So let's talk about today's readings 9/9/09

[cheeto1]

September 9, 2009

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Reading 1
Col 3:1-11

Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.
But now you must put them all away:
anger, fury, malice, slander,
and obscene language out of your mouths.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:2-3, 10-11, 12-13ab

R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

Gospel
Lk 6:20-26

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets
in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

 

[cheeto1]

“Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!”

“But now you must put them all away:
anger, fury, malice, slander,
and obscene language out of your mouths.
Stop lying to one another…”

–Now how do I say this? Is there a time when you can rejoice that you are
hated on account of the Son of Man, when really you are hated for
“anger, fury, malice, slander,
and obscene language out of your mouths” ??
Some Christians can get pretty mad at those who disagree…

Today is the day of St. Peter Claver, who ministered to slaves in Columbia.

So what struck you about today’s readings? :bible1::twocents:

 

[Beachcomber]

The Beatitudes seem to be impossible to live up to. No one can be happy when they are misjudged, insulted, whatever. On one level, I think the Beatitudes are goals for us all to work toward in our own road to spiritual maturity.

On another level, the Beatitudes are apocalyptic. They give a glimpse of what the kingdom of God will be. As Paul said, once through the glass darkly, then you will see face to face–in eternity, we will see everything clearly and understand. That is when you will be able to really echo the Beatitudes and rejoice.

 

[Crumpy]

And what great readings they are. Thanks for bringing these up for discussion.

First, Marcus Grodi of EWTN gave an exposition of the Beatitudes at the “Family Celebration” in 2008 which was held at or near Northern Illinois University. I used to work in that vicinity and I’m surprised that the conference was there.

Grodi gave a great exposition of how one progresses up the ladder of the beatitudes, and, from what my poor memory recalls, he shows how one pre-disposes for the next.

I see today’s reading was from Luke, so 1) it seems to be shorter than Matthew and 2) it has the “woes” appended to them.

I tried to get a copy of Grodi’s talk but EWTN catalogue never responded. He explained them in a way that blew them open for me. I also tried to get something about this from chnetwork.org but they didn’t reply.

Hmmm.

For years, I’ve seen priests fumble with the very first beatitude, about what “poor in spirit” means. One priest said that it meant to be “poor in every way” – whatever THAT meant. The best I think I heard about it is, that being poor in spirit means that we commit ourselves to relying on God alone, as much as possible. We are foresaking our attachment, desire, inclination, tendency, addiction, obsession, etc. with “this world” and redirecting all that to God.

It is not just a saying or summary, but perhaps just one expression to put it this way: We develop a poverty towards the world and seize the riches of a relationship with God.

It reminds us so much of the first commandment, to have no other gods. It reminds us of the Shema “Hear O Israel the Lord is our God the Lord alone” (Deut 6:4ff). "You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, [and as Jesus later added “with all your mind”], and all your strength.

Jewish commentaries point out that this list proceeds from the easiest to progressively deeper levels of commitment, where “strength” refers to all our resources, including our wealth. Oh, and loving God with our soul is said to refer to even losing our life to defend our beliefs.

IOW, it’s easy to say we love God, but it’s a lot more serious and takes more commitment to put our money where our mouths are. It takes a lot of commitment to empty our mind of distractions and attachments and attach ourselves to God alone.

Certainly, Jesus is the fulfilment of the Shema (“hear”) of the Old Testament.

Recitation of the Shema by the Jews twice a day [is certainly not vain repetition, to begin with] and what it does do or is supposed to do is to reinforce our acceptance of the yoke of the gospel, of the covenant with God through Jesus Christ. It is the “pledge of allegiance” to that yoke and to that covenant.

A covenant is an agreement (like marriage) where the parties to the covenant give themselves to each other.

It is the thing that we should want to do and to be, 24/7 as we moderns would say.

 

[cheeto1]

On one level, I think the Beatitudes are goals for us all to work toward in our own road to spiritual maturity.

I didn’t recognize them as something to live up to, but the revealing of a secret.
If you are “poor in spirit”, to me it means discouraged or even sad. These are
the last people who feel lucky or blessed, but if you are sad, God can cheer you up.
If you are hungry God can feed you. It is good to be in need, because then you
can watch God working.

In Luke 1:53, Mary describes this perfectly:
“The hungry He has given every good thing, while the rich He has sent empty away”

Hasn’t anyone else noticed this principle working in your life?

 

[cheeto1]

…the Shema “Hear O Israel the Lord is our God the Lord alone” (Deut 6:4ff). "You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, [and as Jesus later added “with all your mind”], and all your strength.

I love this, and I didn’t know Jesus added that part. Now it’s going to stay on my
mind…

 

[Crumpy]

I love this, and I didn’t know Jesus added that part. Now it’s going to stay on my
mind…

There are a couple versions in the gospels, here’s mt’s

The Greatest Commandment.
22:34 * When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,
22:35 and one of them (a scholar of the law) * tested him by asking,
22:36 “Teacher, * which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
22:37 He said to him, * “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
22:38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.
22:39 The second is like it: * You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
22:40 * The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

and Mark

12:29 Jesus replied, “The first is this: **‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
12:30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’**12:31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”