The Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

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October 8, 2017

Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

This week, we are offered lessons about (1.) presuming we are following God’s will and (2.) rejecting others. Jesus is teaching us about values that are important to God in the Kingdom of Heaven and he reminds us that we go too far astray when we forget to include God in our discernment. God reminds us that we cannot understand God’s ways, therefore, it is important that we depend upon him more than we naturally do.

In Isaiah, we hear of the vineyard owner who presumes to do everything right. He cares well for his property and does all the right things, but the fruit does not produce a good harvest. Despite our efforts, God is the one in charge, and God will prune and shape the vineyard as is proper. Sometimes our efforts produce results we do not intend. Do not fear: the end results are the Lord’s, and God will make adjustments to produce the intended fruit.

Jesus gives another parable about a vineyard owner. After sending numerous servants to care for his land, he sends his son knowing that he will be protected. The people kill the man’s son. The story is telling us that the people presume to know what is best, but they reject every message that God sends them. Jesus, the one who was rejected, has become our cornerstone. Likewise, today those who we reject because they do not fit into our models may be the ones with the message from God that we need to hear. So, let’s be careful about those people we exclude without first praying over the message they bring.

God tells us we get into trouble when we presume to speak for God. We judge our actions in relation to those of others. “Father, I do not have to go to confessions because I don’t have any big sins.” We decide that we are good people and our place in heaven is assured, but we cannot see the goodwill in other people who are struggling to do their best. Perhaps, we follow the law only because it is a law, and we want mercy when we break one, but we want justice when someone else breaks it. We find many ways to assess our actions, but we forget one crucial thing: we forget to ask God how God sees our actions. Do we let God reveal our sins to us, or do we decide for ourselves? Likewise, do we let God affirm our good actions, or do we decide for ourselves when we have acted well? By excluding God’s input, we cannot know the values God holds.

We exclude God when we reject other people, and we are not even aware of the number of people we silence or shut out each day. God can begin to reveal this to us if we ask in prayer. If we pay attention to the ways we fail to bother to love, we can see how God is acting through those people we do not even know we are rejecting. God is always going to find a way, and God will go around us if we are not listening well. This is what happened in the First Reading; the same also occurred in the Gospel. Therefore, it is much better to cooperate with God’s will.

Lastly, we have a challenging invitation within the church. In today’s world, many people do not feel like they belong to a church. They are spiritual seekers or people who do profess a particular belief. Theirs are voices we do not hear because they do not fall into established categories. Many do not want to be a part of a flawed institution that is full of rules that sometimes excludes their friends. Perhaps if we listen to God, we can find a way forward with them. In their own ways, they are seeking God too. Our interaction might be different from the ways we learned growing up, but God will find a way despite the boundaries we operate within. This might be an exciting invitation for us – to not presume to know much and to listen to God in new ways as we interact with a world that evolves daily. God will provide for all of us. Let us ask God how we can help.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Jonah 1) "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it;
their wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD.

Tuesday: (Jonah 3) Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; Jonah began his journey through the city, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed," when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Wednesday: (Jonah 4) Then the LORD said, "You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?"

Thursday: (Malachi 3) For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Friday (Joel 1) Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming.

Saturday (Joel 4) Then shall you know that I, the LORD, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more. And then, on that day, the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 10) "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

Tuesday: (Luke 10) Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. The Lord in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

Wednesday (Luke 11) When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."

Thursday (Luke 11) For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?

Friday (Luke 11) When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, 'I shall return to my home from which I came.'
But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that man is worse than the first."

Saturday (Luke 11) While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

Saints of the Week

October 9: Denis, bishop and martyr, and companion martyrs (d. 258), was the first bishop of Paris. He died during the Decian persecutions by beheading at Montmarte, the highest hill in the city. Lore has it that he picked up his head after the beheading and walked six miles while giving a sermon. Denis was sent to Paris to bring Christianity and was thereby called, “The apostle to the Gauls.”

October 9: John Leonardi (1542-1609), was a pharmacist’s assistant before studying for the priesthood. He became interested in the reforms of the Council of Trent and gathered laymen around him to work in prisons and hospitals. He contracted the plague while ministering to those who were sick. He founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God to care for the sick.

October 12: John Beyzym, S.J., priest (1850-1912), was Ukranian-born, entered the Jesuits, and petitioned to work among the people of Madagascar who had Hansen’s disease (leprosy.) Since the lepers lived in remote shanty buildings with no windows or facilities, Beyzym worked hard to improve their living conditions, build a hospital, and a church. He died after contracting the disease.

October 14: Callistus I, pope and martyr (d. 222) was a slave of a Christian who put him in charge of a bank that failed. He was jailed and upon his release became a deacon and counselor to Pope Zephyrinus. He became the first overseer of the official Christian cemetery that was eventually named after him. When he was elected Pope he introduced humanitarian reforms. He died during an uprising against Christians. 

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Oct 8, 1871. The Great Chicago Fire. Most of the city was destroyed, but it missed Holy Family, the Jesuit parish, as the fire turned north thanks to the prayers of Fr. Arnold Damen. The fire lasted three days; 250 were killed.

·      Oct 9, 1627. Jansenius left Louvain for Salamanca to foment antipathy against the Jesuits and thus prevent Philip IV from giving the Society a large college in Madrid. The theological faculty at Salamanca were hostile to the Society.

·      October 10, 1806: The first novitiate of the Maryland Mission opened as ten novices began their Long Retreat under the direction of Fr. Francis Neale (himself a novice who had entered the Jesuits that day.)

·      October 11, 1688: King Louis XIV forbade all correspondence and interchange between the French Jesuits and Fr. Thyrsus Gonzalez, the Spanish General Superior of the Society.

·      October 12, 1976: The murder in rural Brazil of Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ, who was shot and killed by soldiers for protesting the torture of two poor women.

·      October 13, 1537: At Venice, the Papal Nuncio published his written verdict declaring that Ignatius Loyola was innocent of all charges which had been leveled against him by his detractors.

·      October 14, 1774: A French Jesuit in China wrote an epitaph to the Jesuit mission in China after the suppression of the Society. It concludes: "Go, traveler, continue on your way. Felicitate the dead; weep for the living; pray for all. Wonder, and be silent."