Wednesday - October 20, 2021
"The Blessed Virgin, like a good Mother, seeing danger threatening Her children, hurries to their rescue. Do you want to please your Heavenly Mother? Practice the virtue dearest to Her – chastity."
- St. Don Bosco
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 475
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies
so that you obey their desires.
And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin
as weapons for wickedness,
but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life
and the parts of your bodies to God
as weapons for righteousness.
For sin is not to have any power over you,
since you are not under the law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace?
Of course not!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves
to someone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one you obey,
either of sin, which leads to death,
or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin,
you have become obedient from the heart
to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.
Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8a) Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Had not the LORD been with us,
let Israel say, had not the LORD been with us–
When men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive;
When their fury was inflamed against us.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us
a prey to their teeth.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Then Peter said,
“Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”
And the Lord replied,
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, he will put him
in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself,
‘My master is delayed in coming,’
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,
to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant’s master will come
on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish the servant severely
and assign him a place with the unfaithful.
That servant who knew his master’s will
but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will
shall be beaten severely;
and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will
but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating
shall be beaten only lightly.
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
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By the Grace of God
Saint Paul says in our first reading today that if we offer ourselves to God, sin no longer has power over us.
Oh yeah? Then how come I keep falling back into sin? Why do I behave selfishly? Why do I still do the hurtful things that I really don't want to do? (You too, huh?)
It's grace that empowers us to resist sin. Without it, we repeatedly fail. This is why the Sacrament of Confession is extraordinarily helpful. Since this avenue of forgiveness is a sacrament, we receive more than forgiveness: We receive God's grace.
However, if we offer ourselves to God before we sin, we put ourselves into his grace and receive his aid for resisting temptation. The Blessed Mother was able to avoid sinning because she was full of grace. Grace is God's supernatural gift to help us rise above our sinful tendencies.
The more Christ-like we become, the easier it is to resist temptation. However, holiness is a difficult journey. Desiring to be Christ-like isn't enough to keep us from sinning. We need supernatural grace.
Grace empowers us. Without grace, we're enslaved to sin, which leads to death -- the death of our souls. With grace, we choose the path of obedience, doing what God wants us to do, because we love him and want to be like him, rather than doing what we're tempted to do apart from God. By choosing to place ourselves under his benevolent authority, we accept the holy power of our Good Master, and this enables us to be righteous.
Surrender (offering ourselves to God) is the catalyst that turns a temptation into a victory. Thus, if I feel hurt by an injustice done to me and vengeful anger begins to dictate my response, I can choose to pause and place myself under God's grace. This means choosing to be merciful to those who treated me unfairly, praying for them and, if appropriate, finding a good deed to do for them, treating them better than the way they treated me. Under God's grace, I can take this holy approach. Under God's grace, with the anger gone, I can figure out how he wants me to bring justice to the situation.
Surrender and obedience stop temptation and prevent sin. Handling others gracefully gets our focus off of their sins and helps us pay attention to how Jesus himself is giving us the love and the goodness that others have denied to us.
Only under God's grace can we successfully do the opposite of what we're tempted to do. Only under God's grace are we able to be victorious in our walk of holiness. By the grace of God, we live in righteousness and change the world around us.
Today's Prayer
Lord, You draw me closer to You and call me by my name. Give me the grace to be alert at every moment, working faithfully according to Your loving plans. Amen.
God Bless You.....
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