Bible Study for the 27th Week in Ordinary Time 2024

This week’s memory verse: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” — Luke 16:10

  • 10/6 – 2 Corinthians 5:7
  • 10/7 – 1 John 1:9
  • 10/8 – 2 Timothy 2:13
  • 10/9 – Psalm 36:5
  • 10/10 – Proverbs 28:20
  • 10/11 – Galatians 5:22-23
  • 10/12 – Hebrews 10:23

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me a heart of faithfulness. Help me in ignoring all distraction so to focus all my love and attention on those You have given me: a spouse, friends, children, and pets. Make my heart steadfast. Amen.

Reflection for the 27th Ordinary Sunday 2024

When Jesus saw this… He said to them, “Let the children come to Me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

For seven Sundays this summer we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him. For the rest of Ordinary Time and the special Solemnities of our Church, Jesus discusses applying His presence within us. How do we do it?

A certain way to live out the presence of Jesus is faithfulness.

The Pharisees come to Jesus, as usual, to test Him. This was their mode of operation, to constantly question, test, debate, and argue. In general, this is not a bad approach. It is a way to debate with a goal of arriving at the truth. This method however falls apart if it is only intended to trap and without openness to acceptance of God’s truth.

The question they ask concerns divorce. To this day, among Orthodox Jews, a husband has the power to issue a Jewish divorce. The husband ends the marriage by giving his wife a Get. The marriage ends formally if the wife receives it willingly.

Of course there are traps there. If a husband issues a Get the wife will quickly realize his support has ended; there is no way out, she must accept it. 

In Jesus’ time men left their wife behind by just issuing a document and moving on. Like today where divorced women statistically tend to end up more impoverished, leaves behind a wake of destruction.

This is not a discussion of abusive situations, which always must end, but rather one of faithfulness. Jesus was encountering a people who treated faithfulness cheaply. They were not living up to the very faithfulness that God showed toward them. 

The same today. Get an itch, see a better bank account, desire more fun, set aside faithfulness and move on.

Jesus reminds the Pharisees and us of God’s faithfulness and our call to that very same faithfulness. We tell young people to reach up, to strive for the best. So, we must do the same in terms of faithfulness to our commitment to each other. As God sets the example for us, we must set the example for each other and our children,

Today we welcome our pets to church. This is always a blessed event, and again shows us the power of faithfulness.

Today’s gospel ends with Jesus embracing children. It seems odd in this divorce discussion but is not. It is intended to show us the true value of dedication and faithfulness. Living His presence in us.

Bible Study for the 26th Week in Ordinary Time 2024

This week’s memory verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” — John 3:16

  • 9/29 – Matthew 6:19-21
  • 9/30 – Luke 12:33-34
  • 10/1 – Luke 12:15
  • 10/2 – Acts 20:35
  • 10/3 – 1 John 3:17
  • 10/4 – 1 Timothy 6:17-19
  • 10/5 – Acts 4:32-35

Pray the week:  Lord Jesus, grant me a heart freed from possessiveness. Allow me to be content in Your provision and to share rightly from any excess. May Your Gospel shine brightly in me and free me from anything holding me back.

Reflection for the 26th Ordinary Sunday 2024

There is no one who performs a mighty deed in My name who can at the same time speak ill of Me.

For seven Sundays this summer we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him. For the rest of Ordinary Time and the special Solemnities of our Church, Jesus discusses applying His presence within us. How do we do it?

A certain way to live out the presence of Jesus is to avoid both personal and faith possessiveness.

Notice in our reading from Numbers, Eldad and Medad prophesy – they express outwardly the gift God’s Holy Spirit has bestowed on them. They are doing exactly what God wants them to do, living His gift out.

Right away, a boy runs to tell on them and Joshua is ready to shut them down. The boy and Joshua engaged in a possessiveness towards God’s gifts that was uncalled for. Moses sets them straight.

In the same way, the Apostles come to Jesus telling on someone driving our demons with His Name. They engaged in the same type of possessiveness that Moses had to deal with. Likewise, Jesus deals with it. He turns the Apostles attitude from one of possessiveness to one of acceptance and welcome for all who are with God and who are using God’s gifts rightly.

St. James illustrates what happens when we live possessively toward the gifts in our lives. It is cheapness of life, distractedness through a sole focus on gaining and possessing things of little to no value. In a stunning condemnation, St. James tells his listeners that their sin of possessiveness killed Jesus. Their greed killed love.

We may sadly know people who possess much. We see the lifestyles of the rich and famous in movies and on TV, we can join Rap star 2 Chainz on his show “Most Expensivest” and see people spending to excess on worthless things. If one were to look just a little more deeply, we would find lives lacking fulfillment and a bunch of damaged souls left behind.

Jesus is strongly reminding us to value things rightly. To damage someone’s soul, especially that of an innocent person, it would be better if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. It is about properly valuing, caring for, and living rightly. If we do it wrong in selfishness, placing ourselves first, there is a consequence.

What we possess, even our bodies, must be put to work for Jesus’ Gospel and the Kingdom. The presence of Jesus within us calls us to offer it all, and to do so both willingly and rightly, getting rid of whatever holds us back. 

Bible Study for the 25th Week in Ordinary Time 2024

This week’s memory verse: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. — 2 Corinthians 12:9

  • 9/22 – Philippians 4:13
  • 9/23 – Deuteronomy 31:6
  • 9/24 – Proverbs 3:5-6
  • 9/25 – 1 John 4:8
  • 9/26 – Psalm 72:12-14
  • 9/27 – 2 Corinthians 13:4
  • 9/28 – Ezekiel 36:26

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me a heart like Yours, not self-centered, but open and vulnerable so that others may see You through me. Amen. 

Reflection for the 25th Ordinary Sunday 2024

But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question Him.

For seven Sundays this summer we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him. For the rest of Ordinary Time and the special Solemnities of our Church, Jesus discusses applying His presence within us. How do we do it?

Jesus and the apostles are back in Capernaum. They had been journeying again, keeping it on the downlow because Jesus had things He needed to tell His closest collaborators. For the second time He discusses His ultimate sacrifice. He also lets them know that His sacrifice will not be an ending, but rather the start of a new life for His mortal body and ours.

The gospel tells us that they didn’t get it. The gospel then goes on to insinuate why that might have been: they weren’t paying attention. They were distracted by their self-centered desires.

It couldn’t be any more ironic. Jesus speaks of total self-giving as they talk about self above all else.

Throughout scripture God calls us to look, act, and exist differently. Jesus takes up the child, not so much as a cutesy and sweet moment as some portray in art, but to drive home a point.

God called Israel, through the prophets, to a total change of heart. The Apostles call us to find strength in weakness. That’s the real point. To count ourselves least of all, as children were, to use care in not overvaluing ourselves, yet to be loved and counted as a blessing as children were.

St. James reminds the early Church (only about five to six years after Jesus’ Ascension) that our attitudes really count. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits.

This comprehensive way of living for the other is to reflect the Jesus within us best.

In Greek there are three words for power or authority. The first two are energy and dynamic. There is a power in energy, in strength, just as there is a power in being dynamic, in having the power to generate energy; but when the Gospels speak of Jesus as “having great power” and as having a power beyond that of other religious figures, they do not use the words energetic or dynamic. They use a third word, exousia, which can be rendered as vulnerability. Jesus’ real power was rooted in an authority from vulnerability based on His trust in the Father, powerless as His child.   

Jesus calls us to live His new life presence within us by a vulnerability that shows our complete trust in Him.

Bible Study for the 24th Week in Ordinary Time 2024

This week’s memory verse: And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. — Colossians 3:17

  • 9/15 – Romans 12:1-2
  • 9/16 – James 1:2-4 
  • 9/17 – Revelation 14:12 
  • 9/18 – Daniel 3:12
  • 9/19 – 1 Peter 2:9
  • 9/20 – 1 Corinthians 15:58
  • 9/21 – Proverbs 16:3

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, in baptism I was dedicated to You and made a citizen of Your Kingdom. Grant that I may exhibit my complete dedication to You and Your Kingdom by all my strength and effort each day. Amen. 

Reflection for the 24th Ordinary Sunday 2024

He summoned the crowd with His disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

For seven Sundays we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him. For the rest of Ordinary Time and the special Solemnities of our Church, Jesus discusses applying our life in Him. How do we do it?

Jesus again lays it on the line for His followers. He tells them that they must take up their cross and follow Him.

We kind of miss the point based on our religious-cultural experience of Jesus and Christianity. We can watch movies and see Jesus carrying His cross. Certainly, He saved us by that, but what is Jesus asking of me today?

We obviously, unless we are being tortured for our faith as is done in some places, will never experience seeing, touching, or picking up a cross. We may have a symbolic one in our bedrooms or the entryway to our house, we may see large ones in churches, and during Holy Week we may adore the Cross as an expression of our love for what Jesus did for us. Yet the idea of taking up a cross is distant and foreign to us.

What is Jesus trying to tell me?

Let’s place ourselves amid the crowd Jesus was speaking to. They knew what a cross was, what it meant, what it felt like, and what it resulted in. They may have had family members arrested by Roman soldiers and subsequently killed on a cross. Their system of torture and execution was placed where all could see and experience it. Even when a person had died, the cross was left there awaiting its next victim.

To the people in the crowd this was the worst thing they could possibly experience. It was the most tortuous, most awful experience. Yet, Jesus tells them to take up this thing a person would not even wish on their worst enemy. 

Jesus is telling the crowd and us that discipleship is more than an occasional bit of harder-than-usual work. It is more than what we think we can do. It is an all-in complete self-giving in following Him. As His disciple, I must go all-in, giving of my whole self. Taking up that level of dedication comes with the most awesome of promises.

We people, named after Christ Jesus, yes, Christians, having given our all all-the-time will come before the Father one day and Jesus will tell Him that we are His friends. He will welcome us and lead us into that eternal place of life, homecoming, and eternal joy.

Bible Study for the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time 2024

This week’s memory verse: He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. — 2 Corinthians 9:10 

  • 9/8 – Luke 6:38
  • 9/9 – Isaiah 54:2
  • 9/10 – Genesis 26:12
  • 9/11 – Malachi 3:10
  • 9/12 – Job 8:7
  • 9/13 – Ephesians 3:20
  • 9/14 – Romans 13:8-9 

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me increase, not in things, but in the love I show by the way I respond to Your question in serving You and my brothers and sisters. 

Reflection for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love 2024

“What is written in the Law? How do you understand it?”

For seven Sundays we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him. For the rest of Ordinary Time and the special Solemnities of our Church, Jesus will discuss the practical application of being in Him. How do we do it?

Last week we covered the nature of the Law Israel was to follow. Unfortunately, what Jesus encountered was the Law reduced to a series of dos and don’ts modified with unimportant additions. What was meant to be about Israel’s special relationship with God and with each other had been corrupted.

Jesus tells us that the Law’s true nature is about a community in relationship with God and each other. More importantly for us who receive Jesus, who are in His living presence right now, our way of life must be about growing toward God, having our hearts close to God, and always keeping our worship directed to God.

Today the Law scholar questions Jesus exactly about the way God’s people are to live. What encompasses the nature of relationship with God and others as contained in the Law. After covering the basics and getting the passages right, the scholar asked for more and Jesus responded with one of His more known parables, that of the Good Samaritan.

So, for us today. In just a bit we will offer our sacrifices – which we all give – the bread and the wine. In their offering and the repetition of Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, we will all be pulled into eternity with Christ. We will be in His presence, in heaven, for the briefest of moments. He will return with us providing us His gift of His Body and Blood.

In that moment, and in receiving Him, let us practice asking the same question, ‘What do I do with Him in me? How do I understand and enact Him?’

The response we will get is Jesus repeating His closing words to the scholar: “Go and do likewise.”

We must take Jesus and take up His way of life as we walk the gospel path in our everyday lives. Our receiving Him is an awesome meeting with eternal love, but if we just keep it for ourselves, we fall short.

How to do it, what to take on? There are million plus ways to enact the example of the Good Samaritan. Visit a friend, talk with someone about Jesus, sing a hymn with someone, volunteer, encourage a young person in their journey, console the sick, comfort a mourner.

Like the Samaritan, we will come across the moment we are needed – the Holy Spirit will put it right there. Then answer the question: “What is written in the gospel? How do I understand it?”