Fourth Sunday, C: "They will fight against you but not prevail over you"

Jeremiah 1. 4-5, 17-19; Psalm 71. 1-6, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 12:31--13:13; St. Luke 4. 21-30

In the town of Nazareth, where so many knew the Lord well, saw him grow, visited his home, a sin had taken root; familiarity had bred a prideful sense of entitlement. Those who knew the Lord well, "Is not this Joseph's son?" (Lk 4, 22) assumed that he would grant them the signs and miracles of which they had heard so much in other cities and towns. This pride left them receptive to the Lord and his teaching at a merely superficial level, and their pleasure and approval quickly turned to murderous hatred when he reproved them for their sin, "When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong." (Lk 4, 28-29) Their pride, a sin against love, had grown into a monstrous hatred.

One can sin against God's love in various ways: --hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and afflicts punishments. (CCC 2094)

In their hatred for Christ, the Nazarenes committed grave sin. In their overweening pride, hatred became a deliberate attack against Jesus, for they intended to kill him.

Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Mt 5: 44-45)(CCC 2303)

The Lord majestically frees himself from their grasp, "But passing through the midst of them he went away." (Lk 4, 30) Christ is the peacemaker, and our model as bearers of peace. We must pray for peace and, through active charity, extend the gift of peace and forgiveness to all. Some, in pursuing Christian perfection, may even choose to renounce violent resistance and, instead "make use of those means of defense available to the weakest" (CCC 2306) when confronting their enemies. Christ embraced solidarity with the weakest, for he merely fled from his persecutors, rather than summoning his manly or divine strength in his own defense.

Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death. (Cf. GS 78, 5.) (CCC 2306)

Let's pray for each other until, together next week, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy (Publish with permission.)

Saturday, 3rd Week, C: “he took the poor man’s ewe lamb ”

David grew very angry with that man and said to him:
“As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death!
He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold
because he has done this and has had no pity.”

-- 2 Sm 12:1-7a, 10-17

The tenth commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart. When the prophet Nathan wanted to spur King David to repentance, he told him the story about the poor man who had only one ewe lamb that he treated like his own daughter and the rich man who, despite the great number of his flocks, envied the poor man and ended by stealing his lamb. Envy can lead to the worst crimes. "Through the devil's envy death entered the world":

We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another. . . . If everyone strives to unsettle the Body of Christ, where shall we end up? We are engaged in making Christ's Body a corpse. . . . We declare ourselves members of one and the same organism, yet we devour one another like beasts.

-- CCC 253

Art: Pieter Lastman, ca. 1583 – 1633, David hands the letter to Uriah. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Friday, 3rd Week, C: “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God"

... or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”

-- Mk 4:26-34

The kingdom of heaven was inaugurated on earth by Christ. "This kingdom shone out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of Christ" (LG 5). The Church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom. Its keys are entrusted to Peter.

-- CCC 567

Jesus' invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching. Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough, deeds are required. The parables are like mirrors for man: will he be hard soil or good earth for the word? What use has he made of the talents he has received? Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this world are secretly at the heart of the parables. One must enter the kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven". For those who stay "outside", everything remains enigmatic.

-- CCC 546

Wednesday, 3rd Week, C: "The sower sows the word."

... those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.

-- Mk 4:1-20

Everyone is called to enter the kingdom. First announced to the children of Israel, this messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of all nations. To enter it, one must first accept Jesus' word:

The word of the Lord is compared to a seed which is sown in a field; those who hear it with faith and are numbered among the little flock of Christ have truly received the kingdom. Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and grows until the harvest.

-- CCC 543

Third Sunday, C: Christ, Eternal High Priest, opens the book of the Law before the assembly - He opens His saving Heart on the Cross

His law is love!

Nehemiah 8, 2-4, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19, 8.9.10.15; 1 Corinthians 12, 12-30; St. Luke 1, 1-4; 4, 14-21

Nehemiah reads out the law and the people fall down in worship before these "ten words" of the Divine Lawgiver. The Lord proclaims the words of Isaiah and reveals that they point to Him, the Word Incarnate. Do we rejoice that the day of the Lord has arrived? How do we worship the One who is now truly present among us?

The Lord knows who he is, not simply because as a good Jew he reads Isaiah, but with every fiber of his divine Personhood: he is the God-man, the divine Messiah foretold and exalted by the holy prophets. The Lord reads the words of Isaiah to the assembly in the synagogue with the purpose of declaring the truth of his divinity to the whole world: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk 4: 21)

The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant songs." (Cf. Isa 42: 1-9; cf. Mt 12:18-21; Jn 1:32-34; then cf. Isa 49: 1-6; cf. Mt 3:17; Lk 2:32; finally cf. Isa 50:4-10 and Isa 52: 13- 53: 12.) These songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus' Passion and show how he will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our "form as slave." (Phil 2:7) Taking our death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own Spirit of life. (CCC 713) This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own the following passage from Isaiah: (Isa 61: 1-2; cf. Lk 4: 18-19) The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (CCC 714)

The anointing by which Christ brings "good tidings", binds up the "brokenhearted", and frees those imprisoned is carried out in our midst, at this moment, only in the Holy Spirit, poured out upon us by the Lord-Messiah according to the heavenly Father's loving plan for our redemption. Only in that Spirit of love can we call out to Christ as Lord in faith. Only in that Spirit do we receive and give authentic love.

The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise, with the accents of "love and fidelity." (Cf. Ezek 11:19; 36: 25-28; 37: 1-14; Jer 31:31-34; and cf. Joel 3: 1-5.) St. Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost. (Cf. Acts 2: 17-21) According to these promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace. (CCC 715)

We live out our love for the Lord when we confidently declare that he is Lord and God to all we meet. Others will know we love them if we declare the divinity of the Savior, he who alone can forgive our sins, heal us and raise us up to holiness and joy.

Let's pray for each other until, again next week, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
(See also nos. 436, 544, 695, 714, 1168, 1286, 2443 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy (Publish with permission.)

Art: Illuminated Gospel, Unknown, Anglo-Saxon, possibly Canterbury, about 1000.

Saturday, 2d Wk: "Jesus came with his disciples into the house"

Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

-- Mk 3:20-21

Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.

-- CCC 386

Friday, 2d Wk: "He appointed Twelve"

... whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons

-- Mk 3:13-19

Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles, and guides it still through these same pastors who continue his work today. Thus, it is Christ whose gift it is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues to act through the bishops.

-- CCC 1575