Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2021
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 476
Reading I
Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature.
For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness for lawlessness,
so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
But what profit did you get then
from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
- (Ps 40:5) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
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. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
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. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
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. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Alleluia
- Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Reflection: JESUS: THE ULTIMATE CHOICE
Every human being is both enslaved and free. Paul says that we can choose to be 'slaves of sin' or we can be 'freed from sin.' If we choose slavery to sin, we will die. If we choose to be freed from sin, we will be sanctified. 'The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.' In the Gospel Jesus says that he has come to bring fire upon the earth. Fire means judgment. Fire destroys what is wicked and valueless. Fire purifies and cleanses. This fire will purify hearts and set them aflame with love. It must be lit on the cross. A Christian must be fire and flame, just as the saints were. The one who baptizes with fire and the Spirit must first take the way of suffering himself. His death is the baptism. Secondly, Jesus says that he has come to bring division. Jesus always spoke of peace. Jesus did not want division. But the announcement that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah' becomes a reason for much division among the Jews. Relationship to Jesus decides between alienation from God and fellowship with Him. In this sense, 'the Good News of Jesus' was really a source of division, a 'sign of contradiction'. The crucifix is the sign which divides. Every man must decide for or against him. The Cross is both an offer and a demand of God. Many times, where the Church is renewed, the call of the Good News becomes a "sign of contradiction" and division.