Thir­­ty-Third Week in Ordi­nary Time 

Being pre­pared for the com­ing of the King­dom and not being side-tracked by false claims of Jesus’ pres­ence are keys to Luke’s Gospel for the Thir­­ty-Third Sun­day in Ordi­nary Time. Jesus says, “By your per­se­ver­ance you will secure your lives.

Mon­day is the Memo­r­i­al of Saint Eliz­a­beth of Hun­gary, Reli­gious. Fri­day is the Memo­r­i­al of the Pre­sen­ta­tion of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary. Sat­ur­day is the Memo­r­i­al of Saint Cecil­ia, Vir­gin and Mar­tyr.

In this next to the last week of the Litur­gi­cal Year, we read from the First Book of Mac­cabees. These books are about the revolt against Jew­ish per­se­cu­tion a lit­tle over a cen­tu­ry before Christ. The Mac­cabees are pre­sent­ed as a fam­i­ly that is faith­ful to the law in the midst of this per­se­cu­tion. Their wit­ness is inspir­ing today.

We have won­der­ful sto­ries from Luke’s Gospel this week as Jesus moves toward and enters Jerusalem for the end of his min­istry. Jesus heals the blind beg­gar near Jeri­cho. The man imme­di­ate­ly “fol­lowed him, giv­ing glo­ry to God.” Then Jesus meets Zac­cha­eus who is up in a tree - because he was short, but prob­a­bly also because he’s a tax col­lec­tor and was ner­vous about being caught in a zeal­ous crowd. Jesus trans­forms him by invit­ing him­self to Zac­cha­eus’ house for din­ner. Near Jerusalem, Jesus tells a para­ble of a reject­ed king and ser­vants who use the gifts giv­en them faith­ful­ly. In Jerusalem, Jesus weeps over the city, fore­see­ing the destruc­tion that is com­ing, “because you did not rec­og­nize the time of your vis­i­ta­tion.” Enter­ing the tem­ple, Jesus dri­ves out the old way of doing busi­ness and begins his min­istry. He silences the Sad­ducees, over their doubt about res­ur­rec­tion from the dead.

Sun­day is the Thir­­ty-Fourth Sun­day in Ordi­nary Time and the last week of the litur­gi­cal year. As always on this last Sun­day, we cel­e­brate the Solem­ni­ty of Christ the King. The read­ings remind us of God’s faith­ful­ness to us as he promis­es to shep­herd the peo­ple of Israel. In Luke’s Gospel we are tak­en to the cru­ci­fix­ion and Jesus being mocked as “King of the Jews.” The man cru­ci­fied next to him asks Jesus to remem­ber him when he gets into his King­dom. Jesus replies, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Par­adise.”
 

Dai­ly Prayer This Week

We can eas­i­ly spend this week ask­ing for the grace to use the gifts we’ve been giv­en. We want to rec­og­nize that we have gifts, and that they are, in fact, gifts. We didn’t “earn” them; we were entrust­ed with them. We can reflect upon the poten­tial each gift has and how we might devel­op and use each gift we have more com­plete­ly - in lov­ing, in mak­ing a dif­fer­ence on behalf of the poor in our world.

Each morn­ing this week, as soon as our feet hit the floor, and while we are wash­ing up and get­ting dressed, we can have our own ver­sion of the fol­low­ing brief con­ver­sa­tions with our Lord. These sim­ple prayers can shape our desir­ing through­out the day, as these long­ings in our heart grow deep­er and inter­act with the events, encoun­ters and oppor­tu­ni­ties in our lives.

“Dear Lord, through­out this day, help me count the ways you love me.” “Lord, thank you for being so gen­er­ous to me. I for­get the gifts you have giv­en me. Be with me today, so that I might be grate­ful and use my gifts well.” “Lov­ing Father, today I’m grate­ful for my par­ents, for the oppor­tu­ni­ties I’ve had up to this day, and for the spe­cial priv­i­lege this day brings to serve my fam­i­ly and to try to make a dif­fer­ence in this world. Be with me and keep me hope­ful and patient, gen­er­ous and free today.” “Dear Jesus, I spend too much time in a tree, above the con­flicts, keep­ing myself pret­ty safe. Give me the courage of your pres­ence with me today, so that I might take more risks in lov­ing. There are going to be some hun­gry, thirsty, naked, sick and impris­oned peo­ple cross­ing my path today. Guide me in lov­ing bet­ter. The cry of the poor in our world seems so over­whelm­ing. Help me lis­ten bet­ter and imag­ine what I might do to make a dif­fer­ence, with your help.”

Each night, with these prayers in our hearts all day, we can eas­i­ly give thanks for the expe­ri­ence we were giv­en of inti­ma­cy with our God in the midst of our busy days.