Thursday, November 27, 2025

 

Thanksgiving Day

(Sirach 50:22-24; I Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19)

As we look around the Thanksgiving table, we likely realize that we are most thankful for the people God has placed in our lives.  We might be rich, talented, and good-looking, but these qualities pale in comparison to the gifts of our parents, friends, and associates.  The latter, not the former, have made our lives most meaningful and worthwhile.  St. Paul in today’s reading from the beginning of the First Letter to the Corinthians takes this perspective.

Paul lived for over a year in Corinth.  He came to know the growing Christian community there intimately.  He saw the graces that God bestowed on these people and probably which of these gifts would spill over into excess.  In today’s passage Paul assures the Corinthians of his affection as he prepares to address some of their excesses.

For many Americans Thanksgiving is the most welcomed holiday of the year.  It provides a respite from the busyness of life.  It calls families and friends together for celebration.  If we are willing to go there, it occasions an honest evaluation of our strengths and limitations.  For the former we give our Creator thanks.  For the latter we petition our Redeemer’s help.

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

 

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 5:1-5.13-14.23-28; Luke 21:12-19)

The English poet John Donne wrote a masterful essay known by the phrase “for whom the bell tolls.”  The author takes an everyday experience of hearing a funeral bell toll into a meditation on death.  He says that the death toll should remind people that they too will die to face God’s judgment for how they conducted their lives.  Donne advises all, “… never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”  A similar message is given with “the writing on the wall” in today’s first reading.

The three words, “mene,” “tekel,” and “peres,” are from the ancient Near East language Aramaic.  Each can be used as both a noun and a verb.  Mene as a noun is a unit of weight or currency.  As a verb, it means to count or number. Here it tells King Belshazzar that his days are numbered. Tekel is also a unit or currency.  In addition, it means to weigh.  It indicates to Belshazzar that God has found him weighing little or wanting in virtue.  Peres means a half portion and to divide.  Belshazzar’s kingdom will be divided between the Persians and the Medes.

We can be sure that we are going to die.  As rich as he is, we hope not to die like Belshazzar.  Rather let us live virtuous lives so that God finds us at death worthy of eternal life with Him.

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

 Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

 (Daniel 2:31-43; Luke 21:5-11)

 Today’s gospel is a shorter version of the one read a week ago Sunday.  One preacher offered an extraordinary interpretation which is worth summarizing.  The preacher named the “awesome sights and mighty signs” as the resurrection of Christ.  It has relativized everything.  Everything, that is, except its own authority to stand on earth as the supreme witness to God in heaven.

 The first thing relativized are humans constructs like the Temple and votive offerings.  People marvel at buildings and art pieces, contemporary examples of which are the Taj Mahal and the Mona Lisa.  As amazing as human artifacts may be, even the best will crumble one day.  Nor will nature forever support life as it now does.  Rather it will turn into upheaval as Jesus predicts when he speaks of “earthquakes, famines, and plagues.”  Not human constructs, not nature but the resurrection of the dead, which Christ’s resurrection promises, gives ultimate meaning to human lives.  It can be said that the resurrection is the “stone hewn from a mountain” crushing all creation of which Daniel prophesizes in today’s first reading.

 Some say that emphasizing resurrection to eternal life is too “pie in the sky” to be proclaimed regularly.  But this advice would betray the preaching of the apostles and the lives of the saints.  As Christians it is Christ for whom we live and for whom we are to die.  If he were just an ancient sage with an interesting ethic, he is hardly worth staking our life on.  But as the eternal Lord evidenced by his rising from the dead, he deserves our utmost devotion.

 

 

Monday, November 24, 2029

 Memorial of Saint Andrew Dŭng-Lạc, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs

 (Daniel 1:1-6.8-20, Luke 21:1-4)

 Your doctor would not be surprised at all with the outcome of Daniel’s vegetarian diet.  She will tell you to eat like them, consuming less red meat, taking in more vegetables, and drinking little alcohol but lots of water.  Giving dietary advice, however, was not the author’s intention in the Book of Daniel.  Quite certainly he meant to lend moral counsel.  He wrote to encourage his fellow Jews not to disregard the Law.  Rather they are to follow its every precept.  As in the case here, their adhesion to the Law will bring about the good.

The Book of Daniel was written in the second century before Christ.  As the Books of Maccabees testify, Jews at the time were being terribly persecuted.  Foreign kings wanted to impose their beliefs and customs on the people.  The Jews resisted and ultimately prevailed to establish home rule. Unfortunately that too proved to be seriously defective.

 Religious persecution is threatening citizens in western societies today.  People are not being forced to eat forbidden foods but to violate their consciences in other ways.  Should a Catholic doctor be threatened with loss of license for refusing to perform an abortion?  Should a priest be demanded by law to “marry” a homosexual couple?  Should a Catholic school principal be prosecuted for failing to treat as a girl a “transgendered” male child?  These kinds of questions are all too real in today’s world.  Faith-filled people will hopefully take courage from these mass readings.

Sunday – November 23, 2025

 

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
(II Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43)

This year marks the centennial celebration of Christ the King as a universal solemnity. Pope Pius XI established this feast in 1925 for two reasons: to give thanks for the end of the First World War and to acknowledge the fall of four European monarchies. The celebration teaches us that kings and all rulers have legitimacy only insofar as their governance conforms to the Kingdom of Christ. We recall here the words of Saint Thomas More, English chancellor and martyr, who declared before his execution: “I am the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”

To appreciate the solemnity of Christ the King, we should turn to the opening chapters of Genesis. God reigned over all creation, which He Himself had made. Yet when He created human beings, He entrusted to them dominion over the earth and the sea. He told them: “… fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Man and woman lived in peace with God for a time but soon fell under sin’s influence. Attempting to make themselves equal to God, the woman first and then the man ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. By this act of defiance they effectively handed over sovereignty of the world to the devil or, better, sin. From that moment, it became God’s plan to reclaim His kingship by sending His Son. Christ would conquer evil to restore peace between God and humanity. His victory would reestablish the proper order: Jesus would reign as sovereign, and human beings would again exercise authority over the earth. The story of Christ the King is the story of our salvation.

Let us look at today’s readings to understand more clearly how Christ is King. The first reading describes the ceremony by which David was anointed king over all Israel. He had already been anointed king of Judah, his own tribe, and now he is recognized by the northern tribes as well. In time he will be regarded as the greatest king in Israel’s history. He conquered a vast territory stretching from Egypt to the Euphrates, and he enjoyed a strong relationship with the Lord. Yet David was not the ideal king. He fell gravely into sin by having an intimate relationship with another man’s wife and arranging for that man’s death when the adultery resulted in pregnancy. He also conducted a census of his kingdom in defiance of the Lord, and his many wars ended in the deaths of countless men. Great as he was, David could not lead humanity to live fully according to God’s will.

But David’s descendant—Jesus of Nazareth—perfected the kingship of his ancestor. Born of his lineage, Jesus was anointed, in his own words, “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” He accomplished these goals without shedding the blood of others. His way was to preach, to heal, and to die on the cross as an innocent sacrifice. In today’s Gospel Jesus is proclaimed king -- ironically by the inscription on the cross and by the words of the authorities, the soldiers, and the unrepentant thief. Yet He is also recognized as King by the “good thief,” who says, “Lord, when You come into Your kingdom, remember me.”

The second reading, from the Letter to the Colossians, presents Christ’s achievement and his place in the order of the universe. Through the shedding of His blood on the cross, Christ has redeemed humanity from the darkness of sin. Now we live in the light of Christ and know peace with God the Father. Moreover, Christ’s sacrifice subdued evil and reconciled all things to God. For this reason, the Father bestowed upon him the fullness of divinity, including the title “King of the Universe.” As members of his Body, we once again participate in the stewardship of the earth.

We have reached the end of the liturgical year. By proclaiming Jesus Christ as King of the Universe, we are reminded of the end of time. We hold the confidence that, if we remain faithful to Him, the darkness of sin will not overpower us again. On the contrary, united with Christ, we shall reign with him forever.