Archive for September 12, 2015

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: September 12, 2015 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Following the Messiah:
Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:
Isaiah 50:4-9
Psalm 116:1-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18

Mark 8:27-35 (see also “Finding Christ in the Psalms”)

In today’s Gospel, we reach a pivotal moment in our walk with the Lord. After weeks of listening to His words and witnessing His deeds, along with the disciples we’re asked to decide who Jesus truly is.

Peter answers for them, and for us, too, when he declares: “You are the Messiah.”

Many expected the Messiah to be a miracle worker who would vanquish Israel’s enemies and restore the kingdom of David (see John 6:15).

Jesus today reveals a different portrait. He calls himself the Son of Man, evoking the royal figure Daniel saw in his heavenly visions (see Daniel 7:13-14). But Jesus’ kingship is not to be of this world (see John 18:36). And the path to His throne, as He reveals, is by way of suffering and death.

Jesus identifies the Messiah with the suffering servant that Isaiah foretells in today’s First Reading. The words of Isaiah’s servant are Jesus’ words — as He gives himself to be shamed and beaten, trusting that God will be His help. We hear our Lord’s voice again in today’s Psalm, as He gives thanks that God has freed Him from the cords of death.

As Jesus tells us today, to believe that He is the Messiah is to follow His way of self-denial — losing our lives to save them, in order to rise with Him to new life. Our faith, we hear again in today’s Epistle, must express itself in works of love (see Galatians 5:6).

Notice that Jesus questions the apostles today “along the way.” They are on the way to Jerusalem, where the Lord will lay down His life. We, too, are on a journey with the Lord.

We must take up our cross, giving to others and enduring all our trials for His sake and the sake of the gospel.

Our lives must be an offering of thanksgiving for the new life He has given us, until that day when we reach our destination, and walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Finding Christ in the Psalms

Jesus taught His Apostles that the Book of Psalms speaks of Him and His mission. “Everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled,” He told them on the night of His Resurrection (see Luke 24:44).

Jesus applied specific Psalms to himself (see Matthew 21:42-44 and 22:41-46). So did the apostles in their preaching and writings (see Acts 2:25-35 and Hebrews 1:5-14).

This ancient practice continues in the liturgy. In the Psalms chosen for Sunday Mass readings, sometimes the Church invites us to hear a direct reference to Christ. Other times, we’re invited to hear the voice of Christ crying out to the Father. And still other times, we hear the Father talking to the Son.

Psalm 54 is heard this way in the readings for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Originally sung by David when he was betrayed by the Ziphites (see 1 Samuel 23:19-25 and 26:1-3), we’re invited to hear the Psalm as a confident appeal by Christ in His Passion: “Fierce men seek My life…Behold…the Lord sustains My life.”

The same is true of the use of Psalm 116 in the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B). We hear our Lord’s voice as He gives thanks that God has rescued Him, freed His soul from death and the snares of the nether world.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: September 12, 2015 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Just like many of my sisters and brothers in Christ,  I too can testify to the mercy and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. For when I went my own way, did my own thing refusing to listen,  He the Lord waited patiently.  I wanted to and thought I was living life to the fullest! Wine, women, song and travel…. Nothing came close, nothing was enough, there had to be more.  How? Where?

Our blessed Mother would time to time whisper in my ear, “As you have prayed, I will never let you lose Your God.”  She brought me to Lourdes where I experienced God’s amazing love through the Sacrament of reconciliation.  Then further experiencing the loving unity of our universal church community and the gentle embrace of our blessed Mother Mary.

After a relatively short time the ways of the world caught up with me for I was not grounded in prayer or the Word.  Still our Lord loved me and called out to me.  But I was not ready to listen till I had kids of my own.  I decided to surrender to His grace for I was getting no where on my own. I was tired of going around in circles.

Through His mercy and love I was transformed.  I have now finally experienced what it means to live life to the full.  Not through selfish means and ways but through giving fully of oneself. To Him who loves us and to my sisters and brothers.  His peace, joy and love is upon me. I share it now with you……

Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Now and forever… Amen

First reading
1 Timothy 1:15-17

Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life. To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Gospel
Luke 6:43-49

Jesus said to his disciples:
  ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.
  ‘Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord” and not do what I say?
  ‘Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them – I will show you what he is like. He is like the man who when he built his house dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man who built his house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!’