Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/071011.shtml
“My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
It’s important to know that the readings in each liturgical season fit together as a whole. Now that we are in Ordinary Time, each week’s Sunday reading will build upon the next. Last week the readings showed us that life with Christ is different than life without Him: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But they didn’t explain what that meant, not really. This week, the readings show us that living with Christ means listening to the Word of God, because that is part of what changes us.
The first reading explains why the Word of God is so important: “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” We have been given Scripture, and read Scripture at Mass, for our salvation. God’s word is effective, and understanding it changes us. When we soak in God’s word, and allow it to change us, we become amazing. Scripture describes the change using farming language.
The Psalm shows us symbolically how we are transformed by God’s word. Our paths overflow with a rich harvest, the fields are garmented with flocks, and the valleys are blanketed with grain. We are MORE with Christ than we are on our own, and God’s Word is the rain that helps us to grow into what we were always meant to be.
Last week we recognized that life isn’t easy. Much of this is because we are still being transformed with Christ. We are sinners, and we are still fighting for our salvation. This is why Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us; because Heaven is coming. Heaven is coming and we must be ready for it!
The readings today should be listened to closely, and though they don’t apply solely to Mass, we should think about how we listen to Scripture in that context. When Jesus talks about those who hear God’s Word in the parable of the sower, how do we listen to the readings? Do our eyes glaze over? Do we listen intently but forget the message after Mass? Do we try to live out the Scripture during the week between Masses? We should never forget that Mass is not a duty, but a respite from our work in the world. Mass is where we take strength from the Eucharist, the Word, and the fellowship of the Lord for our life with Christ. Our duty isn’t over at the end of Mass, but just beginning!
We at Mass are the seeds of the sower. It is not enough to hear God’s word, but to engage with it. If we listen, but do not understand, the devil will keep our heart from transforming with Christ. If we listen with excitement, but have no “roots” to develop our faith, we will not last, and will fall short of salvation. If we hear God’s Word, but let anxiety and the world paralyze us, then we will bear no fruit and lose salvation.
But, if we soak up God’s word, if we hear it and understand it, then we are the seeds which fall on good soil. Then God’s Word will be effective, accomplishing God’s purpose within us. We will carry the Word out into the world, and transform the world with us. Christ’s “yoke” becomes easier when we let God’s Word transform us, and guide our lives. This is the first step to living in Christ.
Let us work on being good seeds falling on good soil, to make effective God’s work upon us. Then we shall be amazing, and be fruitful for the Lord a hundred, or sixty, or thirtyfold.
Showing posts with label Mass Readings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mass Readings. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Ascension of the Lord
5/16 Ascension of the Lord
link to today’s readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/051610a.shtml
In the readings today we read about the Ascension of the Lord. The 1st reading and the Gospel are both by Luke, and offer slightly different descriptions of the same event. The 2nd reading dwells deaper into the theology of what it means for us that Jesus ascended into Heaven.
For those who don’t know, Theophilus means “Lover of God,” or “Friend of God.” The Acts of the Apostles is addressed to someone already a follower of Christ, but also someone who came to belief the generation after the Apostles. The stories that Luke relates happened in his father’s or grandfather’s time, so recent, but Christians are now relying on the tradition handed down to them by teachers who are not the Apostles. The readings we have as our 1st reading and the Gospel are letters set down so that Christians would not forget and would believe this incredible event.
Luke emphasizes that “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” Jesus will come again and restore Israel (the Church), but we will not know when. And that isn’t the point of His Ascension; the point is that now he is leaving the world, and it falls to the disciples to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And so on, through the apostolic tradition to today, we are still called to the Great Commission to be the witnesses of Christ. When the men in white appear at the end of the reading and admonish the apostles for staring at the sky, we also hear that admonishment. It is not for us to wait around for Jesus to come back doing nothing, but to go out into the world in His stead.
But the Ascension is a cause for celebration as well! “God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;/The Lord, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise;/ sing praise to our king, sing praise.” Because the Ascension is the completion of the sacrifice of the cross. When the Israelites sacrificed under the old covenant, the high priest made the sacrifice and then entered the sanctuary in the temple, where only he could go, and only once a year. The sanctuary is where they kept the Ark of the Covenant, which held the stone tablets Moses carved, manna from the desert, and Aarron’s staff. The high priest sacrificed to purify the people of their sin, but Jesus sacrificed himself to take away sin once and for all. And his Ascension into Heaven as the sacrifice allows our entry into heaven, because the temple sanctuary was a copy of the true sanctuary; and now, covered in the blood of the Lamb, we may enter into Heaven.
This is our confession of faith. That Jesus came to die for our sins, and by his death and resurrection he has set us free. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We have through the testimony of those who came before us that all this is true, and we trust their word. So “let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.”
The Gospel reads just like that profession of faith. So let us now be like the disciples, who “did him homage, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.”
link to today’s readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/051610a.shtml
In the readings today we read about the Ascension of the Lord. The 1st reading and the Gospel are both by Luke, and offer slightly different descriptions of the same event. The 2nd reading dwells deaper into the theology of what it means for us that Jesus ascended into Heaven.
For those who don’t know, Theophilus means “Lover of God,” or “Friend of God.” The Acts of the Apostles is addressed to someone already a follower of Christ, but also someone who came to belief the generation after the Apostles. The stories that Luke relates happened in his father’s or grandfather’s time, so recent, but Christians are now relying on the tradition handed down to them by teachers who are not the Apostles. The readings we have as our 1st reading and the Gospel are letters set down so that Christians would not forget and would believe this incredible event.
Luke emphasizes that “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” Jesus will come again and restore Israel (the Church), but we will not know when. And that isn’t the point of His Ascension; the point is that now he is leaving the world, and it falls to the disciples to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And so on, through the apostolic tradition to today, we are still called to the Great Commission to be the witnesses of Christ. When the men in white appear at the end of the reading and admonish the apostles for staring at the sky, we also hear that admonishment. It is not for us to wait around for Jesus to come back doing nothing, but to go out into the world in His stead.
But the Ascension is a cause for celebration as well! “God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;/The Lord, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise;/ sing praise to our king, sing praise.” Because the Ascension is the completion of the sacrifice of the cross. When the Israelites sacrificed under the old covenant, the high priest made the sacrifice and then entered the sanctuary in the temple, where only he could go, and only once a year. The sanctuary is where they kept the Ark of the Covenant, which held the stone tablets Moses carved, manna from the desert, and Aarron’s staff. The high priest sacrificed to purify the people of their sin, but Jesus sacrificed himself to take away sin once and for all. And his Ascension into Heaven as the sacrifice allows our entry into heaven, because the temple sanctuary was a copy of the true sanctuary; and now, covered in the blood of the Lamb, we may enter into Heaven.
This is our confession of faith. That Jesus came to die for our sins, and by his death and resurrection he has set us free. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We have through the testimony of those who came before us that all this is true, and we trust their word. So “let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.”
The Gospel reads just like that profession of faith. So let us now be like the disciples, who “did him homage, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.”
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