Monday - October 12, 2020
“Mary having co-operated in our redemption with so much glory to God and so much love for us, Our Lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession.”
- St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
October 12, 2020
Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Brothers and sisters:
It is written that Abraham had two sons,
one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman.
The son of the slave woman was born naturally,
the son of the freeborn through a promise.
Now this is an allegory.
These women represent two covenants.
One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery;
this is Hagar.
But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.
For it is written:
Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children;
break forth and shout, you who were not in labor;
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one
than of her who has a husband.
Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we are children not of the slave woman
but of the freeborn woman.
For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 113:1B-2, 3-4, 5A AND 6-7
R. (see 2) Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.
or:
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.
or:
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.
or:
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Who is like the LORD, our God,
who looks upon the heavens and the earth below?
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.
or:
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia PS 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear
his voice,
harden not your
hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
Reflecting on today's first reading, let's remember why Abraham had two sons. God had promised him one son, born by his wife, Sarah. But Sarah laughed at that idea, because the signs of her aged body told her that she was long past fertility. Then as time went by without a miraculous pregnancy, both Sarah and Abraham took this as a sign that God wanted the baby to be born through human means, i.e., through a surrogate mother, Sarah's handmaid, Hagar.
This decision caused rivalry and animosity between Abraham's two sets of descendants. Four thousand years later, the Middle East is still suffering the repercussions of this decision. (Hagar bore Ishmael, who married an Egyptian woman, according to the Bible. According to the Arabs, he also married a daughter of Sheik Mudad, who bore Adnan, the ancestor of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.) Muslims and Jews have been fighting each other throughout history. What if Abraham and Sarah had continued to wait for God to fulfill his promise, instead of taking matters into their own hands?
In the Gospel reading, Jesus says, "This is an evil age. It seeks a sign." Why are signs evil? Because we invent our own signs. We seek signs that are not from God.
What help from God are you still awaiting? What resolution to a problem, what new job, what reconciled relationship? Jesus says that he is the sign that we are given. And he is enough! He is the one who is "greater than Jonah".
The sign of Jonah was his emergence from the belly of the giant fish after three days. Jonah's mission after getting spewed onto the beach (and presumably after cleaning himself up a bit) was to call the Ninevites to repentance. Jesus emerged from the belly of the earth at the end of his three-day ordeal. His resurrection calls the whole world to repentance.
Here is the sign we are given, and it's the only sign that really matters: Since God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, of course he will also give us the new life that we need. Of course he will provide the right resolution to our problems, the job that's right for us, or the reconciled relationships. We fail to notice this sign, however, because God's timing is not usually the same as our preferred timing. While we wait, we take hope from any sign that pops up in our view. We make ourselves miserable and frustrated by trusting in what we see instead of keeping our eyes on Jesus.
The storms in our lives could be as huge as a hurricane, but if we look for Jesus instead of signs that the storm is abating, we find him in the eye of the storm. The moment we pull away from him, we hit the hurricane's eye wall and it blows us off our feet. Keep your eyes on Jesus!
And while you're waiting for relief from the storm, take a break as often as you need to. Go on a vacation or retreat, attend an uplifting prayer service, talk to friends who are filled with the Holy Spirit's upbeat inspiration, go to daily Mass and let that place be an oasis for you.
Today's Prayer
Your resurrection, Lord, is the only sign I need to know that my whole life is in the hands of my Father. Amen.
God Bless You.....
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