GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY - Monday - October 24, 2022

 

Monday - October 24, 2022

“The Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.”

-Archbishop Fulton Sheen

October 24, 2022

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 479

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    EPH 4:32–5:8

 

Brothers and sisters:

Be kind to one another, compassionate,

forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

 

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,

as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us

as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,

as is fitting among holy ones,

no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,

but instead, thanksgiving.

Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,

that is, an idolater,

has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

 

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,

for because of these things

the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.

So do not be associated with them.

For you were once darkness,

but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of light.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

 

R. (see Eph. 5:1) Behave like God as his very dear children.

 

Blessed the man who follows not

the counsel of the wicked

Nor walks in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the company of the insolent,

But delights in the law of the LORD

and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Behave like God as his very dear children.

He is like a tree

planted near running water,

That yields its fruit in due season,

and whose leaves never fade.

Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Behave like God as his very dear children.

Not so the wicked, not so;

they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

For the LORD watches over the way of the just,

but the way of the wicked vanishes.

R. Behave like God as his very dear children.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2:8          JN 17:17B, 17A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Your word, O Lord, is truth;

consecrate us in the truth.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           LK 13:10-17

 

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.

And a woman was there who for eighteen years

had been crippled by a spirit;

she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.

When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,

“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”

He laid his hands on her,

and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.

But the leader of the synagogue,

indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,

said to the crowd in reply,

“There are six days when work should be done.

Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”

The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!

Does not each one of you on the sabbath

untie his ox or his ass from the manger

and lead it out for watering?

This daughter of Abraham,

whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,

ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day

from this bondage?”

When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;

and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

 

**********************************

 

Living as true children of God

St. Paul says in today’s first reading that immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, and lewd talk are all forms of idolatry. Why?

 

Idolatry means worshipping something other than God. It’s obvious why immoral decisions and greed push Jesus out of his rightful place as Lord of our lives, but how is telling a dirty joke or using foul language an act of idolatry?

 

Paul’s list of sins is an example of what is not found in God’s nature. We’re supposed to imitate Jesus, but these behaviors replace God with unGodly priorities and preferences. God is supposed to be our Father. His nature – our inheritance – should always be our top priority, so that we remain close to him, open to his love and his miracles.

 

Today’s responsorial Psalm reminds us how to live as the inheritors of God’s nature. First we make the decision to avoid sin by rejecting the ways of the wicked. That means staying away from the influences of the insolent and rebellious. At the same time, we decide to prefer God’s ways, even if we don’t understand why all of his methods and sacrifices and commandments are good. And because we want to understand, we meditate, ponder and study God’s ways all the time, not half-heartedly and not only when it’s convenient.

 

As our prayer life improves, we receive refreshing nourishment and the empowerment of gifts from the Holy Spirit. This helps us grow well spiritually, and the Spirit’s presence within us does not wither nor fade during hard times. Our lives produce many good fruits, i.e., we are successful in every circumstance that honors the Father.

 

But look at what happens when we let immorality of any sort become our priority or preference.

 

First, we accept obscenity and suggestive talk as if it’s okay and normal. That makes us feel comfortable around the insolent and rebellious, and soon we relax spiritually. Like a slowly heating pot of water cooking a frog that’s enjoying the swim, the environment erodes our resistance and we begin to feel drawn to their ways. This feels “good”, so we succumb to sin and forget to pray, but feeling guilty about it, we find excuses and distractions that keep us from praying, because we prefer to not think about God’s disapproval.

 

In this condition, we soak up the ways of the world, always thirsty for satisfaction but never fully finding it. This unquenchable thirst becomes a desperate addiction recycling the cravings of the flesh. Rooted in these cravings, we lose touch with the loving presence of God, and his absence reinforces the “need” for the addiction.

 

The fruit of this is destruction. Our malnourished faith withers and fades during hardships. Disconnected from God, we make more and more mistakes and enter so deeply into darkness that our unhappiness increases, thereby increasing the search to find satisfaction in sin – and we spiral downwards into hell.

 

No wonder the wrath of God comes upon the disobedient. He loves us so much that he utterly hates what idolatry does to us.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Jesus, forgive me for the times I let myself be trapped by social structures and forget being merciful. Amen.

 

 

God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”