September 28, 2013 Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

2013년 9월 28일  연중 제25주간 토요일

제1독서

 즈카르야 예언서 2,5-9.14-15ㄷ
5 내가 눈을 들어 보니, 손에 측량줄을 쥔 사람이 하나 있었다. 6 내가 “어디로 가십니까?” 하고 묻자, 그가 나에게 “예루살렘을 측량하여, 그 너비와 길이가 얼마나 되는지 알아보러 간다.” 하고 대답하였다.
7 그때에 나와 이야기하던 천사가 앞으로 나가자, 다른 천사가 그에게 마주 나와 8 말하였다.
“저 젊은이에게 달려가서 이렇게 일러 주어라. ‘사람들과 짐승들이 많아 예루살렘은 성벽 없이 넓게 자리 잡으리라. 9 주님의 말씀이다. 내가 예루살렘을 둘러싼 불 벽이 되고 그 한가운데에 머무르는 영광이 되어 주리라.’
14 ‘딸 시온아, 기뻐하며 즐거워하여라. 정녕 내가 이제 가서 네 한가운데에 머무르리라. 주님의 말씀이다. 15 그날에 많은 민족이 주님과 결합하여 그들은 내 백성이 되고 나는 그들 한가운데에 머무르리라.’”

 

복음

 루카. 9,43ㄴ-45
그때에 43 사람들이 다 예수님께서 하신 모든 일을 보고 놀라워하는데, 예수님께서 제자들에게 이르셨다. 44 “너희는 이 말을 귀담아들어라. 사람의 아들은 사람들의 손에 넘겨질 것이다.”
45 그러나 제자들은 그 말씀을 알아듣지 못하였다. 그 뜻이 감추어져 있어서 이해하지 못하였던 것이다. 그들은 그 말씀에 관하여 묻는 것도 두려워하였다.

Saturday, September 28, 2013 Daily Mass Reading

 September 28, 2013

 Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

 

Reading 1 

Zec 2:5-9, 14-15a

I, Zechariah, raised my eyes and looked:
there was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
I asked, "Where are you going?"
He answered, "To measure Jerusalem,
to see how great is its width and how great its length."

Then the angel who spoke with me advanced,
and another angel came out to meet him and said to him,
"Run, tell this to that young man:
People will live in Jerusalem as though in open country,
because of the multitude of men and beasts in her midst.
But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the LORD,
and I will be the glory in her midst."

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.
Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,
and they shall be his people and he will dwell among you.

Responsorial Psalm 

Jer 31:10, 11-12ab, 13

R. (see 10d)  The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd guards his flock.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD's blessings.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,
and young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
R. The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.

 

Gospel 

Lk 9:43b-45

While they were all amazed at his every deed,
Jesus said to his disciples,
"Pay attention to what I am telling you.
The Son of Man is to be handed over to men."
But they did not understand this saying;
its meaning was hidden from them
and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html

 

The Son of Man will be delivered into human hands

Today, that the Creator of all Life announces his own delivery into the hands of those whom He has come to save in exchange of his own life, is quite a provocation. It can be said that it was not necessary, that it was an exaggeration. But we keep on forgetting the heavy load overwhelming Christ's heart, our sin, the most radical evil, cause and effect of our placing ourselves in the place of God. Even more so, of our not letting God love us, while insisting on remaining within the limits of our own shortcomings and most immediate present life. It is so important for us to assume we are sinners as it is for us to recognize that God loves us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. For, after all, we are like his disciples, «But they didn't understand this saying; something prevented them from grasping what He meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it» (Lk 9:45).

To put it in images: in Heaven we shall find all sins and all vices, except arrogance, as arrogants never admit their own sins and do not let God forgive them, a God that loves us so much to the point of dying for us. And, in Hell, we shall be able to find all virtues, except humility, as the humble one knows himself quite well and fully realizes that without God's grace, he cannot stop offending him nor can he reciprocate God's Goodness.

one of the keys of Christian wisdom is the acknowledgment of the greatness and immensity of God's Love, while we also acknowledge our smallness and the vileness of our sin. How slow we can be to grasp it! When the day will come we shall discover we have at our disposal God's Love, and we shall say along with St. Augustine, with tears of Love: «It took me so long to love you, O God!». And that day can be today. It can be today. It certainly can.

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

 “Sing and rejoice, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord!”

As I ponder those words of assurance, I think about what I can do differently to make my dwelling place more hospitable to the Lord.  My home is filled with material artifacts that reveal to others that I am a person of faith.  I have a collection of all those old framed parlor prints of Christ that people hung in their homes 50 and 100 years ago.  You have all seen them.  There is the one of Jesus as the shepherd, holding a lamb in one arm and a staff in the other.  My favorite is the one of Jesus praying in dark Gethsemane, a copy of which always hung in our family living room.  My grandparents had one of the boy Jesus in the temple and a print of the famous Last Supper painting.  I also have the one you see often in church rectories or even above altars in some northern European ethnic group Protestant churches, the portrait of the Anglo featured gentle and serene Jesus.  While I have all of my prints hanging in my bedroom, I rarely see them in anyone’s homes anymore.  This seems to have gone out of style.  There is also a Bible on the bed stand and a small wooden cross hanging by the door.   And I confess I also have angel artifacts everywhere in the garden and a pergola framed by old Gothic church windows.  About the only thing I don’t have is a Madonna statue shrine in an old cast iron bathtub standing on end in the center of a flower bed.  If you are from the Midwest, you will remember them.

But does the presence of this “stuff” that I find beautiful and comforting in my home mean that the Lord dwells with me?  I don’t think so.  I think it means that I believe in a God that dwells with me, but I am not so sure that it means others feel the presence of God when they are in my home.  Evidence of that presence would be going another step further.  I was told by Fr. Larry Gillick, one of the Jesuits here at Creighton, that when we truly recognize God in our lives, we will not only be thankful, but we will be grateful.  So I have been thinking about how can my home demonstrate gratitude for God’s presence, and not just be a statement of my faith. How can people see that I am grateful for God’s presence in my home?  Creating a small space where I can pray has been my response to that question.  For me, that space is my dining room, a room that seldom gets cluttered.  It is the prettiest room in my house.  In fact, many of the other rooms in the house are under renovation and it really is quite a disaster in many ways.  But the dining room is sacred to me.  It has lovely antique walnut furniture, an old rug with roses on it, lace curtains, and lots of plants.  on top of the buffet are scented candles and vases for flowers.  There is stained glass in one of the windows.  It is clear to anyone who enters there that I pray before meals.  This is one way I show my gratitude.  It is an old habit.  But sometimes people see the habit of giving thanks for meals as just evidence of faith and nothing more.

That is why I am really thinking about what Fr. Gillick means when he says gratitude is not enough.  There is another step.  It is generosity.  If the Lord dwells with me, I have many blessings, and if I have many blessings, I need to share them.  A faithful person is not just thankful and grateful, a faithful person is generous.  If the Lord dwells in my home, especially in my dining room, it seems more and more to me that the Lord would expect guests there.  So I am thinking that my dining room could be more than a place where I can pray, but also a place where people can come to experience the Lord’s blessings, where they can be happy and where they can be consoled in their sorrows.  So I need to be more purposeful in my hospitality to my home.  In addition to inviting friends to share good company and a good meal, I need to be more intentional about inviting people to share the happiness and healing experiences of the Lord in their midst.    And I need to do that more often, more generously! 

So today I pray that we can all see our dwellings as something more than just a place where we pay the bills and conduct the business of life, such as eating and resting, but the place where the Lord dwells with us.  May we all know that the Lord dwells among us when we return to our homes today. 

I pray that we can all see our homes, regardless of their material conditions, as places where we can host generous celebrations of the Lord in our midst as a way of sharing blessings with others.

 http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/

  "They were astonished at the majesty of God"

 

Do you know the majesty of God? When we ascribe majesty to someone or something, we acknowledge greatness in that person or thing, and voice our respect for it. The miracles of Jesus revealed the majesty of God and displayed his grace and favor, especially towards the lowly and humble of heart. But with the miracles Jesus also gave a prophetic warning: There can be no share in God's glory without the cross. Jesus prophesied his own betrayal and crucifixion. But it did not make any sense to the disciples because it did not fit their understanding of the Messiah who was supposed to come and free his people from tyranny and oppression. Little did they know that the way to victory over sin and death would be through the cross and resurrection of Christ.

When the disciples heard Jesus' prediction of suffering and betrayal they were afraid to ask further questions. Like a person who might receive some bad news from the doctor about some tumor or disease that could destroy them and then refuse to ask any further questions, the disciples of Jesus didn't want to know any more about the consequences of possible suffering, defeat, and death on a cross. They couldn't understand how the cross could bring victory and lead to new life and freedom in Christ. How often do we reject what we do not wish to see? We have heard God's word and we know the consequences of accepting it or rejecting it. But do we give it our full allegiance and mold our lives according to it? Ask the Lord Jesus to show you his majesty that you may grow in reverence of him and in godly fear of his word.

"Lord Jesus, by your cross you have redeemed the world and revealed your glory and triumph over sin and death. May I never fail to see your glory and victory in the cross. Help me to conform my life to your will and to follow in your way of love and holiness."

Psalm 90:3-6,12-14,17

3 You turn man back to the dust, and say, "Turn back, O children of men!"
4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us, yes, the work of our hands establish it.

 http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html

 

 http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php

 

“Its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it.”  Another translation has: “Something prevented them from grasping what he meant….”  It is always ‘something’ when we don’t understand it, or when we don’t want to understand it or even look at it.  Fear makes us look away – which is the early stage of running away.  If we could just look, we might not be so afraid.  “They were afraid to ask him.”  Why?  Was he not their friend?  Why were they afraid of him?  No, they were not afraid of him; they were afraid that what he was saying was true, and they didn’t want to hear it. 

“There’s no reason to be afraid of the truth,” we were often told as children.  There's every reason!  In fact there’s no reason to be afraid of anything else.  To lie is to look away from the truth, because I'm afraid of it.  Lies are evasions for the sake of comfort.  Lies are afraid of nothing so much as the truth, because it has power to destroy them.  “The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light…” (Jn 3:19).  “Are you afraid of the dark?”  “No, I'm afraid of the light!”

  http://www.presentationministries.com/

 

FIREWALL

"I will be for her an encircling wall of fire." —Zechariah 2:9

The Israelites returned to the rubble of Jerusalem after decades of exile in Babylon. They were trying to rebuild the Temple and the city. However, since the walls of Jerusalem were no longer standing, the defenseless Israelites were like sitting ducks to raiding armies (see Neh 3:35). They desperately needed to be defended (see Neh 4:1-5). In the midst of this dire situation, the Lord promised through the prophet Zechariah: "I will be for [Jerusalem] an encircling wall of fire" (Zec 2:9). God became the first "firewall" in history. Computers have a "firewall" to protect from relentless invaders such as hackers and viruses. Yet Christians have the best possible "firewall" — a loving Shepherd Who personally defends His flock and Who protects by fire (Ex 14:24). The Hebrews who left Egypt on the Passover were protected by a God of fire (Ex 14:24) — a fiery cloud to limit the Egyptian army from advancing any further. Can you believe that the Lord is still able to protect you and all His people today? Put not your trust in princes, in weapons, in human strength, or in armies. Put your trust in "the God Who answers with fire" (1 Kgs 18:24) and Who protects by fire.

Prayer: Lord, "let the fire fall" and let it burn all around me.

Promise: "He guards them as a shepherd His flock." —Jer 31:10

Praise: St. Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, encircled his political world with a wall of fire comprised of God's laws and love.

http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/

 

More Homilies

September 24, 2011 Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time