Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

This Gospel Acclamation is the same as last week's, for the Church wants us to reflect again on the nature of true wealth and on Jesus' great sacrifice for us. This week the acclamation is paired with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The rich man has everything money can buy, but he lacks quite a few other important things, especially compassion. Perhaps he does not notice Lazarus lying at his gates with the dogs licking his sores. Perhaps he simply does not care. Yet he has more than enough to share, and Lazarus would have been happy with scraps.

The rich man could have given so much more than scraps. He had more than enough to spare. Yet he makes no move. Lazarus dies without any human compassion.

Lazarus is poor, extremely poor. He has nothing at all in this world but the few rags he drapes over his body. He is the image of poverty.

Yet when both Lazarus and the rich man die, we discover the true nature of wealth and poverty. Lazarus becomes rich, happy, and comfortable with Abraham, for he has pleased God by his patience in his suffering. The rich man, however, is now poorer than Lazarus ever was. His material wealth is gone, and he never had any spiritual wealth. So he is suffering more than Lazarus did in the flesh. Their conditions are reversed. The rich man loses everything. Lazarus gains everything.

May we recognize our own poverty, embrace the grace God gives us in Jesus, and become truly rich for all eternity.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

Today's Gospel acclamation calls us to reflect on the true nature of rich and poor. Jesus, we are told, was rich and became poor for our sake. Jesus was, is, and will always be God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the divine Son, the Father's only-begotten. Yet He set aside the glory of His divinity when He chose to become man. He did not set aside His divinity, but He chose to take the form of a slave, a human being. He became the God-man, and He entered into a life of earthly poverty, misunderstanding, persecution, and finally, death on the cross.

Jesus did all of this that by His poverty we might become rich. We are poor, horribly poor. On our own, without divine grace, we are fallen, sinful creatures on the road to eternal death. But Jesus died for our sins that we might become rich. Through Him, we can embrace the true wealth of God's grace and mercy that lead us to eternal life.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

The world needed, and still needs, reconciliation with God. Through the first fall and the subsequent original sin, human beings lost their initial intimacy with God. Think of how Adam and Eve would walk with Him in the coolness of the evening in Eden. This was perfect intimacy. Yet our first parents chose to sin. They misused their free will, thinking that they could become like God and decide for themselves what was right and wrong. They fell, and they passed their fallen nature down to all of us. The intimacy was shattered.

But God did not allow this brokenness to remain. He longed for reconciliation, for a reestablishment of intimacy. So in His own perfect time, He sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to Himself by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. We are still weak and sinful people. Our human nature is still fallen. But now we have the opportunity to receive and embrace God's saving grace and find forgiveness for our sins. We have a chance for intimacy with God now and then completely in Heaven.

Notice the second part of this acclamation. God entrusts to us the message of reconciliation. We are supposed to spread the good news about what Jesus has done for us. We must tell everyone of God's mercy and love and about the final destiny He desires for each of us, namely, eternal life with Him in Heaven.

Why are we not proclaiming this from the housetops? What is holding us back? Why do we not share the great gift that God has given us?

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let Your face shine upon Your servant; and teach me Your laws.

Today's Gospel Acclamation puts a prayer on our lips, but it is one that we might have trouble praying sincerely, at least in part.

The first half of the prayer seems easy. We all want God's face to shine upon us. God brings us blessings and love, protection and care. Yet we have to remember something else, too. When the light of God's face shines upon us, that light can reveal all our flaws, all our darkness, all our sins, all the ways we have failed to love. This can be disturbing to say the least and sometimes even frightening.

We must, however, realize that only when we know ourselves as we are, in the fullness of our mess, can we fully repent and open the way for God's mercy and love to heal us and purify us. God shows us what we are to humble us because humility is necessary for us to return to God and embrace His love.

The second half of the prayer might make us hesitate just a little. Our culture tends to turn law into something negative. We may think of law as limiting our freedom and of the moral law in particular as restricting and inhibiting. But this is not at all true. God's law is perfectly suited to our human nature. He created us after all, so He knows exactly what we need, especially in our fallen state. He knows the boundaries that will keep us safe and close to Him, and this is why He gives us His law.

Therefore, we ask God to teach us His laws so that we can learn, at the same time, of His love. He gives us laws because He loves us and wants the very best for us. The moral law is not about constraining us and taking away our freedom but about keeping us safe and making us truly free to embrace truth, beauty, goodness, and our loving God.

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Take My yoke upon you, says the Lord, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.

It's easy to misunderstand this beautiful command from our Lord, especially when our modern perspective fails to grasp the depths of its meaning. We may automatically cringe at the word “yoke,” for instance, associating it with a burden and a loss of freedom. But here it actually refers to a partnership and to support. Our Lord joins us to Him, and He bears our burdens with us. The weight becomes significantly lighter when Jesus is carrying it, too, supporting us and keeping us going when we might otherwise have sat down and given in to despair.

When we are yoked to our Lord, we can truly learn from Him. He sets an example for us that we may model our lives after His own. He is meek. Here is another word that is often misinterpreted these days. We might think it refers to weakness and the inability to influence others. This is not true, though. A preacher once said that meekness is simply strength under control. Jesus' power is beyond our understanding and imagination, yet He humbles Himself to reach down to us. He even gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, hiding Himself there that He may come to us in a way we can accept.

Why, then, should we ever hesitate to take Jesus' yoke upon our shoulders? Why should we not allow Him to walk with us, carry our burdens with us, and give us true freedom? Why should we fail to imitate His meekness and humility by which Jesus reaches down to us to bring us up to Him?

Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through Me.

Jesus' words in today's Gospel Acclamation are words that we could meditate on for our whole lives without reaching their depths. Jesus does not say that He shows the way (although He does). He says He is the way. Jesus does not say that He tells the truth (although He does). He says He is the truth. Jesus does not say that He gives life (although He does). He says He is the life.

These are statements that only God can make. Only the divine Being, the One Who is Being, can equate Himself with the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is declaring His divinity here, clearly and forcefully.

And Jesus adds that the only way to go to the Father is through Him. Only Jesus can get us home to Heaven, for He is the One Who died for us on the cross to open the way to Heaven. He is the One Who has freed us from our sins. He is the Son, and we are sons and daughters only in the Son. Jesus brings us to God the Father, and He is the only One Who can do that.

So we must cling to Jesus and accept Him as the way, the truth, and the life, the One Who can lead us home to the Father. 

Gospel Acclamation: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My sheep hear My voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow Me.

We are the Lord's sheep, His people who have entered into a covenant with Him and whom He cares for and protects constantly. Sheep know their shepherd, and they follow him. But do we know our Shepherd and follow Him? Or do we try to strike out on our own and get tangled up in all kinds of trouble that we could have avoided if only we would have followed our Shepherd?

We often seem to get ourselves firmly stuck in the mire of sin, chased by predators who want to corrupt our minds, and floundering around in anxiety. Yet if we want to avoid these things, all we have to do is follow our Shepherd. It's simple, but it isn't easy. Sheep aren't the brightest of creatures and, often, neither are we. We are easily distracted and influenced by the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we run away from our Shepherd.

Yet Jesus knows all this very well. He knows us perfectly, inside and out, better than we know ourselves. He sees all our faults, all our stupidity, and all our sins, yet He loves us anyway. He also sees our potential, for He has created us for eternal life. And He will lead us all the way to Heaven if we just listen to His voice and follow Him.