Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

September 6, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090623.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin about two weeks of readings from Paul’s letters to the Colossians and to Timothy. These epistles often express personal tones not as evident in his other letters like Hebrews or Romans.

---

In today’s reading we meet Paul’s beloved companions, Timothy and Epaphras. We will hear much more about Timothy later, but today let’s look at the snippets about Epaphras.

Just as in the whole world the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing,
so also among you,
from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth,
as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave,
who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf
and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

---

Tradition holds that Paul may never have visited Colossae. He mentored and depended on Epaphras to build up the Church in that community. To report on his ministry, Epaphras visited Paul in Roman prison, and was arrested himself for a time. (Thus the reference “fellow slave”)

---

Praying with Colossians this morning, I am reminded of the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Paul obviously did not build up the Pauline Churches alone. His letters are filled with names of those inspired with his same passion for the Gospel. Together, they shaped the early Church which is our heritage.

---

In our Gospel, Jesus ventures out on his own missionary journey. But he does so in the company of Peter and others, valued companions as was Epaphras to Paul.

---

Our faith communities need each one of us, too, to invest our committed energy for the building up of the whole. As we offer our gifts to the Body of Christ, we need the blessing of holy companionship, as did Jesus and Paul.

---

I pray in thanksgiving today for my Sisters, for our Associates in Mercy, for my co-ministers over many years, for my dear family and friends, for all those “trustworthy” and “beloved” companions on our journey of faith together. You may want to do the same.

---

Poetry: honor the roots- by Rupi Kour

remember the body of your community 
breathe in the people
who sewed you whole
it is you who became yourself
but those before you
are a part of your fabric

---

Music: walking Each Other Home – Dierks Bentley

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time September 5, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090523.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our first reading seems so in synch with the cycle of the seasons.

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.

1 Thessalonians 5:1

Paul goes on to describe the rhythms of days and nights, lights and darknesses that flow through every life. Like the passing of the seasons, our life changes can inspire in us awe, wonder, and praise. But, at times, they can also leave us a little speechless, fearful, and confused.

Each season, though full of beauty, has its taxes and turns, for example:

the spring of:

---

the summer of:

---

the autumn of:

---

the winter of:

---

Paul assures us that the light of faith guides and sustains us through our life’s changes and challenges:

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.

1 Thessalonians 5:9

---

At our Baptism, an unquenchable pilot light was ignited deep in our hearts. We are fueled by the fire of God. As the earth’s phases transpire, they teach us to honor our own seasons by stilling ourselves in that Luminous Flame.

---

Poetry: Twilight by Louise Glück

All day he works at his cousin’s mill,
so when he gets home at night, he always sits at this one window,
sees one time of day, twilight.
There should be more time like this, to sit and dream.
It’s as his cousin says:
Living—living takes you away from sitting.

In the window, not the world but a squared-off landscape
representing the world. The seasons change,
each visible only a few hours a day.
Green things followed by golden things followed by whiteness—
abstractions from which come intense pleasures,
like the figs on the table.

At dusk, the sun goes down in a haze of red fire between two poplars.
It goes down late in summer—sometimes it’s hard to stay awake.

Then everything falls away.
The world for a little longer
is something to see, then only something to hear,
crickets, cicadas.
Or to smell sometimes, aroma of lemon trees, of orange trees.
Then sleep takes this away also.

But it’s easy to give things up like this, experimentally,
for a matter of hours.

I open my fingers—
I let everything go.

Visual world, language,
rustling of leaves in the night,
smell of high grass, of woodsmoke.

I let it go, then I light the candle.

---

Music: Wind in the Tall Autumn Grass – Kathryn Kaye

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time September 4, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090423.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings each describe times of fulfillment.

In prose rich with imagery, Paul paints a picture of the final coming of Christ. Many early Christians had expected this Second Coming to occur very quickly after the Resurrection. When it did not, they became confused and wondered what it meant for those who died in the meantime.

To answer their concerns, Paul draws on the images Jesus himself used:

At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

Mark 13:26-27

---

In today’s Gospel, Jesus announces that the First Coming has occurred. His listeners, too, had expected the Messiah for ages. And now he was here – no clouds, no trumpets, no attending angels. Just the quiet unrolling of a scroll and the simple proclamation, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

---

I like to pray with this passage by imagining myself somewhere in that synagogue, hearing those astounding words. Would I be the person who had longed to hear them and who responded wholeheartedly? Or would I hardly be paying attention, so distracted by my many concerns? Maybe I would be the skeptic who took any religious comment with a grain of salt and a drop of vinegar. Or maybe I would feel my heart fully embraced by that “Gracious Word” who is Jesus Christ.

And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

---

“Gracious” is such a beautiful word. The early Greek transcripts denote it as a word akin to “charity” or selfless love

χάριτος – charitos

As we try to imagine Jesus at this opening moment of his ministry, we might think of the most gracious person we know and multiply that by infinity.

---

Poetry: Thou Gracious Power – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thou gracious Power,
whose mercy lends
The light of home, the smile of friends,
Our families in Thine arms enfold
As in the peaceful days of old.


Wilt Thou not hear us while we raise,
In sweet accord of solemn praise,
The voices that have mingled long
In joyous flow of mirth and song?


For all the blessings life has brought,
For all its sorrowing hours have taught,
For all we mourn, for all we keep,
The hands we clasp,
the loved that sleep.


The noontide sunshine of the past,
These brief, bright
moments fading fast,
The stars that gild our darkening years,
The twilight ray from holier spheres.


We thank Thee, Father; let Thy grace
Our narrowing circle still embrace,
Thy mercy shed its heavenly store,
Thy peace be with us evermore.

---

Music: How Deep, How Simple – Kathryn Kaye

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 3, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090323.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this first Sunday in September, there is change in the air. Vacations are over. Schools are open. Autumn sale announcements are stuffed into the newspaper. Some of us are even thinking of a pumpkin latte after Sunday Mass.

We feel a change of mood in our Sunday readings too, and the mood is solemn.

---

Just last Sunday, Jesus gave the “keys” over to Peter, alerting him that he would soon be driving the boat. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus gets intense about how that transition will occur. And it’s not going to be pretty.

---

The angst within today’s scripture readings shouts loudly to us in the passage from Jeremiah foreshadowing the Passion of Christ. Jeremiah wrote during the downfall of Jerusalem to its Babylonian captors. When his and his community’s faith was tested beyond endurance, Jeremiah called his people to fidelity and hope. He gave expression to the deep pain of loss and failure yet holding up an unquenchable trust. The people derided him from their desolation and he let God know how he suffered:

Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Jeremiah 20: 8-9

---

Jesus is more subtle with his words but they too reveal a heart that is breaking because, in worldly terms, the dream appears to be untenable:

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 16:21

---

One might read today’s scriptures and ask why it had to be so hard for Jesus, so hard for the Jeremiah community. Why is it so hard for us to live a peaceful, faithful life in the world? Why doesn’t God just make it all work?

Praying with those questions, I come up with one answer: free will. God created us to choose freely to love and live in God. Programming that love into us would make the love meaningless. We have to choose it. And not everyone does. Those choices contradictory to God’s love create the kind of suffering Jesus and Jeremiah describe.

---

Certainly we experience other kinds of anguish in life not controlled by our choices. These are associated with the natural life cycle of birth, growth, diminishment and death. As Christians, we believe that it is within the mystery of these joys and sorrows, lived in the pattern of Christ, that we come fully to a life resurrected in God.

---

Poetry from Scripture: Psalm 63:

Seeking the gift of trust, we pray:

O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. 

You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.

---

Music: The Circle of Life – from The Lion King

From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinkin’, step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

Some say, “Eat or be eaten”

Some say, “Live and let live”

But all are agreed as they join the stampede

You should never take more than you give

In the circle of life

It’s the wheel of fortune

It’s the leap of faith

It’s the band of hope

‘Til we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the circle, the circle of life

Some of us fall by the wayside

And some of us soar to the stars

And some of us sail through our troubles

And some have to live with the scars

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rollin’ high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time Saturday, September 2, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090223.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, both our readings offer many lessons, but I think a key one is this:

If you want to be a better person,
mind your own business!

---

In Thessalonians, Paul is abundantly clear about it when he describes what fosters fraternal charity:

We urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.

---

Jesus allegorizes what happens when we ignore our own responsibilities and worry about someone else’s choices:

‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.’
His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant!

---

We all know people who are experts at evaluating everyone’s life but their own. Apparently, Paul and Jesus knew some too. To guide them into a more integrated life, Jesus and Paul offered these two standards: fraternal charity and practiced faithfulness to one’s own call.

I think the advice can help all of us.

---

Prose: from Plato

Justice means 
minding one's own business 
and not meddling with 
other men’s concerns.

---

Music: Mind Your Own Business – Hank Williams

If the wife and I are fussin’, brother that’s our right
‘Cause me and that sweet woman’s got a license to fight
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
‘Cause if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

Oh, the woman on our party line’s the nosiest thing
She picks up her receiver when she knows it’s my ring
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
Well, if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

I got a little gal that wears her hair up high
The boys all whistle when she walks by
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
Well, if you mind your own business, you sure won’t be minding mine

If I want to honky tonk around ’til two or three
Now, brother that’s my headache, don’t you worry ’bout me
Just mind your own business
(Mind your own business)
If you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

Mindin’ other people’s business seems to be high-toned
I got all that I can do just to mind my own
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
If you mind your own business, you’ll stay busy all the time