Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Title

Trust and Obey

Outline

If you are like me you want to be certain and safe

When I pack for a trip, I want to cover every eventuality

If I am to speak at a conference, I try to have access to more than one script - just in case

And even in our cozy house I have backup batteries everywhere (with good reason) and leave lights on outside so intruders know people are there and we could see any intruder

But if your experience is like mine, you know that God wants us living from trust in him and obedience to his word

That was certainly how I entered the Catholic Church

And I entered the priesthood without salary or promise of retirement funding or medical insurance or any of that stuff

I did not even have a real job description in my first assignment

Just as “trust me” from God

And that is how Abraham pleased God

It was not that he followed the rules of being a good Jew that would be in the Torah

It was that he heard the call of God and trust God and obeyed - and he must have felt mighty uncomfortable at times

He trusted the impossible - that he a man without children would be the father of many nations - which is what he became

That is also what Jesus says

“I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.”

In court, unable to do anything, but still confessing that one is following Jesus

Mary must have done something like that - pregnant, without a husband, perhaps saying, “All I know is that an angel appeared and told me that God’s power would make me pregnant” - I suspect that she did not give the details

That is not what Peter did when questioned by the woman in the high priest’s courtyard - good thing he repented

Well, Mary has been acknowledged before the divine court.

And whatever she said then or whatever Peter said later when in a different type of court, she and he relied on the Holy Spirit - she had no other help or training and Peter does not seem to have consulted lawyers or had any rhetorical training himself, if we judge by Mark

So, Sisters, the watchword is trust and obey

God will surely put you in a place in which you simply need to trust the last thing he told you and obey his directions

No security, no fallback, and perhaps no comfort

Trust me

That is the place of faith, the place of true security, and that place in which we will see the promises of God fulfilled, if not in this phase of life, then in the next in the presence of all the angels and saints

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 10-16-2021: Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Romans 4:13, 16–18

13 It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

16 For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist. 18 He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “Thus shall your descendants be.”

Catholic Daily Readings 10-16-2021: Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 105:8a

8 He remembers forever his covenant,

the word he commanded for a thousand generations,

PSALM

Psalm 105:6–9, 42–43

6 You descendants of Abraham his servant,

offspring of Jacob the chosen one!

7 He the LORD, is our God

whose judgments reach through all the earth.

8 He remembers forever his covenant,

the word he commanded for a thousand generations,

9 Which he made with Abraham,

and swore to Isaac,

42 For he remembered his sacred promise

to Abraham his servant.

43 He brought his people out with joy,

his chosen ones with shouts of triumph.

Catholic Daily Readings 10-16-2021: Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 15:26b, 27a

26 “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.

27 And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

GOSPEL

Luke 12:8–12

8 I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.

10 “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. 12 For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 10-16-2021: Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Hedwig, Religious; Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

First Reading Romans 4:13, 16–18

Response Psalm 105:8a

Psalm Psalm 105:6–9, 42–43

Gospel Acclamation John 15:26b, 27a

Gospel Luke 12:8–12

GREEN if not one of the saints