Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

The passage from Zechariah is an oracle of salvation, containing an idealized picture of an Israelite king and the peaceful kingdom over which he will rule. Though this is a vision of the future, the verbs are prophetic perfect, indicating that in God’s time the future is already present. The king is seated on the foal of an ass, a purebred animal born of a female ass rather than of a mule. While this may be a depiction of a victory march, it is devoid of military ostentation. Instead, the king proclaims peace to all nations. This king is the agent of God’s blessings to all people.

Paul contrasts two ways of living: life in the flesh and life in the spirit. For Paul, flesh is human nature in all of the limitations that sometimes incline one away from God; by spirit he means a life that is attuned to God. Paul argues that life in the flesh cannot please God, while life in the spirit is a form of union with God. Sin may still exact physical death, but it cannot quench the spirit that lives because of righteousness. Just as Christ conquered death and lives anew, so those joined to Christ will share in his victory and through the Spirit will enjoy new life.

Jesus describes the intimate relationship that he shares with God in terms that can only be considered a high Christology, an emphasizing of his divine rather than his human nature. He claims that only the Father can really know him, because only God has this kind of experiential knowledge of him. Correspondingly, only he can really know God, for only he has experiential knowledge of the Father. If anyone else knows the Father it is only because Jesus has revealed God to that person. In this sense, Jesus is the mediator of knowledge of God. If his hearers learn from him, they too will be blessed with the revelation of the Father.

Jan 12 2025

Burdens Borne by Love

I lie in bed half awake and half asleep, thinking about “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In this blurred mental state, scenes flash through my head.

The burden is light? Ponderous chords from the musical Les Misérables say not. Prisoners sweat in the sun. Their backs are hopelessly bent. How can the yoke be easy? Oppression and misery and pain; there is so much bondage in the world.

In the darkness behind my eyelids, my mind zooms to yesterday. I see my friend. I recall the hospital bed in her living room: a time she will never forget. Her husband died in that bed while they were saying the rosary.

I see a young mother and her six-month-old son. Rocking and feeding, playing and interacting—all day and all night, she is yoked to that boy. Babies are hard work.

So why are some yokes easier to bear? There was a deep love between my friend and her dying husband. There was warmth in my daughter-in-law’s eyes yesterday when she looked into the eyes of my grandson. We will do difficult things for love. Love makes the burden light.

Sin makes the burden heavy. We cannot act as though everything is not so bad after all. Oppression is wrong. Misery harms. Prisoners matter. We carry the burdens of others—not nameless faces in a movie, but the needy folks who surround us. Yet the joy of discipleship is that we do not carry that weight alone.

Now I am ready to wake up. The love of this world is strong. The burden of the world is heavy. This is a paradox bigger than I can shoulder. I get out of bed, grateful that this world has a Savior, and more grateful that it is not me.

Consider/Discuss

God is the one who wants to save us, to carry our burdens, to set us free. How do we resist that? How do we burden ourselves down?
The joy of love makes life lighter. Who has helped you to carry your cross?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you ask us to be childlike, to trust you to carry our burdens. Love has lifted us up. Sin has torn us down. You know that we have experienced both. Lord, give us the strength this day to do all that we can today for whomever you put in our path. We are willing to work hard to make a difference in this world, but you are going to have to carry it, for we cannot. Come, Savior of the world, come!

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

In this salvation oracle to the post-exilic community, the identity of the royal figure is unstated, but he fulfills the expectations of many prophets of the ideal Davidic king. Donkeys were regularly associated with royal figures in the ancient Near East and the fact that he arrives on a donkey rather than on a horse, with all the military connotations of that animal, suggests this “just savior” will be humble and peaceful. He ends warfare in both the former kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) and in Jerusalem. The mention of Israel, destroyed centuries before the oracle was probably uttered, points toward the divine will to bring all of God’s people, currently scattered around the world, back to the land.

Paul continues his exploration of how the death of Christ has released those in bondage to sin. He now introduces the idea of flesh versus spirit. Flesh refers to that aspect of the human person that opposes God, that remains under the thumb of sin and inclined toward it. For the baptized, this “flesh” constitutes the “old self,” which is opposed to the spirit, that aspect of the human person that is not under the reign of sin but under the reign of the Spirit of God in Christ. He reminds the Romans that those in whom the Spirit dwells are no longer under the bondage of sin and therefore are not “debtors to the flesh.”

Jesus has just proclaimed that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum will face judgment for not repenting after witnessing his mighty deeds; they have not recognized who Jesus is and what he is about. They represent “the wise and the learned,” whose sophistication prevents them from accepting Jesus and his message. Only the “little ones,” capable of “childlike” faith, are able to see that Jesus does the work of the Father and reveals him. Those willing to take on the yoke of discipleship will discover it to be a source of refreshment, not only because of the subject matter (God), but also because their teacher (who reveals God) is gentle and kind to those who wish to learn from him.

Dec 16 2024

The Joy of Evangelizing

From the beginning, spreading the word about the kingdom of God was at the top of Jesus’ priority list. He began his own ministry preaching that the kingdom of God was near, indeed, “at hand.” The good news of God’s presence in the world was the primary work given to his apostles when he sent them out. Later, as Luke records, Jesus sent out seventy-two others. And after he had risen, he commanded all disciples to do this until the end of time.

Jesus’ directives to the seventy-two are still practical: travel in twos, travel light, don’t dawdle, bring peace with you, don’t fuss over accommodations, eat and drink what is offered. Their work was to heal and preach. If there was no interest, move on. One might wonder whether more could have been accomplished if they had not been paired up, but anyone who goes out armed only with the gospel realizes how good it is to have companionship in this important work.

Pope Benedict XVI is calling for all Catholics to participate in a “new evangelization,” one marked by a new ardor, new methods, and new expressions. Consider ardor; it means having zeal, fire, passion. Ardor flows from joy. The Church’s joy as the new Jerusalem comes from knowing we are saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. By our baptism we are part of a new creation. Now is our time to witness to Christ, sharing our faith in Jesus, and knowing he is with us, as the head of his Body, the Church.

Consider/Discuss

Do you accept the calling to be one who witnesses to the gospel and participates in this mission of the Church?
Does your love for Jesus Christ enable you to talk about him and what he means to you, when the opportunity presents itself?

Responding to the Word

Loving Lord Jesus, you continue to ask us to go forth and bring word about the living God you taught us to call Father, the God who loves us as a mother who wishes to comfort us. Fill us with your Spirit, who gives us courage and commitment to the message of the gospel.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

Isaiah characterizes Jerusalem as a nursing mother, ready to give of herself, feeding her inhabitants from the fullness of her own body. She carries the people, fondles and comforts them. This same maternal metaphor then characterizes God. The metaphor of water is also employed to describe Jerusalem’s life-giving properties. This is a powerful image, since Israel was bounded on several sides by deserts or barren wilderness. On the day Jerusalem is transformed, the people will rejoice with their hearts and their bones. The power of God will shine forth from the restored city, and the people of God will rejoice.

Paul speaks of the death of Jesus and of his own suffering. Jesus died as a convicted felon, and Paul boasts in the sign of this death. The centrality of the cross has turned the world upside down. Joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul has struck a death blow to the world and its system of values, and that world is now dead to him. Faith in the power of the cross of Jesus, not circumcision, effects membership in the people of God. Thus women and men from every race and ethnic origin are welcome in this community.

Jesus uses two metaphors to represent the mission of his disciples: harvest, and lambs among wolves. Harvest suggests that the seventy-two have only to gather up the fruits of the work of others. Still, the field of ministry is threatening and the missionaries themselves are vulnerable as lambs. They are to trust in God and depend upon the hospitality of those to whom they go. The urgency of the time precludes usual social niceties. Peace! will suffice as an adequate greeting. The people will witness the power of God triumphant over the powers of evil. As important as are the wondrous deeds that they will be able to perform, more wondrous still will be the fact that their names will be inscribed in the heavenly book.