Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 1:13-24; Luke 10 38-42)

In writing to the Galatians St. Paul is aware of the need to explain himself.  He knows that they know how he persecuted the Church.  However, Paul thinks that they do not know why and how he came to preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead.  So he eagerly informs them that he received a calling directly from God much like the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

But Paul assures his readers that he is not a totally free agent.  He went to Jerusalem to meet Peter who, presumably, informed him about Jesus.  He is also accountable to God to preach the truth about His Son.

Not only the faith of his converts but also our own faith rests on the value of Paul’s doctrine.  He has become the most important interpreter of God’s design in Jesus.  Without his letters we would be hard pressed to explain the ignominious death of Jesus on the cross and the glorious destiny his resurrection has given us.

 

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, religious

(Galatians 1:13-24; Luke 10:38-42)

The lives of Saints Paul and Francis exhibit a remarkable similarity.  Both icons of the Church experienced profound religious conversion.  As a young man, Francis was a soldier of fortune.  He fought as a soldier and lived a profligate lifestyle.  Then he encountered Christ who changed his ways.  Imitating his new found Lord, Francis divested himself of worldliness.  His new disposition attracted many followers to his side.

Paul relates part of his conversion in today’s first reading.  As a zealous Jew, he persecuted the Church mercilessly.  Then he met the one whom he found most objectionable, and his life also radically changed.  Evidently Paul contemplated what happened in his encounter with Christ for years.  Aware of a call to preach the gospel, Paul prepared himself carefully before beginning a mission.

It is likely that all of us have experienced a calling by Christ.  We probably did not see him or hear him as a distinct voice.  Perhaps Christ made himself felt through the poor who rely completely on him or through the Church, his body.  Nevertheless, he has touched us with a sense of purpose.  We too have been converted.  We now live as his disciples imitating his goodness and handing on his love.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 1:13-24; Luke 10:38-42)

LeBron James, the designated king of basketball, is returning to his hometown.  He feels called back to Cleveland to win a championship for the people among whom he grew up.  To say the least, he is gifted enough to be a major factor in a victorious.  He might be compared to St. Paul on that fated journey to Damascus which he mentions in the first reading today.

As Paul describes himself, he was well prepared for the task to which God was calling him.  He knew the Scriptures as well as anyone and had zeal beyond compare.  God, it seems, planned the encounter between him and God’s Son.  Paul is reticent to say exactly what took beyond that Jesus was revealed to him.  In the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul mentioned that Jesus “appeared” to him but without any elaboration.  The event must have been monumental to turn completely around this rock-hard persecutor of the Church.

Hearing the story again, we stand in awe.  Paul not only gave the rest of his life to preaching the gospel but in the end suffered martyrdom for it.  We are more certain that what we believe is true because of his eloquent testimony.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Galatians 1:13-24; Luke 10:38-42)

Bishop Ken Untener believed that homilies should be short. In workshops around the country he told priests that the Catholic Church is so rich in reminders of the faith that the people do not need long sermons. Rather, he advised, preachers should take from the gospel the truest truth that they can ascertain and tell that to the people. St. Paul seems to do precisely this in the first reading today.

What’s important to Paul is not his life as a Jew or his acquaintance with the apostles. No, he insists that the critical event of his life, which gives meaning to everything that he is and does, is his encounter with the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He does not elaborate on the nature of the meeting, but he does indicate that it made him an apostle with the special mission of preaching the gospel to foreign nations or, as it is translated in the reading, “the Gentiles” – that is most of us.

Protestants often talk about coming to know the Lord Jesus, which leaves many Catholics wondering what they mean. Blessed John Paul II, however, encouraged us to develop a relationship with Christ. We encounter Christ in one another, especially in the poor who trust themselves implicitly to the Lord’s care. We meet him also in listening to the Gospel and even more profoundly in the reception of Holy Communion. It is the summation of these events contemplated over years that most of us have a sense of relationship with the Lord. Like for Paul then, he becomes the whole point of our existence.

Homilette for Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

(Galatians 1:13-24)

The Black preacher began his sermon by identifying himself. He said, “I’m just a nobody, who came to tell anybody, about somebody, who died to save everybody.” In the first reading today, Paul uses more words but means to say essentially the same thing.

The passage contains Paul’s own account of God’s revelation to him of Jesus Christ. Biblical students note that the story lacks the embellishments of the three accounts of the incident in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul does not give details because his purpose is not primarily to tell his story. Rather, he intends to extol the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Neither does Paul dwell on Peter and the other apostles. They also pale in comparison to the unwarranted gift of grace.

Paul wants to impress upon his readers – which certainly include us along with the Galatians – that nothing which we do or anyone else does – be the person a Presidential candidate or a World Series hero – can be as significant for us as the love of God. Therefore, Paul indicates, it is only right that we stop calculating our own salvation and live completely for Christ. The irony (or mystery if you prefer) is that when we do so, we gain infinitely more than we can by our own efforts.

We might see praying the rosary as an example of what Paul intends here. Meditating on the mysteries of Jesus’ life as we recite the prayers by now as much part of us as the alphabet, we lose ourselves in thought. But our needs are not ignored. Rather, the Almighty takes them up for fulfillment.