Accompanying Him September 22

http://www.usccb.org/nab/092206.shtml

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:19-20

Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources. (Luke 8:2-3)

Piety

Let us pray: Jesus, teach us to be open to your call and to invite all people to join us on the journey you have set forth. Thank you for sending to us nurturing, loving and challenging women – our mothers and wives, our sisters and daughters – who plant the seeds and cultivate our piety, study and action. Help us to respond to that special care as we respond to the life-giving light that you provide so that we can offer to you the firstfruits of our labor in your vineyard. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/092206.shtml

One faith. One baptism. One holy Church.

Perhaps we sometimes forget this critical passage from Luke’s Gospel. There were many more than just the Twelve Apostles following Jesus. Some of the followers who answered Jesus call were women who provided for Jesus and his work “out of their resources.”

The notes to the NAB explains: Luke presents Jesus as an itinerant preacher traveling in the company of the Twelve and of the Galilean women who are sustaining them out of their means. These Galilean women will later accompany Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem and become witnesses to his death (Luke 23:49) and resurrection (Luke 24:9-11, where Mary Magdalene and Joanna are specifically mentioned; cf also Acts 1:14). The association of women with the ministry of Jesus is most unusual in the light of the attitude of first-century Palestinian Judaism toward women.

In fact the very first witnesses to the resurrection that St. Paul explains in the first reading were the women from town who went to anoint the body of Jesus in the tomb

In John’s Gospel, during the mid-day encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples challenge Jesus being seen with a woman in public. The unnamed woman herself wonders why Jesus is addressing her.

So this becomes another area in which Jesus acts in a manner that departs from customary norms of society. We see elsewhere Jesus challenging the religious and political leaders. Here, too, Jesus turned the tables. He preached a faith that was for all people irregardless of gender, nationality, status in society, wealth or health.

Talking with a woman in public was both a religious and social stricture of His time that Jesus treats as unimportant and ignores. Although in John’s Gospel, the disciples question his association, in today’s reading from St. Luke, these women are integral to Jesus’ ministry and help sustain it. What women have helped to sustain your faith?

Your mother most obviously planted the first seeds of that faith. Those seeds are cultivated by our wives, our sisters and our daughters and yes, even our mothers-in-law. From there, our Blessed Mother continues to intercede on our behalf.

Through school, parish work and more, women in the Sisters of Mercy (Sr. Pauline), the Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity (Sr. Frances), the Benedictines, the Carmelites, Sisters of Our Lady of La Salette, Sisters of Notre Dame and many other dedicated religious orders help sustain ministries and provide out of their resources. Many Cursillistas are from these and other religious orders. Other women are in study and formation to consider this special service to God and the Church.

Action

Pray for a special woman who has sustained your ministry. Why not contact her today?