Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 18, 2022
September12,2022
Amos 8:4, 7 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! Never will I forget a thing they have done! Psalm 1a, 7b Praise the Lord, who lifts up the poor. Timothy 2: For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all. It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument. Luke 16:8, 13 For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
In studying the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, which we are all asked to revisit, it is often noted how the lessons are organized. Not without purpose does the Church arrange its teachings around what are called the “four pillars”. Every catholic should be familiar with the (I) Apostles’ Creed, (II) the Sacraments, (III) the Commandments, and finally (IV) prayer. These teachings are foundational and the bare minimum for those who wish to know and live the Faith.
You notice that the section on the Sacraments comes before the section on the Commandments. Why is this order important? The reason is that no one can hope to keep the commandments unless he receives God’s grace, most efficaciously present in the seven sacraments. God’s laws without God’s divine presence to assist us are impossible to keep, and thus would readily become an extraordinary burden no human could bear. However, with God’s divine intervention through actual and sanctifying graces, we are empowered to go beyond the merely human and conform to God’s plan for us. We are elevated beyond the merely natural by the supernatural assistance of God Himself.
Therefore, in our Scriptures today the call to care for the needy, the poor among us, is most possible and makes best sense after we have received God’s life, light, and love. A prayerful man is gradually inspired to move beyond his own personal concerns to the concerns of his brothers and sisters in the Lord. His use of the material things of this world, “mammon”, are then seen in the right way. Riches and poverty begin to be seen differently. Those rich in the things of the world may be poor in the things of the heavenly kingdom, whereas those poor in the things of this world may be wealthy in what really matters, that is, in the treasure of the eternal kingdom. Jesus charmingly invites us to choose.
Yours in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor