AUGUST 30, 2016 : TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 432

Reading 11 COR 2:10B-16

Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Among men, who knows what pertains to the man
except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.
And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God,
for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it,
because it is judged spiritually.
The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything
but is not subject to judgment by anyone.

For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.

Responsorial PsalmPS 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13AB, 13CD-14

R. (17) The Lord is just in all his ways.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is just in all his ways.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is just in all his ways.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is just in all his ways.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is just in all his ways.

AlleluiaLK 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
A great prophet has arisen in our midst
and God has visited his people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelLK 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
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!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

www.usccb.org

Meditation: "His word was with authority and power"

When you listen to the word of God in Scripture how do you respond to it? Do you hear it with indifference, selective submission, or with the full assent of faith and obedience? When Jesus taught he spoke with authority. He spoke the word of God as no one had spoken it before. When the Rabbis taught they supported their statements with quotes from other authorities. The prophets spoke with delegated authority - Thus says the Lord. When Jesus spoke he needed no authorities to back his statements. He was authority incarnate - the Word of God made flesh. When he spoke, God spoke. When he commanded even the demons obeyed.

God's Word is alive and active
Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), in his commentary on this passage from the Gospel of Luke, tells us that Jesus had all power and authority to heal every sickness and expel every demonic power because he was the living and active Word of God the Father (John 1:14 and Hebrews 4:12):

The bystanders, witnesses of such great deeds, were astonished at the power of his word. He performed his miracles, without offering up a prayer, asking no one else at all for the power to accomplish them. Since he is the living and active Word of God the Father, by whom all things exist, and in whom all things are, in his own person he crushed Satan and closed the profane mouth of impure demons. [Commentary on Luke, Homily 12].

God's Word has power to set us free
God's living and abiding Word is truth and life and it has power to set us free from every sin and oppression and bring us healing of body, mind, and spirit. If the demons, the fallen angels, were able to recognize the power and authority of Jesus, the Son of God, how much more should we recognize and believe in the power and authority of the Gospel - the good news of Jesus Christ, and entrust our lives to the Lord Jesus? 

God's Word produces life and freedom for us
The Lord Jesus speaks his life-giving Word to us each and every day so that we may walk in the freedom of his love and truth. If we approach the Word of God with meekness and humility, and with an eagerness to do everything the Lord desires, we are in a much better position to learn what God wants to teach us through his word. Are you ready to follow the Lord Jesus and to conform your life according to his word?

"Lord Jesus, you have the words of everlasting life. May I never doubt your saving love and mercy, and the power of your word to bring healing, restoration, and freedom from every sin and oppression."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: New creation begins on the Sabbath, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

"He describes the works of divine healing begun on the sabbath day, to show from the outset that the new creation began where the old creation ceased. He showed us that the Son of God is not under the law but above the law, and that the law will not be destroyed but fulfilled (Matthew 5:17). For the world was not made through the law but by the Word, as we read: 'By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established' (Psalm 33:6). Thus the law is not destroyed but fulfilled, so that the renewal of humankind, already in error, may occur. The apostle too says, 'Stripping yourselves of the old man, put on the new, who was created according to Christ' (Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22,24). He fittingly began on the sabbath, that he may show himself as Creator. He completed the work that he had already begun by weaving together works with works. (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4.58)

www.dailyscripture.net

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, LUKE 4:31-37
Weekday
​(1 Corinthians 2:10b-16; Psalm 145)

KEY VERSE: "For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out" (v 36).
TO KNOW: After Jesus was rejected by the people of his hometown, Nazareth (Lk 4:29-30), he went to Capernaum on the northwest coast of Lake Gennesaret (the Sea of Galilee). Once again Jesus taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and this time the people were impressed by his authoritative words. Jesus was suddenly interrupted by the demonic shriek of a man possessed by an evil spirit. Although many did not recognize who Jesus truly was, the demon knew that he was the "Holy One of God" who had come to destroy evil and restore God's supremacy over humankind. With a powerful command, Jesus exorcized the evil spirit and healed the man. The people were in awe of the power of Jesus' words, and his fame spread throughout the area.
TO LOVE: What sort of evil needs to be cast out of my life?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, heal me with your word of life. 

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Tuesday 30 August 2016

Tue 30th. 
1 Corinthians 2:10-16. The Lord is just in all his ways—Ps 144(145):8-14. Luke 4:31-37.

Readings

The stories of unclean spirits and demonic possession in the Gospels have something to teach us, even though we understand them differently now. One way we can interpret Jesus' actions toward this man is by observing the clear authority with which Jesus speaks. He gives orders to the unclean spirit, not to the man himself. His orders recognise that the man is not fully himself while possessed by the unclean spirit. Do you ever have times in your life where you feel possessed by obligations and circumstances beyond your control? Are you suffering from illness, physical, mental or spiritual, from which you crave release? Pray over the words of today's Gospel, and ask the Lord for healing. Ask to be restored to the one God made you to be.
'What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?'

www.pray.com.au

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Never Ending Love

A mother journeys with her children all the way through their lives. She does not abandon her maternal mission when they are grown, though that mission certainly takes on different characteristics. The Church, too, accompanies us every step of the way. While baptism gives us birth into the Church, the other sacraments in their own way also nurture our souls as needed.

— from The Church is Our Mother 

August 30
St. Jeanne Jugan
(1792-1879)

Born in northern France during the French Revolution—a time when congregations of women and men religious were being suppressed by the national government, Jeanne would eventually be highly praised in the French academy for her community's compassionate care of elderly poor people.

When Jeanne was three and a half years old, her father, a fisherman, was lost at sea. Her widowed mother was hard pressed to raise her eight children (four died young) alone. At the age of 15 or 16, Jeanne became a kitchen maid for a family that not only cared for its own members, but also served poor, elderly people nearby. Ten years later, Jeanne became a nurse at the hospital in Le Rosais. Soon thereafter she joined a third order group founded by St. John Eudes (August 19).

After six years she became a servant and friend of a woman she met through the third order. They prayed, visited the poor and taught catechism to children. After her friend's death, Jeanne and two other women continued a similar life in the city of Saint-Sevran. In 1839, they brought in their first permanent guest. They began an association, received more members and more guests. Mother Marie of the Cross, as Jeanne was now known, founded six more houses for the elderly by the end of 1849, all staffed by members of her association—the Little Sisters of the Poor. By 1853 the association numbered 500 and had houses as far away as England.

Abbé Le Pailleur, a chaplain, had prevented Jeanne's reelection as superior in 1843; nine year later, he had her assigned to duties within the congregation, but would not allow her to be recognized as its founder. He was removed from office by the Holy See in 1890.

By the time Pope Leo XIII gave her final approval to the community's constitutions in 1879, there were 2,400 Little Sisters of the Poor. Jeanne died later that same year, on August 30. Her cause was introduced in Rome in 1970, and she was beatified in 1982 and canonized in 2009.

Comment:

Jeanne Jugan saw Christ in what Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata would describe as his "distressing disguises." With great confidence in God's providence and the intercession of St. Joseph, she begged willingly for the many homes that she opened, relying on the good example of the Sisters and the generosity of benefactors who knew the good that the Sisters were doing. They now work in 30 countries. "With the eye of faith, we must see Jesus in our old people—for they are God's mouthpiece," Jeanne once said. No matter what the difficulties, she was always able to praise God and move ahead.

Quote:


In his homily at the canonization Mass, Pope Benedict XVI said: "In the Beatitudes, Jeanne Jugan found the source of the spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on unlimited trust in Providence, which illuminated her whole life. This evangelical dynamism is continued today across the world in the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, which she founded and which testifies, after her example, to the mercy of God and the compassionate love of the Heart of Jesus for the lowliest.” 

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 4,31-37

Lectio Divina: 

 Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Almighty God,
every good thing comes from you.
Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith,
and by your constant care
protect the good you have given us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Luke 4,31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath.
And his teaching made a deep impression on them because his word carried authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’
But Jesus rebuked it, saying, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man into the middle, went out of him without hurting him at all.
Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What is it in his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And the news of him travelled all through the surrounding countryside.

3) Reflection

• In today’s Gospel we can see the facts more closely: the admiration of the people because of the way Jesus taught and the cure of a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit. Not all the Evangelists give this account in the same way. For Luke, the first miracle is the peace with which Jesus liberates himself from the threat of death on the part of the people of Nazareth (Lk 4, 29-30) and the cure of the possessed man (Lk 4, 33-35). For Matthew, the first miracle is the cure of the sick and of the possessed (Mt 4, 23) or, more specifically, the cure of a leper (Mt 8, 1-4). For Mark, the miracle was the expulsion of the devil (Mk 1, 23-26). For John, the first miracle was Cana, where Jesus changed the water into wine (Jn 2, 1-11). Thus, in the way of narrating things, each Evangelist, accordingly, indicates which was the greatest concern of Jesus.
• Luke 4, 31: The change of Jesus toward Capernaum: “Jesus descends to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and on Saturday he taught the people”. Matthew says that Jesus went to live in Capernaum (Mt 4, 13). He changed his residence. Capernaum was a small city on the crossroad between two important streets: the one coming from Asia Minor and was leading to Petra on the south of Transjordan, and the other one coming from the region of the two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates, and descended toward Egypt. The change toward Capernaum facilitated the contact with the people and the diffusion of the Good News.
• Luke 4, 32: Admiration of the people at the teaching of Jesus. The first thing that people perceive is that Jesus teaches in a different way. It is not so much the content that strikes them, but rather his way of teaching: “Jesus speaks with authority”. Mark adds that because of his different way of teaching; Jesus created a critical conscience among the people in regard to the religious authority of his time. The people perceived and compared: “He teaches with authority, unlike the Scribes” (Mk 1, 22.27). The Scribes taught quoting authority. Jesus does not quote any authority; rather he speaks starting from his experience of God and of his life.
• Luke 4, 33-35: Jesus fights against the power of evil. The first miracle is the expulsion of the devil. The power of evil took possession of persons, alienating them. Jesus restores the persons to be themselves again, giving them back the consciousness and liberty. He does this thanks to the force of his word: “Be quiet! Come out of him!” And on another occasion he says: “But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the Kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares” (Lk 11, 20). Today, also, many people live alienated from themselves, subjugated by the means of communication, by the propaganda of the government and of business. They live slaves of consumerism, oppressed by debts and threatened by creditors. People think that they do not live well if they do not have everything which the propaganda announces. It is not easy to expel this power which today, alienates many people, and return the persons to be themselves again.
• Luke 4, 36-37: The reaction of the people: he gives orders to the unclean spirits. Jesus not only has a diverse way of teaching the things of God, but another aspect which causes admiration in the people is his power over unclean spirits: “What is it in his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out”. Jesus opens a new path so that the people can place themselves before God to pray and to receive the blessings promised to Abraham. Before, they had to purify themselves. There were many laws and norms which made the life of the people difficult and marginalized many persons who were considered impure. But now, purified by faith in Jesus, persons could once again place themselves before God and pray to him, without the need to have recourse to the complicated norms of purity which were frequently expensive.

4) Personal questions

• Jesus causes admiration and astonishment among the people. Does the way of acting of our community cause admiration among the people of the neighbourhood? What type of admiration?
• Jesus drives out the power of evil and restores the persons to be themselves again. Today many persons live alienated from everything and from all. How can we help them to recover and be themselves again?

5) Concluding Prayer

Yahweh is tenderness and pity,
slow to anger, full of faithful love.
Yahweh is generous to all,
his tenderness embraces all his creatures. (Ps 145,8-9)

www.ocarm.org