I thought it would be fun for us to discuss the Sacred Readings from/for each Sunday Liturgy. We have a new young Priest and he is a gifted homilist (thanks be to God). I also attend a weekly Men’s Bible Study, which I get a lot out of, and Fr. Matthew adds even more depth come Sunday.
I think if we all share here, we can all grow as Christians in God’s Word.
This past Sunday, Jesus prays Psalm 22 while suffering on the Cross.
"And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” — Mark 15:34
Fr. Matt invited us to read all of Psalm 22 this Week. I have not done it yet, but I will tonight.
I just did my Bible Study with my co-worker (who is Protestant) and the last verse mentioned in the devotional was from Hebrews 13:5, “I will never forsake you nor abandon you.”
God does not give up on us. Nor should we give up on Him.
Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and steadfast; have no fear or dread, for it is the Lord, your God, who marches with you; he will never fail you nor forsake you.”
God’s divine promise to Joshua (Moses’s successor), if Israel totally relies on the Lord for victory is as such, “As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).
Per Fr. Matthew’s challenge to read all of Psalm 22 this Week, I read it just prior to doing this devotional with my co-worker. I can see why Jesus chose this Prayer nearing the end of His Passion. It foreshadows all that Jesus had just gone through.
Some believe Jesus felt abandoned by God on the Cross, but I believe He was finding comfort and strength in the Psalm. Not only did this Psalm speak to Him, but this Psalm spoke of Him.
Jesus was fulfilling what the ancient Scriptures prophesied. And Jesus is the answer to their/our Prayer.
I’m not sure it was a Sunday reading, but recently we heard Luke 24 about the two disciples walking to Emmaus. Only a few years ago, after 60-some Easters (the first few of which I don’t remember 
), I realized that the disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread only a few days after Jesus had instituted the Eucharist, and the two who were going to Emmaus hadn’t been at the Last Supper. So during the days we now call the Easter Triduum, the Apostles must have taught the other disciples about the breaking of the bread and presumably were practicing it.
This blew my mind too the first time I heard it. Since then, it has become one of my favorite moments.
This kind of ties into this Sunday’s Gospel Reading. When the disciples see Jesus, they think they are seeing a ghost.
Our risen Lord shows them His hands and His feet in the flesh. Then He eats baked fish to prove to them that He is not a ghost.
Then Jesus reveals to them how the fulfillment of Scripture has come!
How would you have reacted if you saw Jesus in bodily form after He had been dead for three days?! There would probably be a puddle under my sandals : )
Our readings on the 1962 calendar for today are the Good Sheperd passages. The homily tied in nicely with all the issues with the hierarchy these days and was a perfect continuation of the homily we heard from Cardinal Burke Thursday on the feast of St. Leo the Great. What a blessing to be at a Mass celebrated by such a holy man as Cardinal Burke.
It’s interesting that He didn’t say, “There’s no such thing as ghosts!”
Very true. Never really thought of that : )
At my Mens’ group last Thursday night, we discussed this past Sunday’s Gospel reading.
We too picked up on how our shepherds (our Bishops & Priests) must do a better job of shepherding in truth and love. Their main job is to protect us from the wolves, prowling about the world, seeking to snare, scatter, and ruin souls.
We also talked about how sometimes we, the sheep, push other sheep out of the flock. We can do a better job of being more like Christ, the Lamb.
This past Sunday’s Gospel Reading is John 15:1-8 — “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…” He prunes the branches that bear fruit so that we bear more fruit.
Bishop Robert Barron made an interesting point in his Homily (Sermon) that speaks to me as a Christian Libertarian.
Christians are “theonomous” (Christ’s body) which sustains life. However, those who cut themselves off from the Vine are “autonomous” (“My body”) which leads to spiritual death.
I agree 
that government does not own our bodies, but I have never been comfortable with the idea that we own our own bodies, as some Libertarians promote.
Even in Marriage, “the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.” — Mark 10:8-9
“The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with mutual consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” — 1 Corinthians 7:4-5
This idea of “self-control” is something that we cannot do apart from God’s grace working in us, which brings us back to the Vine.
“Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace in time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16 Amen ♱
I wonder how many Priests and Bishops took the first reading to heart this past Sunday.
“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 23:1-6)
I was hoping our Priest (who is an awesome homilist who speaks to both the head and the heart people), but our Deacon gave the Homily. I love our Deacon. He is a man’s man and owns his own construction business, but when it comes to preaching, Fr. Matthew speaks more my language. Maybe next Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, we will still be blessed with Fr. Matt and maybe he’ll take this one : )
Two things really stood out to me in this past Sunday’s Reading:
From St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
And from the Gospel according to St. Luke (Luke 5:1-11)
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
The first things that stood out to me was the humility of both St. Paul and St. Peter (our first Pope).
St. Paul admits, “For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.”
Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
And God called both of these men of many weaknesses to lead His Church (by the grace of God they followed Christ Jesus).
The second thing I noticed in the Gospel reading was that the word “sinking” is made up of two words, sin and king. When we make a king of our sin, then we lose faith (trust) in God, but when we make Christ our King, then we become humbled, but made strong.
Lord, let us be more like St. Peter and St. Paul. Let us not sink into despair and fear, but rise in You. Amen ♱
After hearing Sunday’s Gospel reading, I recalled that one of my college professors, Richard Mitchell, wrote about this in his book The Gift of Fire. He said that Jesus challenged the Pharisees and teachers of the law to know themselves as sinners. Each of them (one by one) gained some self-knowledge and declined to stone the woman.
Our Priest, who is a great homilist, mentioned that Jesus might have writing the sins of the Pharisees with his finger in the sand, and pointed out how, unlike The Law that was written in stone, our sins can be wiped away by Jesus, who saves us from our sins, if we humble ourselves before the Lord.
He also mentioned how Scripture never tells us what Jesus wrote in the sand. Some believe Jesus was writing the words of The Law that mentions how both the male and female caught in adultery are to be held accountable and not just the woman, but I think it makes more sense that Jesus was calling out their hypocrisy by writing their sins in the dirt.
The topic of Church Authority has come up quite a bit, since the Conclave. Many Protestants have been voicing how their only authority is the Bible, while some Catholics argue that the Church is. Really both are authoritative. Some Protestant put the Office of Pope vs. Jesus, but if these ignorant Christians read what Catholic Christians actually believe, rather than what they have been told by ignorant Pastors or by poorly catechized Catholics, then they would see that these are not in conflict.
Both The Bible & The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that Jesus Christ is the head of the church (see paragraphs 787-796 for what the Catholic Church teaches on this topic & there are footnotes to Sacred Scripture if you would like to look up the verses : )
Christ started a Church in the Apostles. And when Judas offed himself, Judas was replaced by a successor. And as the Church grew, the Apostles appointed successors.
St. Peter’s successor as the Bishop of Rome was St. Linus. St. Ignatius, the second Bishop of Antioch under St. Evodius, was also a successor of St. Peter the Apostle. We have a lot of Ignatius’ writings. Ignatius wrote in 110 A.D. about where the Bishops are, there is the Church to emphasize the importance of Bishops in the unity & authority of the church.
The church is both the mystical body of Christ and an actual body, made up of members of believers. And there were men given breathed authority, to bind and to loosen, by Christ and passed on by their successors (we call this Apostolic Succession).
I am reminded of Matthew 18:15, where God’s Word says that If your brother sins against you…
But, which Church? There are a million different Christian Churches all teaching different things today. Do you go to the one that agrees with you? And what if this individual goes to a different Church? It doesn’t say go to The Bible (again we are not against The Bible), which brings me to the next point.
What does The Bible say is the “pillar” & “bulwark” of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)? The Bible or the Church? I feel like I have to re-iterate here again, that this does not mean that there is conflict between The Bible and The Church. We are not bashing The Bible when we point this out. Both The Bible and The Church are a gift and without them both, we would be ignorant of Christ.
This brings me to the First Reading this past Sunday, which revealed something that I had never recognized previously. In Acts 15, the Early Christians had a question that needed clarification. So they sent Barsabbas and Silas, “leaders among the brothers,” to Antioch to the Apostles to get clarification about this question.
St. Paul did not say, “Look in the Scriptures” (which would have been the Old Testament). Instead he agrees to send them to Antioch. And they received a letter from the other Apostles (presumably St. Peter) which clarified the official teaching. And since St. Evodius was made the first Bishop of Antioch, I would not be surprised if he too was not involved in answering the question (though this is just speculation on my part).
Peace to all,
To me, I believe the priestly authority is The Chrsit becoming again in all One Family. Jesus replaces Moses and establishes from the Rock, binding Church Authority on earth as it is in Heaven, becoming again in all One God, rationally.
Making Families become one, to me.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,
and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
Peace always,
Stephen
This coming Sunday’s Gospel Reading is “The Good Samaritan.” Bishop Barron’s Homily on this Parable, where he pulls from some of the teachings of the Early Church Fathers, is awesome! I will never look at this Parable the same again.
Peace to all
So true, parables teach logic through faith to me.
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Peace always,
Stephen
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel Reading: Lk. 13:10-17
The Evangelist, Luke, gave a summarized but sufficient account of this scene, the minimum necessary for the purpose of bringing people to belief and salvation. On November 21st, 1945, Jesus showed Maria Valtorta this same scene in a vision, which she described at length as a first-hand witness. Jesus, through Maria, His instrument, or “pen”, brings this Gospel scene to life, helps one to understand it more and live it out better. You can read her account in The Poem of the Man-God: Vol. 3, ch. 336 titled The Crippled Woman of Korazim.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.