2022-Aug-21: Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

 2022-Aug-21: Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

 


Opening prayer

Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds
and dispose our hearts to accept your truth.
Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty,
eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love.
May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son.
In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The theme of the liturgy 

The theme is God's salvific message is for all mankind - Jews and Gentiles alike.

Isaiah 66:18-21

Isaiah prophesies about God who has promised a great gathering - not just of the Jewish nation but indeed of the whole world. This includes Tarshish (sometimes interpreted as lands beyond the sea. Others take it to mean Spain, France and Italy). Some take Pul and Lud together to mean all of Africa. Tubal was a son of Japheth, whose descendants settled in north-eastern Europe or Russia and Javan is the biblical name for Greece.
All come to the new Jerusalem to proclaim praise for the one true God.

Psalm 117:1-2

This psalm is short and sweet - only 2 verses it is the shortest chapter in the entire Bible and is geared completely towards praising God. St Paul references this psalm very often (most directly in Romans 15:11) to drive the point home that Gentiles are equal to Jews in the message of salvation.
Verse 1, called the Global invitation, is a call to praise the Lord - not just Jews but Gentiles as well. 
Verse 2 gives two reasons: God's merciful kindness is great. And his truth endures forever.

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13

Hebrews verses 5-11, stress how God uses suffering and adversity to strengthen the spiritual life.  God speaks through Scripture but we forget his teachings.  
The idea of chastening is similar to how a loving strict father trains a child (He 12:5, 7, 8, 11). It includes ideas such as nurture, instruction, discipline, and corrective discipline.
There are different ways we can react to divine discipline:
— despise it by treating it with disregard
— become defeated and discouraged by it
— endure it
— grow by it
The believers to whom Hebrews was written were spiritually weak, so Paul is trying to rally them to persevere in their faith

Luke 13:22-30

"Where you come from", is a phrase that appears twice and can be understood as the source of our actions, our motivation, our intent, etc. If we do not keep our whole life centred on and rooted in God, we can be led astray and will not be saved.
Jesus' way is open to all people of goodwill. Just because we are Christian we don't automatically qualify for salvation. Salvation is a gift offered by the Lord who desires to include all. It is not earned or merited or attained by striving or by effort but by allowing God through the Holy Spirit to work with us to use this gift as light is put on a stand for others to see the way.
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