Reglas instead of Rules The Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

                                                  Reglas instead of Rules

The Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

August 29, 2021

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Daniel 4:1-8; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-23

 

A question about the relevancy of the rules comes up in today’s readings. Moses, the great Law-giver, tells the people that following the Laws will give them life, security, and happiness, which is the whole purpose for community standards. Jesus gets trapped by the Pharisees because he did not follow a long-standing religious and dietary custom, thereby violating the tradition of the elders. Jesus states that God’s commandments come from within an love-informed heart, and that the attitudes we nourish and feed within our hearts are the source of evil. Therefore, when we discern the judgments we make, we have to examine the fundamental attitudes we are feeding. 

 

As a Christian, we can know our thoughts and attitudes are right if we are practicing patience, refraining from making quick judgments, increasing our levels of understanding, informing our conscience, and working towards unity, especially with people who share differing viewpoints so that we can understand their reasoning better. It comes down to creating a culture of having a heart and mind that is open to learning and understanding and generating compassion. We seek the effects of creating peace, establishing harmony, loving the person next to us, and contributing to the common good. If we do this, we are coming nearer to the call God extends to us. These conditions create a well-informed heart that produces our Christian attitudes. In the opposite vein, if we find our hearts are set for battle, are quick to condemn, separate ourselves from others, allege superiority, then these are the hearts that do not understand the Law and create attitudes that are harmful to society. 

 

Ignatius of Loyola chooses a wisdom way of moving forward as his teachings help people discern life’s choices in free will. We enjoy free will and in all the decisions we make, we exercise free will. Ignatius presents a way of dealing with our freedom that is both psychological, dealing with hopes and the dreams we long for, and religious, dealing with God and how God enters our lives. He calls them reglas, which has a different interpretation than rules (do’s and don’ts) , and these reglas are helps to guide the decisions of the heart that we make. These choices are to be acts of love guided by the spirit of wisdom. 

 

A person who stands without God makes oneself the center of the universe, and that person because the ultimate authority over goodness and badness. For Ignatius, though, he invites people into the world of his vision of God. He asks who God is, and how God approaches us, and how God invites us to respond to God’s promptings. This process brings us into a relationship with Jesus, who then says, “Come follow me.” Rather than hearing about do’s and don’ts of the law, God speaks in the language of words, dreams, visions, symbols. In Ignatian language, God also speaks in emotions, affections, or feelings. God’s voice speaks in that small, still voice, and what is prayer? Patching a few words together in thanks so that it leads to a silence in which another voice may speak. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (1 Thessalonians 4) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Tuesday: (1 Thessalonians 5) For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

 

Wednesday: (Colossians 1) We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.

 

Thursday: (Colossians 1) From the day we heard about you, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will
through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

 

Friday (Colossians 1) Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.

 

Saturday (Colossians 1) You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds; God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death,
to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 4) Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

 

 

Tuesday: (Luke 4) In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of  Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” 

 

Wednesday (Luke 4) Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.

 

Thursday (Luke 5) He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.

 

Friday (Luke 5) The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.”

 

Saturday (Luke 6) While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

 

Saints of the Week

 

August 29: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist recalls the sad events of John's beheading by Herod the tetrarch when John called him out for his incestuous and adulterous marriage to Herodias, who was his niece and brother's wife. At a birthday party, Herodias' daughter Salome danced well earning the favor of Herod who told her he would give her almost anything she wanted. 

 

September 3: Gregory the Great (540-604) was the chief magistrate in Rome and resigned to become a monk. He was the papal ambassador to Constantinople, abbot, and pope. His charity and fair justice won the hearts of many. He protected Jews and synthesized Christian wisdom. He described the duties of bishops and promoted beautiful liturgies that often incorporated chants the bear his name.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• August 29, 1541: At Rome the death of Fr. John Codure, a Savoyard, one of the first 10 companions of St. Ignatius. 
• August 30, 1556: On the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the Iroquois mortally wounded Fr. Leonard Garreau, a young missionary. 
• August 31, 1581: In St. John's Chapel within the Tower of London, a religious discussion took place between St. Edmund Campion, suffering from recent torture, and some Protestant ministers. 
• September 1, 1907. The Buffalo Mission was dissolved, and its members were sent to the New York and Missouri Provinces and the California Mission. 
• September 2, 1792. In Paris, ten ex-Jesuits were massacred for refusing to take the Constitutional oath. Also in Paris seven other fathers were put to death by the Republicans, among them Frs. Peter and Robert Guerin du Rocher. 
• September 3, 1566. Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford and heard the 26-year-old Edmund Campion speak. He was to meet her again as a prisoner, brought to hear her offer of honors or death. 
• September 4, 1760. At Para, Brazil, 150 men of the Society were shipped as prisoners, reaching Lisbon on December 2. They were at once exiled to Italy and landed at Civita Vecchia on January 17, 1761.