September 7, 2015

Sept. 7

September 7, 2015:  Monday, 23rd week, Ordinary Time

  • 'Owl' tie pin:  We proclaim Christ, teaching with all wisdom (1st reading)
  • 'Hearts' suspenders:  I'm struggling that your hearts may be encouraged and brought together (1st reading); Pour out your hearts before God our refuge (psalm)
  • 'Rock' tie pin:  God alone is my rock  (psalm)
  • 'Hand' tie pin:  Jesus cured man with withered hand (gospel); "Prosper the work of our hands" (Labor Day, song)
  • 'We all work together' tie:  Labor Day
  • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
Listen

Pope Francis homily
With Armenian Patriarch
Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan
Many Christians continue to be persecuted, killed, driven out, and despoiled, while world leaders who could stop it remain silent.   There's no Christianity without persecution:  "When they bring you into synagogues and persecute and revile you...."  We face the Christian fate:  go on the path of Jesus.  One of many great persecutions is that of the Armenian people, persecuted just for being Christians, chased away from their homeland, helpless, in the desert.  Today, dear brother Bishops and Patriarch and all you Armenian faithful and priests, I embrace you and remember the persecution you've suffered, and remember your holy ones, your saints who died of hunger, in the cold, under torture....  We hear the horror of how terrorists slit Christian's throats.  We think of Egyptian martyrs on the Libyan coast, slaughtered while pronouncing Jesus' name.
May the Lord help us know the Mystery of God who is in Christ, who carries the Cross of persecution, hatred, and anger stirred up by the Father of Evil.  May the Lord make us feel love for our martyrs and our vocation to martyrdom.  We don't know what will happen; may the Lord give us the grace, courage and witness that all Christian martyrs have shown, especially the Armenian Christians.
Read
  • Col 1:24–2:3  I rejoice in my sufferings, filling up what's lacking in Christ's afflictions on behalf of his Body, the Church.  God chose to make his glory known to his holy ones.  We proclaim Christ and labor to teach everyone with wisdom.  I'm struggling for you and others that you may be encouraged and brought together in love, and know and understand the mystery of God, Christ, in whom the treasures of wisdom are hidden.

  • Ps 62:6-7, 9  "In God is my safety and my glory."  Be at rest in God, my hope, my rock, my salvation, my stronghold, our refuge.  Trust him!  Pour out your hearts before him....

  • Lk 6:6-11  On a sabbath there was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue where Jesus was teaching.  The scribes and Pharisees were ready to accuse Jesus if he cured on the sabbath.  Jesus:  “Is it lawful to do good and save life on the sabbath?”  To the man:  “Stretch out your hand.”  He did, and it was restored.  They became enraged and discussed what to do to Jesus.
Reflect
    • Does the 1st reading really say Jesus' sacrifice was missing something?  IMHO Pope St. John Paul II gave the best contemporary Catholic explanation in Salvifici Doloris.
      Pope St. John Paul II,
      11 years after Salvifici Doloris
    • Creighton:  Pope Francis wants us to see God’s mercy at the heart of redemption in Christ and to see how easy it is to think we're living for God when we aren't.  Mercy may be the bridge between God and us, but many 'religious people' eschew it as unjust.  In the gospel, Jesus goes teaches about the Father's mercy and demonstrates it through healing, but many hate him and try to condemn him.  A Jubilee year in was a year for cancelling debts, setting captives free, showing mercy.  Jesus reveals God's mercy, and his accusers remind us how easy it is to misconstrue religion.  May we contemplate the mystery of mercy.
    • One Bread One Body:  "Love → Courage → Crucified":  Jesus is courageous, fearless, and confrontational; he didn't compromise, even when it meant suffering.  Jesus was crucified because he loves those with withered hands and spirits.  May we be like him, loving with courage and giving ourselves.
    • DailyScripture.net:  The scribes and Pharisees wanted to catch Jesus breaking the Sabbath to accuse him of breaking God's law.  They were filled with contempt for Jesus because they put their own thoughts of right and wrong above God, ensnared in their own legalism.  Jesus points to God's intention for the Sabbath:  to do good and save life.
    "You heard the Lord's words, 'Stretch forth your hand.'  That is the common and universal remedy.  You who think that your hand is healthy beware lest it is withered by greed or sacrilege.  Hold it out often. Hold it out to the poor person who begs you.  Hold it out to help your neighbor, to protect a widow, to snatch from harm one unjustly insulted.  Hold it out to God for your sins.  The hand is stretched forth, then healed. Jeroboam's hand withered when he sacrificed to idols; then it stretched out when he entreated God." (St. Ambrose)
    "The charity of truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of charity accepts just work" (St. Augustine). Make Sunday holy by avoiding unnecessary work and activities that hinder worship, doing works of mercy such as serving of the sick and elderly, and relaxing mind and body.

    Don't miss today's solemn vespers
    and blessing of the episcopal insignia
    before tomorrow's episcopal ordination,
    live at 5 at http://archla.org/live
    and available afterwards too.

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