Archive for September 5, 2020

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: September 5, 2020 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
0

To Win Them Back: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:

Ezekiel 33:7–9
Psalm 95:1–2, 6–9
Romans 13:8–10
Matthew 18:15–20

As Ezekiel is appointed watchman over the house of Israel in today’s first Reading, so Jesus in the Gospel today establishes His disciples as guardians of the new Israel of God, the Church (see Galatians 6:16).

He also puts in place procedures for dealing with sin and breaches of the faith, building on rules of discipline prescribed by Moses for Israel (see Leviticus 19:17–20; Deuteronomy 19:13).

The heads of the new Israel, however, receive extraordinary powers—similar to those given to Peter (see Matthew 16:19). They have the power to bind and loose, to forgive sins and to reconcile sinners in His name (see John 20:21–23).

But the powers He gives the Apostles and their successors depends on their communion with Him. As Ezekiel is only to teach what he hears God saying, the disciples are to gather in His name and to pray and seek the will of our heavenly Father.

But today’s readings are more than a lesson in Church order. They also suggest how we’re to deal with those who trespass against us, a theme that we’ll hear in next week’s readings as well.

Notice that both the Gospel and the First Reading presume that believers have a duty to correct sinners in our midst. Ezekiel is even told that he will be held accountable for their souls if he fails to speak out and try to correct them.
This is the love that Paul in today’s Epistle says we owe to our neighbors. To love our neighbors as ourselves is to be vitally concerned for their salvation. We must make every effort, as Jesus says, to win our brothers and sisters back, to turn them from the false paths.
We should never correct out of anger or a desire to punish. Instead, our message must be that of today’s Psalm—urging the sinner to hear God’s voice, not to harden their hearts, and to remember that He is the one who made us, and the rock of our salvation.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: September 5, 2020 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
Tags:
0

‘When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing’

Wait what? Why? This might only be possible for those who are holy moly! Like if I were an Apostle or the Pope!If we have thoughts like this can we truly call ourselves Christian? Are we only Sunday Catholic Christians? Even then who is this Lord we claim to worship on Sundays? Did we forget that by our baptism we are called to be holy (saints) as our Heavenly Father is Holy? Did we also forget that by our confirmation we are sent (apostles) to share in the good news of the Lord our God? Do we even know what the Good News is and do we dwell in it? If you still don’t know what it is then you have not come to the deeper realisation that it is not an ‘it’ but ‘whom’!

Who can ever be more humble, merciful and loving then the Lord our Lord Jesus Christ; whom we claim to serve who is Lord of Lords, King of Kings? He whom humbled himself for love of us took on flesh, who was mocked, cursed, spat upon, tortured, stripped of everything and nailed on the cross. Yet He forgave us from the cross! When He turned His eyes to Heaven and said, “Father forgive them for they not what they do.”

Lord Jesus through Your death and the power of Your Resurrection let me turn all curses into Blessings in Your most precious name. Amen

First reading

1 Corinthians 4:6-15 ·What do you have that was not given to you?Take Apollos and myself as an example and remember the maxim: ‘Keep to what is written.’ It is not for you, so full of your own importance, to go taking sides for one man against another. In any case, brother, has anybody given you some special right? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not? Is it that you have everything you want – that you are rich already, in possession of your kingdom, with us left outside? Indeed I wish you were really kings, and we could be kings with you! But instead, it seems to me, God has put us apostles at the end of his parade, with the men sentenced to death; it is true – we have been put on show in front of the whole universe, angels as well as men. Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies. To this day, we go without food and drink and clothes; we are beaten and have no homes; we work for our living with our own hands. When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we put up with it; we are insulted and we answer politely. We are treated as the offal of the world, still to this day, the scum of the earth. I am saying all this not just to make you ashamed but to bring you, as my dearest children, to your senses. You might have thousands of guardians in Christ, but not more than one father and it was I who begot you in Christ Jesus by preaching the Good News.

Gospel

Luke 6:1-5The Son of Man is master of the sabbathOne sabbath Jesus happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?’ Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which only the priests are allowed to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is master of the sabbath.’