Letters From Home

The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for Tuesday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time by Dr. Shane Owens.

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The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for Monday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time by Dr. Scott Hahn.

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Readings:
2 Maccabees 7:1–2, 9–14
Psalm 17:1, 5–6, 8, 15
2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5
Luke 20:27–38

With their riddle about seven brothers and a childless widow, the Sadducees in today’s Gospel mock the faith for which seven brothers and their mother die in the First Reading.

The Maccabean martyrs chose death—tortured limb by limb, burned alive —rather than betray God’s Law. Their story is given to us in these last weeks of the Church year to strengthen us for endurance—that our feet not falter but remain steadfast on His paths.

The Maccabeans died hoping that the “King of the World” would raise them to live again forever (see 2 Maccabees 14:46).

The Sadducees don’t believe in the Resurrection because they can’t find it literally taught in the Scriptures. To ridicule this belief, they fix on a law that requires a woman to marry her husband’s brother if he should die without leaving an heir (see Genesis 38:8; Deuteronomy 25:5).

But God’s Law wasn’t given to ensure the raising up of descendants to earthly fathers. The Law was given, as Jesus explains, to make us worthy to be “children of God”—sons and daughters born of His Resurrection.

“God our Father,” today’s Epistle tells us, has given us “everlasting encouragement” in the Resurrection of Christ. Through His grace, we can now direct our hearts to the love of God.

As the Maccabeans suffered for the Old Law, we will have to suffer for our faith in the New Covenant. Yet, He will guard us in the shadow of His wing, He will keep us as the apple of His eye, as we sing in today’s Psalm. The Maccabeans’ persecutors marveled at their courage. We too can glorify the Lord in our sufferings and in the daily sacrifices we make.

And we have even greater cause for hope than they did. One who has risen from the dead has given us His word—that He is the God of the living, that when we awake from the sleep of death we will behold His face and be content in His presence (see Psalm 76:6; Daniel 12:2).

The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for Saturday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time by Mr. Clement Harrold.

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The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo by Dr. John Bergsma.

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The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed by Dr. John Bergsma.

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The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints by Dr. Shane Owens.

Learn more about the Mass at www.stpaulcenter.com

The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for Monday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time by Dr. Scott Hahn.

Learn more about the Mass at www.stpaulcenter.com

Readings:
Wisdom 11:22–12:2
Psalm 145:1–2, 8–11, 13–14
2 Thessalonians 1:11–2:2
Luke 19:1–10

Our Lord is a lover of souls, the Liturgy shows us today. As we sing in today’s Psalm, He is slow to anger and compassionate toward all that He has made.

In His mercy, our First Reading tells us, He overlooks our sins and ignorance, giving us space that we might repent and not perish in our sinfulness (see Wisdom 12:10; 2 Peter 3:9).

In Jesus, He has become the Savior of His children, coming Himself to save the lost (see Isaiah 63:8–9; Ezekiel 34:16).

In the figure of Zacchaeus in today’s Gospel, we have a portrait of a lost soul. He is a tax collector, by profession a “sinner” excluded from Israel’s religious life. Not only that, he is a “chief tax collector.” Worse still, he is a rich man who has apparently gained his living by fraud.

But Zacchaeus’ faith brings salvation to his house. He expresses his faith in his fervent desire to “see” Jesus, even humbling himself to climb a tree just to watch Him pass by. While those of loftier religious stature react to Jesus with grumbling, Zacchaeus receives Him with joy.

Zacchaeus is not like the other rich men Jesus meets or tells stories about (see Luke 12:16–21; 16:19–31; 18:18–25). He repents, vowing to pay restitution to those he has cheated and to give half of his money to the poor.

By his humility he is exalted, made worthy to welcome the Lord into his house. By his faith, he is justified, made a descendant of Abraham (see Romans 4:16–17).

As He did last week, Jesus is again using a tax collector to show us the faith and humility we need to obtain salvation.

We are also called to seek Jesus daily with repentant hearts. And we should make Paul’s prayer in today’s Epistle our own: that God might make us worthy of His calling, that by our lives we might give glory to the name of Jesus.

The St. Paul Center's daily scripture reflections from the Mass for Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time by Mr. Clement Harrold.

Learn more about the Mass at www.stpaulcenter.com