Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
CLOUD-PIERCING PRAYER-POWER
“The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds.” —Sirach 35:17
Are you in a fog? Is your mind cloudy and confused? Do you feel as if there’s heavy cloud-cover when you pray? Even if you are praying in the clouds, you can pierce the clouds, come out of the fog, and come into the light when you:
- serve God (Sir 35:16). Rejoice to be a slave of Jesus (Col 3:24) — to do His will, not yours.
- serve God willingly (Sir 35:16). Go beyond Sunday obligation and a minimalist, mediocre Christianity. “Everyone must give according to what he has inwardly decided; not sadly, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
- become lowly (Sir 35:17). Repent of pharisaic arrogance (Lk 18:11), beat your breast, and pray: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Lk 18:13).
The lowly, willing servant of God has a love for God and a faith in Him that can shake and transform the world. The prayer of a servant of God “is powerful indeed” (Jas 5:16). Decide to become a lowly, willing servant of God. Pray with Mary: “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38).
Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
WORLD WORD-WAR
“As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,
Israel had the better of the fight.” —Exodus 17:11
We are in a war against demons (Eph 6:12). As the Church, we are attacking the gates of hell which cannot prevail against us (Mt 16:18). By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are claiming Jesus’ victory over Satan and applying it to our lives and our world.
Our sword is the Spirit using God’s Word (Eph 6:17) and helping us to pray in our weakness (Rm 8:26). Therefore, “preach the word, [staying] with this task whether convenient or inconvenient” (2 Tm 4:2). Also, accompany the proclamation of God’s Word by praying as Moses did (Ex 17:11-13). “At every opportunity pray in the Spirit, using prayers and petitions of every sort. Pray constantly and attentively for all in the holy company” (Eph 6:18). Pray with and for the ministry of God’s Word. “Pray for us that the word of the Lord may make progress and be hailed by many others, even as it has been by you” (2 Thes 3:1). Pray “that God may put His word” on our lips that we “may have courage to proclaim it as” we ought (Eph 6:19, 20).
On this World Mission Sunday, fight in the power of the Spirit the world war of words — words of witnessing, preaching, teaching, and praying.
Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Woe to the complacent!”
A lifestyle focused on comfort, entertainment, and enjoyment leads to complacency, that is, a selfishness because of which we don’t care that much about other people’s lives and salvation (see Am 6:4-6).
Complacency is only one of the side effects of a pleasure-seeking lifestyle. A self-centered lifestyle gradually causes a spiritual blindness and deafness through which we become so hardened that even someone risen from the dead would not be able to touch our hearts (Lk 16:31).
Because we naturally want a lifestyle that is as comfortable as possible, we are doomed to be complacent and hardhearted unless we receive a new nature (see Jn 3:3) and live in that new nature.
The Holy Spirit is our Hope, for He will strongly oppose the desires of our flesh, that is, our fallen, selfish nature (Gal 5:17). Through His Word, the Holy Spirit will crucify our “flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24) and give us a new nature and a new birth (Jn 3:5; see also 1 Pt 1:23). The Holy Spirit gives the possibility and the power of living the Christian life and being freed from the death and damnation of our self-centered lifestyle. Come, Holy Spirit!
Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The parable of the dishonest steward, with which the reading begins, is perhaps the most difficult of all the parables of Jesus. How could Jesus suggest to us as an example a man who is clearly dishonest? The answer to this question comes in verse 8, at the conclusion of the parable, when the steward’s master praises him ‘for his astuteness’. We are not called to imitate the man’s dishonesty, demonstrated both before and after his dismissal, but his shrewdness. The steward quickly grasps how desperate his situation is and immediately seeks a solution. Jesus challenges us to do the same.