The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, November 17, 2005
The Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Elizabeth of Hungary, religious

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 Maccabees 2:15-29
Psalm 50:1-2, 5-6, 14-15
Luke 19:41-44

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"They will not leave one stone on another
because you did not recognize your time of visitation."
(see: Luke 19:44)

Without realizing it, our daily lives are governed by blind faith. Eating canned soup, riding a bus or using an elevator demand faith in unseen people, imperfect like ourselves--factory workers, mechanics, drivers. Yet many refuse to put their faith in our perfect God who is not totally invisible as some say. We can infer Him from what we perceive, a highly diverse, orderly nature shaped in beauty and a humanity gifted with intelligence and creativity supplied with all the raw materials needed for its survival and comfort.

Today's readings show the necessity of faith to human survival, both physical and spiritual. In Maccabees we meet a man who refused to compromise his faith, who practiced righteousness, kept the Law of the Covenant. His faithfulness and that of his followers cost them dearly; they escaped a tyrant to live in a wilderness rather than submit to a heathen ruler who killed people who followed God's Law. They assumed hardships and risked death, trusting that loving faith in God would ultimately give them the victory.

In contrast, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem's faithlessness leading to its imminent destruction by the Roman armies. Its religious leaders had not only misinterpreted God's Law, thus failing to adhere to its truths and its spirit of love, but they also remained blind to Christ's many signs and wonders as proof that God was indeed "visiting" them in the Person of Christ. God's protection rests on those who in loving faith keep God's law. Sadly, sin is never a private matter; it inevitably injures the innocent along with the guilty.

O gracious Lord, make us ever more sensitive to the necessity of being witnesses to Your truth and love, that the world may come to know that faith in You leads to salvation. Amen.

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)

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posted by joachim at 4:20 AM