Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Luke 14: 1-6

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.
Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
“Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”
But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had healed him, dismissed him.
Then he said to them   
“Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  
But they were unable to answer his question.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I studied Russian in college.

One of my professors grew up behind the Iron Curtain. She often told stories about the dreariness of Communism, the long lines for bread, the rationing of food, the relentless propaganda, and indoctrination of children.

But one thing she brought with her when she emigrated to the United States was the idea of rest.

“Here,” she said, “I have to work 24/7. If an email is sent on a Saturday and I don’t respond to that person immediately, then they wonder why!”

This was 20 years ago.

“Work should happen during the week,” she said. “On weekends, we should be free.”

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Jews held a similar idea of the Sabbath. It was a day of rest, honoring the seventh day of creation, when God rested from his labors. No work was permitted; not even charity.

Yet, in today’s Gospel, Jesus heals someone for the third time on the Sabbath, asking, “Is it lawful to cure or not?”

The heart of the issue is not about a rule, but the rule breaker. 

Jesus’ interpretation of Jewish laws differed from the scribes and Pharisees. To them, he represented a potential mass exodus away from their school of thought, compromising their authority.

Jesus believed that certain things like charity were not simply permitted on the Sabbath, but required when called for.

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What might this mean for us today? As Christians, should we honor the Sabbath?

Absolutely. But not just for religious reasons; many also need to rediscover the idea of genuine rest.

For example, when was the last time we spent a day – or even a few hours – without our phones? How long does it take before we start scrolling through social media? 

When was the last time we took a stroll through a park, paused to watch an eagle soar, called a friend just to talk, or read a book without interruption?

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I need the Sabbath. Perhaps we all do, because we’re not machines; we’re human.

Find a few hours – even a day – for authentic rest this week. Doing so will not only honor the Lord, but also our often overexerted selves.

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Image credits: (1) Auckland Physiotherapy (2) Feasts of Israel, bible.org (3) Crossroadsnewport.com

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Gospel: Luke 13: 31-35

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said,
“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.’

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Behold, your house will be abandoned.
But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There’s a small chapel located just outside the walls of Jerusalem designed in the shape of a teardrop, called Dominus Flevit.

Latin for, “Jesus wept.” 

It marks the spot where today’s Gospel passage unfolded. As the Lord gazed upon the holy city of Jerusalem, he wept.

Jesus wept because he was rejected by his own people. He wept because Jerusalem, teeming with life, was void of faith in him. He wept because their city was on the verge of destruction. 

And he wept because of his impending crucifixion, the fruit of political trickery, ignorance, and intimate betrayal.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he says, “how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”

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As he wept, Jesus left us with a rich image to ponder. 

Just as a mother hen instinctively protects her children by hiding them under her wings, so the Lord came to shelter, to nourish, to feed, and to protect us from the snares of evil.

In spite of being rejected, those wings are still open to us today – not because we are worthy, but because we are his, no less than a baby chick belongs to its mother.

As the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

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All of this to say, there is nothing that you and I can ever do to make God stop loving us; it is simply not in his nature.

While we may not feel worthy of him at times, God’s wings of welcome are always spread open, leaving us a single question to ponder: Will we accept his love?

Yes, Jesus. Yes.

A thousand times, yes.

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Image credits: (1) iBelieve.com (2) GroupBibleStudy.com (3) QuoteFancy

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Gospel: Luke 6: 12-16

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I wonder why it took Jesus an entire night spent in prayer with his Father to choose the Twelve Apostles.

Did he have other people in mind? Did he know their flaws? Could he sense their hesitation and fear? Did he pray their faith in him would not fail?

Maybe the Lord struggled to accept what would happen to these men if they did say “yes.”

As is always the case in the bible, whenever someone says “yes” to God, their entire future changes in ways that that person never could’ve imaged. 

Think of Mary, who became the virgin Mother of God. Saint Joseph, who became the foster father of Jesus. Or figures from the Old Testament like Moses, who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt into the desert to be tested for 40 years.

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Saying “yes” to God means the impossible suddenly becomes possible.

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Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude. 

Tradition states that they were cousins of Jesus, who became his Apostles and eventually worked together to spread the Gospel as far east as Persia, where they were martyred some 30 years after the resurrection. 

Simon was sawed in half. Jude died after being struck with an ax.

The fact that 10 of the 12 Apostles preached the Gospel until they were silenced by death became one of the earliest arguments for the truth of the resurrection. 

What else would inspire these men to leave their homes and their families, traveling to the ends of the earth, enduring unimaginable forms of persecution and torture, if they had not been utterly convinced that Christ was raised from the dead?

It would’ve been far easier for them to return to their lives as fishermen.

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So, what does this mean for us?

While none of us may be called to be a missionary or a martyr, God does have a plan for each of our lives. Finding out what that plan is – even down to granular daily decisions like who we bring into our lives – requires doing what Jesus did in today’s Gospel.

Spending time in prayer.

May we find a few quiet moments each day to echo the words of the prophet Samuel: “Speak, LORD, your servant is listening.” 

And live accordingly.

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Image credits: (1) publishpeace.net (2) Christianity.com (3) Amazon.com