October 20
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intention
7:45 AM – Filomena Javier / Pio & Ebeneza Oliverio
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Romans 6:12-18
Brothers and sisters: Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace?
Of course not!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves
to someone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one you obey,
either of sin, which leads to death,
or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin,
you have become obedient from the heart
to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.
Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8
R. (8a) Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Had not the LORD been with us,
let Israel say, had not the LORD been with us–
When men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive;
When their fury was inflamed against us.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us;
The torrent would have swept over us;
over us then would have swept the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us
a prey to their teeth.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
We were rescued like a bird
from the fowlers’ snare;
Broken was the snare,
and we were freed.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation
Matthew 24:42a, 44
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 12:39-48
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
“Our help is in the name of the Lord.”
Reflection
Again we are being cautioned by Jesus to carry ourselves with a certain readiness that reveals that, should we have the choice placed before us, in our heart of hearts, we know who is Lord of our life (…Jesus!) and who is not (…me!). If this is the lens for our perspective in life, we ultimately are much more equipped to then discern our way through whatever comes our way. Is this or that decision going to lead me closer to Jesus or not? Is this relationship in my life helping me to give glory to God or not? Can I rely completely on God to help me through my trials in life or am I still trying to rely solely on myself?
While some of these situations in our life are more complicated than this, the bottom line remains the same. Have I allowed Jesus to have top priority in my life?
If not, it’s not too late to ask Jesus to invite you deeper into trust with him. It’s possible that going through the motions in life, or growing too routine in our prayer, we may become disconnected from being able to notice when we are allowing certain sins to “reign” over our bodies—as St. Paul reminds us today. Chances are if a sin is truly reigning over us we are either completely unaware of it, or we are stuck feeling overwhelmed or powerless to it. Regardless of what seems to be distracting us from allowing Jesus to live his life in us, let us remember that, in humility, we just need to freely offer him an open door. “Our help is in the name of the Lord.” Right! We don’t have to rely only on our own struggling selves…our help is always going to come from him whenever we ask. He will make us ready.
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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