Revelation at the Eucharist The Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

                                                Revelation at the Eucharist

The Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

September 12, 2021

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

Isaiah 50:5-9; Psalm 116; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35

 

The church begins its lessons by once again asking people to be open to hearing what the Lord is asking us, and then to be faithful to the mission entrusted to us. In the last several weeks, the stress has been on openness to hearing, openness to growth in the faith because we are a people that can easily shut down our ability to hear, the Isaiah says that the Lord will stand by the one who hears and is faithful. The Gospel tunes into hearing as well as Jesus asks his disciples to tell him who they think he is. They tell him what others say about him, but he redirects back to them because he wants them to listen to God’s presence in Jesus. 

 

As we continue to meditate on who Jesus reveals who he is to us in this Year of the Eucharist, we turn to our liturgy as a source of that public revelation. How do we view our practice of communion? We bring it to our homebound and ill, to those in prisoned, to those near death, and we receive communion during worship. Our sense of communion connects us to one another, gives us nourishment, and heals us. It welcomes us and connects us to Christ and his community of believers. 

 

The Eucharist is about worshiping the Father, not Jesus, as all that Jesus did pointed back to his Father. The main purpose is not to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but to transform us who are at the Eucharist into the body of Christ so we can continue his mission in the world. It is important to remember that our liturgy is a continuation of two Jewish celebrations – synagogue service and the Passover meal. The synagogue service was composed of Scripture reading, psalms, songs, prayers, and breaking open the word – just like our liturgy of the Word. Our liturgy of the Eucharist is the paschal meal transformed by the resurrection experience of Jesus. 

 

The Paschal meal is a remembering that God has always abided by God’s people. We remember and we give thanks for what God did, is doing now, and what God will do again. It is the mystery of faith. It is a sacrificial meal by which we who participate fully and actively are united with God. It recalls the covenant that is both remembered and renewed, and it is done communally. We eat together, not alone, and we are brought into union with those with whom we eat and worship. It is a prayer by which we bless God, who in turn, blesses us. The prayers said by the priest, as the designated one who prays on behalf of the community, belong to the whole assembly. 

 

The presence of the Holy Spirit looms large in the mass and therefore we ask the Spirit to transform us into the Body of Christ, so that we become one body, one spirit in Christ. As you listen to the mass, you’ll hear these elements: we remember, we give thanks and praise, we offer, and we ask for the Spirit. The whole mass as a composite, not just the consecration, are the actions of the whole people, which requires full and active participation.

 

As this mass continues on, let’s be open to hearing the words spoken in the prayers of the priest on your behalf. As we pray together, let’s be open to hearing how this question unfolds: Who do we say Christ is for this community?

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (1 Timothy 2) I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Tuesday: (Number 21) So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.”

 

Wednesday: (1 Timothy 3) Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion, Who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

 

Thursday: (1 Timothy 4) Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Until I arrive, attend to the reading, exhortation, and teaching.

 

Friday (1 Timothy 6) Teach and urge these things. Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes.

 

Saturday (1 Timothy 6) I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 7) A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die,
and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”

 

Tuesday: (John 3) No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

 

Wednesday (John 19) Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”

 

Thursday (Luke 7) A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears.

 

Friday (Luke 8) Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities.

 

Saturday (Luke 8) But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.

 

Saints of the Week

 

September 12: The Name of Mary was given to the child in the octave that follow her birth on September 8th. Mary (Miriam) was a popular name for a girl because it means "beloved." 

 

September 13: John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor (347-407) was a gifted homilist and was called "Golden Mouth" because his words inspired many. He was raised in Antioch and joined a community of austere hermits but the lifestyle damaged his health. He became the archbishop of Constantinople where he introduced many conservative and unpopular reforms. He fled to escape an uprising from the people and on the way to exile he died.

 

September 14: The Triumph of the Holy Cross remembers the finding of the true cross by the Emperor Constantine's mother, Helen in early 4th century. Two churches were dedicated in the name of the cross on this day in the 4th century. Therefore, the feast was applied to this day. In the 7th century, the feast was renamed, "The Triumph." The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335 was also dedicated on this day.

 

September 15: Our Lady of Sorrows was once called the Seven Sorrows of Mary as introduced by the Servite Friars. After suffering during his captivity in France, Pius VII renamed the devotion that encapsulates: Simeon's prophecy, the flight into Egypt, searching for Jesus at age 12 in the Temple, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, the deposition, and the entombment.

 

September 16: Cornelius, pope and martyr (d. 253) and Cyprian, bishop and martyr (200-258) both suffered in the Decian persecutions. Cornelius was being attacked by Novatian, but since Novatian's teachings were condemned, he received the support of the powerful bishop, Cyprian. Cyprian was a brilliant priest and bishop of Carthage who wrote on the unity of the church, the role of bishops, and the sacraments. Cyprian died under Valerius after supporting his church in exile by letters of encouragement.

 

September 17: Robert Bellarmine, S.J., bishop and doctor (1542-1621) became a Jesuit professor at the Louvain and then professor of Controversial theology at the Roman College. He wrote "Disputations on the controversies of the Christian faith against the Heretics of this age," which many Protestants appreciated because of its balanced reasoning. He revised the Vulgate bible, wrote catechisms, supervised the Roman College and the Vatican library, and was the pope's theologian. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• September 12, 1744. Benedict XIV's second Bull, Omnium Sollicitudinum, forbade the Chinese Rites. Persecution followed in China. 
• September 13, 1773. Frederick II of Prussia informed the pope that the Jesuits would not be suppressed in Prussia and invited Jesuits to come. 
• September 14, 1596. The death of Cardinal Francis Toledo, the first of the Society to be raised to the purple. He died at age 63, a cardinal for three years.
• September 15, 1927. Thirty-seven Jesuits arrived in Hot Springs, North Carolina, to begin tertianship. The property was given to the Jesuits by the widow of the son of President Andrew Johnson. 
• September 16, 1883. The twenty-third General Congregation opened at Rome in the Palazzo Borromeo (via del Seminario). It elected Fr. Anthony Anderledy Vicar General with the right of succession. 
• September 17, 1621. The death of St Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church. 
• September 18, 1540. At Rome, Pedro Ribadeneira, aged fourteen, was admitted into the Society by St Ignatius (nine days before official papal confirmation of the Society).