34th Week: Nov 25-30:
25 Monday: St Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr
The context: There were 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles that stood up against the wall of the Court of Women. They were intended to hold the gifts of the faithful for the Temple treasury. As Jesus and his disciples sat and watched the comings and goings of those offering their gifts of support, they observed many wealthy worshipers placing significant sums into the Temple treasury. But it was not until Jesus observed the tiny gift of two lepta (equivalent to a couple of pennies), given by a poor widow, that he was moved to comment on the proceedings.
Beginning with chapter 11 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is seen confronting the Temple authorities and challenging abuses in the "organized religion" of his time. Complimenting the poor widow in today’s Gospel, Jesus contrasted the external signs of honor sought by the scribes with the humble, sacrificial offering of a poor widow and declared that she had found true honor in God’s eyes. The Gospel presents a poor widow who sacrificially gave her whole life and means of livelihood to God. That gift symbolizes the supreme sacrifice Jesus offered by giving His life for others. The episode invites us to a total commitment to God’s service with a humble and generous heart, free from pride and prejudice.
Life messages: # 1: We need to appreciate the widows of our parish: Their loneliness draws them closer to God and to stewardship in the parish. They are often the active participants in all the liturgical celebrations, offering prayers for their families and for their parish family. Frequently, they are active in parish organizations, as well as in visiting and serving the sick and the shut-ins. Hence, let us appreciate them, support them, encourage them, and pray for them.
#2: We need to accept Christ’s criteria for judging people: We often judge people by what they possess. But Jesus measures us on the basis of our inner motives and the intentions hidden behind our actions. He evaluates us on the basis of the sacrifices we make for others and on the degree of our surrender to His holy will. What is hardest to give is ourselves in love and concern, because that gift costs us more than reaching for our purses. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
26 Tuesday:
The context: Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ reaction to the comments the disciples had been making about the splendor of the Temple in Jerusalem. The forty-foot-tall pillars supporting the beams of the front porch were made of solid marble. Most of the decorations and the large vine on the front porch with six-foot long grape clusters were made of solid gold plates, while the dome was gold-plated. But Jesus prophesied this Temple’s total destruction. In AD 70, the Roman army invaded the city, plundered everything valuable, set fire to the Temple, pulled down the City’s walls, killed one million Jews, and took 97,000 healthy Jews as captives. Jesus also gave the disciples warnings about false military messiahs and their deceptive doctrines about overthrowing the Romans. Then Jesus listed some signs of the end of the world, like wars between nations, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and unnatural movements of the heavenly bodies.
Life message: 1) We need to learn from the signs of the times, like crises in morality, a culture of death, an increase in violence and terrorism, the “normalization” of sexual deviations, the breaking down of families, and the moral degradation of society. We need to prepare ourselves for the end times by living ideal Christian lives, helping others, sharing our blessings with others, getting and staying reconciled with God and our neighbors, and trusting in the living presence of Jesus in the Church.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
27 Wednesday: The context: Today’s Gospel gives Jesus’ prophetic warning to the apostles and disciples about the sufferings they will have to bear for their Faith in Him until Jesus’ Second Coming. Jesus advises them to bear witness to Him in spite of persecutions, for those persecutions would also encourage the disciples to flee to remote places and to preach the Gospel among the Jews and the Gentiles. Believers, Jesus warns, will be locked up in prisons and brought for trial before kings and governors. Jesus assures them that the Holy Spirit will give them words of defense and witness-bearing. (In the Acts of the Apostles, we read how Stephen was given the wisdom to bear splendid witness to Jesus in Jerusalem). Since there will be divisions in families between believers and non-believers, Jesus declares, close relatives will betray their Christian family members to the pagan authorities and cause their martyrdom. But Jesus assures the disciples in today’s Gospel passage that their suffering for Him will be amply rewarded.
Life messages: 1) Although we may not get a chance to die for the Faith, we are invited to face “dry martyrdom,” a “living death” as outcasts in our contemporary materialistic, secular, liberal, agnostic, and atheistic society. 2) We are called to bear witness to Christ by loving those who hate us, by showing mercy and compassion to those who hurt and ill-treat us, by forgiving those who continue to offend us, by accepting our sufferings without complaint, and by continuing to keep Jesus’ word in our lives. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
28 Thursday [USA: Thanksgiving Day] (Readings: Any readings from the Mass “In Thanksgiving to God”) Introduction: Today is a day of national thanksgiving in the USA 1) for the blessings and protection God has given us; 2) for our democratic government and the prosperity, we enjoy; 3) for our freedom of speech and religion; and 4) for the generosity and goodwill of our people.
History: The winter of 1610 at Jamestown, Virginia, had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a thanksgiving prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God. President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, established Thanksgiving Day as a formal holiday to express our thanks to God. In 1941 Congress passed the official proclamation declaring that Thanksgiving should be observed as a legal holiday the fourth Thursday of each November.
Biblical examples of thanksgiving: (1) Today’s Gospel describes how one of the ten lepers Jesus healed, a Samaritan, returned to Jesus to express his gratitude while the nine Jewish lepers did not think to thank God and the One He had used to heal. Jesus asks the pained question, “Where are the other nine?” The episode tells us that God, too, expects gratitude, especially from us who believe. from us. (2) In 2 Kgs 5:1-9 Naaman the leper, the chief of the army of the Syrian king, returned to the prophet Elisha to express his thanks for his complete healing from leprosy with a gift of 10 talents of silver, 6000 pieces of gold and six Egyptian raiments, as gifts. When Elisha refused the gifts, Naaman asked for permission take home two sacks of the soil of Israel to remember the Lord Who healed him, and he promised to offer sacrifices only to the God of Israel. (3) Jesus’ example of thanksgiving at the tomb of Lazarus: “Thank you Father for hearing my prayer” (Jn 11:42-42). (4) St. Paul’s advice, “Give thanks to God the Father for everything” (Eph 5:20).
The Eucharistic celebration is the most important form of thanksgiving prayer for Catholics. In fact, Eucharist is the Greek word for thanksgiving. In the Holy Mass we offer the sacrifice of Jesus to our Heavenly Father as an act of thanksgiving, and we surrender our lives on the altar with repentant hearts, presenting our needs and asking for God’s blessings.
Life messages: 1) Let us be thankful and let us learn to express our thanks daily: a) To God for His innumerable blessings, providential care, and protection, and for the unconditional pardon given to us for our daily sins and failures. b) To our parents – living and dead – for the gift of life, Christian training, and the good example they gave us. c) To our relatives and friends for their loving support, timely help, and encouragement. d) To our pastors, teachers, doctors, soldiers, police, and government officers for the sincere service they render us. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Thursday: 34 Weekday Context: Using biblical and apocalyptic images Jesus foretells the brutal attack of the Roman army on the city of Jerusalem forty years later, killing most of its residents who resisted, and demolishing the Temple. Jesus combines this prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem with events preceding the end of the world because most of the Jews believed that if the Temple were destroyed their world would end. In his prophecy Jesus identifies the faithlessness of the chosen people and their moral corruption as the main causes the destruction is being permitted by God. That is why Jesus calls these days as the “time of punishment” and “days of retribution.” Jewish prophets Isaiah (63:4), Jeremiah (5:29), Hosiah (9:7) and Daniel (9:27) had already given God’s prophetic warnings about the future destruction of Jerusalem and its residents. The Temple was desecrated by the Greek Antiochus IV Epiphanes from 167 to 165 BC. The “horrible abomination” perhaps refers to an inscription placed on the portal of the temple dedicating it to the Roman god Olympian Zeus. Jesus warns that these desecrations will be repeated by the Romans. Many will be murdered, and other, healthy residents will be led away into captivity to Rome and other pagan territories. The holy city itself, its Temple in ruins, will be trampled on by the Gentiles. Then Jesus speaks of various cataclysmic and apocalyptic signs to signal the end of the world using the Hebrew Biblical images. They conclude with Daniel’s vision of the “Son of Man” riding on a cloud coming with great power and glory. But Jesus gives assurance to his loyal followers that it is a time for them to “stand up straight and raise your heads, for your redeeming is near at hand”.
Life messages: 1) Sufferings and tribulations are part and parcel of Christian life. They should help us reflect on the end of our lives and the final end of our world, and so urge us to live by the vision and values of the Gospel, sharing agape love with others by rendering them humble, loving, sacrificial service.
29 Friday:
The context: Foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and the end of the world at an unspecified future time, Jesus warns the disciples in today’s Gospel that tribulations are inevitable before the Last Judgment and the coming of Jesus’ Kingdom. Jesus uses the small parable of the fig tree to explain the point that we must be prepared for the time of tribulation, Jesus’ Second Coming, and the Last Judgment. Fig trees in Israel produce fruits twice a year, at Passover time and in autumn. The sign of the ripening of their fruits is the appearance of fresh leaves on the tree. The Jews believed that the Messiah would appear during the Passover period, which coincides with the appearance of fresh leaves on fig trees. The destruction of Jerusalem would be the end of their world for the Jews. So, the generation in AD 70 saw the end of the world symbolically. Jesus wants us to understand that the Kingdom of God will be near when wars, natural calamities, pestilences, and unnatural movements of heavenly bodies occur. Except for the last-named, these seem to occur in every age. Hence, we must be ever vigilant and prepared.
Life messages: 1) We must be able to read the signs of the times and stay in the kingdom of God by faithfully doing God’s will every day of our lives. 2) We need to continue serving others in humility and love and bearing witness to Jesus through the integrity and transparency of our Christian lives.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
30 Saturday: (Saint Andrew, Apostle):
Two accounts of Andrew’s call: In the Gospels, there are two accounts of Andrew’s call by Jesus to apostleship. According to Matthew and Mark, Jesus selected four fishermen, Andrew and his brother Peter, with James and his brother John, right from their fishing boats. Peter and Andrew "immediately" left their nets and followed Jesus. Similarly, James and John "immediately" left the boats and their father and followed Jesus. According to John’s Gospel, John and Andrew were first the disciples of John the Baptist. It was he who had encouraged them to follow Jesus by pointing him out to them as “the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:38-30), suggesting that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. One apostle leading other to Christ: First, we find Andrew, after spending a night with Jesus, leading his brother Peter to Jesus. Next, Andrew appears in the Gospel scene of the multiplication of the bread and fish with which Jesus miraculously fed a multitude. While Philip gave a bad report of the situation, Andrew went among the multitude and found a boy who offered to give his small food packet to Jesus to feed the multitude. Andrew, who saw Jesus miraculously supplying wine at Cana, knew that Jesus could work another miracle with five barley loaves and two dried fish. We find Andrew a third time in the Gospel, bringing a few Greek pilgrims to Jesus. They had first approached Philip for help and Philip had sought the help of Andrew to bring them to Jesus. Andrew’s preaching and martyrdom: According to Church tradition, Andrew preached the Gospel in Greece and Turkey and was crucified at Patras on an X-shaped cross to which he was tied. According another tradition, he also preached in Scotland and Russia. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Russia, of Scotland, and of fishermen.
Life messages: 1) In order to be effective instruments in the hands of God and to continue Jesus’ preaching, healing and saving ministry, we, too, need to repent of our sins on a daily basis and to renew our lives by relying on the power of God. 2) As the first four apostles, including Andrew, gave priority to Christ and left behind everything, we, too, are to give priority to Jesus and Jesus’ ideals in living our vocation in life. 3) St. Andrew’s zeal is a real inspiration to us. Hearing “Behold! The Lamb of God!” from St. John the Baptist, John, Zebedee’s son, and Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, immediately ran after Him with their inquiries. After talking with Jesus, Andrew wasted no time in bringing his brother, Simon Peter, to meet Jesus. We can almost picture Andrew, full of excitement, telling everyone he met about our Lord. Through Andrew’s evangelization, St. Peter, our first Pope, was brought to Jesus.
