Sunday Readings

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 13, 2024 Readings: Wisdom 7.7-11; Hebrews 4.12-13; Mark 10.17-30 Should the ministers of the Church of Christ worry about “bad press” when it comes to preaching the Word of God? The words of the Second Reading speak to the point: God’s word is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart. Nothing is concealed from him [God]; all lies bare and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. Nothing is in the quote about the fear of “bad press.” Let me bring up another phrase that is used sometimes among those who are interested in contemplative spirituality. “The first language of God is silence.” The first language of God is His Word. In the very depths of God, the Father is eternally giving birth to the Word, the Son, and from the Word and the Father there proceeds the Holy Spirit. The first language of God in relation to His creation is the Word, spoken and given in creation and through spoken and written Revelation, ultimately and perfectly through the Incarnate Word. The contemplative must learn to live in silence, solitude, simplicity, and in the spirit of deep prayer to be reborn in the Word, to become a new re-birthing of the Word in his or her deepest spirit, to be reborn into the divine life. The life of the contemplative then becomes open to the Word as the Word penetrates, exposes the heart to the fires of divine love and transformation. The heart must be cut open by the sword of the Word, as the second reading explains. The Church living in its members becomes contemplative in the soul-opening to the Word. The Magisterium is not a doctrinaire, ideologue-bearing tyrant but the living vehicle of the Word’s infallible transmission to every people of every time and place. The Magisterium is the servant of the Sword, the Living Word of God. In Ephesians St. Paul describes the Christian who is faithful to Jesus. Christians faithful to Jesus are armed “with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (6.17). The Church is under constant attack from the media, from revisionists who even call themselves Catholic or Christian. It is a sign of the Church’s divine character—its being the Body of Christ—that it is so persecuted and ridiculed. The Church does not confine itself in applying the Word merely to the areas of reproduction, sexuality etc. but also the question of justice and love for the poor. In the Gospel Jesus brings the Word to bear on the accumulation of wealth in the face of the suffering of the poor. How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God (Gospel Reading). The love that is the essence of divine union is not a sentimental emotion. Our share in divine love comes only with the double-edged sword of the Word that first penetrates us so we can receive the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts. Our prayer for divine wisdom must be sincere (First Reading). Our request for eternal life from Jesus our Savior has to be on the foundation of obedience to all that flows from that request (Gospel Reading). The way we live, talk, relate, dream, feel—all must be subject to the sword of the Word. We take to our hearts Mary the Mother of God who kept the Word in her heart; whose own heart a sword of sorrow pierced in the working out of that word among peoples (Luke 2.35). In our daily sessions of silent prayer let us be with Mary in that contemplative posture of openness to the sword of God’s Word; its ultimate product is eternal life. --William Fredrickson, (OblSB; D.Min.)

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 13, 2024

Readings: Wisdom 7.7-11; Hebrews 4.12-13; Mark 10.17-30

Should the ministers of the Church of Christ worry about “bad press” when it comes to preaching the Word of God? The words of the Second Reading speak to the point:

God’s word is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart. Nothing is concealed from him [God]; all lies bare and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.

Nothing is in the quote about the fear of “bad press.”

Let me bring up another phrase that is used sometimes among those who are interested in contemplative spirituality. “The first language of God is silence.”
The first language of God is His Word. In the very depths of God, the Father is eternally giving birth to the Word, the Son, and from the Word and the Father there proceeds the Holy Spirit. The first language of God in relation to His creation is the Word, spoken and given in creation and through spoken and written Revelation, ultimately and perfectly through the Incarnate Word.

The contemplative must learn to live in silence, solitude, simplicity, and in the spirit of deep prayer to be reborn in the Word, to become a new re-birthing of the Word in his or her deepest spirit, to be reborn into the divine life. The life of the contemplative then becomes open to the Word as the Word penetrates, exposes the heart to the fires of divine love and transformation. The heart must be cut open by the sword of the Word, as the second reading explains.
The Church living in its members becomes contemplative in the soul-opening to the Word. The Magisterium is not a doctrinaire, ideologue-bearing tyrant but the living vehicle of the Word’s infallible transmission to every people of every time and place. The Magisterium is the servant of the Sword, the Living Word of God.

In Ephesians St. Paul describes the Christian who is faithful to Jesus. Christians faithful to Jesus are armed “with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (6.17). The Church is under constant attack from the media, from revisionists who even call themselves Catholic or Christian. It is a sign of the Church’s divine character—its being the Body of Christ—that it is so persecuted and ridiculed.

The Church does not confine itself in applying the Word merely to the areas of reproduction, sexuality etc. but also the question of justice and love for the poor. In the Gospel Jesus brings the Word to bear on the accumulation of wealth in the face of the suffering of the poor. How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God (Gospel Reading).

The love that is the essence of divine union is not a sentimental emotion. Our share in divine love comes only with the double-edged sword of the Word that first penetrates us so we can receive the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts. Our prayer for divine wisdom must be sincere (First Reading). Our request for eternal life from Jesus our Savior has to be on the foundation of obedience to all that flows from that request (Gospel Reading). The way we live, talk, relate, dream, feel—all must be subject to the sword of the Word.

We take to our hearts Mary the Mother of God who kept the Word in her heart; whose own heart a sword of sorrow pierced in the working out of that word among peoples (Luke 2.35). In our daily sessions of silent prayer let us be with Mary in that contemplative posture of openness to the sword of God’s Word; its ultimate product is eternal life.

--William Fredrickson, (OblSB; D.Min.)