(Gal.4:22-24,26-27,31-5:1; Ps.113:1-7; Lk.11:29-32) “At the judgment, the citizens of Nineveh will rise along with the present generation, and they will condemn it.” Paul’s words to the Galatians today sound much like a parable: “Abraham had two sons, one by the slave girl, the other by his freeborn wife.” He himself states pointedly, “All this is clearly an allegory: the two women stand for the two covenants.” But though Hagar may be seen as the mother of all “children [born] to slavery” and Sa...
Oct 13, 2024•5 min
(Gal.3:22-29; Ps.105:2-8; Lk.11:27-28) “Each of you is a son of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.” Praise God! “Glory in His holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord!” For He has come among us. Born of the womb of Israel, the Messiah is in our midst. And so we should “sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.” For now by faith in Him we live, and are truly blest. Brothers and sisters, “before faith came we were under the restraint of the law… the law was our ...
Oct 11, 2024•5 min
(Gal.3:7-14; Ps.111:1-6; Lk.11:15-26) “All who believe are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” But those who do not believe cannot be called “sons of Abraham,” in whom “all nations shall be blessed,” for they have not the faith of the father of many nations. For those who do not proclaim the Lord’s “renown for His wondrous deeds,” but rather say of His “gracious and merciful” acts: “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that He casts out devils,” there is only a curse. They curse ...
Oct 10, 2024•5 min
(Gal.3:1-5; Lk.1:69-75; Lk.11:5-13) “I can’t get up to look after your needs.” Does Jesus ever speak these words to us? Does He ever deny our petitions, failing to bring them to His heavenly Father? Do we ever find ourselves empty-handed when we come to Him “in the middle of the night”? Does He ever tire of serving us, of saving us from our sins? Then neither should we turn our back on our brother’s needs; neither should we fail to hear his cry and give him food. Brothers and sisters, is it not ...
Oct 09, 2024•6 min
(Gal.2:1-2,7-14; Ps.117:1-2,Mk.16:15; Lk.11:1-4) “He who worked through Peter as His apostle among the Jews had been at work in me for the Gentiles.” And that same Spirit, that same God, that same Lord and Creator is at work in all His holy apostles, and is the Father of all who call upon His Name. “Father, hallowed be your name.” You are great and you are glorious, and you bless all your children, your children of light. From every nation you call us by the power of your Word. You send out apos...
Oct 08, 2024•5 min
(Gal.1:13-24; Ps.139:1-3,13-15,24; Lk.10:38-42) “The time came when He who set me apart before I was born and called me by His favor chose to reveal His Son to me.” Paul speaks of his conversion to the faith today. But before he changed and became the Lord’s great Apostle, he tells us, “I made progress in Jewish observance far beyond most of my contemporaries, in my excess of zeal to live out all the traditions of my ancestors,” and that he “went to extremes in persecuting the church of God and ...
Oct 07, 2024•5 min
(Gal.1:6-12; Ps.111:1-2,5,7-10; Lk.10:25-37) “Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Do you really want to know? Do really seek to hear of the Gospel of Christ? Do you really desire the Word of God, which is “reliable forever and ever, wrought in truth and equity” and which “came by revelation from Jesus Christ?” If so, listen to what He speaks to you today; do not go on “so soon deserting Him who called you in accord with His design in Christ” – be not as the priest and the Levit...
Oct 06, 2024•5 min
(Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-16; Ps.119:66,71,75,91,125,130,135; Lk.10:17-24) “I watched Satan fall from the sky like lightning.” Oh how our readings conspire together today to bring heavenly light to our eyes. Truly by them the Lord would say to us what He says to His apostles, what is so evident with Job: “Blest are the eyes that see what you see.” For what more could we hope to behold than the defeat of Satan and the power of the Almighty at work in our lives? “I had heard of you by word of mouth, but ...
Oct 04, 2024•6 min
(Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5; Ps.139:1-3,7-10,13-14,24; Lk.10:13-16) “I put my hand over my mouth.” When the Lord speaks, what can we be but silent? When He chastises us for our pride and sin, we can only be ashamed. No defense have we before Him who holds us and all the world in His mighty hand and who comes to us with His redeeming love. We can but bow before Him. The Lord has “commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place”; He has “entered into the sources of the sea [and] walked about in the ...
Oct 03, 2024•5 min
(Job 19:21-27; Ps.27:7-9,13-14; Lk.10:1-12) “I know that my Vindicator lives, and that He will at last stand forth upon the dust.” “The hand of God has struck me!” Job exclaims as he begs pity from his friends who “hound [him] as though [they] were divine,” reminding him unendingly of the Lord’s justice and ever accusing him of having sinned against his Maker. Job defends himself and wishes “that with an iron chisel and with lead” his “words were written down.” And truly his prayer is answered, ...
Oct 02, 2024•5 min
(Job 9:1-12,14-16; Ps.88:3,10-15; Lk.9:57-62) “Why, O Lord, do you reject me; why hide from me your face?” The cry of our psalmist certainly reflects that of Job, who in his travails asks, “How can a man be justified before God?” who realizes that the Lord “does great things past finding out” and that “should He come near [us], [we] see Him not.” But it also reflects Jesus’ treatment of those who might follow Him, and could easily be their cry as well. “If I appealed to Him and He answered my ca...
Oct 01, 2024•5 min
(Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23; Ps.88:2-8; Lk.9:51-56) “My soul is surfeited with troubles and my life draws near to the netherworld.” After sitting in silence seven days, scraping the boils from his skin, finally, “Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.” Finally he cries out against all his troubles, asking, “Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” Only so much can mortal man bear, and so Job seeks now only the tranquility of death, wherein “the weary are at rest.” How we...
Sep 30, 2024•5 min
(Job 1:6-22; Ps.17:1-3,6-7; Lk.9:46-50) “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall go back again.” In the beginning and in the end, we have nothing: and so should be our attitude toward all things we are given – that they are not our own, that we do not possess them… that they shall pass from us unto eternity again. As shall we all. In our first reading we begin to hear of Satan’s temptation of Job, of whom the Lord’s own words witness: “There is no one on earth like him, blame...
Sep 29, 2024•6 min
(Ec.11:9-12:8; Ps.90:1,3-6,12-14,17; Lk.9:43-45) “The dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life breath returns to God who gave it.” “As a watch of the night” is our life, passing unnoticed while souls slumber. “You make an end of them in their sleep,” Psalm 90 prophesies (as we hear the same verses of this same psalm for the second time in three days); indeed man lies unaware of his coming death, ignorant of the day which passes. For though in our youth we “follow the ways of [our] ...
Sep 27, 2024•5 min
(Ec.3:1-11; Ps.144:1-4; Lk.9:18-22) “He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts.” Yes, “there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens”; and there is a time for time to cease and the timeless to come to the fore – a time for the things above the heavens. And that fullness of time has come upon the earth, for the Son of Man has known His “time to be born”; and in man’s discovering “the work which God has don...
Sep 26, 2024•5 min
(Ec.1:2-11; Ps.90:1,3-6,12-14,17; Lk.9:7-9) “See, this is new!” Here is He who is “new under the sun.” For it is not so that “John has been raised from the dead,” nor that “one of the prophets of old has arisen”: He has not “already existed in the ages that preceded us.” He is the Christ! He is the Messiah! He it is who has come to “fill us at daybreak with [His] kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.” In Him the dark of the night veiling our eyes is banished from our mid...
Sep 25, 2024•6 min
(Prv.30:5-9; Ps.119:29,72,89,101,104-105,163; Lk.9:1-6) “Take nothing for the journey.” How can he who takes nothing with him for his journey be provided for? Does not such action contradict the wisdom of the king who asks in his book of Proverbs – “Give me neither poverty nor riches”? Is it not poverty the Lord recommends to His disciples? The evangelical counsel of poverty practiced by the religious communities and striven for by all true members of the Christian faith is not the same as that ...
Sep 24, 2024•5 min
(Prv.21:1-6,10-13; Ps.119:1,27,30,34-35,44; Lk.8:19-21) “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act upon it.” Our readings today are filled throughout with one line pearls of wisdom culminating with Jesus’ above instruction in our brief gospel. And though each individual proverb or paean to the command of the Lord seems a separate entity distinct from the others which surround it, in fact, all speak of the same sword of truth that separates the way of the wicked from th...
Sep 23, 2024•4 min
(Prv.3:27-34; Ps.15:1-5; Lk.8:16-18) “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but the dwelling of the just He blesses.” Light fills the house of him “who walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not with his tongue,” for he who does these things is as light itself, having no part with darkness. He knows that “to the Lord the perverse man is an abomination,” and so he “env[ies] not the lawless man and choose[s] none of his ways” but chooses a...
Sep 22, 2024•4 min
(1Cor.15:12-20; Ps.17:1,6-8,15; Lk.8:1-3) “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” This is the heart of our faith. This is the “Good News,” the Gospel preached in our midst. This is our firm belief. Upon it all our hopes stand. Christ has been raised, and His disciples will follow Him. As surely as we accompany Him here in His mission on earth, so surely will we find ourselves in His presence in heaven. Dying in Him means rising in light. But “if ...
Sep 19, 2024•6 min
(1Cor.15:1-11; Ps.118:1-2,16-17,28; Lk.7:36-50) “I am the least of the apostles.” Brothers and sisters, “little is forgiven the one whose love is small.” And it is in the sweet tears of repentance that we discover the love held in the merciful heart of the Lord. Paul speaks the truth of himself when he claims that he does “not even deserve the name” of apostle because he has “persecuted the Church of God.” “But through the favor of God” he has “worked harder than all the others,” preaching the G...
Sep 18, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.12:31-13:13; Ps.33:2-5,12,22; Lk.7:31-35) “We piped you a tune but you did not dance; we sang you a dirge but you did not wail.” “Like children squatting in the city squares and calling to their playmates,” seeking to have them comply with their own selfish will, so are “the men of today” according to our Lord. And so is their song not “a noisy gong”? Do they not lack of love? Could they be more “rude,” more impatient and unkind, than to declare of John the Baptizer, “He is mad!” and of th...
Sep 17, 2024•6 min
(1Cor.12:12-14,27-31; Ps.100:1-5; Lk.7:11-17) “A great prophet has risen among us.” A great prophet, yes, and so much more; for here is He who is Himself the “one body” upon whom the “one Spirit” rests, and in whom all find their home. “The body is one and has many members; but all the members, many though they are, are one body; and so it is with Christ.” Christ is all things: He is apostle sent by the Father, prophet speaking for God, teacher instructing all on the narrow path that leads to he...
Sep 16, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.11:17-26,33; Ps.40:7-10,17,1Cor.11:26; Lk.7:1-10) “Just give the order and my servant will be cured.” By a word from His mouth what cannot be done? For those who have faith this is all that is needed. Listen, brothers and sisters, to the centurion’s explication of “the meaning of an order”: “I say to one, ‘On your way,’ and off he goes; to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Do you see faith at work? Do you understand the power of a word? And if a m...
Sep 15, 2024•6 min
(1Cor.9:16-19,22-27; Ps.84:2-6,8,12; Lk.6:39-42) “Although I am not bound to anyone, I made myself the slave of all so as to win over as many as possible.” How like His Lord is Paul in his declaration, “To the weak I became a weak person with a view to winning the weak.” For as Jesus descended from heaven to take on flesh and save those corrupted by its sin, so the Apostle has made himself “all things to all people,” stepping inside their skin “in order to save at least some of them.” Indeed, Pa...
Sep 12, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.8:1-7,11-13; Ps.139:1-3,13-14,23-24; Lk.6:27-38) “The measure you measure with will be measured back to you.” And what is your measuring stick, brother? Is it the ruler of this earth, limited by eyes of flesh? Or is it the yardstick of heaven, which reaches unto the Lord’s side and finds us in His sight? Do you toil on this plane alone, or do you climb the mountain where He sits, where He teaches? Do your ears hear only of the debits and credits recorded in the book of this world; or are t...
Sep 11, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.7:25-31; Ps.45:11-12,14-17; Lk.6:20-26) “The world as we know it is passing away.” And so, “hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear, forget your people and your father’s house,” for the King is calling you from this passing world to the heavenly marriage feast – “He is your Lord, and you must worship Him.” This call is for every chosen soul, for who is the Lord’s virgin daughter, who is His Bride but the Church? It is she who is called, even as the Virgin Mother who has preceded her to he...
Sep 10, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.6:1-11; Ps.149:1-6,9; Lk.6:12-19) “You have been washed, consecrated, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Yes, “power went out from Him which cured all.” And as all were “healed of their diseases” and “those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured” by His touch, so we, too, are made whole in His sight; so we now become His holy children of light. For “the unholy will not fall heir to the kingdom of God,” and His kingdom being the desire o...
Sep 09, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.5:1-8; Ps.5:5-7,9,12; Lk.6:6-11) “Let us celebrate the feast not with the old yeast, that of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” For indeed, “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed”; indeed, the new Sabbath has come. And on the Day of the Lord only goodness remains. “Get rid of the old yeast to make of yourselves fresh dough,” Paul commands the Corinthians as he chastises them for their “boasting” and self-satisfaction even while tolerating a ...
Sep 08, 2024•5 min
(1Cor.4:9-15; Ps.145:17-21; Lk.6:1-5) “God has put us apostles at the end of the line, like men doomed to die in the arena.” “Up to this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, poorly clad, roughly treated, wandering about homeless,” the great Apostle Paul tells us of the persecution and slander all the Lord’s apostles must undergo. And yet “when we are insulted we respond with a blessing,” for this is our call in the Lord: to love even our enemies, that we might show the love of God to all, that we...
Sep 06, 2024•6 min
