(General Calendar -Saint Camillus of Lellis, Priest)
Biographical Information about Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
Biographical Information about St. Camillus of Lellis
Readings for Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Isaiah 1:10-17
This is the introductory oracle (vision) of the Prophet Isaiah (the Book of Judgment as it is called by scholars). It is set in against defeat of the northern kingdom by Assyria (722 B.C.) and a threat to Jerusalem some years later. Having previously compared the state of religious fidelity of Israel and Judah to Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophet here continues to use that comparison to express the Lord’s displeasure over their attempts to appease him through religious acts while their actions and behaviors are wicked (“Your hands are full of blood.”). He calls the people to repent and return to the values of the Law of Moses.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Psalm 50 is a “covenant lawsuit”, that is a lament against those who have violated God’s law and the covenant made with Him upon which it was based. Echoing the charges leveled against Israel by the Prophet Isaiah (above) the psalmist condemns empty ritual and sacrifice not reflective of external actions and internal faith.
Gospel Matthew 10:34-11:1
The final remarks of Jesus to the Apostles as they go out to preach and heal are given in this passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel. He reminds them that even though the word they spread reflects God’s love, they will be received badly by many, dividing households and families.
He goes on to tell them that those who will fully accept him and his word will undergo persecution because of him and, even if they loose their lives on His account, they will be saved. The reward given to those who accept this word and follow in his way will be great in heaven.
This discourse, recalled many years after Christ’s death and resurrection has the advantage of seeing the persecution of those who spread the word in the early Church and embodies a fuller understanding of the meaning of Christ’s teaching.
Reflection:
The final departure of the Apostles on their first missionary outing seems almost anticlimactic if we have been following the instructions the Lord has given them over the past week in the daily installments. What strikes us today is something at once familiar yet new as we begin hearing from perhaps the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, Isaiah.
Isaiah sees through the eyes of faith what is taking place in his country. King Uzziah ruled in Jerusalem for forty years and it was a period of remarkable peace. Now at the end of his reign, Assyria is attacking the northern kingdom and peace is disintegrating. As happens even in modern times, when things go terribly bad for either an individual or group (even a nation), the people rush back to the Temple (or Church) in fear. Even though they have not darkened the door of these places in years, when things look bad, here they come.
Isaiah sees this return to faith and also sees that while the people return in practice, they have not repented from their rejection of God’s law and in fact have not changed the way they live outside the holy places. The prophet sees the actions of these hypocrites as empty, spurned by God. They come with their ritual sacrifices hoping to “pay” God to rescue them; like one would pay a bribe to a policeman to protect them from the just persecution by one they had wronged.
The message for us today is somewhat complex. When we combine the call by Isaiah to a sincere lived faith with the “push” of Jesus to take that faith into the world, we come to understand that we cannot lay heavy burdens on those to whom we go, especially if we ourselves do not carry them. We go bringing the love of God in Christ to those we meet but do so in all sincerity not out of the hope for consideration by God, expiation for some misdeed, or because we fear coming judgment.
To sum it up in over-simplified language; before we go to tell others how to live in the love of God, we must be doing all we can to come closer to that model ourselves. We do this with constant prayer and participation in the sacramental grace provided by our sincere worship with the whole community of faith. They will keep us honest and challenge us to accept a higher standard of faith.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used today is “Cross in the Mountains” by Caspar David Friedrich, 1805-06
Biographical Information about Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
Biographical Information about St. Camillus of Lellis
Readings for Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Commentary:
Reading 1 Isaiah 1:10-17
This is the introductory oracle (vision) of the Prophet Isaiah (the Book of Judgment as it is called by scholars). It is set in against defeat of the northern kingdom by Assyria (722 B.C.) and a threat to Jerusalem some years later. Having previously compared the state of religious fidelity of Israel and Judah to Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophet here continues to use that comparison to express the Lord’s displeasure over their attempts to appease him through religious acts while their actions and behaviors are wicked (“Your hands are full of blood.”). He calls the people to repent and return to the values of the Law of Moses.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Psalm 50 is a “covenant lawsuit”, that is a lament against those who have violated God’s law and the covenant made with Him upon which it was based. Echoing the charges leveled against Israel by the Prophet Isaiah (above) the psalmist condemns empty ritual and sacrifice not reflective of external actions and internal faith.
Gospel Matthew 10:34-11:1
The final remarks of Jesus to the Apostles as they go out to preach and heal are given in this passage from St. Matthew’s Gospel. He reminds them that even though the word they spread reflects God’s love, they will be received badly by many, dividing households and families.
He goes on to tell them that those who will fully accept him and his word will undergo persecution because of him and, even if they loose their lives on His account, they will be saved. The reward given to those who accept this word and follow in his way will be great in heaven.
This discourse, recalled many years after Christ’s death and resurrection has the advantage of seeing the persecution of those who spread the word in the early Church and embodies a fuller understanding of the meaning of Christ’s teaching.
Reflection:
The final departure of the Apostles on their first missionary outing seems almost anticlimactic if we have been following the instructions the Lord has given them over the past week in the daily installments. What strikes us today is something at once familiar yet new as we begin hearing from perhaps the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, Isaiah.
Isaiah sees through the eyes of faith what is taking place in his country. King Uzziah ruled in Jerusalem for forty years and it was a period of remarkable peace. Now at the end of his reign, Assyria is attacking the northern kingdom and peace is disintegrating. As happens even in modern times, when things go terribly bad for either an individual or group (even a nation), the people rush back to the Temple (or Church) in fear. Even though they have not darkened the door of these places in years, when things look bad, here they come.
Isaiah sees this return to faith and also sees that while the people return in practice, they have not repented from their rejection of God’s law and in fact have not changed the way they live outside the holy places. The prophet sees the actions of these hypocrites as empty, spurned by God. They come with their ritual sacrifices hoping to “pay” God to rescue them; like one would pay a bribe to a policeman to protect them from the just persecution by one they had wronged.
The message for us today is somewhat complex. When we combine the call by Isaiah to a sincere lived faith with the “push” of Jesus to take that faith into the world, we come to understand that we cannot lay heavy burdens on those to whom we go, especially if we ourselves do not carry them. We go bringing the love of God in Christ to those we meet but do so in all sincerity not out of the hope for consideration by God, expiation for some misdeed, or because we fear coming judgment.
To sum it up in over-simplified language; before we go to tell others how to live in the love of God, we must be doing all we can to come closer to that model ourselves. We do this with constant prayer and participation in the sacramental grace provided by our sincere worship with the whole community of faith. They will keep us honest and challenge us to accept a higher standard of faith.
Pax
[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture used today is “Cross in the Mountains” by Caspar David Friedrich, 1805-06
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