our first reading and the evangelist’s theme that Jesus is mighty prophet like Elijah of old who is fulfilling the passage from the Book of Isaiah which he reads in the synagogue at Nazareth to inaugurate his ministry (Lk 4:16-30).  “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,/ and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Isa 61:1-2).  When Jesus announces “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” the people of his hometown reject him as the mere “son of Joseph.” Jesus, in turn, states, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place,” and cites the story of Elijah being sent to the pagan widow during the time of the famine rather than to one of the many widows of Israel (Lk 4:25-26; cf. 1 Kgs 17:7-24). 

In today’s Gospel selection, Jesus, like Elijah, has compassion on the widow who would have no financial support if her “only son” is dead.  His words and actions in performing the miracle both look forward to the resurrection and back to the miracle of Elijah.  Jesus steps forward and touches the litter as he says, “Young man, I bid you rise,” and in the same words as were used of Elijah in our first reading, Luke tells us, “Then Jesus gave him back to his mother” (1 Kgs 17:23).  The reaction of the crowd is like that of the widow in the Elijah story; fear seizes them and they praise God: “A great prophet has risen among us . . . God has visited his people!” (1 Kgs 17:24).  The widow and her son are among the poor and oppressed who are finding salvation in Jesus who, like Elijah of old, is destined to return to his Father in his ascension (2 Kings 2; Luke 9:28-36; 24; Acts 1).  

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ C

Unfinished Leonardo DaVinci

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ C

Readings: Genesis 14:18‑20  1 Corinthians 11:23‑26  Luke 9:11‑17

In the transition between the Easter season and ordinary time, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.   This Sunday's readings present us with richness of the Eucharist as thanksgiving, as re-enactment of Jesus' sacrificial death for us, as anticipation of his return, and finally as pattern for our life in following Jesus. 

The Old Testament reading from Genesis recounts Melchizedek's blessing of Abram after his victory over four kings and the rescue of his nephew Lot (see Genesis 14).  Melchizedek is the king of Salem, or Jerusalem, and his meeting with Abram is a joyful meal in thanksgiving for the victory which has rid Canaanite territory of a foreign menace.   Early Christian writers understood this story as an anticipation of the Christian Eucharist and the priest‑king Melchizedek as a type for Christ (see Hebrews).  In the course of sharing a meal of bread and wine, Melchizedek blesses both Abram and God Most High who brought him victory. "Blessed be Abram by God Most High,/ the creator of heaven and earth;/ and blessed be God Most High,/ who delivered your foes into your hand." Our Eucharist shares this character of thanksgiving and blessing for a God's victory over sin and death in Christ.

The reading from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is the earliest record of Jesus' actions and words at his final meal with his disciples on the night before he died.  "The Lord's supper" was celebrated both as a proclamation of Jesus' saving death and an anticipation of his return in glory.  Paul recounts that the Lord Jesus said of the broken bread: "This is my body, which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me."  The cup is his blood which seals the new covenant promised by Jeremiah: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."

Paul concludes by reminding the Corinthians that the Eucharist both proclaims Jesus' sacrificial death and anticipates his return in glory.  "Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes!"

The Gospel is Luke's account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.  It comes at a crucial turning point in Luke's story and draws a sharp contrast between the power of Jesus and his disciples.  Jesus is completing his Galilean ministry and is about to embark on his journey to Jerusalem where he will suffer, die, rise, and ascend to the Father.  His disciples have just returned from a successful journey on which they proclaimed the good news and cured diseases (Lk 9:1‑10).  Now Jesus challenges the Twelve to feed the crowds who have followed them to a "deserted place."  They are powerless to satisfy the needs of the group that numbers five thousand men alone and are forced to say:  “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.”  Only Jesus, like the Lord who fed his people with manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), can satisfy the needs of crowd.  He does so in a superabundant way that points to his mission to reconstitute the twelve tribes of Israel.  The account ends with the note: “They all ate and were satisfied.  And when the left‑ over fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.”

This meal both looks back to Jesus' actions in the Galilean ministry and forward to the events in Jerusalem.  In the opening sentence we are told, "Jesus spoke to the crowds of the reign of God, and he healed all who were in need of healing."  This is a summary of Jesus' work in the Galilean ministry (see Lk 4:14‑9:9).  Jesus' actions in feeding the people also anticipate the Last Supper and the breaking of bread in the Emmaus story.   In all three Jesus "blessed," "broke," and "gave" bread.  Luke is the only evangelist to link this feeding miracle to the confession of Jesus as the Messiah, his first prediction of the passion and resurrection, and the need for the disciples to follow him on this path (see Lk 9:18‑27).  To celebrate the Eucharist the disciples must share in Jesus’ mission to the poor and the sick (Lk 9:1‑6) and also must be willing to follow him to the cross.  After announcing that he must go to Jerusalem to be rejected, killed, and be raised on the third day, Jesus says to the disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (9:23).

Trinity Sunday C

Trinity Sunday C

Readings: Proverbs 8:22‑31  Romans 5:1‑5  John 16:12‑15

Rather than dwelling on the mystery of God's inner life, the readings for this feast of the Holy Trinity celebrate what God has done for us: the gift of an orderly creation, salvation through Christ, and guidance for our continued pursuit of the truth in Christ.  As we reflect on the mystery of God's love for us, let us joyfully sing the refrain of this Sunday's psalm, "O Lord, our God, how wonderful is your name in all the earth" (Ps 8).

The first reading from Proverbs is part of the speech of Lady Wisdom (hokmah, a feminine noun in Hebrew), who personifies the artistry of God's creation.  In the whole of her speech (see Proverbs 8), Wisdom invites the simple to come to her and receive the greatest gift of all: the path to life.  In our section, she is giving her credentials as God's “first‑born,”  “craftsman,” and “delight,” who “played” before God as he ordered the cosmos.   Using an onomasticon, listing the parts of the cosmos, Lady Wisdom asserts that, first of all, she existed before God's formation of the earth, the underworld depths, the mountains and hills; and secondly, that she was with God as he established the heavens, fixed the foundations of the earth, and set for the sea its limit.  Finally, Lady Wisdom says that her special delight was in humanity to whom she will extend the offer of life.  In the verses which follow today's reading, she invites us with the following words. "So now, O children, listen to me;/ instruction and wisdom do not reject!" . . . For the one who finds me finds life,/ and wins favor from the Lord; But the one who misses me harms self;/ all who hate me love death" (Prv 8:32‑36).

The Epistle from Romans is Paul's reflection on the hopeful situation of Christians who have already been "justified by faith" in Christ's death and resurrection and are now awaiting "the glory of God," the completion of God's kingdom.  In this tension-filled situation, Christians experience "afflictions," but they can boast of them as they endure in hope.  The foundation of their hope is what God has already done for them in his Son, Christ, and by the gift of his Spirit which has been poured out upon them in the Messianic age.  In Paul's words, "this  hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has  been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has  been given to us" (Rom 5:5).

The Gospel is from John's Farewell Discourse in which Jesus promises the disciples that, after his departure, the Spirit of truth will come to guide them “to all truth.”  Jesus' promise emphasizes two things about the Spirit or Paraclete's role.   First of all, he will continue the work of revelation that Jesus has done.  Jesus tells the disciples: "He will not speak on his own, but will speak only what he hears . . .In doing this he will give glory to me, because he will have received from me what he will announce to you."  Secondly, the Spirit will guide the disciples in their continued pursuit of the truth of God's mysterious love.  Jesus promises:  "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. When he comes, however, being the Spirit of truth he will guide you to all truth."  This truth to which the Spirit guides us is an ever deeper entrance into the very mystery of God's life of love.  Jesus concludes this section with the words: "All that the Father has belongs to me. That is why I said that what he (the Spirit) will announce to you he will have from me."  

Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday A B C

Readings: Acts 2:1-11 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13   John 20:19-23

“Lord send out your spirit, and renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104).  In remembering the first Christian Pentecost, we fervently pray in the refrain of the responsorial psalm that God’s Holy Spirit renew the world and the church with the gifts of unity, peace, joy and forgiveness.

The Acts reading describes the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples at the Jewish pilgrimage feast of Pentecost (Shavuoth) in fulfillment of prophetic expectations of the final age when all the nations will know the God of Israel.  Isaiah 66 speaks of God’s coming in the following way: “For behold the Lord will come as a fire . . . with a flame of fire . . . I am coming to gather all the nations and tongues” (Is 66:15.18).  As Peter will affirm in his Pentecost sermon, the prophet Joel announced: “God says: ‘It will come to pass in the last days,/ that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh’” (Acts 2:17).  Luke’s account of Pentecost has all of these elements.  The Spirit descends upon the gathered group of one hundred and twenty would-be witnesses with a noise “like a strong driving wind.”  Tongues “as of fire” part and rest on each of them, and the Holy Spirit enables them to speak in different languages to Jewish pilgrims from most of the known world.  In a symbolic reversal of the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel incident (Genesis11), the disciples speak in understandable languages of “the mighty works of God.”  As Peter will proclaim in his Pentecost sermon, Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension have begun the final age when all are called to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:14-41).

In the reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul insists that the Holy Spirit’s various gifts are meant for the common good of the community and for the unity of what were previously divided groups.  In Corinth some were using the possession of spectacular gifts like tongues as a basis for claiming superiority within the community.  Paul reminds the Corinthians that one Spirit gives various gifts--wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles, prophecy, tongues and interpreting tongues--for the building up of the whole community, and not for the exaltation of the individual (12:4-11).  He also uses the body of Christ metaphor to express the interdependence of all members--Jews or Greeks, slave or free--upon one another because they share a common baptism “into one body.”

The Gospel selection is John’s account of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the apostles on Easter night.  John places all the key saving events--the Resurrection, the ascent to the Father and the bestowal of the Spirit--on Easter (John 20:1-23).  When Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of that first day of the week, he has already ascended to the Father as he had announced to Mary Magdalene (John 20:17).  He can now give them the gifts he had promised in the farewell discourse: peace, joy, and the Spirit/Paraclete (John 14-17).  Twice he greets the apostles with “Peace be with you” (cf. John 14:27).  When they see his hands and his side as proof that he was crucified and has now returned to the Father, the disciples experience the joy that Jesus had promised them (cf. 16:20-24).  Finally, Jesus sends them into the world as he was sent by the Father.  He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.”  As God “breathed” life into Adam in Genesis, Jesus is recreating the community of disciples with the life of God’s forgiving love.

Easter VII C

7^th  Sunday of Easter C

Readings: Acts 7:55-60  Revelation 22:12-14,16-20  John 17:20-26

On this Sunday between the feasts of Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost, the liturgy calls us to unity with both the risen Jesus and one another in the very love of God.  In this age of religious, racial, and social factionalism we are challenged, in the concluding words of the second reading, to pray for the coming of Jesus’ Kingdom of love.  “Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!”

Luke’s account of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts highlights his fearless commitment to following Jesus, even to the point of forgiving his executioners.  In the previous section of Acts, Stephen has testified in a long speech before the Sanhedrin that, as Jesus himself had said (Lk 21:5-6), the temple is not a permanent institution and that the execution of Jesus was simply the culmination of repeated rejections of God’s prophets (7:2-53).  Infuriated by Stephen’s charges, the council drags him out of the city and begins to stone him.  In his death Stephen is united with the risen Jesus. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he sees the glory of God with Jesus, as the glorious Son of Man, standing at God’s right hand.  Like Jesus (Lk 23:46), Stephen prays and hands over his spirit with the words: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Finally, in imitation of his master, Stephen forgives his murderers, as he cries out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Lk 23:34).

Stephen’s death does not stop the preaching of the gospel; on the contrary, it sets in motion the spread of “the Way” beyond Jerusalem.  Despite the persecution that breaks out against the church in Jerusalem, the gospel is preached through the ministry of Philip and Peter in Samaria, Judea and Galilee (Acts 8:1-40; 9:31-43).  Even Saul, who participates in Stephen’s execution, will be converted from a persecutor of “the Way” to the ‘chosen instrument’ who will carry Jesus’ name before the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-30).

The second reading is a series of prophetic oracles from the conclusion of the Book of Revelation.  Jesus, as “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the Last, the Beginning and the End,” warns John that he is coming soon and the righteous will be rewarded.  In the early Church, the nearness of Jesus’ coming is regularly tied to exhortations to be faithful to the Christian way of life.  In our own time, such warnings challenge us to believe that God is not far off, but very much involved with the ethical and social issues we face.  Only fidelity to the gospel will enable us, in the words of Revelation, to “wash” our “robes so as to have free access to the tree of life and enter the city (the heavenly Jerusalem) through its gates.”

The reading concludes with a mutual summons to “come.”  Righteous Christians are invited by the Spirit and the Bride (the glorified Church of martyrs) to come to the Eucharistic celebration: “Let him who is thirsty come forward, and let all who desire it accept the gift of life-giving water.”  They in turn pray to the Lord to come: “Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!”  We who long for the completion of Jesus’ Kingdom come to the Eucharistic feast which celebrates the future Messianic banquet.

The Gospel is the conclusion of Jesus’ prayer to his Father at the end of the farewell discourse in John 17.  Jesus prays that we, those who have come to believe through the disciples’ words, may be one as he and the Father are one.  This is the goal of Jesus’ mission in John’s Gospel.  His act of love in laying down his life reveals the glory of God’s love for humanity, and now that glory is to be given to the community of his followers.  “I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one, as we are one—I living in them, you living in me--that their unity may be complete.  So shall the world know that you sent me, and that you love them as you loved me”  (17:22-23).  The basis for this unity is the indwelling of God’s own love, the eternal love the Father has for the Son.  “Father, all those you gave me I would have in my company where I am, to see the glory of mine which is your gift to me, because of the love you bore me before the world began” (17:24).

As we work for unity within the Roman Catholic Church and among the various Christian communions, let us remember that this unity will never be achieved through the force of political power nor by the shrillness of acrimonious debate, but only through the sign of love modeled on Jesus.  Jesus’ concluding words are: “To them I have revealed your name, and I will continue to reveal it so that your love for me may live in them, and I may live in them” (17:26).

The Ascension C

Ascension C

Readings: Acts 1:1-11    Ephesians 1:17-23   Luke 24:46-53

            The Feast of the Ascension celebrates both the resurrected Jesus’ triumph over the power of sin and evil by his ascension to the right hand of the Father and also the apostles’ mission, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to witness to the Christ’s victory throughout the world.  Let us rejoice in Jesus’ enthronement in the refrain of our responsorial psalm: “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy;/ a blare of trumpets for the Lord” (Ps 48).

            The account of Jesus’ ascension in the first reading comes from the introduction to Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles.  As with his Gospel, Luke addresses Acts to Theophilus (“lover of God”).  Our reading recapitulates the events of the Gospel with special emphasis on Jesus’ commissioning of the apostles to wait in Jerusalem to receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will send them as his witnesses to the whole world. Luke begins by summarizing what he narrated in his Gospel: Jesus’ actions and teachings until his ascension, his choice of the apostles, his suffering and death, his resurrection appearances over a forty day period in which he spoke of the kingdom of God and proved that he was alive, and his command not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the Father’s promise of their baptism with the Holy Spirit.  He prefaces his second account of the ascension (see Luke 24:50-53) with a dialogue between the apostles and Jesus at their last meeting.  They ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” But Jesus says that it is not for them to know “the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.”  Instead he promises: “. . . you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Then like Elijah in 2 Kings 2 and certain traditions associated with Moses, Jesus is “lifted up, and a cloud takes him from their sight.”  For Luke this is Jesus’ enthronement as the triumphant Messiah King and Son of Man at God’s right hand (see Daniel 7:13 and Luke 1:32; Acts 2:22-36; 7:56).  His exodus or departure has been a part of God’s plan from the beginning (see Luke 9:28-36; 9:51).  Like the prophets Moses and Elijah who appeared with him in glory at his transfiguration to talk of his exodus (9:28-36), Jesus must leave physically for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on his successors who will carry on his work (see Deuteronomy 34 and 2 Kings 2).  The “two men dressed in white garments” who stand beside the apostles as they witness the ascension may be Moses and Elijah (cf. Luke 9:28-36; 24:1-8).  They do not allow the apostles to continue to gawk at Jesus’ ascension, but rather assure them of Jesus’ return as the Messiah/Son of Man who will establish his kingdom after their work of witnessing to him throughout the earth.

            The Epistle reading is taken from the thanksgiving section of Ephesians in which the Paul prays that God, through the resurrected and ascended Christ, will give the Christian community, his body on earth, “a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.”  In Christ’s resurrection from the dead, ascension, and enthronement at his right hand, God has defeated the powers of evil that formerly ruled the world--“every principality, authority, power, and dominion and every name that is named.”   God has put all things beneath Christ’s feet and given him “as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”  Paul’s prayer is that the Christian community will have the eyes of their hearts enlightened by the risen and triumphant Christ so that they know “the hope that belongs to his (God the Father’s) call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe.”

            The Gospel is the conclusion of Luke’s Gospel which recounts Jesus’ appearance to the Eleven apostles in Jerusalem.  Jesus begins by explaining how his death and resurrection were part of the divine plan which he had told them about and had been announced in Moses, the prophets and the psalms:  “Thus it is written that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”  He then commissions them to be witnesses who are to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name “to the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”  They are to stay in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high,” the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (Acts 2).  Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus ascension into heaven and the disciples’ returning with great joy to Jerusalem where they are continually blessing God in the temple as they await the gift of the Holy Spirit.