September 10, 2013

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Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time 
Lectionary: 438

Reading 1COL 2:6-15

Brothers and sisters:
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,
rooted in him and built upon him
and established in the faith as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.

Those who are baptized are dead to themselves but alive in Christ.  And therefore should walk in imitation of Christ.  Doing righteousness and giving thank to God for their salvation.

See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to the tradition of men,
according to the elemental powers of the world
and not according to Christ.

We should listen to the Church and do that which Christ teaches.  Not turning to the empty promises of the world or earthly pleasure, but persevering in doing good until the end.

For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily,
and you share in this fullness in him,
who is the head of every principality and power.

Because Christ is God incarnate and in Him rests all power and authority.

In him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision not administered by hand,
by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.

And in Him we received Baptism and washed away our sins calling on His name.

You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.

In this Baptism, we died with Him and in Baptism we were raised from the death of sin being born again in the semblance of the Son of God.

And even when you were dead in transgressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;

In Baptism we were washed of all sins.

obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,

Original Sin, the bond against us, was also washed away.  

he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers,
he made a public spectacle of them,
leading them away in triumph by it.

And He nailed to the Cross the obligations of the Old Testament.  The Old Testament vanished away.  And the New Testament was brought into force.  Jesus died for all, that those who live may now live not for ourselves but Him who died for us.

Responsorial PsalmPS 145:1B-2, 8-9, 10-11

R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

No man is more kind or merciful than God.  It is better for us to be in the hands of God than in the hands of man.  It is better for us to live in God's house one day, than for us to live in the house of man

GospelLK 6:12-19

Jesus departed 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.

Jesus went to pray.  Then He called to Him the disciples and from the disciples chose the 12 Apostles.

Spiritually speaking, the "mountain" is an image of the Church.  And the Apostles and disciples are the foundation of the Church. 

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.

And He came down from the mountain with them and began to cure the people of all diseases.  Spiritually speaking, this is a symbol of the Sacraments, wherein, Christ, through the Church, cures us of spiritual malaise which we call, sin.