October 31, 2013

Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 482
Reading 1 ROM 8:31B-39

Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

We read the first part of this verse, yesterday.  And it is only in context of that part that we can understand the whole.

In that part, St. Paul spoke of the Elect whom God predestined to salvation.  It is in context of the Elect that he is speaking.  Although God sent His Son to save all mankind, it is the Elect who have turned to God and whom God will save.  We will be given the glory of His only begotten Son. 

Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
Who will condemn?
It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised,
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.

As His children, Jesus Christ, God the Son, intercedes for us before God the Father.  

What will separate us from the love of Christ?

If we love His Son, nothing can separate us from God's love.  

Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
As it is written:

For your sake we are being slain all the day;
we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate the Elect of God from the Love of God.  But only God knows who are His elect.  We should not presume, like the Pharisee, that we are saved (Luke 18:10-12).  For it is God who judges the quick and the dead (Acts 10:42).

Responsorial Psalm PS 109:21-22, 26-27, 30-31

R. (26b) Save me, O Lord, in your mercy.
Do you, O GOD, my Lord, deal kindly with me for your name’s sake;
in your generous mercy rescue me;
For I am wretched and poor,
and my heart is pierced within me.

R. Save me, O Lord, in your mercy.
Help me, O LORD, my God;
save me, in your mercy,
And let them know that this is your hand;
that you, O LORD, have done this.

R. Save me, O Lord, in your mercy.
I will speak my thanks earnestly to the LORD,
and in the midst of the throng I will praise him,
For he stood at the right hand of the poor man,
to save him from those who would condemn his soul.
R. Save me, O Lord, in your kindness.

It is not by our own deeds that we are saved.  But it is by the mercy of God that those who keep His Commandments will inherit eternal life (Ex 20:6).

Gospel LK 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.’

The Pharisees tried to scare Jesus into leaving Jerusalem.  But Jesus was adamant that He would do the Father's will.

“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.”

Then Jesus lamented that Jerusalem had fallen to the temptations of the Evil One.  And Jerusalem would be destroyed for the crime of killing their Lord (Rev 11:8).