Sunday Scripture | Keeping the Lord's day holy helps us live the Gospel

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Bishop Robert J. Hermann

18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Collosians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21 

Those are not my words but the words of Jesus, my Judge, who is headed my way!

God's word today forces us to ask ourselves: "To whom do we belong, to our possessions or to our God? To whom do our possessions belong, to us or to our God?"

The word of the Lord puts it very clearly in today's first reading: "Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property."

In the Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die for our salvation and to make available for us the kingdom of heaven. Yet, the man in the crowd thinks property is more important than the kingdom which Jesus is offering. We do the same thing when we miss Mass on Sunday without a very serious reason.

Today's readings help us see the close connection between the First and Third Commandments.

The First Commandment tells us: "I am the Lord, thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me." I dare say that this commandment finds us all guilty, because we all have attachments we are unwilling to surrender. Yet, surrender them we must, because there is no room for them to pass with us through the narrow gate. Sunday is the day to surrender to the Lord our attachments to material things.

These attachments to material things also affect our keeping Holy the Lord's Day, which flows from the Third Commandment.

Is attending Holy Mass the last thing we squeeze in on the weekend, if we have the time, and if it is not too inconvenient? Is the Lord's Day truly the day on which we give ourselves to the Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or is it the day on which we have time for everything but the Lord?

Am I a parent who worships sports with my children on the weekend? Is it more important that my child do well in sports than for my child to do well in participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Am I a parent on the sidelines who screams profanities at the referee when my child's efforts are not acknowledged by the referee's whistle? Why do I worship sports in the first place? Do I hope it is a ticket to college for my child? Do I believe that my child's success in sports will reflect well on what people think of me? Am I worshiping my child to enhance my own self-worth? Will I be proud of my sideline behavior when I meet my Judge?

The answer to most of the above questions is "YES" if I do not make Sunday Mass and the values of the Gospel more important for my children than winning their games.

Rather, should not the Lord's Day be the beginning of the week when, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ prepares us to sacrifice the entire week to God? We need Christ's help to surrender our lives to Him.

The Catechism instructs that "... On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass" (CCC 2180).

The good news is that keeping holy the Lord's Day helps us to live today's Gospel. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass invites us to surrender our lives to God. As St. Polycarp was being martyred, he prayed, "May I be received this day ... as a rich and acceptable sacrifice."

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is our family's opportunity to join Jesus and all the angels and saints in giving worship to the Father. Our family becomes part of the heavenly worship that is going on now and that will be going on for all eternity!

Scott Hahn, in his book "The Lamb's Supper," tells us: "To go to Mass is to go to heaven, where 'God Himself ... will wipe away every tear' (Revelations 21:3-4)." Yet heaven is even more than that. Heaven is where we place ourselves under judgment, where we see ourselves in the clear morning light of eternal day, and where the just Judge reads our works from the book of life."

If today our family is not joining in the heavenly worship in Sunday Mass, the chances are our family will not be there for all eternity worshipping the Father!

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass calls us to live a sacrificial life. Surrendering our lives with all of their attachments to the Lord is very hard, and that is why the Lord has given us the Lord's Day to do just that! It is the first day of the week, and entering into the heavenly worship of the Mass helps prepare us for the coming week's sacrifices of our wills, our actions and our possessions.

The fact that this is so hard to do is the precise reason that the Lord is sharing with us His power in the Mass to surrender our lives with Him!

This we cannot do if we are not at Sunday Mass.

This we cannot do if we simply present ourselves physically but do not put our hearts into Christ's sacrifice.

This we cannot do if we continue to insist that our possessions are ours and not His.

This we can do and we will do if we humbly acknowledge that without His help we are lost!

This we can do and we will do if our ultimate desire is to be possessed by Him for all eternity!

Devout attendance at Sunday Mass helps us come to terms with the demands of today's Gospel.

When I think of the awesome challenge of today's Gospel, I am reminded of that Gospel scene where a father brings his possessed boy to Jesus, and Jesus challenges the father's willingness to believe, and the father responds, "I do believe. Help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24).