Ignatian
Spirituality: Set the World Ablaze
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The Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 16, 2016
Exodus 17:8-13;
Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3:13-4:2; Luke 18:1-8
We have great sympathy for the
hapless widow fighting the powerful judge as she seeks a just decision. We
appreciate that she is able to call some “good” out of the unjust judge. The
main message of these readings is to persevere in trusting God. Jesus makes the
point that trusting in God’s care will yield more fruit than trusting in
someone who doesn’t have our best intentions in mind.
Moses shows his fighters that he
trusts in God when he raises his arms in battle to heaven. He is fighting the
neighboring tribes of Amalek, who are more than likely waging a battle over
water rights. In the preceding passage, God brings forth water from the rocks
of Massa and Meribah. Moses stands at the precipice of the battlefield so he is
visible to his men and he keeps his arms raised as encouragement. God is with
him and he stands by his men confidently. They battle to victory.
The other day I listened to a man
who was bothered that his sister never told her family that she was sick. She
kept secret that she was seriously ill and she did not see a doctor. Now she
lies in a hospital bed fighting for her life. With a seriously severe condition,
she did not even bother to ask for what she needed. No one knows why. Her
family is devastated.
Over the weekend I spoke with a
woman whose chronic pain will not lessen despite numerous trips to her surgeon
and primary care doctor. They cannot find any cause for her pain, but it is
real. She does all the right things, and she realizes that taking opioid
medication is not the solution. She lets her doctors know that she cannot take
it anymore and still they send her home without any answers. It is maddening
for someone with persistent pain to go through each day feeling isolated,
unheard, and pushed to the side. When she goes home, she carries her chronic
pain home to walls that absorb her cries while the doctor takes none of it with
her. It is demoralizing when no one listens enough to act upon remedies. We
simply do not know how to carry another person’s pain. It is natural for a
person to examine all her options for pain-relief.
We also are conflicted because we
cannot tell when someone is persistent, which we value positively, or stubborn,
which we see as negative. We realize that if we are stubborn, we are the last
one to realize it and we do not want our persistence to turn into stubbornness.
As a priest, I always pause when someone asks me to pray for a special
intention when they do not tell me the nature of the intention. What if they
are wishing ill will upon another person or they want someone who is bothering
them out of their life? I always have to probe deeper into their request.
Stubbornness is when we want
something exclusive for ourselves; it is self-seeking and self-serving. This
was the action of the judge when we protected his own interests. Persistence is
generally about the common good and relying upon God’s providence. It often is
concerned about what God can do or about how prayer can benefit another person.
This is the action of the widow who wants to be pain-free and is seeking a way
out of her destitution. She wants to be a positive part of the community again
and she knows that God will eventually hear her and people like her.
The widow found a way to see
goodness in the judge. She was not solely focused upon herself. In our pain and
sorrow, it is good for us to appeal to the goodness of God, who wants to give
us many blessings. It is good for us to see that many others want to help. We
just have to be open to those who want to lend a hand – even if it is not the
way we intend it to happen. We have to place our hope in others’ goodness and
firmly believe that God will act through them. I believe God is working on our
behalf in many different ways. God is nearer than we sometimes think. Pray
always for your well-being. Pray for your neighbors and loved one. Pray that you
experience that God is moving closer to you. Never stop these prayers because
they sustain those on the fragile edge of life. Your prayers may tip the balance
in the favor of life.
Scripture for Daily Mass
First
Reading:
Monday:
(Ephesians 2) God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he has for
us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with
Christ.
Tuesday:
(2 Timothy 4) Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is helpful to me in the
ministry. The Lord stood by me and gave me strength so the Gospel’s
proclamation can be completed and the Gentiles might hear it.
Wednesday:
(Ephesians 3) I became a minister by God’s grace: to preach to the Gentiles the
inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all the plan of the
mystery of God.
Thursday:
(Ephesians 3) May God grant you the riches of his glory, that Christ may grow
in your heart through faith, and that rooted and grounded in love, you may have
the strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth
of Christ’s love.
Friday
(Ephesians 4) I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have
received, with humility and gentleness, with patience, and bearing with one
another through love.
Saturday
(Ephesians 4) Grace was given to each according to the measure of Christ’s
gift. Through Christ, the whole body is joined and held together by every
supporting ligament.
Gospel:
Monday:
(Luke 12) Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions. He told a parable of the man with a
bountiful harvest.
Tuesday:
(Luke 10) The Lord sent out 72 disciples” The harvest is abundant, but the
laborers are few. Ask the master to send more laborers for this harvest.
Wednesday
(Luke 12) Be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will
come. Jesus told them a parable about the mean and nasty manservant.
Thursday
(Ephesians 3) I have come to set the earth of fire, and how I wish it were
blazing already. There is a baptism with which I must be baptized and how great
is my anguish until it is accomplished.
Friday
(Luke 12) You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Saturday
(Luke 13) Jesus told the story of the Galilean whose blood Pilate mingled with
their sacrifices and the story of the man who planted a fig tree in his
orchard, but found no fruit on it.
Saints of the Week
October 16: Hedwig, religious, at age 12 married Henry, a prince who
would become king of Silesia. As a monarch, they built a Cistercian monastery
for women. They soon built many other religious houses and hospitals. She chose
to live in austere poverty to be in solidarity with the poor.
October 16: Margaret Mary Alocoque entered the Visitation Order at
Paray-le-Monial in 1671. She received visions of Christ's love and told her
Jesuit spiritual director, Claude la Colombiere, who asked her to write about
her experiences. They developed the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her
community resisted her promotion of the devotion at first, but later came to
see the power of the prayers.
October 17: Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 107) was born around 33
A.D. and became a leading figure in the new church at Antioch. He served as
bishop for 38 years before he was persecuted and killed under Emperor Trajan
for being a Christian leader. He wrote seven letters about church life in the
early second century and is the first-mentioned martyr of Roman heroes in the
first Eucharistic Prayer.
October 18: Luke, evangelist (first century) was the author of his version of
the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He is described as a doctor and a
friend of Paul. He was a well-educated Gentile who was familiar with the Jewish
scriptures and he wrote to other Gentiles who were coming into a faith.
October 19: North American Jesuit martyrs: Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, priests,
and companions (17th century) were killed between 1642 and 1649 in Canada
and the United States. Though they knew of harsh conditions among the warring
Huron and Mohawk tribes in the New World, these priests and laymen persisted in
evangelizing until they were captured, brutally tortured, and barbarically
killed.
October 20: Paul of the Cross, priest (1694-1775), founded the Passionists in
1747. He had a boyhood call that propelled him into a life of austerity and
prayer. After receiving several visions, he began to preach missions throughout
Italy that mostly focused upon the Passion of the Lord. After his death, a
congregation for nuns was begun.
This Week in Jesuit History
·
October 16, 1873: About two weeks after Victor
Emmanuel's visit to Berlin, where he had long conferences with Bismark, rumors
reached the Society in Rome that all of their houses in Rome were threatened.
·
October 17, 1578: St Robert Bellarmine entered
the Jesuit novitiate of San Andrea in Rome at the age of 16.
·
October 18, 1553: A theological course was
opened in our college in Lisbon; 400 students were at once enrolled.
·
October 19, 1588: At Munster, in Westphalia, the
Society opens a college, in spite of an outcry raised locally by some of the
Protestants.
·
October 20, 1763: In a pastoral letter read in
all his churches, the Archbishop of Paris expressed his bitter regret at the
suppression of the Society in France. He described it as a veritable calamity
for his country.
·
October 21, 1568: Fr. Robert Parsons was elected
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He resigned his Fellowship in 1574.
·
October 22, 1870: In France, Garibaldi and his
men drove the Jesuits from the Colleges of Dole and Mont Roland.
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