DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Saturday, August 30, 2014 21st Week in Ordinary Time - Psalter 1 (Green) Readings: 1 Cor 1:26-31; Ps 33:12-21; Matt 23:14-30 Response: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own. Rosary: Joyful Mysteries Key Verse: For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Rumon St. Rumon, also known as Ruan, Ronan, and Ruadan, was probably a brother of Bishop St. Tudwal of Trequier, but nothing else is known of him beyond that he was probably an Irish missionary and many churches in Devon and Cornwall in England were named after him. Some authorities believed he is the same as the St. Ronan (June 1) venerated in Brittany and believed consecrated bishop by St. Patrick, but others believe that he and St. Kea were British monks who founded a monastery at Street Somerset. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, First Corinthians 1:26-31 26 Consider, brothers, how you were called; not many of you are wise by human standards, not many influential, not many from noble families. 27 No, God chose those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise; he chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong, 28 those who by human standards are common and contemptible -- indeed those who count for nothing -- to reduce to nothing all those that do count for something, 29 so that no human being might feel boastful before God. 30 It is by him that you exist in Christ Jesus, who for us was made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption. 31 As scripture says: If anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 33:12-13, 18-19, 20-21 12 How blessed the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his heritage. 13 From heaven Yahweh looks down, he sees all the children of Adam, 18 But see how Yahweh watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his faithful love, 19 to rescue them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield, 21 for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust. GOSPEL, Matthew 25:14-30 14 It is like a man about to go abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. 17 The man who had received two made two more in the same way. 18 But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his masters money. 19 Now a long time afterwards, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. Sir, he said, you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made. 21 His master said to him, Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your masters happiness. 22 Next the man with the two talents came forward. Sir, he said, you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made. 23 His master said to him, Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your masters happiness. 24 Last came forward the man who had the single talent. Sir, said he, I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you had not sown and gathering where you had not scattered; 25 so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back. 26 But his master answered him, You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? 27 Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have got my money back with interest. 28 So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has. 30 As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise make us one in mind and heart. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (The Wisdom of the Cross - Continuation) As in the case of the Apostles--You did not choose me, but I chose you. (Jn 15:16)--it is the Lord who chooses, who gives each Christian his vocation. St. Paul emphasizes that the initiative lies with God by saying three times that it was God who chose those Corinthians to be Christians, and he did not base his choice on human criteria. Human wisdom, power, nobility, these were not what brought them to the faith--nor the inspirations which God later gives. God is no respecter of persons (cf. 2 Chron 19:7; Rom 2:1; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25; etc.), St. J. Escriva reminds us. When he invites a soul to live a life fully in accordance with the faith, he does not set store by merits of fortune, nobility, blood or learning. Gods call precedes all merits. Vocation comes first. God loves us before we even know how to go toward him, and he places in us the love with which we can respond to his call (Christ Is Passing By, 33). Thus, God chooses whomever he wants to, and these first Christians -- uneducated, unimportant, even despised people, in the worlds eyes--will be what he uses to spread his Church and convert the wise, the strong and the important: this disproportion between resources and results will make it quite clear that God is responsible for the increase. However, this does not mean that none of the first Christians was educated or influential, humanly speaking. The Acts of the Apostles, for example, tell us about early converts who were out of the ordinary--a minister of the court of the Kandake of Ethiopia; a centurion, Cornelius; Apollos; Dionysius the Areopagite; etc. It would appear that worldly excellence is not godly unless God uses it for his honor. And therefore, although at the beginning they were indeed few, later God chose many humanly outstanding people for the ministry of preaching. Hence the gloss which says, If the fisherman had not faithfully led the way, the orator would not have humbly followed (St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Cor, ad loc.). St. Pauls words remind us that supernatural resources are the thing an apostle must rely on. It is true that human resources are necessary, and God counts on them (cf. 1 Cor 3:5-10); but the task God has commended to Christians exceeds their abilities and can be carried out only with his help. The Second Vatican Council reminded priests of this verse when stressing the need for humility; and what it says can be useful to all Christians: The divine task for the fulfillment of which they have been set apart by the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 13:2) transcends all human strength and human wisdom; for God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27). Therefore the true minister of Christ is conscious of his own weakness and labors in humility. He tries to discover what is well-pleasing to God (cf. Eph 5:10) and, bound as it were in the Spirit (cf. Acts 20:22), he is guided in all things by the will of him who wishes all men to be saved. He is able to discover and carry out that will in the course of his daily routine by humbly placing himself at the service of all those who are entrusted to his care by God in the office that has been committed to him and the variety of events that make up his life (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 15). Gods call makes a person a member of Christ Jesus, through Baptism; and if a Christian is docile to grace he or she will gradually become so like Christ as to be able to say with St Paul, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20). This being in Christ Jesus enables a person to share in the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption which Jesus is for the Christian. Jesus Christ indeed is the wisdom of God (cf. Col 1:15f; Heb 1:2f), and knowing him is true wisdom, the highest form of wisdom. He is for us our righteousness, because through the merits obtained by his incarnation, death and resurrection he has made us truly righteous (= just, holy) in Gods sight He is also the source of all holiness, which consists in fact in identification with Christ. Through him, who has become redemption for us, we have been redeemed from the slavery of sin. How well the Apostle orders his ideas: Good has made us wise by rescuing us from error; and then he has made us just and holy by giving us his spirit (Chrysostom, Hom. on 1 Cor, 5, ad loc.). In view of the complete gratuitousness of Gods choice ( vv. 25-28 ) and the immense benefits it brings with it, the conclusion is obvious: Deo omni, gloria. All glory to God. It is an emphatic conclusion of our nothingness. He, Jesus, is everything. We, without him, are worth nothing: nothing. Our vainglory would be just that: vain glory; it would be sacrilegious robbery. There should be no room for that I anywhere (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 780). ON THE GOSPEL: Matthew 25:14-30 (The Parable of the Talents) Today’s Gospel presents to us the parable of the talents. This parable was between two other parables: the Parable of the Ten virgins (Mt 25, 1-13) and the Parable of the final Judgement (Mt 25, 31-46).These three parables clarify and orientate persons concerning the coming of the Kingdom. The parable of the Ten Virgins insists on vigilance: the Kingdom may arrive at any moment. The Parable of the final Judgement says that in order to possess the Kingdom it is necessary to accept the little ones. The Parable of the talents orientates on what to do to make the Kingdom grow. It speaks of the gifts and the charisma which persons receive from God. Every person has qualities, knows something that he/she can teach others. Nobody is only a pupil, nobody is only a teacher. We all learn from one another. A key to understand the parable: one of the things which has greater influence on the life of the people is the idea which we have of God. Among the Jews who followed the Pharisees, some imagined that God was a severe judge, who treated persons according to the merit they had gained through the observance of the Law. That produced fear in the persons and prevented them from growing. And, especially, prevented them from opening a space within them, to receive and accept the new experience of God which Jesus communicated. In order to help these persons, Matthew tells the story of the talents. A talent was not any kind of coin but a measure of value worth about fifty kilos (one hundred pounds) of silver. In this parable the main message is the need to respond to grace by making a genuine effort right through ones life. All the gifts of nature and grace which God has given us should yield a profit. It does not matter how many gifts we have received; what matters is our generosity in putting them to good use. A persons Christian calling should not lie hidden and barren: it should be outgoing, apostolic and self-sacrificial. Dont lose your effectiveness; instead, trample on your selfishness. You think your life is for yourself? Your life is for God, for the good of all men, though your love for our Lord. Your buried talent, dig it up again! Make it yield (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 47). An ordinary Christian cannot fail to notice that Jesus chose to outline his teaching on response to grace by using the simile of men at work. Here we have a reminder that the Christian normally lives out his vocation in the context of ordinary, everyday affairs. There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God. We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things. There is no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him (St. J. Escriva, Conversations, 114). Matthew 25, 14-15: The door of entrance in the parable. Jesus tells the story of a man, who before going abroad, entrusted his goods to his servants, giving them five, two and one talents, according to the capacity of each one. One talent was equal to 34 kg. of gold, which is not something small! In last instance, each one receives the same amount, because he receives “according to his capacity”. Anyone who has a big cup, receives a full cup. The man went on his journey, abroad where he remained for a long time. The story produces a certain moment of suspense. One does not know for what purpose the man entrusts his money to the servants; neither does one know the end. Matthew 25, 16-18: The way of acting of each one of the servants. The two first ones work and make the money produce a double amount. But the one who received one talent buried it so as not to lose it. It is a question of the goods of the Kingdom which are given to persons and to the communities according to their capacity. Everyone receives some good of the Kingdom, but not all respond in the same way! Matthew 25, 19-23: Rendering an account of the first and the second servants, and response of the master. After a long time, the man returned. The first two servants say the same thing: “Sir, you entrusted me with five/two talents, here are five/two more that I have made”. And the master gives the same response: “Well done, good and trustworthy servant, you have shown you are trustworthy in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness”. Matthew 25, 24-25: Rendering of account of the third servant. The third servant comes and says: “Sir, I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you had not sown and gathering where you had not scattered, so I was afraid and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is!” In this phrase we have a mistaken idea of God which is criticized by Jesus. The servant considers God as a severe master. Before such a God, the human being is afraid and hides behind the exact and narrow-minded observance of the Law. The person thinks that acting in this way, the severity of the legislator will not punish him. In reality, such a person does not believe in God, but believes only in self and in the observance of the Law. This person closes up in self, separates herself from God and cannot be concerned about others. This person becomes incapable to grow and develop like a free person. This false image of God isolates the human being, kills the community, puts an end to joy and impoverishes life. Matthew 25, 26-27: The response of the Master to the third servant. The response of the master is ironic. He says: “Wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered; you should have deposited my money with the bankers and on my return I would have got my money back with interest!” The third servant was not coherent with the severe image which he had of God. If he imagined that God was severe, he should have, at least, placed the money in the bank. Then, he is condemned not by God but by the mistaken idea that he had of God and which makes him more immature and fearful than what he should have been. It was not possible for him to be coherent with the erroneous image which he had of God, because fear dehumanized and paralyzed life. Matthew 25, 28-30: The last word of the Lord which clarifies the parable. The master orders to take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has.” This is the key which clarifies everything. In reality, the talents, the “money of the master”, the goods of the Kingdom, are love, service, sharing. It is everything which helps the community to grow and reveals the presence of God. Anyone who closes himself in self out of fear of losing the little that he has, at the end will lose even the little that he has. But the person who does not think of self, and gives herself to others, grows and receives in turn, in an unexpected way, everything which she has given and even more. Anyone who loses his life will find it, and anyone who has the courage to lose his life will find it”. The different money of the Kingdom. There is no difference between those who have received more and those who have received less. All have their gift according to their capacity. What is important is that this gift be placed at the service of the Kingdom and make the goods of the Kingdom grow. These gifts are love, fraternal spirit, sharing. The principal key of the parable does not consist in making the talents render something, but rather in relating with God in a correct way. The two first servants ask for nothing, they do not seek their own good, they do not want things for themselves, they do not close up in self, they do not calculate. In the most natural way, almost without being aware and without seeking their own merit, they begin to work, in such a way that the gift received from God may render for God and for the Kingdom. The third servant is afraid, and because of this does nothing. According to the norms of the ancient law, he acts correctly. He responds to the exigencies. He loses nothing and gains nothing. And because of this he loses even what he had. The Kingdom is a risk. Anyone who does not want to run risks will lose the Kingdom! FINAL PRAYERS: We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield, for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust. (Ps 33,20-21) I call upon you, O God, my Mercy, who made me and did not forget me when I forgot you. I call you to come into my soul, for by inspiring it to long for you, you prepare it to receive You. -- from the Confessions of St. Augustine It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 23:46:40 +0000
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