Joseph’s :: Notices :: Magazine
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Yr C)
on those who hope in his love.
Psalm 32(33) verse 18
READINGS: Wisdom 18:6-9, Psalm 32(33), Hebrews 11:1-2 & 8-19, Luke 12:32-48
There’s no doubting the fact that what we place our hope in shapes our lives. It has an impact on the way we think, and on the way we act. There’s a short account from the time when the Early Church was being persecuted. A humble - which is to say poor - Christian was brought before a judge. He told the judge that it wouldn’t matter what the judge did (or threatened to do), he would not be shaken from his belief. ‘If I am true to God,’ he said, ‘God will be true to me.’ The judge said to him, ‘What makes you think that the likes of you will come before God in his glory?’ ‘I don’t “think”,’ said the Christian, ‘I know.’
When we place our hope, it’s important to get it right. If you’re ever unsure what you’re placing your hope in, think what you do with any spare cash that you have. There will be a big clue in that. The letter to the Hebrews talks about ‘realities that at present remain unseen.’ (Hebrews 11:1) The letter to the Hebrews was originally written to people exactly like our humble Christian martyr. For him, faith proved the existence of those unseen realities, exactly as the letter says. It’s worth reminding ourselves that, whilst we tend to think most easily of Christians being martyred in the distant past, the fact is that more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all the other centuries put together. The kind of hope that says, ‘I don’t just think - I know’, doesn’t just belong in the Church’s history, it is something that God gives now. The lives of the Christian martyrs show us how we might find that kind of faith. Faith comes from courageously living the Christian life. To live it fully quite simply takes more than we have - to live it fully relies on God giving us what we need.
Luke Chapter 12, Verse 40
When we look at Jesus’ call to stand ready, two aspects of the Christian life stand out: to be at peace with God, and to be at peace with other people. For all of us there are things that stand between ourselves and God. Things that stop us coming closer. The call to stand ready is a call to have the courage to let go of those things. God will more than fill the gap.
Being at peace with other people can sound charming, but the more seriously we try to be at peace with others, the more obstacles we come up against. Again, fully living the Christian life takes more than we have, but each step we take on the journey makes us more open to God’s grace. Each step brings us closer to being able to say, ‘I don’t just think - I know.’
Mark Howe
Readings for the 19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Wisdom 18:6-9
By the same act with which you took vengeance on our foes you made us glorious by calling us to you.
That night had been foretold to our ancestors, so that,
once they saw what kind of oaths they had put their trust in
they would joyfully take courage.
This was the expectation of your people,
the saving of the virtuous and the ruin of their enemies;
for by the same act with which you took vengeance on our foes
you made us glorious by calling us to you.
The devout children of worthy men offered sacrifice in secret
and this divine pact they struck with one accord:
that the saints would share the same blessings and dangers alike;
and forthwith they had begun to chant the hymns of the fathers.
This is the word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32(33):1 . 12 . 18-20 . 22 R/ v.12
R/ Happy are the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
- Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own. R/ - The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine. R/ - Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you. R/
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews 11:1-2 & 8-12
Abraham looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.
Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.
It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful to it. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation cf. Mt 11:25
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 12:35-40
You too must stand ready.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them. It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
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