We belong to Each Other:
The Feast of Christ the King, Sunday
November 26, 2023
www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com
predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673
Ezekiel 34:11-17; Psalm 23; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Matthew 25:31-46
At this last Sunday of the church year, the readings give us the core of Christianity, that we belong to each other, that we are deeply connected, and it is through each other that we are saved. We do not merit salvation on our own, and we have a deep responsibility for each other’s well-being. As we have Jesus as our shepherd, we are to imitate him in shepherding those who are scattered or need to be healed or given rest. The Gospel states clearly the moral life upon which we will be judged, and still, with these articulated teachings, we still find ways to exclude, and judge, and deny people the hope they seek in God.
During these last days, it is natural for us to think about heaven and the afterlife and how well we have lived. There is not anything in this world that can replace the infinite value of human relationships. We long to be accepted and loved and to share life with another person. We seek intimacy, even though it makes us vulnerable, we seek our fulfillment through God and others. If heaven is the openness of the earth to its fulfillment in God, then heaven is what we have become: a shared life. Our judgment will be based on how open we have been with others, how generous and caring we have been for someone else’s well-being and flourishing. The absolute joy of heaven will come about because of the fulness of shared life we have generated on this earth.
What is heaven like? It is a being with, a belonging with another person, a being with someone in a way that we have contentment and rightness. We simply sit an accept the other person, which brings about an experience of joy, peace, and true happiness. These are the precious bonds of human relationships that emerge from a deep goodness that flows from one person to another. We do not have to do anything but join in the person’s presence in a spirit of goodwill and belonging. This is the bond of love that we experience as God’s spirit. It shows us the promise and beauty of a shared life because God wants to share God’s life with us.
We are more and more one earth community with differences in culture, language, politics, yet there is a consciousness of belonging to the whole planet. In the end, the only thing that will matter will be how well we loved. That is what Jesus is saying. We are called to be present in the moment, heart and soul, attentive to the sounds of life in the midst of anxiety, laughter, sorrow, and wonder. We belong to each other, and we have to see, hear, and know the other person. When we truly help another person to belong, heaven opens where we are, right here on earth, in the very moment, and invites us in as we are. We can experience grace everywhere, and then love abounds. Our work is to receive and celebrate the grace offered to us. We can call this a sacrament of everyday life.
Love is the absolute fundamental force of attraction in the universe. Love unites and it builds up our world because God is rising up in the universe, and we see that we are given a choice to love. As we grow in love, we grow into freedom, and as the Gospel shows, we must make a choice to love or to reject love. For God to live, we must choose to love. As we draw closer in love to another person, God is more fully revealed. Love moves us into a bright light of a future fulness. Love is an ongoing creative process, and we must recreate ourselves and learn to love in new ways if we are to evolve into a wholeness of being. The Gospel message is full of hope. We can put love where there is not love, and then we will find love.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Daniel 1) King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and laid siege to Jerusalem. The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and some of the vessels of the temple of God; he carried them off to the land of Shinar.
Tuesday: (Daniel 2) In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying in appearance as it stood before you. The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile.
Wednesday: (Daniel 5) King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords, with whom he drank. Under the influence of the wine, he ordered the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,
to be brought in so that the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.
Thursday: (Romans 10) But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent?
Friday (Daniel 7) In a vision I, Daniel, saw during the night, the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea, from which emerged four immense beasts, each different from the others.
Saturday (Daniel 7) These four great beasts stand for four kingdoms which shall arise on the earth. But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingship, to possess it forever and ever.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 21) When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest.
Tuesday: (Luke 21) Jesus said, "All that you see here–the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."
Wednesday (Luke 21) You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
Thursday (Matthew 4) "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
Friday (Luke 11) Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.
Saturday (Luke 21) Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.
Saints of the Week
November 26: John Berchmans, S.J., religious (1599-1621), was a Jesuit scholastic who is the patron saint of altar servers. He was known for his pious adherence to the rules and for his obedience. He did well in studies but was seized with a fever during his third year of philosophy and died at the age of 22.
November 29: Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos, S.J., religious (1711-1735) was the first and main apostle to the devotion of the Sacred Heart. He entered the novitiate in Spain at age 14 and took vows at 17. He had mystical visions of the Sacred Heart. He was ordained in January 1735 with a special dispensation because he was not old enough. A few weeks after celebrating his first mass, he contracted typhus and died on November 29th.
November 30: Andrew, apostle (first century) was a disciple of John the Baptist and the brother of Simon Peter. Both were fishermen from Bethsaida. He became one of the first disciples of Jesus. Little is known of Andrew's preaching after the resurrection. Tradition places him in Greece while Scotland has incredible devotion to the apostle.
December 1: Edmund Campion, S.J., (1540- 1581), Robert Southwell, S.J., (1561-1595) martyrs,were English natives and Jesuit priests at a time when Catholics were persecuted in the country. Both men acknowledge Queen Elizabeth as monarch, but they refused to renounce their Catholic faith. They are among the 40 martyrs of England and Wales. Campion was killed in 1581 and Southwell’s death was 1595.
This Week in Jesuit History
- November 26, 1678: In London the arrest and imprisonment of St Claude la Colombiere. He was released after five weeks and banished.
- November 27, 1680: In Rome the death of Fr. Athanasius Kircher, considered a universal genius, but especially knowledgeable in science and archeology.
- November 28, 1759: Twenty Fathers and 192 Scholastics set sail from the Tagus for exile. Two were to die on the voyage to Genoa and Civita Vecchia.
- November 29, 1773: The Jesuits of White Russia requested the Empress Catherine to allow the Letter of Suppression to be published, as it had been all over Europe. "She bade them lay aside their scruples, promising to obtain the Papal sanction for their remaining in status quo.
- November 30, 1642: The birth of Br Andrea Pozzo at Trent, who was called to Rome in 1681 to paint the flat ceiling of the church of San Ignacio so that it would look as though there were a dome above. There had been a plan for a dome but there was not money to build it. His work is still on view.
- December 1, 1581: At Tyburn in London, Edmund Campion and Alexander Briant were martyred.
December 2, 1552: On the island of Sancian off the coast of China, Francis Xavier died.
No comments:
Post a Comment