Friday, September 5, 2025

 

Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 5:33-39)

Today’s first reading was composed as a hymn of glory to Christ.  Its difficulty to comprehend may stem from the fact that, like all songs, it was written as poetry.  As such, it strives not just to explain but also to edify by its rhythm and imagery.

The hymn was inserted by St. Paul, or perhaps one of his associates, into the Letter to the Christian community in Colossae.  The community was being challenged at the time by strange teachings regarding heavenly powers and earthly practices.  These teachings took away from the centrality of Christ’s work both in creation and in redemption. 

What the hymn proposes for the Colossians’ consideration is crucial for our understanding of Christ as well.  Let’s try to state these proposals.  First, Christ resurrected from the dead is the perfect image of the unseen God.  Second, Christ existing from all eternity was the source and end of all creation.  Finally, as creation was falling apart through sin, Christ has brought the pieces together by his death on the cross and holds them together in the Church.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

 

Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(Colossians 1:9-14; Luke 5:1-11)

“Deep water” for fishermen is the water beyond the shallows near land’s edge.  Large fish gather there to prey upon the smaller fish and plankton.  Fishermen like Pedro, James, and John in today’s gospel will troll deep water in the hope of making a significant catch.

“Deep water” for most people is the profundity of life that holds life’s meaning.  It is family, career, or major investment where they recognize what makes life worth living.   When Jesus tells Peter to “put out into deep water,” he is directing him to do more than look for fish. He means to reveal to Peter how to live the rest of his life. 

Our faith is “deep water.”  It gives us ultimate meaning by showing us how to live with integrity through the ups and down of time.  Equally important, it provides both our goal in life and the help to attain that goal.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

 

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, pope and Doctor of the Church

(Colossians 1:1-8; Luke 4:38-44)

When Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law in today’s gospel, he “rebukes the fever.”  The evangelist Luke uses the same word here as he did a few verses earlier when he wrote that Jesus rebuked the demon possessing a man.  In biblical times demons were thought of as the source of physical ailment.

How should we understand what happened?  If possession is the cause of disease, why do we see a doctor and not an exorcist when we are sick?  Perhaps the ailments which Jesus healed were psychosomatic illnesses which the commanding presence of Jesus resolved.  But how were there so many cases of psychosomatic then compared to a relatively small number today?

It is better to think of Jesus’ cures as demonstrations that he has come to establish the Kingdom of God.  The Father has bestowed on him, as sometimes does on others, the ability to effect cures over disease.  Jesus has similar power over other forms of evil like ignorance and corrupt habits.  We rightly consider these evils as demons that prevent us from becoming holy and loving women and men.  But this reign of terror has been upended with Jesus.  Like those in today’s gospel, we need to beseech him to rebuke the spirits affecting us.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

 

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Thessalonians 5:1-6.9-11; Luke 4:31-37)

Every once in a while, the writings of Nostradamus, a sixteenth century French physician, is dusted off to make a prediction of the end of the world.  The supposed seer wrote a thousand verses of poetry that are interpreted, most always after the fact, to have accurately predicted the future. But little if any of his work can be read as precisely saying what or when future events will occur.  In the first reading today St. Paul tells his readers to dismiss foretelling such as Nostradamus’s of the imminent end of the world.

Paul echoes Jesus in saying that the end will come like a “thief at night.”  His readers are to stand ready at all times to greet the Lord when he arrives to claim his own.  Paul evidently believes that the end will come sooner rather than later, but this is not his point.  Rather, he wants the Thessalonians to not make special preparation for that end.  Rather, they are to stand ready for the end semper fi by living as “children of the light.”  This means that he wants the Thessalonians to be a showcase of charity and peace.

We do not know when the world will end.  There is a prediction that a meteor is closing in on the earth and will cause its demise.  Scientists say that in a few billion years the sun will run out of fuel, expand, and engulf the earth in flames.  There are other, more tragic scenarios.  Humans have the capacity to end life on earth with nuclear weapons.  We are wise to stay prepared as Paul tells us.  There is no need to live in perpetual fear, but there is good reason to practice charity and peace.

 

Monday, September 1, 2025

 

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in ordinary Time – Labor Day

(I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Luke 4:16-30)

Humans were created to work.  According to Genesis, after creating male and female, God “blessed them saying ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”  In its origin, work was not meant as drudgery but as a blessing.  Through it humans provide for themselves and their families, serve the common good, and give glory to God by their achievement.  Work, therefore, is not a right but an obligation and a responsibility.

But workers do have rights.  To avoid exploitation, workers have rights to fair wages, safe working conditions, and suitable rest.  In today’s gospel Jesus inaugurates his mission in the world.  He says that he has come “to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  This is shorthand for a Jubilee Year when rights are vindicated, injustices are rectified and peace among people is restored. 

Labor Day is a very brief Jubilee Year.  Workers are free to rest with their rights publicized and their achievements recognized.  Also, on this day we give thanks to God for workers, especially manual laborers.  By the extension of their muscles, we live more comfortably and more healthily than ever.