INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR
AUGUST 2008:
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR
AUGUST 2008:
1) General Intention:
That the human family may learn to respect God’s plan for the world and become ever more aware that Creation is God’s great gift.
2) Mission Intention:
That the answer of the entire people of God to the common calling to holiness and mission may be promoted and fostered by means of careful discernment of charisma and constant commitment to spiritual and cultural formation.
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME
August 24, 2008
"Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall
be loosed in Heaven.”
~ Matthew 16:19 ~
READINGS:
Daily
Bible Readings
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New
American Bible
It is one of the glories of the Bible that it can embrace many meanings in
a single passage.
— St. Thomas Aquinas —
“I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible.
Take all that you can of this book upon reason and the balance by faith,
and you will live and die a better person...
the Bible is the best book which God has given to man."
— Abraham Lincoln —
. A Few Minutes of Prayer in the Home
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TODAY’S READINGSIsaiah 22:19-23 God places the key of David’s house on the shoulders of
Eliakim, master of the palace.
Psalm 138 “Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your
hands.”
Romans 11:33-36 To God be glory forever.
Matthew 16:13-20 Peter is promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY in Ordinary Time
In today’s GOSPEL, we hear Peter’s great confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus asks what the people are saying about his identity.
Peter proclaims Jesus to be the Christ. Jesus promises Peter the keys to the kingdom.
RUMOR HAS IT . . .
During Jesus’ time, there were many beliefs circulating about the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed of God. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recount the story of Peter’s profession of faith at Caesarea Philippi; only Matthew inserts the portion we hear today in which this inbreaking manifestation of faith for Peter makes of him the rock on which Jesus can found a church. Jesus knows, as he illustrated earlier in Matthew’s Gospel with the parable of the houses built on sand and rock, that nothing can endure that doesn’t have a sure foundation. We also hear Jesus today immediately follow up Peter’s profession with a strict command not to go around right away and tell this to others. The faith that breaks in is the foundation, but it takes time and teaching and discernment to comprehend it adequately in order to tell others about it.
Indeed, in all three Gospels, the very first thing Jesus does after he is revealed as Christ through Peter’s faith is to begin teaching his followers that to be “Messiah” or “Christ”
means to suffer much and to die, neither of which was commonly believed about God’s Anointed One.
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN
Throughout the Gospels there is a relentless teaching by Jesus that how we live and act on earth is intimately connected to the workings of God’s heavenly reign. “Your will be done on earth as in heaven” we pray, along with “forgive us as we forgive others.” In Matthew’s Gospel the Last Judgment is portrayed with us being told that the manner in which we treated the hungry, poor, lowly, and oppressed is how we treated Christ. Today Jesus gives Peter—and all of us, the baptized, the church—our vocation. We can misread or isunderstand this passage to think that we have been imbued with some sort of control over the workings of heavenly grace and mercy. Rather, Jesus gives us a potent (and a bit overwhelming) charge to live the life of heaven’s boundless forgiveness, to be witnesses to him, the Messiah, the Christ who, as he died on the cross to fulfill the work of those names, made his last words, “Father, forgive them.”
GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL PEOPLE
Following their exile to Babylon, the people of Israel came home to find other banished people living in Israel. It was, therefore, not uncommon for foreigners to attempt to come to the Temple to worship. In the reading from Isaiah, the Jewish people are urged to welcome the foreigners and encourage their worship, for it was clearly the understanding of the author of Isaiah that everyone would be redeemed. The Jewish people had a strong sense of what was right and wrong and how to live just lives. This did not mean they had to embrace the religions of others, only to accept the people themselves and recognize that they and all people were entitled to God’s salvation. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is equally evangelizing. He states that his ministry and God’s love stretch out to all people, not just the Israelites. Frustrated at times with the Jewish people’s rejection and refusal to listen, Paul turned to the Gentiles. All people, Paul explains, have sinned against God. Only because of our disobedience can God show love and mercy for all people. God loves us, and without exclusion each human being can claim the gift of salvation.
SALVATION FOR ALL
More severe than the other readings, the Gospel nonetheless asserts that salvation is for all people. It is the amazing and intense faith of the Canaanite woman that catches our attention in the Gospel. The disciples saw her as a nuisance and someone to remove from Jesus’ presence. Jesus clearly considered his mission at this point particularly to the Israelites. Yet the woman knew that Jesus could heal her daughter and God’s healing is, indeed, for all of us. The woman was so sure of Jesus and God’s love that she recognized that something greater than crumbs would come someday to those outside the Jewish faith. Each of us in our own calling is challenged to multiply and supplement the crumbs generously, making a nourishing meal to show all people of the world God’s great love.
Readings for next Sunday: 8/31/2008
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time1st reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9
Response: Psalm 63
2nd reading: Romans 12:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27
For SAINT OF THE DAY, Go to:
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Saint Index => http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php
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