Wednesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

 

Luke 12:39-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Opening Prayer: Holy Spirit, enter into my heart and enlighten my conscience so that I can perceive your whispering voice.

Encountering Christ:

1. Trust: This parable displays a key fact about the essence of the Church: Jesus, the Master, has put the Church in charge of his household until the day of his return, and he expects us to be “faithful and prudent stewards.” While this is true in the first place for the pope and the bishops, to whom the leadership of the Church is entrusted, it casts light also on a fundamental truth of every Christian’s life: God trusts us. He trusts us to be faithful and prudent. We have the power to use our free will and direct our own lives as we wish, the power to shape the way we deal with each other, and the power to be stewards over nature as the home that he has created for us. How trustworthy are we?

    

2. Faithfulness: The parable speaks of those who “knew the master’s will.” In order to respond faithfully to God’s trust, it is imperative that we know God’s will. To know God’s will is not always easy; in fact, Jesus emphasizes that there can be cases in which we are simply ignorant of what God wants from us. It is clear that, in such a situation, mistakes are far more forgivable. However, it is equally evident that true responsibility requires the genuine attempt to always discern what God’s will is. The Catholic spiritual teaching calls this “the formation of one’s conscience” (cf. CCC 1783-1785). Prayer, spiritual reading, and regular spiritual direction can help us to form our consciences according to God’s will.

    

3. Responsibility: Because God trusts us with so much, we have great responsibility. Within the word “responsibility” can be found the word “response.” Today’s parable is an unmistakable reminder to whom we will have to respond regarding the exercise of our power as individuals, as humanity, and as his Church. How do we respond daily to Our Lord’s invitation to live according to his will, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to be good stewards of all the gifts he has given to us?

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, thank you for your enormous trust in me. Help me to recognize your will better and better, and give me the strength to joyfully and responsibly fulfill my mission as a faithful and prudent steward.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will examine my conscience and look for a small thing which you would like me to correct in my daily life.

For Further Reflection: Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1783 and #1785

“Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. the education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.”

“In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,⁵⁴ we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord’s Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.”

Father Gabriel von Wendt, LC, is a priest who works as a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He has a passion for philosophy and the role of Catholic faith in contemporary culture. He is a co-founding member of the Catholic Worldview Fellowship, a study-abroad program for talented college students who want to evangelize culture.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

 

Luke 12:35-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”

Opening Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, come! Be with me as I ponder these words of Scripture seeking wisdom for my day.

Encountering Christ:

1. The Last Things: Maybe you are wondering about—or even growing tired of—the recurring theme of these days’ Gospels: the end of life, the end of time, the end of the world. The reason for this emphasis is that the yearly liturgical cycle is approaching its end, and this final stretch is dedicated precisely to the “last things.” In a few weeks, the liturgical year will culminate in the feast of Christ the King before commencing the new year with Advent. Let’s take these last days of the Church year to dive deeply into the themes of death, judgment, heaven, and hell, with the assurance that our contemplation of these realities will help us to grow in holiness.

    

2. Ready and Waiting: How ready are we to meet the Master? As the days grow shorter and the light becomes dimmer, we observe that nature has reached the wise and fragile age of an old man. Is one not reminded that all the intense vigor of existence, all the fresh beauty of youth, all the accomplishments of life are fleeting? We can appreciate that this time of year helps to put us in the proper frame of mind to anticipate eternity. We are asked in this Gospel to be ready to meet Jesus face-to-face at any moment. If we’re vigilant, we can expect the Master’s blessing! What will that look like?

    

3. The Master Waits on Us: Our Lord became man: Jesus lived among us, suffered, died and was buried, and rose from the dead, all for our benefit. That’s how much he loves us. But it seems more than incredible to imagine that Jesus would want to wait on us one day at the heavenly banquet. Yet he tells us so in this parable. What love! What humility! Truly, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). Contemplating a love so incomprehensible should inspire us to drop the sparkly trinkets we sometimes cling to in this life and run to his waiting arms.

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, my heart is yours, and I will prepare for your visit: be it during my next holy Communion, be it at the end of my days, be it by means of your continuous visits throughout each day when you simply look out for my well-being. You are always welcome and expected here!

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will take a moment to meditate on the fact that earthly life is but the prelude before the reality of eternal life.

For Further Reflection: “Man needs eternity for every other hope is too brief, too limited for him. Man can be explained only if there is a Love which overcomes every isolation, even that of death, in a totality which also transcends time and space. Man can be explained, he finds his deepest meaning, only if there is God. And we know that God left his distance for us and made himself close. He entered into our life and tells us: ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die’” (Jn 11:25-26) (Pope Benedict XVI during General Audience on November 2, 2011).

Father Gabriel von Wendt, LC, is a priest who works as a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He has a passion for philosophy and the role of Catholic faith in contemporary culture. He is a co-founding member of the Catholic Worldview Fellowship, a study-abroad program for talented college students who want to evangelize culture.

Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

 

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Opening Prayer: Holy Spirit, take away from me now everything that distracts me from praying. I am here, and I am yours.

Encountering Christ:

1. The Desire to Possess Things: When a person faces a good of any kind—an object, a value, another person—they not only experience the desire to enjoy it, but to possess it. It seems that this is related to the human capacity for reaching out beyond the present moment into the future. I call that projection. We understand ourselves not simply in the light of what is, but, at least as much, in the light of what will be. That is why people build barns: to guarantee that they will be able to rejoice in their goods in the future. The Gospel prompts us to reflect about our tendency to look ahead. Quite compellingly, Jesus points out that our future is really not as much in our control as we like to believe it is. I don’t think he wants us to be indifferent about the future. On the contrary, the capacity to project is crucial when it comes to living our lives and becoming who we are called to be. But, on the other hand, we have to check our urge to indiscriminately grab and store up the goods put before us. What barns have I built for the future, and what kinds of things am I storing there?

    

2. The Temptation to Greed: God often presents us with goods that he wants us to share, invest, or even give up. Putting everything into a dark barn may feel safe for the moment, but it’s only appropriate if that’s what God has intended for us to do with it. We have to be discerning regarding our drive for possession. What feels “right” can be deceiving, and can turn into greed, compromising the goods that we were hoping to protect. We’re called to recognize that everything we have comes from God, and that we are merely stewards of these gifts. “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pet 4:10).

    

3. Life Does Not Consist of Possessions: We can all sometimes fall prey to the desire to measure our self-worth by our possessions. In our culture, we often idolize those with great wealth. Wealthy people seem to have it all. But Christ warns us in the Gospel to reject this assumption. Life does not consist of possessions. What matters is how well we love. As Mother Teresa told us, “There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love” (A Simple Path). Our ultimate success will be measured by the love we share with others. “If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:3).

Conversing with Christ: Jesus, my life is filled with goods. Above all, I want to thank you for this “bountiful harvest.” I realize that many of these gifts are fundamental for my life, and I also acknowledge that none of them is guaranteed to last. In fact, what of it will last for eternity, Lord? My heart relishes the goods that make me happy. My nature urges me to continue to provide for that happiness. And yet I know nothing can guarantee it but you. I beg you, yes, I beg you, Lord: Fill me with the theological virtue of hope, so that I really rely completely on you when it comes to the future. I hope in you, and that means you alone are what I want to hold on to. I want to fill the barns of my heart with your goods alone.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will look over my possessions and ask: “Among everything that I have received, what is the most precious in the light of eternity?”

For Further Reflection: “Romano Guardini relates in his autobiography how, at a critical moment on his journey, when the faith of his childhood was shaken, the fundamental decision of his entire life—his conversion—came to him through an encounter with the saying of Jesus that only the one who loses himself finds himself (cf. Mk 8:34ff.; Jn 12:25); without self-surrender, without self-loss, there can be no self-discovery or self-realization. But then the question arose: to what extent it is proper to lose myself? To whom can I give myself? It became clear to him that we can surrender ourselves completely only if by doing so we fall into the hands of God. Only in him, in the end, can we lose ourselves and only in him can we find ourselves. […] It is all summed up in the prayer of Saint Ignatius of Loyola—a prayer which always seems to me so overwhelming that I am almost afraid to say it, yet one which, for all its difficulty, we should always repeat: ‘Take O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All that I have and all that I possess you have given me: I surrender it all to you; it is all yours, dispose of it according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more’” (Pope Benedict XVI during vespers on September 8, 2007).

Father Gabriel von Wendt, LC, is a priest who works as a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He has a passion for philosophy and the role of Catholic faith in contemporary culture. He is a co-founding member of the Catholic Worldview Fellowship, a study-abroad program for talented college students who want to evangelize culture.

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Matthew 22:15-21

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Opening Prayer: Holy Spirit, visit my soul in this moment of prayer. Widen my heart and sharpen my mind so that I can find what you have prepared for me.

Encountering Christ:

1. What “Belongs to God?”: The Pharisees, we’re told, were trying to trap Jesus with this question about paying taxes. In general, their opposition to Our Lord was mounting. Jesus did not humiliate them with his answer. He simply invited them to give to God what belongs to God. The last line of this anecdote, which was not included in today’s reading, tells us, “When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away” (Mt 22:22). Were they amazed because they wondered what belongs to God? We can ask the same question today, “What belongs to God?” Specific things belong to God for what they are: Sundays, for example; or an object consecrated for sacred use only; or things that are owed to God by pure justice, like gratitude, praise, obedience, etc. There are also things that belong to God because we freely choose to give them to him, like our time, our energies, and our sacrifices.

    

2. Things I Want to Give to God: Let’s stop here for a moment and consider and specify what kinds of things we have chosen to give to God. To make a free gift not rooted in justice or duty is an act of generosity and love. If you have given some of your belongings to God, call them to mind now. Talk to Jesus about it. Maybe you have given your talent to Jesus. Once more, reaffirm that gift. Or have you contributed your time? Conversely, are there things you have given over to God that you keep retracting? Look at these also, ponder them, and talk to Jesus about it. Ask for the grace to once again place them in Jesus’ loving, open hands.

    

3. More Than Generosity: Loving God by giving to him our thoughts, words, actions, time, talents, and sufferings is an act more beautiful than we realize. It might feel like mere renunciation. But when we bring those treasures into the light of God, he lets them shine and sparkle. Handing them to God makes them even more precious. Hence, giving God what belongs to him warrants a celebration, because we don’t lose out; rather, we receive it back in greater splendor, even a hundredfold. As Jesus told St. Catherine of Siena,“… here they receive the fire of divine charity figured by the number of a hundred… And because they have received this hundredfold from Me, they possess a wonderful and hearty joy, for there is no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the heart large and generous, not narrow or double” (Dialogue of St. Catherine).

Conversing with Christ: Lord, I recognize that everything I have you have given me. Giving over what belongs to you means that you ask me to deeply acknowledge this fact. When I’m tempted to covet something—anything—remind me, Lord, of this truth. “My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you” (St. Nicholas of Flüe).

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will consciously give of my time, talent, or treasure in a particular moment or situation.

For Further Reflection: “And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ—and you will find true life. Amen” (Homily of Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, April 24, 2005, during the Mass for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome).

Father Gabriel von Wendt, LC, is a priest who works as a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He has a passion for philosophy and the role of Catholic faith in contemporary culture. He is a co-founding member of the Catholic Worldview Fellowship, a study-abroad program for talented college students who want to evangelize culture.