Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 11-29-05

November 29, 2005
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

Psalm: Tuesday 51

Reading I
Is 11:1-10

On that day,
A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
But he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.

On that day,
The root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
The Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

R. (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
He shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

Gospel
Lk 10:21-24

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

Turning to the disciples in private he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

From: Isaiah 11:1-10

The New Descendant of David

[1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. [2] And the Spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of
the Lord. [3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He
shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;
[4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with
equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay
the wicked. [5] Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and
faithfulness the girdle of his loins. [6] The wolf shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf
and the lion and the failing together, and a little child shall lead
them. [7] The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. [8] The sucking
child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the adders den. [9] They shall not hurt or destroy in
all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

The Return of the Exiles

[10] In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the
peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

Commentary:

11:1-9. This passage, which is regarded as the third Immanuel oracle,
has two parts to it. The first (vv.1-5) announces that the shoot will
spring from the stump of Jesse (David's father) at some future date.
The second (vv. 6-9) describes the good things associated with his
reign, using imagery to do with messianic peace: creation will be
restored to its state of original justice.

The first part is a formal announcement of the accession of a new king
in the line of David--humble, because he comes from a tree that has
been pruned yet has all the vitality of a tender shoot. It refers to a
future king (?there shall come ...?) and not the reigning monarch. The
new king will be endowed with exceptional qualities that equip him to
rule, thanks to the Holy Spirit who will descend upon him. The divine
Spirit is an inner strength, a gift that God gives to key figures in
salvation history to enable them to accomplish a difficult and
dangerous mission--Moses (cf. Num 11:17), the judges (cf. 3:10; 6:34)
and David (1 Sam 16:13). The new descendent of David will rule over
the people not in a heavy-handed way like the kings of the time, but
with a charismatic dynamism that comes from God. Six gifts of the
Spirit are mentioned, in pairs--wisdom and understanding, referring to
the skill and prudence that ensure that he will judge rightly; counsel
and fortitude, the characteristics of an astute strategist like David;
knowledge and the fear of the Lord, which have to do with the
religious sphere, for the king must not forget that he is God?s representative.

The second part describes very beautifully the messianic peace that
will flower with this new ?shoot?. It paints a panorama of the harmony
that reigned at the dawn of creation, only to be broken by sin. Even
among wild beasts violence will disappear. No longer will man in his
pride desire to be ?like God, knowing good and evil? (Gen 3:5);
instead he will be filled with the divine gift of the ?knowledge of
the Lord? (v. 9). The ?child?, mentioned twice (vv. 6, 8) is not
directly connected with the child-king of the oracle found in 9:6 or
with the Immanuel (7:14); however, in the mind of the prophet they
must have had many points of contact, given the reference to the child
having a leadership role (v. 6).

The image of the ?shoot? from the royal line who will bring peace has
been interpreted in Christian tradition as finding fulfillment in
Jesus Christ. St Thomas Aquinas read this passage as referring to
Christ, who brought about the restoration of mankind; he points out:
?First, the birth of Christ the ?restorer?, is spoken of (v. 1); then,
his holiness (vv. 2-9) and his dignity (v. 10) are described?
("Expositio Super lsaiam", 11). And John Paul II comments: ?Alluding
to the coming of a mysterious personage, which the New Testament
revelation will identify with Jesus, Isaiah connects his person and
mission with a particular action of the Spirit of God--the Spirit of the Lord.
These are the words of the prophet ?There shall come forth a shoot
from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And
"the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him", the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be the fear
of the Lord? (Is 11:1-3). This text is important for the whole
pneumatology of the Old Testament, because it constitutes a kind of
bridge between the ancient biblical concept of ?spirit,? understood
primarily as a 'charismatic breath of wind?, and the ?Spirit? as a
person and as a gift, a gift for the person. The Messiah of the
lineage of David (?from the stump of Jesse?) is precisely that person
upon whom the Spirit of the Lord ?shall rest?. It is obvious that in
this case one cannot yet speak of a revelation of the Paraclete.
However, with this veiled reference to the figure of the future Messiah there
begins, so to speak, the path towards the full revelation of the Holy
Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a mystery which will
finally be manifested in the New Covenant? ("Dominum Et Vivificantem", 15).

A Christian reading of these words finds in them a reference to the
action of the Holy Spirit in souls; the ?spirits? that repose in the
Messiah; are stable ?gifts? through which the Holy Spirit acts. There
are six of these gifts, according to the Hebrew text (which the New
Vulgate and the RSV follow). The Greek translation of the Septuagint
and the Vulgate divide the gift of fear into two--piety and fear of
the Lord. That is why catechesis and theology speak of there being
seven gifts: ?The seven 'gifts' of the Holy Spirit are wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the
Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David (cf. Is
11:1-2). They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive
them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine
inspirations? ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 1831).

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.

From: Luke 10:21-24

Jesus Gives Thanks

[21] In that same hour He (Jesus) rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and
said, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that thou hast
hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them
to babes; yea, Father, for such was Thy gracious will. [22] All
things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows who
the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and
any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

[23] Then turning to the disciples He said privately, "Blessed are the
eyes which see what you see! [24] For I tell you that many prophets
and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear
what you hear, and did not hear it."

Commentary:

21. This passage of the Gospel is usually called our Lord's "hymn of
joy" and is also found in St. Matthew (11:25-27). It is one of those
moments when Jesus rejoices to see humble people understanding and
accepting the word of God.

Our Lord also reveals one of the effects of humility--spiritual
childhood. For example, in another passage He says: "Truly, I say to
you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the
Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3). But spiritual childhood does not
involve weakness, softness or ignorance: "I have often meditated on
this life of spiritual childhood, which is not incompatible with
fortitude, because it demands a strong will, proven maturity, an open
and firm character [...]. To become children we must renounce our
pride and self-sufficiency, recognizing that we can do nothing by
ourselves. We must realize that we need grace, and the help of God our
Father to find our way and keep it. To be little, you have to abandon
yourself as children do, believe as children, beg as children beg"
([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 10 and 143).

22. "This statement is a wonderful help to our faith," St. Ambrose
comments, "because when you read 'all' you realize that Christ is
all-powerful, that He is not inferior to the Father, or less perfect
than He; when you read 'have been delivered to me', you confess that
Christ is the Son, to whom everything belongs by right of being one in
substance [with the Father] and not by grace of gift" ("Expositio
Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").

Here we see Christ as almighty Lord and God, consubstantial with the
Father, and the only one capable of revealing who the Father is. At
the same time, we can recognize the divine nature of Jesus only if the
Father gives us the grace of faith--as He did to St. Peter (cf. Matthew
16:17).

23-24. Obviously, seeing Jesus with one's own eyes was a wonderful
thing for people who believed in him. However, our Lord will say to
Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (John
20:29). St. Peter, for his part, tells us: "Without having seen Him
you love Him; though you do not see Him you believe in Him and rejoice
with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you
obtain the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Catholic Culture

Collect:
All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Activities:

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Prayers:

» Novena to St. Francis Xavier - The Novena of Grace

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November 29, 2005

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

Old Calendar: St. Saturninus, martyr

"The Lord will give goodness and our earth shall yield her fruit. (Ps. 84:13)."

Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was the feast of St. Saturninus, a Roman martyr of the Diocletian persecution in about the year 303. He was a native of Carthage.

Jesse Tree ~ Fall of Man

St. Saturninus
The Martyrology gives these details: "At Rome on the Via Salaria the death of the holy martyr, the aged Saturninus, and of the deacon Sisinius. Under the emperor Maximianus they suffered long in prison. The prefect of Rome ordered them placed on the rack till their joints were torn loose, then beaten with knotted whips, and burnt with torches; at last removed from the rack, they were beheaded." According to the inscription on his tomb by Pope St. Damasus, Saturninus hailed from Carthage. The Acts of Marcellus say he was condemned as a frail old man to carry sand for the construction of the Baths of Diocletian; but when by his patience and prayer and encouragement he led many to the faith, he was beheaded.

Symbols: Bishop dragged by a bull; bishop with a bull at his feet.

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	If You Want Peace, Work for Justice
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Is 11:1-10 / Lk 10:21-24

It’s an astonishing fact that in the 2000 years since the birth of Christ there has been only a handful of years in which there was no war. We yearn for peace, we pray for peace, but we rarely get it. And that is not what God wants for us. In today’s reading from Isaiah, we hear God’s vision of the world. “The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”

It sounds wonderful. Why doesn’t it happen? The answer for each of us can be found in our mirrors. We haven’t learned the art and the habit of being peacemakers, makers and builders of peace. Many of us are quite good at ducking or running away from conflict. But that isn’t building peace. On the contrary, running away generally leaves important issues unresolved, unhealed, and waiting to rise again in a more virulent form. So what are we to do?

Pope Paul VI said it perfectly and so very simply, “If you want peace, work for justice.” That’s what it means to be a peacemaker at every level of life. It’s a noble work, worthy of us all. And it’s a work that needs to begin now.

A Voice in the Desert

Tuesday November 29, 2005 First Week of Advent

Reading (Isaiah 11:1-10) Gospel (St. Matthew 10:21-24)

Our Lord in the Gospel reading today rejoices in the Holy Spirit and gives praise to His Father, saying that what has been hidden from the wise and the learned has been revealed to the childlike. That is the point all of us have to understand especially when we hear the words of the first reading when the prophet Isaiah talks about what is going to happen with Our Lord. First, to put it into context, remember that this point of Our Lord talking about the things that He is going to do and how the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him, He Himself told us that this is the case. And so He is using this particular passage from Isaiah in reference to Himself, and then talks about how He is going to judge and how justice is going to be the belt upon His waist. He goes on, then, to talk about how all of these things that seem to be contradictory to us are going to take place, and then finally how it says there will be no harm or ruin on all His holy mountain, but the earth “shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.”

That holy mountain of the Lord is the Church. If we look in the Church today, we would say, “Well, it doesn’t look like there is no ruin or harm within.” In the people, of course, right now there is. On the other side of whatever purification we are going to have to deal with, it will be a whole different situation; but even before that we have to understand that within the teaching of the Church there is complete purity, that nothing there is going to be of any kind of ruin or harm. That has been preserved, and it is there for each and every one of us to be able to recognize and to accept. That means we have to look beyond the human element, because in there we are going to find sin. And while it is easy for us to point our fingers at everyone else, all we have to do is first look in the mirror and remember that within the Church the sinners start with “me,” and every single other person is just like that. So, of course, we are going to find sinners and we are going to find lots of imperfection. Yet we can look beyond that to what is objective, to the teaching of the Church, and there we will find pure truth. There we will find the absolute teaching of Jesus Christ.

The wonderful thing that is going to happen in this time when Our Lady intervenes is that the fullness of truth is going to be revealed and accepted by all people who will remain. Our Lady promised at Fatima that there would be unprecedented growth for the Church. Saint Louis de Montfort tells us that in this time of Our Lady the Gospel is going to spread, that knowledge of Our Lady is going to be known by all, and therefore through her knowledge of Christ is going to be known by all. This is exactly what Isaiah is talking about. At that point, everyone on the face of the earth will live a truly Catholic life and there will be peace and justice.

In the meantime, the question is: Are we willing to do it even now–where there is not peace, where there is not justice, where people are not living the Gospel, and where they have rejected the knowledge of truth? Even with all of that, the true teaching of Christ is still there. Now we have the choice of whether we are going to look at all of the corruption and all of the problems, or whether we are going to look beyond that and look to Christ and look to the objective teaching and follow it. That is the choice we have even now. Are we going to be wise and clever and learned, and be just like everyone else and think that we have a better way? Remember what Our Lord said at the end of the Gospel: Many prophets and many kings longed to see what you see and did not see it, to hear what you hear and did not hear it. Why is it that there are so many throughout history who longed for the truth but did not have the fullness? Now we have the fullness of the truth, yet we do not want it.

Jesus desires that we would long for that truth, long for it to the point where we would seek it out and we would live it. That is what we have the opportunity to do right now. But it requires that we become childlike, that we realize we are not the ones who are the wise in the worldly sense, that we are not the powerful ones, that we are not the ones the world would look to. We need to be small, we need to be humble, and we need to recognize that what is true is not “me”–what is true is Christ–and He has placed that truth within each one of us so that we can accept it and live it. That is what He desires. He makes very clear that only those who are childlike will have this truth fully revealed to them. So we need to pray for that grace to truly be like a little child in accepting what Our Lord teaches us, and then to learn the obedience, the obedience of faith, as Saint Paul calls it, so we can live the truth that we have learned.

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

The Word Among Us

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Meditation
Isaiah 11:1-10

The imagination is an amazing thing. With our imaginations, we can form mental images of things, people, and events that are not present—even things that may never come to pass. How many of us have imagined a dream vacation or the perfect job? As children, we anticipate the sights and sounds of a parade or the joys of Christmas—all with our imaginations.

Let’s take this gift of the imagination one step further. Consider a deaf person imagining the sounds of a symphony, or a blind person trying to picture a much-described sunset. Or even consider an unborn child anticipating life outside the womb. These examples show how our imaginations can help people to perceive a world outside of what their senses tell them. Now take this just one step more and think about your imagination’s noblest purpose: to help you picture the mysteries of God and his kingdom.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the prophet Isaiah imagined the age to come. For Isaiah, the Messiah would not only usher in an earth where people are upright and just but also where human nature as we know it is divinized. He leapt beyond his everyday experience to picture an age of complete harmony. If you close your eyes, you might be able to picture Isaiah smiling as the Spirit fills his imagination with images of what is in store for God’s people.

And yet what’s funny is that even Isaiah’s imaginings fall far short of God’s plan. In Christ, we have been given a revelation that has far surpassed even Isaiah’s inspired dreams. In Christ, we share in the divine nature (see Catechism, 460). Yes, it’s true. God became man so that we could become like God!

God wants to expand our vision as we use our imaginations. Spend time in prayer today trying to think expansively. Let God show you that his vision for your life goes far beyond moral rightness and liturgical correctness. It includes your being filled with Jesus’ divine nature! Who knows? The Holy Spirit just might press some new insight on your heart today as you imagine with him.

“Holy Spirit, move in me today just as you did in Isaiah centuries ago. Lead me in my heavenly daydreams. Fill me with wonder as I picture myself being filled with your divinity. Give me eyes to see your bigger picture.”

Psalm 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Luke 10:21-24

Lk 10:21-37
#	Douay-Rheims	Vulgate
21	In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.	in ipsa hora exultavit Spiritu Sancto et dixit confiteor tibi Pater Domine caeli et terrae quod abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus et revelasti ea parvulis etiam Pater quia sic placuit ante te
22	All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal him.	omnia mihi tradita sunt a Patre meo et nemo scit qui sit Filius nisi Pater et qui sit Pater nisi Filius et cui voluerit Filius revelare
23	And turning to his disciples, he said: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see.	et conversus ad discipulos suos dixit beati oculi qui vident quae videtis
24	For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them.	dico enim vobis quod multi prophetae et reges voluerunt videre quae vos videtis et non viderunt et audire quae auditis et non audierunt

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