Saturday Mass readings (Obedience to Church leaders despite their hypocricy / Call no man Father)

[distracted]

August 22, 2009

Reading 1
Ru 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17

Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz,
of the clan of her husband Elimelech.
Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,
“Let me go and glean ears of grain in the field
of anyone who will allow me that favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter,” and she went.
The field she entered to glean after the harvesters
happened to be the section belonging to Boaz
of the clan of Elimelech.

Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter!
Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field;
you are not to leave here.
Stay here with my women servants.
Watch to see which field is to be harvested, and follow them;
I have commanded the young men to do you no harm.
When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the vessels
the young men have filled.”
Casting herself prostrate upon the ground, Ruth said to him,
“Why should I, a foreigner, be favored with your notice?”
Boaz answered her:
“I have had a complete account of what you have done
for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death;
***you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth,
and have come to a people whom you did not know previously.”***Boaz took Ruth.

When they came together as man and wife,
the LORD enabled her to conceive and she bore a son.
Then the women said to Naomi,
“Blessed is the LORD who has not failed
to provide you today with an heir!
May he become famous in Israel!
He will be your comfort and the support of your old age,
for his mother is the daughter-in-law who loves you.
She is worth more to you than seven sons!”
Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse.
And the neighbor women gave him his name,
at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi.
They called him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 128:1b-2, 3, 4, 5

R. (4) See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
You wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. ***See how the Lord blesses those who fear him. ***

Gospel
Mt 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
***you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” ***

*Here Jesus shows the importance of respecting Church leaders (pope, bishops, priests) but only if / when they are not acting contrary to Jesus Christ). Many priests these days seem very liberal and we are NOT to listen to what they say if they are telling us something that, say, contradicts the pope. Even so, the pope must also be living a Christ-like life (some past popes have not, although they never taught that their sinful actions were to be imitated)

If we were to take this psg literally, about calling no one our father, we couldn’t even call our biological fathers by that title… What Jesus means is that we are not to follow someone blindly…

not even political leaders… *

 

[cheeto1]

In the first reading, Ruth asks permission from Naomi to go and glean after a man.
Wonder why she asked permission? Later, Boaz tells her that he ordered his servants not to do her any harm. Why? were they going to harm her otherwise?
Then why did he even hire people like that if he was such a good man?
Now this:
“Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse”
–They are not trying to say that his grandma nursed him, are they?
“And the neighbor women gave him his name”
–It’s almost like he wasn’t Ruth’s son. It’s like he belonged to everyone.
Who among us would let the neighbors name our only child?

“Your children like olive plants”
–I wonder in what ways olive plants can be like children? Or children like olive plants?

“Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice”
–and what if the priests say different things from each other? I think we can go by
whatever the Pope says. If we can’t, I don’t know what we would do.
This also makes me think of the pro-life movement, which is near and dear to
many of us. Are we parading with the “march for life”? Are we saying all the
right things, just like the Pharisees, but not lifting a finger to help with burdens?
“Call no one on earth your father”
–even your father?
I wonder if this is why Jesus kept calling his mom “woman”?

Today, this one really got my attention:
“The greatest among you must be your servant”
wonder why He didn’t say if you want to be great you must be the servant of all?
He seems to imply with the way He worded it to assume
that the greatest among us is someone else, not ourselves. Someone who is
serving us. Isn’t it funny how the ones serving us are the last ones we think will
be the greatest among us? Why, we’re the important ones, the kind ones, who
are nice enough to give our business to certain places. But is this an upside-down
attitude?

Today is the day of the “Queenship of Mary” – The Queen of all saints! And the
most mysterious saint in my opinion…

“What Jesus means is that we are not to follow someone blindly…”
–*by *that do you mean following a human even if they contradict what Jesus
says in the bible? I betcha this is the way Protestants feel…

How does it feel when a protestant comes to you as an expert on Catholicism?
It’s scary…I don’t want to make any mistakes!