Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Growth in the Christian life happens as we become increasingly aware, in faith, of Christ’s presence. For someone who is baptised, the core of their being is drenched with Christ, with His Blood, with His Love, with His Holy Spirit. We must be careful not to equate our Christian practices with our Christian life. I do not cease to be a Christian when I stop praying, or when I watch a movie, when I eat, or when I do something foolish or even when I sin. Life in Christ is not determined by good morals or being on one’s best behavior or setting the example for others or being pleased with ourselves. Grace certainly plays an active role in our continued conversion and sanctification – and this transformation requires our cooperation – but grace is primarily about making us more deeply and increasingly aware of the presence of God.

The presence of God is not a good feeling – and it isn’t a bad feeling either. The presence of God is a gently beating heart continually inviting my own heart to beat with it. The ears of faith, inspired by grace, understand that this listening is more urgent and vital than breathing. Jesus understands that for this truth to sink in, the flesh of the Son of Man must endure suffering and death. That is why He compares the suffering united with Himself to labor pains. The joy of seeing a new birth, the birth of unending life, so exceeds the suffering involved in delivery that it is forgotten. Christ allows us to unite our suffering to His so that the joy of victory and deliverance belongs to us more completely. No one can take this joy from us because in Christ we have paid the price for it with Him. WIthout Him we have nothing to offer – in Him, our suffering in the flesh has as much value as His own.¹ What we receive in exchange for suffering in union with Him, already in this life by faith, is the joy of seeing Him present in our heart.

Chrysostom:

Here also he implies something mystical, that he has removed the birth pangs of death and caused a new person to be born of them. Furthermore, he not only said that the pain shall pass away but also that “she does not even remember it,” so great is the joy that follows; so also shall it be with the saints. And yet the woman does not rejoice because “a human being has come into the world” but because a child has been born to her. For if the former had been the case, nothing would have hindered the barren woman from rejoicing over another who gives birth to a child.²

Bede:

Just as it is customary to say that a person “is born” when he comes forth from his mother’s womb and emerges into the light here [on earth], so also can someone be perfectly appropriately referred to as “born” when he is released from the bonds of the flesh and raised up to eternal light. Hence church practice has been that the day on which blessed martyrs or confessors of Christ departed from the world we call their birthday, and their solemn festival is not spoken of as their “funeral” but as their “birthday.”³

Cyprian:

What blindness of mind or what foolishness is it to love the world’s afflictions, and punishments and tears, and not rather to rush to the joy that can never be taken away!⁴

Footnotes

Col 1:24
HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79.1. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 213). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.13. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 213). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
ON MORTALITY. 5. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 213). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Daily Readings

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
by USCCB on November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am
Reading Rv 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!Blessed be the LORD, my rock,who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!My mercy and my fortress,my stronghold, my deliverer,My shield, in whom I trust,who subdues my people under me.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!O God, I will sing a new song to you;with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,You who give victory to kings,and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 20:27-40 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Readings for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, priest and martyrReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Columban, abbotReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Clement I, pope and martyr - - - Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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