The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues, priests, martyrs,
and their companions, martyrs

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ephesians 2:12-22
Psalm 9-14
Luke 12:35-38

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Not all of us are called by God to be martyrs, but as we see in the readings for today on the memorial of these great martyrs, all of us are asked to be ready immediately when God knocks. There is no room in Christian spirituality for procrastination about the state of our souls. We never know when that 'knock' may come.The rewards are great however for keeping ourselves in this state of readiness.

The gospel states that the Master himself will gird himself and wait on us. This sounds almost unbelievable, but Christ did this for us once already when He washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper and then offered His very Body on the table of the Cross. Christ continues to do this for all time through the person of His priests. As we participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we are responding to the daily 'knock' of Christ and He girds Himself and waits on us, providing His very Body and Blood for our food. We, in turn, are to become other Christs, girding ourselves and waiting on our brothers and sisters. We have the example of these martyrs who gave their all for the Kingdom.

Saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac and companions, pray for us!

- Joan of Jesus, OCDS
(jmurphy at utica dot edu)

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posted by joachim at 4:21 AM