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August 20, 2010

August 21st Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 2 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries  
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                  August 20, 2010

                            St. Bernard was a dominant person.
                                 He and his friends went to the
                                 seminary  —

                                He brought life  —

                                He was called by the pope to settle
                                    disputes

                                He had a lot to do with
                                    the Trappist monastery

                            Ezekiel

                                The Jews at first thought they would
                                       be able to return  —

                                Then they thought they would
                                        never return.

                                Ezekiel is trying to give them
                                        hope  —

                                In the Gospel we hear the
                                        great commandment  —

Readings for today

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said he to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army.

    Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. So, prophesy. Say to them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am now going to open your graves; I shall raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people, and put my spirit in you, and you revive, and I resettle you on your own soil. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken and done this–declares the Lord Yahweh." ’

 

Psalm 107: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

So let them say whom Yahweh redeemed,
whom he redeemed from the power of their enemies,
bringing them back from foreign lands,
from east and west, north and south.

They were wandering in the desert, in the wastelands,
could find no way to an inhabited city
they were hungry and thirsty,
their life was ebbing away.

They cried out to Yahweh in their distress,
he rescued them from their plight,
he set them on the road,
straight to an inhabited city.

Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love,
for his wonders for the children of Adam!
He has fed the hungry to their hearts’ content,
filled the starving with good things.

 

Matthew 22: 34-40

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also'.

 

                            Jewish leaders had a conflict.
                            Sadducees tried to get Jesus to say
                                    something to get Him
                                    in trouble  —

                            Then the Pharisees tested Jesus  —
                                    asking which is the greatest
                                    commandment  —
                                    they thought they would trip Him and
                                    He gave this wonderful answer  —

                            We ask God to keep our priorities
                                    straight  — to love God with
                                    our whole heart and let that
                                    love flow over to others  —

 

 

           

Isaiah 66: 18-21

I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory. I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations, and from all the nations they will bring all your brothers was an offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, Yahweh says, like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yahweh's house. And some of them I shall make into priests and Levites, Yahweh says.

   

Psalm 117: 1, 2

Alleluia!
Praise Yahweh, all nations,
    extol him, all peoples,
for his faithful love is strong
    and his constancy never*ending.

 

Hebrews 12 5-7, 11-13

Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons?

    My son, do not scorn correction
        from the Lord,
    do not resent his training,
    for the Lord trains those he loves,
    and chastises every son he accepts.

Perseverance is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him?

Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness. So steady all weary hands and trembling knees and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will get better instead.

 

Luke 13: 22-30  

Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your hardest to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed. 

    ‘Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself standing outside knocking on the door, saying, "Lord, open to us," but he will answer, "I do not know where you come from." Then you will start saying, "We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets," but he will reply, "I do not know where you come from; away from me, all evil doers!" 

    ‘Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrown out. And people from east and west, from north and south, will come and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God. 

    ‘Look, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.’

 

 

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 26, 2007



INTRODUCTION: Our first reading today (Is. 66, 18-21) comes from the time when the Jews were recovering from their long exile and enslavement in Babylon. It was a difficult time. Their cities, homes, and farms had lain in ruins for 50 years. The prophet who speaks is not a pessimist though. He sees great things for Jerusalem. He tells God’s discouraged people some day people from all nations would come to worship the same God they worshipped. Even the Jewish priesthood would be opened up to foreigners. There are two lessons here for us: 1) spiritually the Jews are our ancestors and 2) God wants all people to be saved. The gate of heaven is open to everyone, a wonderful image. But Jesus, who always wishes to keep us in touch with reality, reminds us that, sadly, not everyone is headed that way (Lk 13, 22-30).

HOMILY: Jesus is asked a question we would all like to know the answer to. “Will only a few people be saved?” From the gospel, it sounds as if there are going to be lots of people in heaven, people coming from north and south, east and west. However, we would have liked a few more details, numbers, percentages perhaps, but I guess Jesus figures we can answer the question for ourselves by seeing how people live according to his teachings. If we live by his teachings, we’re on our way to eternal happiness; if not, we’ll lose out. After all he told us, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

When I was growing up, I think most people believed that it would be very hard to be saved. We worried about the smallest things such as whether we ate a little meat on Friday or drank anything before Communion. Society today has gone to the other extreme. People in today’s society seem to think salvation is practically a given, that the only people not in heaven are those who had to work hard at avoiding getting there. Surveys today show almost 75% of Catholics say they can be good Catholics without attending church every Sunday. Half believe they can be a good Catholic without donating time or money to help the poor. It’s like saying we can love God while choosing to ignore the important ways in which he asks us to serve him.

Heaven will have room for people from all nations, but there is still the “narrow gate” we have to pass through. In other words we can’t take salvation for granted. The gospels were written in Greek and when Jesus said, “strive to enter through the narrow gate,” the verb translated as “strive” in the original Greek is “agonízomai.” We can hear the English word “agony” in this. “Agonízomai” means a lot more than “strive.” It is a word often used in connection with the effort needed to win something – as to win in an Olympic event, or a performance, or a lawsuit or a contest. A good example would be a football game where the players work hard to get into condition and then they put everything they have into playing a good game. Can you see a coach saying to his players: “now get out there and strive to win today, guys?” Jesus is saying, “put everything you have into getting through that narrow gate.” The image of “giving it all we have to win” is repeated in the next sentence when Jesus says, “many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

It’s not that we are competing with other people, like people do in sports, where if one person wins, others have to lose. What we have to compete with is our own selves, our own laziness, our own pride, our own self-centeredness, our own love of comfort or pleasure or material possessions; not to mention having to compete with the sinful attractions of society or the temptations of the devil. Life is a battleground and our Lord wants us to know it so we avoid the pitfalls, especially the pitfall of not realizing the importance of taking our faith seriously.

The image of the closed door that Jesus used in the gospel was a warning to the Jews not to take their position as “chosen people” for granted. It’s a similar warning for all of us and the “closed door” reminds all of us that time will run out. Life is just so long and none of us know how long it will last.

All of this is very serious. Jesus doesn’t tell us this to depress us or to discourage us or to scare us. He tells us this because he loves us. He wants us to be happy with him forever. All we need to do is look at the crucifix to know about his love. We celebrate that love today as we celebrate the Eucharist and it is that which gives us hope and joy.
 

 

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