Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Year 1 2023

Title

Why Mary Blessed and Why the Nations Cursed?

Outline

We often get God wrong, miss his values

The problem is that our thoughts are not his thoughts.

In fact, often even when we put in the time and effort to meditate on great truths or grasp the thought of Thomas Aquinas on ethics we can end up going crosswise to God.

Take Mary on whom we have meditated for millennia and come up with quite imaginative (in a good sense) and descriptive meditations on her and her blessings (I think of John of Damascus and similar writers), often we miss the core.

The woman near Jesus spoke, I am sure, for many when she praised Mary for carrying and nursing Jesus, doing all that a mother could and should do. Ah yes, says Jesus, but her woman’s function does not get to the core of it: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Or “guarding it.” Her greatest blessing consisted in “hearing the word of God” from Gabriel and guarding or treasuring it which started with saying “yes” to it, a “yes” that was in a sense passive, “be it unto me according to your word,” but which was the “I serve” that Satan and Eve refused, Eve by specifically rejecting God’s word.

Now she lived that out as a woman, but the decision was the fundamental “yes” to God, the “your kingdom come, your will be done.” And she likely had little idea of how it would happen (I wonder if she really “got” Gabriel’s word about the Holy Spirit until long after the fact).

Now the nations do just the opposite

The one crime mentioned is “violence done to the Judahites,” but their crimes are really numerous, so most go unnamed.

The no more expected to be “gathered together in the Valley of Jehoshaphat” or the “Valley of Decision” than Mary had expected the momentous time of decision when Gabriel had appeared.

They had sought their own advantage, and if Judah was blocking the way, so much the worse for Judah. Their advantage accomplished their way, often through violence and intrigue. And that is the opposite of “Your Kingdom come” and “Your will be done.” It is a “No,” a “I will not serve,” and so they fall like Adam and Eve, like the fallen angels which we call demons.

So, Sisters, it is the choice, the submission that is blessed

For Mary its working out would entail God’s using her natural functions and training from a child to serve as mother to a child she did not fully understand. But it seemed natural in the world’s eyes.

For Terese of Liseaux it would entail embracing love as her natural functions withered and her dreams of mission turned to dust. She found the way to say her “yes” and live her “yes” in the middle of it.

And for us it will be the same. It will be an ongoing “yes” to God versus “I did it my way” or I pursued my dream or I sought my advantage. It is in that “yes” that we enter the Valley of Decision, making the right decision that puts us among the Judahites. We may be abused by the no’s of the world around us, but we serve, not in the way we want, but in the way to which God calls us, whether it seems obvious to the world or quite contradictory.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 10-14-2023: Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Joel 4:12–21

12 Let the nations rouse themselves and come up

to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

For there I will sit in judgment

upon all the neighboring nations.

13 Wield the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe;

Come and tread,

for the wine press is full;

The vats overflow,

for their crimes are numerous.

14 Crowds upon crowds

in the Valley of Decision;

For near is the day of the LORD

in the Valley of Decision.

15 Sun and moon are darkened,

and the stars withhold their brightness,

16 The LORD roars from Zion,

and from Jerusalem raises his voice,

The heavens and the earth quake,

but the LORD will be a shelter for his people,

a fortress for the people of Israel.

17 Then you will know that I the LORD am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain;

Jerusalem will be holy,

and strangers will never again travel through her.

18 On that day

the mountains will drip new wine,

and the hills flow with milk,

All the streams of Judah

will flow with water.

A spring will rise from the house of the LORD,

watering the Valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt will be a waste,

Edom a desolate wilderness,

Because of violence done to the Judahites,

because they shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem for all generations.

21 I will avenge their blood,

and I will not acquit the guilt.

The LORD dwells in Zion.

Catholic Daily Readings 10-14-2023: Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 97:12a

12 Rejoice in the LORD, you just,

and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

PSALM

Psalm 97:1–2, 5–6, 11–12

1 The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;

let the many islands be glad.

2 Cloud and darkness surround him;

justice and right are the foundation of his throne.

5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,

before the Lord of all the earth.

6 The heavens proclaim his justice;

all peoples see his glory.

11 Light dawns for the just,

and gladness for the honest of heart.

12 Rejoice in the LORD, you just,

and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Catholic Daily Readings 10-14-2023: Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Luke 11:28

28 He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

GOSPEL

Luke 11:27–28

27 While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” 28 He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 10-14-2023: Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2023 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

First Reading Joel 4:12–21

Response Psalm 97:12a

Psalm Psalm 97:1–2, 5–6, 11–12

Gospel Acclamation Luke 11:28

Gospel Luke 11:27–28

GREEN (Red for St Callistus)