Author: admin

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Gospel: Luke 11: 42-46

The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.  
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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In the Old Testament, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which the Israelites were invited to follow as a sign of their covenantal relationship. Examples ranged from keeping the Sabbath holy to honoring one’s mother and father.

As time passed, the religious authorities meticulously interpreted how these commandments should be followed, lest a person sin. 

As a result, the list of commandments ballooned from 10 to over 600! Keeping every single one of them became tedious, expensive, and frankly, exhausting.

This is not the point of religion.

Our relationship with God is meant to be life-giving, not oppressive and burdensome, which is why Jesus is so critical of the scribes and Pharisees, who essentially hijacked their religion. 

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“Woe to you!” he says. “You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” 

Just as a person was rendered ritually impure after touching a grave – and therefore unable to worship God for seven days – interacting with these religious authorities left a person spiritually dead.

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Perhaps this leaves us something to ponder: How are we different from the scribes and Pharisees? In what ways does this faith community lead others towards – not away from – God?

And elsewhere – in our families, in the workplace, in our social circles – how do we make God known in gentle, merciful ways?

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This is the role of a Christian: to be a bridge-builder, not a bridge-burner, between the human and divine.

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Image credits: (1) Christian Ethics Today (2) Jesus With the Scribes and Pharisees, Missio Dei, Public Domain (3) Church in the Valley

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Gospel: Luke 11: 37-41

After Jesus had spoken,
a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.
He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see
that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast day we celebrate today, is one of the great female theologians in the Church.

In fact, she holds the distinct honor of being a Doctor of the Church, meaning her teachings and writings are of particular importance or theological depth.

One of her most popular works is The Interior Castle, where she likens the soul to a castle made of a single diamond. Within that castle, there are seven different rooms, each one leading a soul closer to God. 

Outside of this castle, there are venomous creatures that spend their existence trying to prevent us from ever entering within, reducing us to a shallow existence.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus accuses a Pharisee of never entering his “interior castle,” because his understanding of religion is built entirely upon the externals of the Law.

For example, according to the Law, a person’s hands had to be washed in between each course of a meal.

First, water had to run down one’s hands from the wrists to the finger tips. Then the palms were to be cleansed by rubbing them together with more water. Then water had to run down the hands third time.

For a Pharisee, to omit even the slightest detail of handwashing was considered a sin. 

At this particular dinner, Jesus leaves his hands unwashed to prove a point. If this Pharisee were half as committed to purifying his heart as he was to washing his hands, then he’d be a saint! 

In modern lingo, we might accuse him of being religious, but not spiritual; he’s law-abiding, but not compassionate. As Jesus says to him, “You cleanse the outside, but inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”

This poor man’s interior castle is dusty and dark.

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What is my own inner life like? Do I find myself inching my way closer to God? Or is my devotion weakened by temptation, fear, or worldly attachments?

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The ultimate meaning of life, Teresa says, is to experience union with our Creator who loved us into existence.

With Teresa’s intercession, how might we move even deeper into our interior castle today?

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Image credits: (1) Saint Teresa of Avila, Catholic Online (2) Bodiam Castle, East Sussex, England, iStock (3) Rooted Thinking

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Gospel: Luke 11: 29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment 
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation 
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Imagine someone decided to write a biography about your life. What would you hope they’d share? How would you want to be remembered?

Now imagine that author was a self-declared enemy of yours, and the only account the world would have of your life is what that person decided to write. How might the story change?

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Today we celebrate the life of Saint Callistus 1^st, pope and martyr, who died around 222 AD. All we know about his life was written, ironically enough, by his sworn enemy, Hippolytus.

Both Callistus and Hippolytus were Catholic. Both died as martyrs. Both are now revered as Saints. So, why were they sworn enemies?

At the time these men lived, the Church was still very young. Doctrines about who Jesus was, what he taught, and how Christians should live their lives were still being hotly debated – as can be the case, to some extent, today.

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Hippolytus was known for being exceptionally stringent and rigid in his theology. Christians needed to live austere, near perfect lives. He also believed some sins couldn’t be forgiven in confession, such as sexual immorality, denouncing the Catholic faith, or murder.

Callistus, on the other hand, chose mercy, freely opening the doors to repentant sinners. After demonstrating their sorrow over a particular sin, Callistus believed they should be welcomed back, as Jesus urges in today’s Gospel.

Perhaps his heart was so open to forgiveness because he himself had been shown mercy; Callistus was born a slave. Over the course of his storied life, he became entrusted with much – from his master’s fortune, all the way to becoming an advisor to the pope!

A few years thereafter, he himself became pope, serving a short term before being martyred, likely in an anti-Christian riot. Memory of his life – and insistence upon mercy – endures to this day ironically because of his rival, Hippolytus, who held a far stricter view of God and the Church.

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So, what might the story of Callistus say to us?

There’s an undeniable goodness about Christians, which transcends time, even rivalries. In the words of Jesus, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father.”

How might I share such goodness today?

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Image credits: (1) Biography (Bio) (2) Etsy (3) A Catholic Life