October 10, 2017

Oct. 10

October 10, 2017:  Tuesday, 27th week, Ordinary Time
  • 'Whales' tie in Jonah's memory (1st reading)
  • 'Clocks' suspenders:  Wait for the Lord (psalm)
  • 'Silverware' tie pin:  Martha was serving... (gospel)
  • 'Feet' pin:  ...while Mary was at Jesus' feet (gospel)
  • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
Listen

For the gospel

For Psalm 130
Pope Francis homily
Stubborn Jonah wanted to teach God; he was a starved soul sick with rigidity.  First he refused to call Nineveh to conversion and ran away; then he carried out God’s orders but was angry and indignant because the Lord had forgiven the people who repented.  Stubborn souls don't understand God's mercy.  They're faint-hearted like Jonah; they don't open their hearts to the Lord.  Closed to mercy, they forget that God's justice became flesh in his Son, becoming mercy and forgiveness.  God’s heart is always open to forgiveness; his omnipotence is manifested primarily in his mercy and forgiveness.
It's not easy to understand God's mercy; it's a grace that takes much prayer.  We're so accustomed to the tit-for-tat attitude that implies justice is paying for what you did, but Jesus paid and continues to pay.  God could have abandoned Jonah to his stubbornness and rigidity but saved him like he saved the Ninevites.  He's the God of patience; he knows how to caress and open hearts.

The message of the book of Jonah is in the dialogue between prophecy, penance, mercy and faint-heartedness or stubbornness.  God’s mercy always prevails.  Read Jonah—it's only three pages—and see how the Lord acts, how his mercy transforms us, and thank the Lord for being so merciful.
Read
    Martha, Mary, Jesus (animate)
  • Jon 3:1-10  “Set out for Nineveh and announce the message I'll give you.”  Jonah:  “40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”  The people, king included, believed, fasted, and repented.  "God may relent and forgive."  God, seeing they turned from evil, didn't carry out the evil he'd threatened.
  • Lk 10:38-42  Martha, burdened with serving while her sister Mary was listening to Jesus at his feet / Jesus, “Don't you care my sister left me serving by myself?  Tell her to help.” / “Martha, you're anxious and worried about many things, but only one is needed.  Mary has chosen the better part, and it won't be taken from her.”
Reflect
  • Creighton:  Where do we orient our attention?  The Ninevites reoriented their lives toward God.  The psalm encourages orienting ourselves toward God.  In the gospel, Jesus applauds Mary’s decision to sit at his feet, the orientation God asks of us.  How can we sit at Jesus' feet despite distractions?  How will that help give us a right orientation and in the tasks before us?  May we choose the “better part.”
    Christ in the House of Martha and Mary/ Vermeer
  • One Bread, One Body:  "Better, not bitter":  Mary sat beside the Lord's feet and received the better portion.  (Martha also chose the better portion; her words to Jesus show she understood him as Messiah who would bring eternal life.)  The Ninevites listened to the Lord through Jonah, repented, and received the better portion; the Lord marked their repentance, not their iniquities.  Repentant, humbled hearts and changed lives indicate having listened to God's word.  The Ninevites and Martha received God's correction and changed. They could have become bitter but repented and chose the better portion.
  • Passionist:  "Listen and act":  Listening is hard.  I often block God out, or acknowledge him but put him aside then get distracted.  But if I don’t take time to listen, I'm acting under my own power, headed for burnout. I need to make prayer a priority, then follow through and change, surrendering myself and working to become a more transparent instrument of Christ.  The closer I get to God, the more God can work in me.
When I start the day with prayer, I can carry that prayer forward, centered in God's love, practicing what God is doing in me, disregarding voices that run counter to God’s will for me and the world, speaking when I'm afraid, knowing what to do, confronting intolerance, judgment, and dismissal of humanity, not demonizing those who disagree, questioning my motivations, desires, and goals, seeing how we're all connected.  Mary-time at Jesus' feet lets me go into my Martha-day with light, love, compassion, and peace, without judgment, jealousy, or impatience....
    St. Francis Borgia helps
    a dying impenitent man/ Goya
  • DailyScripture.net:  "You're anxious; one thing is needful":  Jesus enjoyed Martha and Mary's hospitality.  Martha loved to serve, but her anxious waiting on Jesus caused unrest.  Mary simply waited on him at his feet, knowing the Lord wanted her attentive presence.  Anxiety and preoccupation keep us from listening and giving the Lord our attention.  The Lord can meet any need we have; he frees us from needless concern and preoccupation.  He wants us to make a place for him in our hearts, homes, and lives.  We honor the Lord when we offer to him all we have and do.  Paul urges us to give God glory in everything. When you entertain, remember the Lord is your guest.  When Abraham opened his home and welcomed unknown travelers, he welcomed the Lord who blessed him.  The Lord wants us to glorify him in how we treat others and use the gifts he's given us....
Today's saints, from Universalis
  • St. Daniel Comboni, evangelist to Central Africa's poor and abandoned; motto “Africa or death”
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