Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. We are fools on Christ's account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world's rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment. 1 Corinthians 4:9-14
While he was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Luke 6:1-2
Piety
Blessed are the foolish on Christ’s account.
Blessed are the weak.
Blessed are those held in disrepute.
Blessed are the hungry and thirsty.
Blessed are the poorly clad and roughly treated.
Blessed are the homeless and the laborers.
Blessed are the persecuted, may they endure.
Blessed are the slandered, may they respond gently.
Blessed are those who are treated like the world’s rubbish.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/090608.shtml
Jesus reverses everything again…turning what people know upside-down in order to make a point about living the Gospel successfully versus living in the world successfully.
Working on the Sabbath was against the law yet the disciples were caught gathering grain. The Pharisees seemed right in raising the question about an act that in their culture seemed to put the disciples above the law. Jesus however, changes the law by reinterpreting what is good and just. Jesus teaches that “satisfying human needs such as hunger and performing works of mercy take precedence even over the sacred Sabbath rest.” Love your neighbor as yourself.
Paul reinforces this apparent upside down, beatific-version of life in his letter to the people in
Our society revels in the rich and successful, those who can “flip houses” for wealth and fortune and profits, those who can make millions on Wall Street, those who star in feature films and live the life of celebrity surrounded by groupies and paparazzi. Yet our faith celebrates the opposite…Jesus celebrates those who stand up against all odds to endure and respect life.
- Blessed are the teenage mothers, raising children in the violent urban neighborhoods against all odds.
- Blessed are homeless men with AIDS, spending the last weeks and months of life in a hospice comforting other patients despite their own afflictions.
- Blessed are the wounded veterans, putting life back together even when their body has been blown apart after leaving an arm or leg or both behind on the battlefield in
- Blessed is the gang member, trying to escape a life of crime and punishment.
- Blessed is the prisoner on death row who repents for his sin and seeks forgiveness.
Action
Is there anything lower and of less “repute” than a convicted prisoner on death row? Yet Paul identifies the disciples with those who are sentenced to death! They do, as Paul notes, become a spectacle with opponents to the death penalty and supporters of the death penalty all holding competing vigils on the night of the planned execution.
More than 20 executions are scheduled in various states between now and the end of the year. These are listed under “ALERTS!” at www.NCADP.org. NCADP encourages appeals for clemency via regular postal mail and again as the date approaches via the telephone. Your personalized, hand written appeal through the mail has infinitely greater impact than a mass-produced e-mail. Please take action today!
Consistent with church teaching and the cries of the bishops of
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