Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 09-07-05

USCCB.org/New American Bible ^ | 09-07-05 | New American Bible

[Salvation]

September 7, 2005
Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Wednesday 39

Reading I
Col 3:1-11

Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.
But now you must put them all away:
anger, fury, malice, slander,
and obscene language out of your mouths.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:2-3, 10-11, 12-13ab

R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Gospel
Lk 6:20-26

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets
in the same way.

But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

[Salvation]

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

[Salvation]

I just saw my error in the title. Could you please change the date to today's? 09-07-05.

Thank you.

[JohnnyZ]

I just saw my error

You are forgiven.

[Salvation]

Alleluia Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Alleluia Ping List.

This really is for today -- 09-07-05.

[Salvation]

Thank you!

[Salvation]

From: Colossians 3:1-11


Seek the Things That Are Above

---

[1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.


Avoid Sin

---

[2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on
earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
[4] When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with
Him in glory. [5] Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is
idolatry. [6] 0n account of these the wrath of God is coming. [7] In
these you once walked, when you lived in them. [8] But now put them all
away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.
[9] Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old
nature with its practices [10] and have put on the new nature, which is
being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. [11] Here
there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

---

Commentary:


1-4. The more ethical and exhortatory part of the letter begins at this
point. It is a practical application of the teaching given in the
earlier chapters, designed to suit the circumstances that have arisen
in the Colossian church.


By His death and resurrection the Son of God frees us from the power of
Satan and of death. "By Baptism men are grafted into the paschal
mystery of Christ; they die with him, are buried with Him, and rise
with Him" (Vatican II, "Sacrosanctum Concilium", 6). In other words,
Christians have been raised to a new kind of life, a supernatural life,
whereby they share, even while on earth, in the glorious life of the
risen Jesus. This life is at present spiritual and hidden, but when
our Lord comes again in glory, it will become manifest and glorious.


Two practical consequences flow from this teaching--the need to seek
the "things that are above", that is, the things of God; and the need
to pass unnoticed in one's everyday work and ordinary life, yet to do
everything with a supernatural purpose in mind.


As regards the first of these the Second Vatican Council has said: "In
their pilgrimage to the Heavenly city Christians are to seek and relish
the things that are above (cf. Colossians 3:1-2): this involves not a
lesser, but a greater commitment to working with all men to build a
world that is more human" ("Gaudium Et Spes", 57). Work, family
relationships, social involvements--every aspect of human affairs--
should be approached in a spirit of faith and done perfectly, out of
love: "The true Christian, who acts according to this faith", Monsignor
Escriva comments, "always has his sights set on God. His outlook is
supernatural. He works in this world of ours, which he loves
passionately; he is involved in all its challenges, but all the while
his eyes are fixed on Heaven" ("Friends of God", 206).


Ordinary life, everyday interests, the desire to be better and to serve
others without seeking public recognition of one's merits--all this
makes for holiness if done for love of God. A simple life "hid with
Christ in God" (verse 3) is so important that Jesus Himself chose to
spend the greater part of His life on earth living like an ordinary
person: He was the son of a tradesman. "As we meditate on these
truths, we come to understand better the logic of God. We come to
realize that the supernatural value of our life does not depend on
accomplishing great undertakings suggested to us by our over-active
imagination. Rather it is to be found in the faithful acceptance
of God's will, in welcoming generously the opportunities for small,
daily sacrifice" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 172).


This means that those who try to seek holiness by imitating Jesus in
His hidden life will be people full of hope; they will be optimistic
and happy people; and after their death they will share in the glory
of the Lord: they will hear Jesus' praise, "Well done, good and
faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little; I will set you
over much; enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:21).


On the value of the hidden life, see the note on Luke 2:15.


5-17. The Christian, who in Baptism has risen with Christ, should not
live for himself but for God. This means that every day he needs to put
off his old nature and put on the new.


The "old nature", the "old man": one who lets himself be led by
disorderly passions (cf. Rom 7:8), who lets his body do evil in the
service of sin (v. 5; cf. Rom 6:12f). With the help of grace the old
nature is being more and more broken down, while the new nature is
constantly being renewed (cf. 2 Cor 6:16). Impurity and the other vices
need to be uprooted so as to make room for goodness and its train of
Christian virtues (vv. 12-13), especially charity (v. 14), which are
features of the new nature.


Christ's disciple, who has been made a new person and who lives for the
Lord, has a new and more perfect knowledge of God and of the world
(v. 10). Thanks to this he see things from a more elevated viewpoint;
he has a "supernatural insight". This enables him to love and
understand everyone without distinction of race, nation or social
status (v. 11), and to imitate Christ, who has given himself up for
all. "The Only-begotten of the Eternal Father vouchsafed to become a
son of man, that we might be made conformable to the image of the Son
of God and be renewed according to the likeness of him who created us.
Therefore let all those who glory in the name of Christians not only
look upon our divine Savior as the most sublime and most perfect model
of all virtues, but also, by the careful avoidance of sin and the
unremitting practice of holiness, so reproduce in their conduct his
teaching and life, that when the Lord appears they may be like to him
in glory, seeing him as he is (cf. 1 Jn 3:2)" (Pius XII, "Mystici
Corporis", 20).

---

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

[Salvation]

From: Luke 6:20-26


The Beatitudes and the Curses

---

[20] And He (Jesus) lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said:
"Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. [21] Blessed
are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you
that weep now, for you shall laugh. [22] Blessed are you when men hate
you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name
as evil, on account of the Son of Man! [23] Rejoice in that day, and
leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in Heaven; for so their
fathers did to the prophets. [24] But woe to you that are rich, for
you have received your consolation. [25] Woe to you that are full now,
for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn
and weep. [26] Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so
their fathers did to the false prophets."

---

Commentary:


20-49. These thirty verses of St. Luke correspond to some extent to the
Sermon on the Mount, an extensive account of which St. Matthew gives us
in Chapters 5 to 7 in his Gospel. It is very likely that in the course
of His public ministry in different regions and towns of Israel Jesus
preached the same things, using different words on different
occasions. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit each evangelist
would have chosen to report those things which he considered most
useful for the instruction of his immediate readers--Christians of
Jewish origin in the case of Matthew, Gentile converts in the case of
Luke. There is no reason why one evangelist should not have selected
certain items and another different ones, depending on his readership,
or why one should not have laid special stress on some subjects and
shortened or omitted accounts of others.


In this present discourse, we might distinguish three parts--the
Beatitudes and the curses (6:20-26); love of one's enemies (6:27-38);
and teaching on uprightness of heart (6:39-49).


Some Christians may find it difficult to grasp the need of practising
the moral teaching of the Gospel so radically, in particular Christ's
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is very demanding in what
He says, but He is saying it to everyone, and not just to His Apostles
or to those disciples who followed Him closely. We are told expressly
that "when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at
His teaching" (Matthew 7:28). It is quite clear that the Master calls
everyone to holiness, making no distinction of state-in-life, race or
personal circumstances. This teaching on the universal call to
holiness was a central point of the teaching of (St) Monsignor
Escriva de Balaguer. The Second Vatican Council expressed the same
teaching with the full weight of its authority: everyone is called to
Christian holiness; consider, for example, just one reference it makes,
in "Lumen Gentium", 11: "Strengthened by so many and such great means
of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or
state--though each in his or her own way--are called by the Lord to
that perfection of sanctity by which the Father Himself is perfect."


In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is not proposing an unattainable
ideal, useful though that might be to make us feel humble in the light
of our inability to reach it. No. Christian teaching in this regard
is quite clear: what Christ commands, He commands in order to have us
do what He says. Along with His commandment comes grace to enable us
to fulfill it. Therefore, every Christian is capable of practising the
moral teaching of Christ and of attaining the full height of his
calling--holiness--not by his own efforts alone but by means of the
grace which Christ has won for us, and with the abiding help of the
means of sanctification which He left to His Church. "If anyone plead
human weakness to excuse Himself for not loving God, it should be
explained that He who demands our love pours into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit the fervor of His love, and this good Spirit our Heavenly
Father gives to those that ask Him. With reason, therefore, did St.
Augustine pray: `Give Me what Thou command, and command what You
please.' As, then, God is ever ready to help us, especially since the
death of Christ our Lord, by which the prince of this world was cast
out, there is no reason why anyone should be disheartened by the
difficulty of the undertaking. To him who loves, nothing is difficult"
("St. Pius V Catechism", III, 1, 7).


20-26. The eight Beatitudes which St. Matthew gives (5:3-12) are summed
up in four by St. Luke, but with four opposite curses. We can say,
with St. Ambrose, that Matthew's eight are included in Luke's four (cf.
"Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc."). In St. Luke they are in
some cases stated in a more incisive, more direct form than in the
First Gospel, where they are given with more explanation: for example,
the first beatitude says simply "Blessed are you poor", whereas in
Matthew we read, "Blessed are the poor in spirit", which contains a
brief explanation of the virtue of poverty.


20. "The ordinary Christian has to reconcile two aspects of this life
that can at first seem contradictory. There is on the one hand "true
poverty", which is obvious and tangible and made up of definite
things. This poverty should be an expression of faith in God and a
sign that the heart is not satisfied with created things and aspires to
the Creator; that it wants to be filled with love of God so as to be
able to give this same love to everyone. On the other hand, an
ordinary Christian is and wants to be "one more among his fellow men",
sharing their way of life, their joys and happiness; working with them,
loving the world and all the good things that exist in it; using all
created things to solve the problems of human life and to establish a
spiritual and material environment which will foster personal and
social development [...].


"To my way of thinking the best examples of poverty are those mothers
and fathers of large and poor families who spend their lives for their
children and who with their effort and constancy--often without
complaining of their needs--bring up their family, creating a cheerful
home in which everyone learns to love, to serve and to work" ([St] J.
Escriva, "Conversations", 110f).


24-26. Our Lord here condemns four things: avarice and attachment to
the things of the world; excessive care of the body, gluttony;
empty-headed joy and general self-indulgence; flattery, and disordered
desire for human glory--four very common vices which a Christian needs
to be on guard against.


24. In the same kind of way as in verse 20, which refers to the poor in
the sense of those who love poverty, seeking to please God better, so
in this verse the "rich" are to be understood as those who strive to
accumulate possessions heedless of whether or not they are doing so
lawfully, and who seek their happiness in those possessions, as if they
were their ultimate goal. But people who inherit wealth or acquire it
through honest work can be really poor provided they are detached from
these things and are led by that detachment to use them to help others,
as God inspires them. We can find in Sacred Scriptures a number of
people to whom the beatitude of the poor can be applied although they
possessed considerable wealth--Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Job, for
example.


As early as St. Augustine's time there were people who failed to
understand poverty and riches properly: they reasoned as follows: The
Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor, the Lazaruses of this world, the
hungry; all the rich are bad, like this rich man here. This sort of
thinking led St. Augustine to explain the deep meaning of wealth and
poverty according to the spirit of the Gospel: "Listen, poor man, to my
comments on your words. When you refer to yourself as Lazarus, that
holy man covered with wounds, I am afraid your pride makes you describe
yourself incorrectly. Do not despise rich men who are merciful, who
are humble: or, to put it briefly, do not despise poor rich men. Oh,
poor man, be poor yourself; poor, that is, humble [...]. Listen to me,
then. Be truly poor, be devout, be humble; if you glory in your ragged
and ulcerous poverty, if you glory in likening yourself to that beggar
lying outside the rich man's house, then you are only noticing his
poverty, and nothing else. What should I notice you ask? Read the
Scriptures and you will understand what I mean. Lazarus was poor, but
he to whose bosom he was brought was rich. `It came to pass, it is
written, that the poor man died and he was brought by the angels to
Abraham's bosom.' To where? To Abraham's bosom, or let us say, to
that mysterious place where Abraham was resting. Read [...] and
remember that Abraham was a very wealthy man when he was on earth: he
had abundance of money, a large family, flocks, land; yet that rich man
was poor, because he was humble. `Abraham believed God and he was
reckoned righteous.' [...] He was faithful, he did good, received the
commandment to offer his son in sacrifice, and he did not refuse to
offer what he had received to Him from whom he had received it. He was
approved in God's sight and set before us as an example of faith"
("Sermon", 14).


To sum up: poverty does not consist in something purely external, in
having or not having material goods, but in something that goes far
deeper, affecting a person's heart and soul; it consists in having a
humble attitude to God, in being devout, in having total faith. If a
Christian has these virtues and also has an abundance of material
possessions, he should be detached from his wealth and act charitably
towards others and thus be pleasing to God. On the other hand, if
someone is not well-off he is not justified in God's sight on that
account, if he fails to strive to acquire those virtues in which true
poverty consists.

---

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

[Salvation]

This email seems to go with today's readings.

FACES OF MERCY

Do you know what an L.L.B. is?

When people traveled more often by train than by air, one mother found
herself in need. She was traveling with two children, one of which was
a fussy baby. It seemed that nothing she did would settle the child
down.

However, seated next to her was an older gentleman who offered to take
the infant so she could tend to her other child. He bounced the baby
on his knee, cooed and whispered and finally stood up and paced the
aisle. In a little while the infant fell fast asleep and he sat down
again. The mother was amazed. "You must be an M.D.," she exclaimed.

"No," he smiled. "I'm just an L.L.B."

"An L.L.B?" she asked. "What's that?"

"A Lover of Little Babies!" he said.

In America's aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we are discovering
L.L.B's, as well as Lovers of Older Folks, Lovers of Life's Victims
and even Lovers of Lost Pets. Some of these good-hearted people open
their homes. Some scour the streets of New Orleans for stranded
residents. Some volunteer at shelters around the country, some
organize support in their own communities and some send supplies and
money. Some pray. It is these lovers of humanity that will, in the
end, help devastated lives through the crisis and give us all enough
hope to keep doing what we can.

You've heard it said, "Blessed are the merciful." Mercy takes on
several faces. Sometimes it may look like an L.L.B. But today it looks
like many of you. May you be truly blessed.

[Salvation]

The Eight Beatitudes

Beatitudes for the Home {locked}

Satan's version of the sermon on the mount [Difficult read]

[Salvation]

Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Feria

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel:

Colossians 3:1-11 Psalm 145:2-3, 10-13 Luke 6:20-26 So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them. -- St. John Vianney

[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Collect: God our Father, you redeem us and make us your children in Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you promised. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Activities: » Religion in the Home for Elementary School: September » Religion in the Home for Preschool: September Prayers: » September Devotion: Our Lady of Sorrows

September 07, 2005 Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets (Luke 6:22-23). Meditation - The Descent from the Cross: Jesus Restored to His Mother And now the moment more bitter than aloes: Jesus is delivered into His Mother's arms. He is dead. The dagger is buried finally and forever in that heart which was destined to become its sheath. Now it is no longer her eyes which watch, which understand, and give evidence. This Jesus, who was just on the cross, has been again laid in her arms. She embraces Him, she holds Him, she supports Him, she contains Him. At last it is hers, this lifeless body from which the soul has fled—her Son and her God. She holds it in her lap. Here is the first moment of complete possession which has been granted her since the days of Bethlehem and Nazareth, a moment of perfect union between the consummated Christ and this woman who is the Church, now' confirmed forever in her maternal ordination. And surely we cannot think that those lips which He offered to Judas and chastised Simon for not seeking are now denied His mother. For now He depends on her alone, He has been placed completely in her hands—length, breadth, and weight—this Christ whom she has just watched being unfastened limb by limb from that rigid framework which held Him fixed to the ancient Law. Electe ramos, arbor alta! Now it is she who is the cross: she has become the scale on which is weighed that "eternal weight of glory" [II Cor. 4:17] before which, unlike Moses, she does not shrink. It is she who will henceforth be the human stalk and stem of this Christ five times opened.' He is her impression, and she is his expression. Excerpted from I Believe in God by Paul Claudel

[Ciexyz]

Faith-sharing bump.

[Ciexyz]

Continued prayers offered for the displaced residents of the flooded areas.

[Smartass]

For he satisfies the thirsty and fills
the hungry with good things.
Psalm 107:9

Thought..

. The Bible cries out with one recurring truth:
God quenches the thirst and satisfies the
hunger of those who seek him.
So often we try to soothe the ache in our
soul and fill the emptiness in our heart with
what is only a temporary satisfaction that
only God's presence can fill.
Let's refuse every false satisfaction and
seek the LORD!

Prayer...

Forgive me, dear Father, for trying to find
the satisfaction for my soul's hunger in what
is not truly sustaining. (Confess the area of
temptation that most often causes you to
stumble in this area -- sex, status, possessions,
economic security, chemical dependency,
abusing food, body identity, etc.) As I seek
you, dear LORD, please make your presence
known as you satisfy my spiritual thirst and
satiate my soul's hunger.
In the name of Jesus, my Lord.
Amen.


Deus vobiscum

[Smartass]

Homily of the Day

Title:	You Aren't Struggling Alone
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Col 3:1-11 / Lk 6:20-26

In the 19th and 20th centuries, a common feature of parish life in the United States was the parish mission, a week-long retreat in which gifted visiting preachers would come in and try to scare people into repentance and confession. Subsequent studies have discovered that the scare tactics were quite successful in the short term, but before too many months had passed things were back to normal for most of the participants.

Real conversion, real change that keeps on going, isn't all that easy. That's why St Paul is administering something of a booster shot to his converts in today's epistle. Note that he doesn't try to scare his converts to death; instead, he tries to encourage them. In essence, he says that, whoever we are and wherever we come from, we're all in the same boat, struggling against the current to build lives that are right and true. And best of all, we're not struggling alone, because "Christ is everything in all of you."

When your road gets rougher than usual or when you know you've made some bad choices, remember that God's whole family is struggling along the same road with you, and that God's own son, our brother Jesus, is right there in the midst of it all.

[Smartass]

September 6, 2005

Dear Friends,
First of all, may I ask you to alert your pro-life friends, if you haven't already done so, that I'll be preaching the daily masses on EWTN starting this Sunday, September 11, and continuing every day through Friday, September 16. If someone does not receive EWTN by television or radio, the mass homilies can be heard on the internet. We will post the link at www.priestsforlife.org My newsletter for September-October is below. You will notice extensive quotes from the abortion industry. It is critical that we continue lifting the veil off of the violence of abortion. You and I may be used to hearing these descriptions; but the majority of Americans have never heard them, and most of those who do hear them are repulsed by them, and have enough of a conscience to oppose abortion. As I have always said, abortion destroys itself. All we have to do is expose it. Please spread these descriptions far and wide. And finally, we are getting these descriptions into the minds of churchgoers nationwide by urging pastors to use our bulletin insert, which we are offering free of charge in any quantity the parish wants. The insert can be viewed at www.priestsforlife.org/bulletin/index.htm. If your pastor wants us to send a quantity to him for the bulletin, he can order it at orders@priestsforlife.org (We need to know that the pastor has given permission before we send the requested quantity.) Thank you for all you do for the cause of life. God bless you!

Fr. Frank Pavone Priests for Life

Newsletter Volume 15, Number 5
September-October 2005

[Salvation]

**Fr. Frank Pavone Priests for Life**

Father Frank Pavone bump!

[Salvation]

 

 

A Voice in the Desert

 

 

Wednesday September 7, 2005   Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Reading (Colossians 3:1-11)   Gospel (St. Luke 6:20-26)

 In the first reading today, Saint Paul tells us that we have died and that our life is hidden now with Christ in God. This death is the death we have endured already in baptism. It is a spiritual death, and we have entered into the waters of death so that we could rise with Christ. He is just continuing with what we heard yesterday, and we realize, as he says very explicitly today: Therefore, set your eyes on heaven, not on earth; seek what is above, not what is of the earth. Then he lays out for us the things that are of earth, and he tells us that we have to get rid of them. He says, Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed which is idolatry. 

For many who perhaps have lived an unfortunate past, that, I assume, is put aside. You are trying to live according to the way of Christ. But if the physical things are gone (the impurity is out of the way), the thing that you have to be so careful of is to not try to replace it with something else. Most often, it is greed and materialism. It is still doing the same thing, trying to fill up something, trying to look for some kind of consolation or pleasure, trying to seek something that is not God. How careful we need to be with that. 

Then he goes on talking about what we need to do. He says that we need to put all of this away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths, lying, and so on. We have to put on a new self. Again, how often we try to justify ourselves, suggesting that it is okay that we can be angry, suggesting that it is okay that we can be saying things we should not say. We cannot; there is no excuse. Certainly, there may be problems because of a habit that has formed, but even that does not serve as an excuse to say, “It was okay for me to do.” What we need to be doing is working on these things to get rid of them. Yes, in our weakness we are going to fall, but as long as we are working at trying to overcome these things and not working on simply finding some excuse to justify what it is we are doing.  

Now, of course, if we are going to put off the old self and put on the new self, to die to the things that are earthly to live for the things that are heavenly, we know exactly how people are going to react. But then again listen to the words that Our Lord spoke in the Gospel reading today. He said, Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. On the other hand, He says, Woe to you when all speak well of you; their ancestors treated the false prophets in exactly that way. If we are going to live according to the ways of God, we cannot live according to the ways of the world. And if we want to be accepted by the worldly, if we want to fit in, if we want to be thought well of, if we want all the accolades that the world has to offer, then we are not living according to the way of God. If that is the case, again, listen to the words of the Lord: Woe to you when all speak well of you. Woe to you. This is not some little thing that the Lord said, “Well, you know, it’s no big deal.” Woe to you. Then, again, if we are going to live the way of Christ and be rejected and insulted with Him, He pronounces us blessed.  

This does not mean go out and be obnoxious so that people can hate you. That is not the idea. Just live the life. Live the spiritual life, practice the charity that we are called to practice, go out and live the life of Christ and you will be rejected simply for doing what is right. But then we have to rise above the hatred and the anger and the frustration that people have done that to us. What the Lord is asking of us is not easy, and yet Saint Paul tells us that this is what is necessary because we have already died with Christ and now we are to live with Him, and that this is necessary because of who we are, the very essence of our being as Christian people, to be able to walk with Christ, to walk as He did, to live as He did, to be united with Him. That is what we have to be about, putting aside everything that is not of God and living according to the ways of God and to quit giving ourselves excuses as to why we do not have to do it that way – because the Lord makes very clear that is exactly what we have to do – and to truly live a holy life with our hearts set not on the things of earth but on the things of heaven where Christ is already seated at the right hand of God. 

*  This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.       

[topher]

Any news from cpforlife.org? I am surpised that they have not posted for so long...

Also, a ping to Coleus about Fr Frank will be on EWTN next week at the Mass giving the homilies from Sunday to Friday...

[annalex]

Lk 6:20-26
#	Douay-Rheims	Vulgate
20	And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.	et ipse elevatis oculis in discipulos suos dicebat beati pauperes quia vestrum est regnum Dei
21	Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh.	beati qui nunc esuritis quia saturabimini beati qui nunc fletis quia ridebitis
22	Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.	beati eritis cum vos oderint homines et cum separaverint vos et exprobraverint et eiecerint nomen vestrum tamquam malum propter Filium hominis
23	Be glad in that day and rejoice: for behold, your reward is great in heaven, For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets.	gaudete in illa die et exultate ecce enim merces vestra multa in caelo secundum haec enim faciebant prophetis patres eorum
24	But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation.	verumtamen vae vobis divitibus quia habetis consolationem vestram
25	Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep.	vae vobis qui saturati estis quia esurietis vae vobis qui ridetis nunc quia lugebitis et flebitis
26	Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.	vae cum bene vobis dixerint omnes homines secundum haec faciebant prophetis patres eorum