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The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Seasoned Christians have heard the expression “kingdom of God” time and time again whether it has been preached from the pulpit, listened to from Scripture read within the Church’s liturgy, or through personal reading of the Bible. This phrase may recede into the background of one’s mind without ever finding a truly adequate understanding.

In today’s Gospel, St. Matthew records Jesus’ parables on “the Kingdom.” In his famous book titled “The City of God,” St. Augustine identifies the Kingdom from today’s Gospel with the Catholic Church: “The Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven” (Book 20, Ch. 9). This great saint explains how Jesus’ parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 speak of the kingdom of God in two ways.

The first way is that of the kingdom militant, which is the pilgrim Church on earth, wherein the weeds and the wheat grow alongside one another (see Mt 13:24-30). The second is when we arrive at the “close of the age” when the Son of Man (Jesus) will “send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers” and “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father” (Mt 12:40.43). The kingdom is presently still in seed form.

Pope Benedict XVI, an erudite Scripture scholar, wrote in his book “Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism”: “Early Catholic exegesis often almost completely identified the kingdom of God and the Church, which it liked to describe as the ‘kingdom of God on earth’” (p. 47).

Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church) wrote: “God indeed even made the Church a society far more perfect than any other …for this reason we find it called in Holy Writ by names indicating a perfect society … It is spoken of as the House of God, the city placed upon the mountain to which all nations must come. But it is also the fold presided over by one Shepherd, and into which all Christ’s sheep must betake themselves. Yea, it is called the kingdom, which God has raised up and which will stand for ever” (#10).

And what makes the Church a kingdom? Well, a kingdom is only one insofar as it has a king as its head, and the invisible head of the Church is none other than our priestly king: Jesus! Our queen is Mary. We are constituted as a monarchy with decision-making power delegated from the top down. The laity are invested with true royal power from their baptism, to share in Christ’s reign by dominating sin and extending his rule through lives of authentic joyful holiness. The prime minister of the king is the pope, who succeeds in office St. Peter. Let us now go forth and build up the kingdom by extending the reign of our heavenly king.

The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

This Sunday’s Gospel is well known as “The Parable of the Sower” (Matthew 13:1-23), and when we’ve heard it for the tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth time, we may think that we know all there is to know about this one particular parable. Yet, the Gospels contain a depth that we often miss because of our own ignorance, and when that depth is uncovered, a fresh new reading of the Gospel blows our preconceived notions away.

In the middle of telling this parable, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, and that simple quotation is Jesus’ way of saying, “Hey guys! This parable I’m telling… Well, it has to do with what Isaiah prophesies about.” Jesus, Paul, and other New Testament figures quote the Old Testament with strategic purpose.

Isaiah prophesied about the end of Israel’s exile and the coming of the Messiah who would put an end to that exile by re-gathering Israel under his rule. Chapter 6 of Isaiah has the Prophet envisioning Israel being cut down like a tree due to divine judgment, punishment due to Israel for its repeated idolatry. That tree stump is then burnt! Yet, the stump acts as a kind of “holy seed” (verse 13), from which a shoot sprouts: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1).

This shoot is none other than the awaited Messiah who comes from Jesse’s loins. Matthew has already given Jesus’ genealogy back at the beginning of his Gospel, to show how Jesus descends from King David, the son of Jesse (see Matthew 1:5-6).

Our first reading is taken from the Prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Go back and read these verses in their original context. This is a poetic description of Israel’s return from exile! The image of sowing and reaping is also found in the Book of Psalms at the very point where it celebrates the return of Israel from exile (e.g. Psalm 126).

So, today’s Gospel is much more than a comment on how many hear the Word of God and fail to respond to it appropriately. It’s about the very person and mission of Jesus Christ himself. He is the long-awaited one, which Isaiah foresaw and spoke of centuries past. He is Israel’s hope, the Messiah who redeems his people by his salvific suffering (see Isaiah 53) and gathers the redeemed into the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic family we know of today as the Church. Jesus is the incarnate Word of God who fulfills the divine will.

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

The Prophet Zechariah says in today’s liturgy: “Rejoice heartily … See, your king shall come to you, a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt.” (Zech 9:9) He depicts the future restoration of Jerusalem under the Messiah: Israel’s king.

In saying so, Zechariah tells us that the Messiah will come not as a conquering warrior but in lowliness, in meekness, in peace. This is unlike the previous kings of Israel who rode in chariots and on horses. In fact, Matthew saw a literal fulfillment of his prophecy when Jesus entered Jerusalem (Cf. Matthew 21:1-5).

So what’s the point? The point is paramount! In Jesus’ day, the Jews were expecting for the coming Messiah to be a political warrior, a mighty king, who would overthrow the Romans with might and sword, allowing Israel to become a worldly, political kingdom as of old when Solomon sat upon the throne.

Not so, says Zechariah. For, the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel will be significantly different.

Jesus alludes to Zechariah’s description of “meek” in today’s Gospel as he describes himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). To be meek means to be (1) patient and (2) long-suffering.

Today’s psalm depicts this theme: “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature … The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down” (Psalm 145).

Jesus is humility incarnate; quite a distance from the proud and arrogant rulers of this world. The countenance of God is manifested wholly and entirely in the person of Jesus. When we look at Jesus, we see the very nature of God himself: divine mercy. His rule is extended, not in might and force, but in humble submission to the will of the Father, loving to the point of pouring out one’s own life upon the bloodied cross, in the face of scorn and ridicule.

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul minces no words. He clearly outlines the responsibility of the Christian to pursue holiness: “If you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom 8:13).

The Christian life is simple. It consists in becoming other Christs. That is, we allow the Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit, the very life of Jesus Christ – to change our very selves. We cast off the old self, the mightily proud nature, and we clothe ourselves with the humility of long-suffering, of patience, of virtuous love to the point of abandonment of self for the sake of the other. This is Jesus’ path. This is the Christian program of life.

The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

We are familiar with many stories from the Old and New Testaments such as Jonah and the whale, Moses splitting the Red Sea, God giving his Law at Mt. Sinai, Peter walking on water, the multiplication of the loaves, et cetera. Yet, how many of us are familiar with the other multiple and yet nourishing stories in Scripture such as the one given to us in today’s first reading taken from the OT? The Catechism says, “The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus by frequent reading of the divine Scripture” (#33).

Taken from 2 Kings 4:8-16, this passage tells of the Shunnamite woman who welcomed the prophet Elisha {eh-LISH-uh} with warm hospitality. In Hebrew, his name means: “My God is salvation.” Eventually, her reward was the generosity of God through the gift of a son. If we heard only what is said in the liturgy today, we wouldn’t get the second half of the story. This is where our personal reading of the Bible can go a long way and give us further insight.

Eventually, this same son unexpectedly died in his mother’s lap (2 Kgs 4:20) after a mysterious headache. His mother then sought out Elisha at Mount Carmel who then traveled with her back to her house to miraculously bring life back to the boy. Right after this healing, Elisha multiplies loaves of bread (vs. 42-44).

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. He is the New Adam, the New David, the New Joshua, the New Moses, and yes, even the New Elisha. Like Elisha, Jesus raised the dead to life by raising Jairus’ daughter (Mt 9:18-26) and multiplying the 5 loaves and 2 fish (Mt 14:13-21).

Eventually, Jesus would suffer, die, resurrect, and then ascend into heaven and continue his work through the ministry of his Apostles whom he sends out (In Greek, apostolos means “one who is sent”) as well as through the bishops who succeed the Apostles. When Jesus was preparing the Apostles through his instruction, he says in today’s Gospel, “Whoever receives you, receives me” and “Whoever receives a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt 10:40-41), alluding to the story of Elisha and the Shunnamite woman.

When we welcome the words of the Apostles and the instruction of their successors, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, we act like the Shunnamite woman and grant hospitality not just to men, but to Jesus himself. Our reward is that of new life, as was the case of the boy born to the Shunnamite woman. Truly, the Church proclaims the word of God in our own day. Shall we welcome it with great hospitality, or will we disregard it, closing the way to our reward? Jesus wishes to make our joy complete, if only we receive his word with humility and allow it to transform our lives.

The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

In the first reading, we listen to the Prophet Jeremiah, who was given the task by God to bring about moral reform among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. At one point, idolatry became widespread among his peers and he strongly denounced this immorality, constantly calling his kinsmen back to worship of the one true God. Arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace were Jeremiah’s lot as he carried out his prophetic vocation.

However, Jeremiah continued to proclaim the message he was given: that the nation’s lack of conversion would seal its own doom and Jerusalem would ultimately be destroyed by the foreign power of the Babylonians. Ultimately, Jeremiah’s predictions were vindicated as the king of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) captured Jerusalem and sent its citizens into exile, and even destroyed the entire city along with the Temple!

This background information helps put this seemingly puzzling first reading into context. The theme? God is faithful and will vindicate the righteous. We are called to be patient in God’s promises, expressing and living out the virtue of long-suffering as we follow what we know to be right, even if the world scoffs at us and considers our way of life backward and archaic.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks for his disciples to have great courage in the face of impending persecution. “Therefore, do not be afraid of them” (Mt 10:26) is our Lord’s exhortation. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body … rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (v. 28). Here, our Lord reveals our true enemy: Satan. Do you fear bodily death? Have no fear, for we all will die bodily one day! Rather, fear the eternal pains of hellfire and resist what is even more deadly: mortal sin!

In the second reading, like that of Jeremiah, St. Paul implicitly convicts his Jewish brethren of their own sinfulness. This isn’t evident on the surface, but is discernible if one analyzes what Paul says carefully.

Paul writes: “Sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of Adam’s sin” (Romans 5:13-14). The pattern of Adam’s sin is that Adam sinned once God’s law was revealed to Adam. Israel had sinned in the same way as Adam. God delivered his law to Israel – as was the case with Adam – and then Israel sinned in knowledge of the law.

Much of Romans consists of Paul convincing his Jewish brethren of their own transgression of God’s law and need of salvation, of repentance. Paul’s words mirror the Book of Jeremiah. Will we repent of our sin, or will we be destroyed by the death of sin? This is the question we must answer with every day of our lives.

On June 12, 2008, John Iannone was interviewed on Catholic Answers LIVE radio. He is the author of The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence (Alba House, 1998), a book that examines the famous “Shroud of Turin,” which some claim to be the actual ancient burial cloth of Jesus. In this interview, Iannone discusses the remarkable, unexplainable, and mysterious qualities scientists have discovered in their multiple examinations of the Shroud. Is the Shroud a medieval hoax - a unique forgery - or might it possibly be the actual cloth that enshrouded Jesus when he was buried in the garden tomb nearly two-thousand years ago? You’ll be fascinated by what you discover in this unique episode of Catholic Answers LIVE!

Examining the Shroud of Turin

On April 4, 2008, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer (EYE-ten-our) was interviewed on Catholic Answers LIVE radio to discuss the reality of Satan, his demons, demonic oppression, obsession, and possession. Fr. Euteneuer is an exorcist and brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to the table in this incredibly fascinating and educational radio hour. In this episode of Catholic Answers LIVE, you will learn the difference between deliverance and exorcism and the reality of the occult as well as the Church’s very important ministry of delivering people from the devil’s influence. Fr. Euteneuer is also the president of Human Life International, the world’s largest pro-life organization.

Exorcism and the Church Militant

The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

After we get through the first book of the Bible, we have encountered different events such as the Act of Creation, the Fall of Mankind into Sin, and the effort made by God to gather to himself a people that would bring his holiness and truth to the rest of mankind.

Today’s first reading is taken from the second book of the Bible: Exodus. Israel has just been rescued from its slavery to the Egyptians by being led across the Red Sea, as it was miraculously parted. And now, Israel has been led to a place named Mt. Sinai (a.k.a. Mt. Horeb) where God made a covenant with Israel through the covenant mediator of Moses.

God had determined Israel’s vocation to be “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). This covenant required Israel to rule through priestly sacrifice. By the selfless witness of Israel, the rest of fallen humanity was to be reconciled to God. But Israel failed soon enough. Then, they failed again… and again!

Ultimately, Israel would fail in its vocation: to rule through priestly sacrifice. God was setting Israel and the rest of humanity up for what he was going to ultimately accomplish. Through the saving work of his Son, Jesus Christ, God himself would become the perfect Israelite and fulfill Israel’s vocation himself.

In the second reading, St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “while we were sinners Christ died for us” (5:8). In the person of Jesus, God became the priest and ruled through priestly sacrifice. The result of this sacrifice is reconciliation with God for the whole world, precisely what Israel was called to be from the beginning!

So what about us, the followers of Jesus Christ? You would think that since Jesus took on Israel’s vocation and fulfilled it as a Priest-King, all we would have to do is simply accept this work of his and merely stand back as recipients of this salvific work.

But no! The redeemed, the Church, those who have had this reconciliation applied to their lives, are an extension of the Incarnation. The Catholic Church is a communion, (Latin: communio) of saved humanity that is to serve as the instrument whereby this once-for-all work of Jesus is extended and made real in the flesh of those who take on his life through Holy Baptism.

The Church is both kingly and priestly because it is Christ’s Mystical Body. Christ’s once-for-all work of redemption is made present through the priestly self-sacrificial rule of his Mystical Body: the Catholic Church. By uniting our prayers, our suffering, our acts of charity, to the redemption of Christ made present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the redemption is spread to the rest of the world, to all the nations, and the Church finds her increase, her growth.

The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Today’s first reading, taken from the Old Testament, is a prophecy against the divided Kingdom of Israel and the empty piety popular among the Israelites. The prophet Hosea compares this piety to the morning dew that passes away in the heat of the afternoon.

The Church selected this passage from Hosea 6:3-6 to give us a sort of identity check. Is our piety like that of the Israelites? Is it simply a morning prayer or limited to our attendance at Sunday Mass? Is our devotion to God driven by the inner force of a faith that loves God above all things, including even what we drive and the clothes we wear? Or, are we simply Christians on the surface, waiting to get out of the Sunday liturgy so we can be the first in line at the local popular restaurant?

The psalm that follows rebukes those Israelites whose worship lacks personal faithfulness, yet is full of animal sacrifice. God says, “Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer praise as your sacrifice to God; fulfill your vows to the Most High. Then call on me in time of distress; I will rescue you, and you shall honor me” (Ps 50:13-15). Ritual presupposes faith.

We are then presented with two Biblical role models of heroic faith. The second reading recounts what St. Paul wrote to the Catholic Church in Rome (Romans 4:18-25) where he presents the awesome faith of Abraham who “believed, hoping against hope … he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God.”

The Gospel written by St. Matthew in Matthew 9:9-13 recounts his own conversion as a mini-biography. Matthew simply “got up and followed” Jesus, a complete act of self-surrender and faithfulness to the Lord who simply said, “Follow me.”

The Catholic idea of faith is best described as how a child trusts and relates to his father. Dad provides; he protects; his arms provide a resting place of comfort. An infant’s dependence upon its father is total. There’s an innate, natural confident reliance and surrender. This concept comes from the lips of Jesus, who is the total, complete self-revelation of God the Father.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say:

Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives. 10,000 difficulties do not make one doubt.(#157)

For the very reason that our Heavenly Father is all good, all loving, all true, and all holy, we know with complete certainty that whatever he says or asks of us is absolutely trustworthy. Our Catholic Faith rests upon a foundation more solid than a rock.

The Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

We’ve all heard of the Old and New Testaments, but what does the word “testament” mean? It comes from the Latin word testamentum, which is the Latin term for “covenant.” So, what we really mean is the Old and New Covenants. This is important because it helps to shed light on today’s lectionary readings taken from Deuteronomy 11, Psalm 31, Romans 3, & Matthew 7.

In the first reading, Moses says, “I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on your today; a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God” (Dt 11:26-28). A covenant always has terms by which to keep the covenant. If one keeps the covenant, he is blessed by God. If he should fail, he receives the covenant curses or judgments. The terms of this Old Covenant are what we call the “Mosaic Law” because this law was given by God to Israel through the mediator of Moses.

The problem with the Old Covenant is that Israel fell into idolatry over and over again, which brought Israel under the curses of the covenant, which are given in great detail in the Book of Deuteronomy. So, Israel had to be delivered from the Old Covenant altogether. In the second reading, St. Paul exclaims God’s mercy:

“All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom 3:23-25).

Here, St. Paul is responding to the Jew who believes he is righteous before God because he’s an ethnic Jew and has the Mosaic Law. This paragraph is a part of a much larger argument, wherein St. Paul shows how the Jew is actually much more culpable (guilty) than the Gentile (a non-Jew) because he has been given the Law, yet he sins against it. This places the Jew in a conundrum. He’s subject to the covenant curses and needs a redeemer, a deliverer… a savior.

In baptism, the Jew dies with Christ and therefore is delivered from the Old Covenant. He rises to new life as baptism brings the Jew into the New Covenant (See Romans 7:1-6). This doesn’t leave the Gentile in the clear, however, because the Gentile has the moral law of God written on his heart, and when he sins against his conscience, he too is guilty and in need of Jesus.

In the Gospel, Jesus emphasizes the importance of faithfulness, which is the way one keeps covenant with God in the New Covenant. If one is unfaithful he will receive the covenant curse of eternal hell (See Matthew 7:21-27). Faithfulness is required of us by the New Covenant, and if we respond faithfully to God’s initiative, his grace, the blessing of heaven awaits us.