24th Week: Sept 14-19:
Sept 14 Monday: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross:
Nm 21:4-9; Phil 2: 6-11, Jn 3: 13-17
Introduction: We celebrate this feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross for two reasons: (1) to understand the history of the
discovery and recovery of the True Cross and (2) to appreciate better the
importance of the symbol and reality of Christ’s sacrificial love, namely, the
cross in the daily life of every Christian.
Historical note: The Feast of Exaltation of the
Holy Cross is one of twelve “Master feasts” celebrated in the
Church to honor Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. This feast is celebrated to
remember both the first installation of the remnants of the True Cross of Jesus
in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Mount Calvary on September 14, 335 AD and
its reinstallation on September 14, 630 A.D. The original cross on which Jesus
was crucified was excavated in A.D. 326 by a team led by St. Helena the mother
of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine. The Emperor built the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher on Calvary, it was consecrated on September 14, 335, and
the remains of the cross were installed in it by Archbishop Makarios of
Jerusalem. After three centuries, the Persians invaded Jerusalem, plundered all
valuables and took with them the relic of the Holy Cross. In 630, Heraclius II
defeated the Persians, recaptured the casket containing the holy relic and
reinstalled it in the rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The largest
fragment of the Holy Cross is now kept in the Santa Croce church in Rome.
Scripture summarized: Today’s first reading
describes how God healed the complaining Israelites through the brazen serpent.
In the second reading, St. Paul explains how God exalted Jesus for his
self-emptying on the cross for our salvation by granting him resurrection. In
today’s Gospel, answering the question raised by Nicodemus, Jesus explains how
he is going to save the world by his death on the cross. Jesus cites the
example of how the brazen serpent raised by Moses representing the healing
power of God, saved the Israelites in the desert from snake bites.
Life messages: 1) We need to honor and venerate
the cross: We should honor and venerate the cross and carry it on our body to
remind ourselves of the love of God for us and the price Jesus paid for our
salvation. The cross will give us strength in our sufferings and hope for our
eternal glory with the risen Lord. 2) We need to make good spiritual use our
crosses by a) by accepting and offering to God for the salvation of the world
the sacrifice and suffering involved in helping others and sharing our
blessings with others b) by welcoming and offering to God the pain involved in
controlling our evil habits and tendencies and in practicing our faith c) by
serving others with sacrificial, agápe love, self- surrender
and commitment. 3) We need to be forgiving toward everyone, because we
ourselves are forgiven sinners. The crucifix reminds us that we are forgiven
sinners and hence we are expected to forgive those who offend us and ask for forgiveness
whenever we offend others or hurt their feelings. (Fr. Tony)
Sept 15 Tuesday: Our Lady of Sorrows:
Jn 19:25-27 or Lk 2:33-35:
Today, we remember the spiritual martyrdom of the Mother of
Jesus and her participation in the sufferings of her Divine Son. Mary is the
Queen of martyrs because she suffered in spirit all Jesus suffered during His
Passion and death, her spiritual torments were greater than the bodily agonies
of the martyrs, and Mary offered her sorrows to God for our sake. The principal
Biblical references to Mary’s sorrows are found in Lk 2:35 and Jn 19:26-27.
Many early Church writers interpret the sword prophesied by Simeon as Mary’s
sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross. In the past, the Church
celebrated two feasts to commemorate separately 1) the spiritual
martyrdom of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout her life as the mother
of Jesus and 2) her compassion for her Divine Son during his
suffering and death. The devotion to the Seven Dolors
(sorrows) of Mary honors her for the motherly sufferings she endured during the
whole life of Jesus on earth.This devotion started with a vision given to St.
Bridget of Sweden in the thirteenth century. In 1239 the seven founders of the
Servite Order took up the sorrows of Mary who stood under the Cross as the main
devotion of their religious Order. Originally, this day was kept on the Friday
before Good Friday. It was Pope Pius XII who changed the date of the feast to
the 15th of September immediately after the feast of the Triumph of the
Cross. (The nineteenth-century German mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich
claimed to have received a vision in which Mary actually kissed the blood of
Jesus in the many sacred places on the way of the cross. In
his film, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson, inspired by
this vision, pictures Claudia, Pontius Pilate’s wife, secretly handing Mary
cloths to collect the blood of Jesus from the streets of Jerusalem).
The seven sorrows: There are seven times of great
suffering in Mary’s life. These events remind many parents of their personal
family experiences of sorrow and mourning for their dear children. 1) Hearing
the prophecy of Simeon, 2) Fleeing with Jesus and Joseph into Egypt to escape
Herod’s soldiers sent to kill Jesus, 3) Losing the Child Jesus in Jerusalem, 4)
Meeting Jesus on the road to Calvary, 5) Standing at the foot of Jesus’ Cross,
6) Receiving the Body of Jesus as it is taken down from the Cross, and 7) The
burial of Jesus.
Life message: 1) On this feast day, let us pray
for those who continue to endure similar sufferings that they may receive from
God the strength that they desperately need to continue to carry their
spiritual crosses. Let us try to enter into the sorrowing hearts of the mothers
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, Gaza, the Ukraine and
other terrorist-haunted nations and grieving for their children, soldiers and
civilians and for the mothers of children of every nation stolen for sexual
trafficking in the United States and other countries 2) Let us also remember
with repentant hearts that it is our sins which caused the suffering of Jesus
and Mary. [“At the cross her station keeping, / Stood the
mournful mother weeping, / Close to Jesus to the last. // Through her heart,his
sorrow sharing, / All his bitter anguish bearing, / Now at length the
sword has passed.” (Stabat Mater)]
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 16 Wednesday: St. Cornelius, Pope & St.
Cyprian Bishop and Martyrs: Lk 7:31-35: 
The context: The message of John the Baptist and
the message of Jesus fell on deaf ears and met with stiff resistance from the
scribes and the Pharisees who listened with pride, jealousy, prejudice,
suffering from spiritual deafness. Hence, they attributed the austerities of
John the Baptist to the devil and saw Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners as “evidence”
that he was a glutton and a drunkard – both “testifying” that
Jesus’ reputation and silent Messianic claims were patently false.
Dog-in-the-manger attitude: Jesus compares the attitude of
the Scribes and the Pharisees with that of street-children who want to
entertain themselves by acting out wedding and funeral songs. They divide
themselves into two groups. But when one group proposes to sing wedding songs
and asks the other group to dance, the second group will refuse, proposing
funeral songs instead, and asking the first group to act as a funeral
procession, carrying one of them on their shoulders. In the end both groups
will be frustrated. Jesus states that the scribes and Pharisees, because of
their pride and prejudice, act exactly like these immature, irresponsible
children. Jesus criticizes the unbelieving Jews for not listening either to
John the Baptist, who preached a message of austerity, repentance, and God’s
judgement on unrepentant sinners, or to Jesus, who preached the Good News of
God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation.
Life messages: 1) “Ignore and correct”:
Some people will criticize us as they criticized Jesus and John the Baptist,
even when we do good, correct things with the best of intentions. The best
response is to ignore the critics, while examining our actions and correcting
anything wrong we may find in them with grateful thanks to our correctors, who
have done us this spiritual favor. 2) Truly Listening to
the Gospel implies the total acceptance and assimilation of
what we hear and the incorporation of it into our daily lives.
3) Simply hearing without Listening to what God, or His
children, our brothers and sisters, say to us, warning us about the dang it is
dangerous for us, for we are leaving ourselves blind and deaf to the dangers of
our present conduct. The same is true for “selective listening,” hearing
only what we want to hear, and doing only what we like. 4) Like the generation
of Jesus’ time, our age is marked by indifference and contempt, especially in
regard to the things of Heaven. Indifference dulls our ears to God’s voice and
to the Good News of the Gospel. Only the humble of heart can find joy and favor
in God’s grace.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 17 Thursday: St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop,
Doctor of the Church; St. Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin, Doctor of the
Church) Lk 7:36-50
The context: The central theme of today’s Gospel
is an invitation to repent, do penance, and renew our lives, instead of
continuing to carry the heavy baggage of our sins. This Gospel celebrates the
gift of God’s forgiveness. Our God is a God Who always tries, not to punish,
but to rehabilitate, so that we may be made whole and experience inner peace
and harmony. The sinner at the feet of Jesus: The Gospel story tells of a woman
of the streets who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair,
and perfumes them with costly oil. In sharp contrast, the host, Simon the
Pharisee, has purposely omitted these Jewish customs of welcoming a guest. When
one invited a Rabbi to one’s house, it was normal to place one’s hand on his
shoulder and give him the kiss of peace, to bathe his feet (Palestine is a very
dusty country), and to burn a grain of incense or put a drop of attar of roses
on his head. Jesus contrasts Simon’s rudeness with the prostitute’s public
expression of repentance, and says that the repentant woman’s sins are forgiven
because “she has loved much,” then tells the woman herself that is
is her Faith that has saved her, and adds “Go in Peace.” By telling
the short parable of the two debtors, Christ teaches us two things–His own
Divinity and His power to forgive sins. The parable also shows the merit the
woman’s love deserves and underlines the discourtesy implied in Simeon’s
neglecting to receive Jesus in the conventional way.
Life messages: 1) We can accept or
reject the mercy of God: We are challenged to accept or to reject the
mercy of God. We often share Simon’s mentality by displaying an attitude of
lovelessness and harshness toward those around us. We need to love Jesus
because Jesus is the one and only Savior who has died for our sins. 2) We need
to be grateful to our forgiving God: Our serious attempts to
avoid the near occasions of sin will be both the proof of our sincere
repentance and the expression of our gratitude to the merciful God who has
forgiven our sins. 3) We need to cultivate a forgiving attitude
towards our neighbor: Although it is not easy, we must learn to forgive those
who hurt us if we want to be able to receive the daily forgiveness we need from
a merciful God (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 18 Friday: Lk 8:1-3:
The context: Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus
began his preaching and healing ministry in the company of the twelve Apostles
and a group of women volunteers. Luke’s Gospel pays special attention to women.
The female following of Jesus was out of the ordinary at the time and in the
place where Jesus lived. In those days, strict rabbis would not speak to a
woman in public, and very strict ones would not speak to their own wives in the
streets or public places! In his Gospel, Luke provides the Blessed Virgin Mary’s
recollections of her own history with Jesus whom she outlived, describes
several women around Jesus, like Elizabeth, Mary’s kinswoman, the prophetess
Anna, the sinful woman, Martha and Mary, the crippled woman, the woman with
hemorrhage, the women who supplied the needs of Jesus and his Apostles out of
their own resources, and, in the parables, the woman kneading yeast into the
dough, the woman with the lost coin and the woman who tamed the judge.
The ministry and the associates: Jesus started preaching the
“Good News” that God His Father is not a judging and punishing God, but a
loving and forgiving God Who wants to save mankind through His Son Jesus. Luke
mentions the names of a few women who helped Jesus’ ministry by their voluntary
service and financial assistance. Some among them were rich and influential
like Joanna, the wife of King Herod’s steward, Chuza. We meet Joanna again
among the women who went to the tomb on the morning of the Resurrection (Lk
24:10). Some others like Mary of Magdala followed Jesus to express their
gratitude for his healing of them. This mixture of different types of women
volunteers, all attracted by the person and message of Jesus, supported his
Messianic Mission by providing food and other material assistance to Jesus and
the Apostles, who proclaimed the Gospel by word and deed and by their communal
and shared life. It is nice to know that our Lord availed Himself of their
charity and that they responded to Him with such refined and generous
detachment that Christian women feel filled with a holy and fruitful envy (St.
Josemaria Escriva). At crucial moments, Jesus was better served by the women
disciples than by the men.
Life message: 1) The evangelizing work of the
Church needs the preaching of the missionaries and preachers, feeding and
leading the believers in parishes. 2)This work also needs the active support of
all Christians by their transparent Christian lives, fervent prayers and
financial assistance. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 19 Saturday: St. Januarius, Bishop, Martyr: Lk
8: 4-15:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives us the
parable of the sower, the seeds sown, and the yield (depending upon the soil
type). This, the first parable of Jesus in the New Testament about the Kingdom
of Heaven, is also a parable interpreted by Jesus himself. It was intended as a
warning to the hearers to be attentive, and to the apostles to be hopeful,
about Jesus’ preaching in the face of growing opposition to Jesus and his
ideas. The sower is God—through Jesus, the Church, the parents, and the
teachers. The seed sown is the high-yielding word of God which is also
described as “a sharp sword” (Is 49:2), “two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), and “fire
and hammer” (Jer 23:29).
Soil type and the yield: The hardened soil on
the footpath represents people with minds closed because of laziness, pride,
prejudice, or fear. The soil on flat rock pieces represents emotional types of
people who go after novelties without sticking to anything and are unwilling to
surrender their wills to God. “I will remove the heart of stone from
their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). The
soil filled with weeds represents people addicted to evil habits and evil
tendencies, those whose hearts are filled with hatred, jealousy, or the greed
that makes them interested only in acquiring money by any means and in enjoying
life in every way possible. The good and fertile soil represents
well-intentioned people with open minds and clean hearts, earnest in hearing
the word and zealous in putting it into practice. Zacchaeus, the sinful woman,
the thief on Jesus’ right side, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi and St.
Francis Xavier, among others, fall into this category of the good soil.
Life message: Let us become the good soil and
produce hundred-fold harvests by earnestly hearing, faithfully assimilating and
daily cultivating the word of God we have received, so that the Holy Spirit may
produce His fruits in our lives.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
