23rd Week: Sept 8-13:
Sept 8 Monday: Birth of the Virgin Mary: Anecdote:
LIFE Magazine estimated that the prayer “Hail Mary” is
said two billion times every day, and each year five to ten million people make
a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Many others visit Marian
sites elsewhere in the world. Mary is prayed to as advocate and helper, and
even in the sports arenas there is a reference to her power: the last desperate
pass by a losing football team was once called a “Hail Mary pass.”
Mary is also venerated by Muslims. It is reported that when the Prophet
Muhammad cleared the idols out of the Kaaba in Mecca, he allowed only a fresco
of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus to remain. In every Muslim mosque,
the “mihrab” or prayer niche in the wall is dedicated to Mary. In the Qur’an,
she is described as having been sent as “a mercy for the worlds.”
History: As one of the oldest Marian
solemnities, this feast is based on the second century (A.D. 175), apocryphal
book Protoevagelium Jacobi (The Pre-Gospel of James), which
reflects the traditions of the early Church, although it is not considered an
inspired book. According to this book, Mary’s parents were Joachim and Anna.
Mary was born either in Jerusalem or in Sephoris, three miles north of
Bethlehem. The Annunciation is believed to have taken place later in the house
of Mary’s parents. The feast originated in the fifth century in Syria or
Palestine. St. Romanus of Syria is supposed to have brought it to Rome. The
Roman Church adopted it in the 7th century and fixed it on September 8th. It is
found in the 8th and 9th-century Gregorian Sacramentary.
Importance: The feast is the birthday
celebration of the mother of Jesus, our Heavenly Mother, and the Mother of the
Church. It is the birthday of an ordinary woman who was chosen to become the
mother of an extraordinary Divine Child. The Church celebrates the death day of
a saint as his/her feast day, considering it his/her “birthday in
Heaven.” The three exceptions are Jesus’ birthday (Christmas), Mary’s
birthday (September 8), and John the Baptist’s birthday (June 24). Mary’s
birthday is celebrated because of her Immaculate Conception. John the Baptist,
in Elizabeth’s womb, was filled with the Holy Spirit during Mary’s visitation
of Elizabeth. We honor Mary because God has done great things for her (Luke
1:49), a) by choosing her as the mother of Jesus His Son, b) by filling her
with His Holy Spirit twice, c) by making her the embodiment of all virtues (“full
of grace”), and our Heavenly Mother and d) by allowing her to become
the most active participant with Christ, her son, in our redemption. The
readings: (Mi 5:1-4 or Rom 8:28-30; Mt 1:1-16, 18-23). Romans 1:3
states that Mary was a descendant of David, and Matthew’s genealogy in today’s
Gospel also supports this truth.
Life Messages: 1) Let us, as Mary’s children,
give a suitable birthday gift to our Heavenly Mother. Every mother wants her
children to inherit and acquire all her good qualities. Hence, our best
birthday gift to Mary is to become holy children of a Holy Mother.
2) Let us make this day the day we start practicing Mary’s
virtues. Let us practice her virtues of a) trusting Faith in the power of
God (“nothing is impossible for God’), b) perfect obedience to the
will of God (“be it done to me according to your word”). c) the
spirit of sacrificial and sharing love and d) the acceptance of suffering, with
one hundred percent commitment to her heroic mission. (Fr. Tony)
Sept 9 Tuesday: Saint Peter Claver, priest:
Lk 6:12-19 The context: Today’s
Gospel passage gives a short account of the call of the Apostles and of the
preaching and healing mission of Jesus. Jesus was the first missionary; he was
sent by his Father with the “Good News” that God his Father is a loving,
merciful, and forgiving Father Who wants to save everyone through His Son,
Jesus. Today’s Gospel describes how this first missionary selected and
empowered twelve future missionaries as Apostles to continue his mission.
Special features: Jesus selected very ordinary people, most
of them hard-working fishermen with no social status, learning, or political
influence, because he was sure that they would be very effective instruments in
God’s hands. It was a strange mixture of people. Matthew was a hated tax
collector serving the Roman Empire, while Simon the Cananaean was a Zealot, a
fanatical nationalist or terrorist of those days, determined to destroy Roman
rule by any means. The others were mostly professional fishermen with a lot of
good will, patience and stamina. It was only their admiration and love for
Jesus and his for them that united them. Jesus selected them after a night of
prayer and gave them his own powers of healing and exorcism and his own mission
of preaching the “Kingdom of God.”
Life Messages: 1) God wants to show us that a
calling for ministry, or a vocation to priestly or religious life or family
life, is an initiative of God. 2) As Christians we have the same mission that
Jesus entrusted to his Apostles. 3) We fulfill this mission of preaching the
word of God, primarily by our living out of Jesus’ teachings, and then by
promoting and helping world-wide missionary activities of the Church. (Fr.
Tony)
Sept 10 Wednesday: Lk 6:20-26:
The context: Luke presents the Sermon on
the Plain as following immediately upon the choosing of the twelve
Apostles. Today’s Gospel passage, taken from Luke’s Sermon on the
Plain, teaches us that true happiness or beatitude lies in the
awareness of who we are and what we are supposed to do. The eight beatitudes
Jesus gives in Mathew, like the four in Luke, contradict the ideas of “real”
happiness prevalent in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day (and in our modern
society as well), according to which wealth, health, power, pleasure, security,
complete freedom, success, and influence are the “true” beatitudes.
The Beatitudes: Jesus instructs his disciples in the
paradoxical blessedness of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution, which
contradict our natural expectations in every way. Blessed are those
who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced because in
poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, His providence; in sorrow, true
happiness; and in persecution, true joy. Experiencing these miseries opens the
way for us to receive the true riches, food, comfort and acceptance we find
only in His love and His presence, here and in His Kingdom forever. The
Beatitudes are God’s plan for how we should live, and what we should do. What
makes one blessed is not simply poverty or hunger or sadness or suffering for
one’s Faith, but one’s Faith and commitment to Jesus and His spirit of sharing.
Life messages: 1) We need to respond to the
challenges of the Beatitudes in our daily life. Millions are starving,
persecuted, homeless, and leading hopeless lives. When we reach out to help
them, we are living out the Beatitudes. In addition, Jesus tells us that we are
serving him in these suffering people. We are also loving our neighbors as
Jesus loves us. That is why we are told that we will be judged on the basis of
our acts of mercy and charity (Mt 25:31-46). 2) Let us also
remember that each time we reach out to help the people who are needy, sick,
and/or oppressed, we give them the experience of God’s love for them. 3) Just
as the Apostles were called to minister to society’s untouchables, so all
Christians are called to minister to the untouchables, the discriminated
against and the marginalized in our own modern society, that they may meet
God’s love in human flesh. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 11 Thursday: Lk 6:27-38:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is the
second part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain as given by Luke. It
describes the power of Christian love when exercised by practicing
the golden rule: “Do to others as you would have
them do to you.” This golden rule is amplified by a string of
particular commands: 1) “Love your enemies…Do good to those who hate
you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you.” Jesus
orders us to love our enemies. 2) Show your Christian love to everyone,
especially to your enemies by treating them with mercy and compassion because
our Heavenly Father is merciful and compassionate to all His children. “Be
compassionate, as your Father is compassionate.” 3) Stop judging
and start forgiving.
Life messages: 1) We need to answer the invitation
to grace-filled behavior: What makes Christianity distinct from any
other religion is the quality known as grace, i.e., our
ability to treat others, not as we think they deserve, but with love, kindness
in Jesus’ spirit of forgiveness, and mercy. 2) We need to accept the challenges
of day-to-day life. Jesus challenges our willingness to endure unjust suffering
for his sake and the sake of his Gospel. 3) We need to pray
for the strength to forgive. At every Mass we pray the “Our Father,” asking
God to forgive us as we forgive others. We must forgive, because only
forgiveness truly heals our relationships and heals us. If we remember how God
has forgiven us, it will help us forgive others.
4) We need to live our lives in accordance with “the
Golden Rule.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 12 Friday: Most Holy Name of Mary: Lk 6:39-42:
The context: In today’s passage, taken from
the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus condemns
our careless, malicious, and often rash judgments about the behavior, feelings,
motives, and/or actions of others by using the funny examples of one blind man
leading another blind man and one man with a log covering his eyes trying to
remove a tiny speck from another’s eye.
Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No
one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole
truth, and only He can read the human heart. Hence, only He has the ability,
right, and authority to judge us. 2) We do not see all the facts or
circumstances or the power of the temptation which has led a person to do
something evil. 3) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total
fairness cannot be expected from us. 4) We have no right to judge because we
have the same faults as the one we are judging and often to a greater degree
(remember the critical man with a wooden beam in his eye?) St. Philip Neri
commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip
but for the grace of God.” Abraham Lincoln said that only he who has
the heart to help has the right to criticize (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 13 Saturday: Saint John Chrysostom, bishop and
Doctor of the Church: Lk 6:43-49:
The context: In today’s passage, taken from
the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches
the necessity for cultivating a strong Christian moral character as the
foundation of our Christian life. The teaching: In the first part of the
Gospel, Jesus teaches us that the good fruits of Christian virtues, like love,
mercy, forgiveness, and service, result only from an upright character trained
in and cultivated by the repeated practice of Christian principles. Jesus
compares good works with figs and grapes and reminds us that thorny shrubs and
bramble bushes cannot produce them. In the second part, Jesus gives us two
warnings: that we must match our profession of Faith with actual obedience to
the will of God, and that we must build a life on the firm foundation of Jesus’
teachings. Jesus emphasizes the truth that we should not be mere hearers of the
word of God, but also consistent doers of that word. In other words, our
profession of Faith should be matched by our practice. Jesus compares mere
hearers of the word to a foolish man who built his house on a sandy foundation,
and the doers of the word to a wise man who built his house on strong and solid
rock.
Life messages: 1) We need to be men and women of
character with the courage of our religious convictions, doing what is right at
all times. Such persons are honest and reliable before God, themselves, and
their neighbors. 2) We need to build our family on a strong Christian
foundation. There can beno great marriage and no great family without a solid
foundation, and that foundation begins with the husband and wife doing, and
being, the love of Christ for each other and for their children. 3) We need to
get ready to face the storms of life: Jesus wants us to follow his words and to
build our lives and our families on his words. He wants us to be ready for the
storms of life, including, among others, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,
economic downturns, pension defaults, war, depression both mental and economic,
relationships that fade, the deaths of those who love us and whom we love,
devastating illness, and protracted disease. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
