Office of Readings for Tuesday of the 31st Week

Wisdom for Our Generation

From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council The Christian duty of working for peace Christians should cooperate, willingly and wholeheartedly, in building an international order based on genuine respect for legitimate freedom and on a brotherhood of universal friendship. This is all the more urgent because the greater part of the world still experiences such poverty that in the voices of the poor Christ himself can be heard, crying out for charity from his followers. There are nations – many of them with a majority of Christians – which enjoy an abundance of goods, while others are deprived of the necessities of life, and suffer from hunger, disease and all kinds of afflictions. This scandal must be removed from among men, for the glory of Christ’s Church and its testimony to the world are the spirit of poverty and the spirit of love. Christians, especially young Christians, deserve praise and support when they offer themselves voluntarily in the service of other people, with bishops giving a lead by word and example, to do all in their power to relieve the sufferings of our times, following the age-old custom of the Church in giving not only what they can spare but also what they need for themselves. Without being uniform or inflexible, a method of collecting and distributing contributions should be established in each diocese and nation and on a world-wide level. Whenever it seems appropriate, there should be joint action between Catholics and other Christians. The spirit of Charity, far from forbidding prudence and orderliness in social and charitable action, in fact demands them. Those intending to serve the developing countries must therefore undergo appropriate and systematic training. In order to foster and encourage cooperation among men, the Church must be present and active in the community of nations. It must work through its own public organizations with the full and sincere cooperation of all Christians in their one desire to serve all mankind. This end will be more effectively achieved if the faithful are themselves conscious of their human and Christian responsibilities and seek to awaken among those in their own walk of life a readiness to cooperate with the international community. Special care should be taken to give this kind of formation to young people in their religious and secular education. Finally, it is to be hoped that, in carrying out their responsibilities in the international community, Catholics will seek to cooperate actively and constructively with other Christians, who profess the same Gospel of love, and with all men who hunger and thirst for true peace.

Office of Readings for 31st Sunday

Wisdom For This Generation

From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world  of the Second Vatican Council Reeducation for peace Men must not be content simply to support the efforts of others in the work for peace; they must also scrutinize their own attitudes. Statesmen, responsible as they are for the common good of their own nation and at the same time for the well-being of the whole world, are very much dependent on the opinions and convictions of the general public. Their efforts to secure peace are of no avail as long as men are divided or set against each other by feelings of hostility, contempt and distrust, by racial hatred or by inflexible ideologies. There is then a very great and urgent need to reeducate men and to provide fresh inspiration in the field of public opinion. Those engaged in education, especially among young people, and those who influence public opinion, should consider it a very serious responsibility to work for the reeducation of mankind to a new attitude toward peace. We must all undergo a change of heart. We must look out on the whole world and see the tasks that we can all do together to promote the well-being of the family of man. We must not be misled by a false sense of hope. Unless antagonism and hatred are abandoned, unless binding and honest agreements are concluded, safeguarding universal peace in the future, mankind, already in grave peril, may well face in spite of its marvelous advance in knowledge that day of disaster when it knows no other peace than the awful peace of death. In saying this, however, the Church of Christ, living as it does in the midst of these anxious times, continues unwaveringly in hope. Time and again, in season and out of season, it seeks to proclaim to our age the message of the Apostle: Now is the hour of God’s favor, the hour for change of heart; now is the day of salvation. To build peace, the causes of human discord which feed the fires of war must first be eliminated, and among these especially the violations of justice. Many of these causes are due to gross economic inequality and delay in providing necessary remedies. Others arise from a spirit of domination and from a contempt for others, and, among more fundamental causes, from human envy, distrust, pride and other forms of selfishness. Since man cannot bear so many violations of due order, the result is that, even where war does not rage, the world is constantly plagued by human conflict and acts of violence. The same evils are also found in relations between nations. It is therefore absolutely necessary that international institutions should cooperate more effectively, more resolutely and with greater coordination of effort, in order to overcome or prevent these evils, and to check unbridled acts of violence. There must also be constant encouragement for the creation of organizations designed to promote peace.

Thirty-first Sunday - 2018

He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself. Heb. 7 What exactly do we mean when we use the word “sacrifice”?  Definition: an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Synonyms: give up, abandon, surrender, forgo, renounce, forfeit, relinquish, resign, abdicate; We are on this planet for one reason; to prepare to receive a share in the very life of God; to be clothed in glory. The angels before us were created already in glory, but some, when they saw themselves so glorious, thought that they too were gods. So, God stripped them of their glory and banished them from his presence. To prevent this from happening to us humans, God started us off on this planet, clothed in mud and destined for decay and death. This humbling experience was meant to convince us that we are not gods nor shall we ever be. Once convinced, God can safely cloth us in glory – thus protecting us from the error of the fallen angels. The life of self sacrifice which Jesus models for us is a life of purification; purging out of our minds and hearts every pride-of-self, now capable of receiving a share in the divine life. For more in the meaning of sacrifice, type in the word [ sacrifice ] in the search app on the side panel.

.

Thirtieth Sunday - 2018

In chapter 9 of Genesis we read: "After the great flood that reset the destiny of the world, we read: God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill t he earth. God said: The rainbow in the sky is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come. The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated." People spread out through all the earth, searching for suitable places to settle and make their homes. To be a migrant was a natural part of being a human on this planet. Abraham, the father of the faith, was called by God to be a immigrant; “The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran”. In today’s first reading, Jeramiah the prophet is telling God’s people living in exile that soon they will be on the road home. “See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here”. In the early chapters of the gospels we see three people forced to flee for their lives and become exiles and refugees. Their names, Joseph, and Mary, and Jesus. Back in the 7th century BC, the people of China, fearing invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe with an eye to expansion, built several walls to keep out these intruders. Later these walls were joined together and made bigger and stronger; today they are collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Today, fear of migrants is causing another great wall to be built on the southern border of the U.S. The media is tracing this migration, with pictures and stories of these migrants as they travel north in search of a better life. How are we as Christians to look on the phenomena of refugee and immigrant migration? In January 22, 2003, the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States issued a Pastoral Letter concerning migration. Its title is: . . . LINK Strangers No Longer Together on the Journey of Hope In paragraph #28, we read; "Catholic teaching has a long and rich tradition in defending the right to migrate. Based on the life and teachings of Jesus, the Church's teaching has provided the basis for the development of basic principles regarding the right to migrate for those attempting to exercise their God-given human rights. Catholic teaching also states that the root causes of migration – poverty, injustice, religious intolerance, armed conflicts – must be addressed so that migrants can remain in their homeland and support their families”.  I encourage you to read this this document. It is an excellent presentation of Catholic thought on the subject. Our world today is experiencing a renewed move toward globalization, and some see this as a threat to their nationalism and their right to self determination; they see walls as a way of protecting their rights and securing their sovereignty. In their pastoral letter, the US and Mexican bishops recognized such rights but not as absolutes. In paragraph # 35 they state: "The Church recognizes that all the goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right." Rather than being caught in the trap of taking sides in the global/nationalist debate, we need to rise above it, working and praying that all peoples recognize that we are all pilgrims on this earth and that our true home is in heaven. While on this pilgrimage we are intent on helping each other make it home.

.