The BreadCast

(2Mac.6:18-31;   Ps.3:2-8;   Lk.19:1-10) “I fear not the myriads of people arrayed against me on every side.” Zacchaeus’ running up ahead and climbing a tree in order to be able to see Jesus as He passed along the way may not be a witness on the order of Eleazar, who “declared that above all he would be loyal to the holy laws given by God” and went willingly to torture and death, “leaving in his d...

(1Mac.1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-63;   Ps.119:53,61,88,134,150,155,158;   Lk.18:35-43)  “Terrible affliction was upon Israel.” Oh how the nation had become so blind.  Oh how they had turned from their God.  Some “preferred to die rather than be defiled with unclean food or to profane the covenant,” but most ate freely of the poisonous fruit of the tree of abomination, and so became as the blind man be...

(Ws.18:14-16,19:6-9;   Ps.105:2-3,5,36-37,42-43;   Lk.18:1-8) “He led forth His people with joy; with shouts of joy, His chosen ones.” “They beheld stupendous wonders.”  Before their eyes, “out of what had been water, dry land was seen emerging.”  And so, sheltered by the mighty hand of the Lord, they crossed over, from the land of bondage to freedom.  And in their joy “they ranged about like hors...

(Ws.13:1-9;   Ps.19:2-5;   Lk.17:26-37)  “Wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures gather.” It is so that “the heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.”  It is true that “from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.”  Yes, “the things seen are fair,” and speak even of the glory of our God… but they shall...

(Ws.7:22-8:1;   Ps.119:89-91,130,135,175;   Lk.17:20-25) “Let your countenance shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.” Wisdom, who “is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars… reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well.”  Wisdom “penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity,” for she is “the refulgence of eternal light.”  How...

(Ws.6:1-11;   Ps.82:3-4,6-8;   Lk.17:11-19) “Stand up and go your way; your faith has been your salvation.” “This man was a Samaritan.”  Jesus chose the lowest of the low, not only a leper, the most ostracized of all individuals, but a Samaritan, a foreigner most despised by the Israelite nation, to reveal His mercy, to reveal the universal nature of His forgiveness, and so the universal call to s...

(Ws.2:23-3:9;   Ps.34:2-3,16-19;   Lk.17:7-10) “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.” What does the Lord mean when He instructs us in our gospel to say, “We are useless servants,” than that which David says in our psalm, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit He saves,” and that which the Book of Wisdom states in our...

(Wis.1:1-7;   Ps.139:1-10,24;   Lk.17:1-6) “Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?” Yes, “wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she acquits not the blasphemous of his guilty lips.”  For the spirit of the Lord is everywhere and hears everything, listening closely to a man’s inmost thoughts.  “For the spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what man...

(Rm.16:3-9,16,22-27;   Ps.145:1-5,10-11;   Lk.16:9-15)   “Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord, and let your faithful ones bless you.”   We are in the world, and amongst the wealth of this world.  We have nothing to do with money and the world – “You cannot serve God and money,” the Lord has told us, and so we cannot serve money… yet what have we to use but the riches of this world?  And so...

(Rm.15:14-21;   Ps.98:1-4;   Lk.16:1-8)   “The worldly take more initiative than the otherworldly when it comes to dealing with their own kind.”   What is the Lord teaching His disciples?  What does He wish to tell them of their call?  We need only look at the Apostle Paul, for here is a man, a child of God, who has taken the initiative the Lord would see wrought in us all. Our first reading indee...

(Rm.14:7-12;   Ps.27:1,4,13-14;   Lk.15:1-10)   “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”   Since “every one of us will have to give an account of himself before God,” who are we to “sit in judgment” or “look down on” a brother?  Why are our eyes set upon others’ sins instead of the Lord’s glory?  Why do we fall into this pit of condemnation? Yes, Jesus welcomes sinners.  For this has He com...

(Rm.13:8-10;   Ps.112:1-2,4-5,9;   Lk.14:25-33)  “Love is the fulfillment of the law.” Jesus tells us, “None of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his possessions,” turning our backs even on father and mother, even on our very selves.  Our psalm states of the happy man, “Lavishly he gives to the poor; his generosity shall endure forever.”  And Paul makes clear that we “owe no debt...

(Rm.12:5-16;   Ps.131:1-3;   Lk.14:15-24) “Come along, everything is ready now.” Dinner is being served now in the kingdom of God.  But are we prepared to sit down at table?  Or do we turn our hearts to other things? Jesus sets our place now in the kingdom of heaven.  He has come.  He has died.  He has risen and sends now the Holy Spirit to invite us into His presence.  And His presence is ever wi...

(Rm.11:29-36;   Ps.69:14,30-31,33-34,36-37;   Lk.14:12-14)   “God has imprisoned all in disobedience that He might have mercy on all.”   I begin to see “how deep are the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God.”  For though I am far from knowing “the mind of the Lord,” yet He does offer me a certain insight this early morning about Him whom Paul says, “From Him and through Him and for Him a...

(Rm.9:1-5;   Ps.147:12-15,19-20;   Lk.14:1-6) “They could not answer.” The Pharisees are dumb.  The leaders of the Jewish nation cannot speak as to whether a man should be healed on the sabbath.  How far they have fallen from the presence of God. We know the Israelites were God’s chosen people.  This is proclaimed clearly by both Paul and our psalmist today: “Theirs were the adoption, the glory, t...

(Rm.8:31-39;   Ps.109:21-22,26-27,30-31;   Lk.13:31-35)   “For your sake we are being slain all the day long.”   And yet, “in all this we are more than conquerors because of Him who has loved us.” We die.  Each day we die, we sacrifice our lives.  We are “as sheep to be slaughtered.”  This is our call, to be as our Lord who was crucified – our King wears a crown of thorns.  And yet in all this app...

(Rm.8:26-30;   Ps.13:4-6;   Lk.13:22-30)   “Lord, are they few in number who are to be saved?”   We question.  We wonder.  With the man who spoke to the Lord as He made His way toward Jerusalem, as He approached His own death, we question Jesus, “Who will be saved?” particularly as we face our own imminent death.  Jesus answers the man, and so He responds to us, too.  His answer is simple: “Come i...

(Rm.8:12-17;   Ps.68:2,4,6-7,20-21;   Lk.13:10-17)   “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”   It is the Spirit of God that led the poor stooped woman in our gospel today to the synagogue to see and hear the teaching of Jesus the Lord, and to find a healing for her infirmity.  “This daughter of Abraham… in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years” was by the Lord “released from her...

(Rm.8:1-11;   Ps.24:1-6;   Lk.13:1-9)   “You will all come to the same end unless you reform.”   We hear again today in our readings of the distinction between those who are of the flesh, and so of sin, and those who are of the spirit and justice.  And since “the tendency of the flesh is toward death but that of the spirit toward life and peace,” rightly does Jesus warn us that we will die in our...

(Rm.7:18-25;   Ps.119:66,68,76-77,93,94;   Lk.12:54-59)   “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is just?”   Do we not have the law of God at work in us now?  Must we yet subject ourselves to the judge of this earth, who cannot but condemn us for our sin?  If we cried out with our psalmist for the Lord to teach us His “commands,” His “statutes,” His “law,” and His “precepts,” His “promise” of “...

(Rm.6:19-23;   Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5;   Lk.12:49-53)   “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.”   The division is clear.  The Lord Himself has stated, “I have come for division.”  Far from establishing “peace on the earth,” His message makes clear the distinction between the evil and the good, the wicked and the just, drawn so well in our psalm today.  He has “com...

(Rm.6:12-18;   Ps.124:1-8;   Lk.12:39-48)   “Offer yourselves to God as men who have come back from the dead to life.”   If we have come back from the dead to life, should we then offer ourselves up to death again?  As Paul questions, “Are we free to sin?”  How absurd a thought!  If we are sinners, let us give ourselves freely to sin, and find the condemnation which comes from this.  But if we are...

(Rm.5:12,15,17-21;   Ps.40:7-10,17;   Lk.12:35-38)  “To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” “May those who love your salvation say ever, ‘The Lord be glorified.’”  May we who love the Lord “exult and be glad” in Him.  May we who take refuge in His grace sing aloud His praise.  What greater gift could we have than Jesus Christ, whose “single righteous act brough...

(Rm.4:20-25;   Lk.1:68-75;   Lk.12:13-21)   “We should serve Him devoutly and through all our days be holy in His sight.”   For “this very night your life shall be required of you.”  Always and forever our faith is required of us, if we are to draw breath.  Always and forever the Lord asks us what fruit we have produced.  Always and forever we must be careful not to toil in vain, but to live accor...

(Rm.4:1-8;   Ps.32:1-2,5,7,11;   Lk.12:1-7)   “Happy is the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile.”   All our sins shall be taken away by the Lord who watches over us and loves us, if we but believe. We must lay bare our souls, brothers and sisters.  We cannot hide from the eternal, piercing light of God.  His hand is upon us at all times; His heart is open alwa...