Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time BVM Queen of Apostles

Peter H. Davids

Ordinary Time • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

Fasting and Abstinence

Asceticism

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Jesus did not follow the Pharisaic fasting practices because they mourned the loss of the Temple and in him the New Temple, the Bridegroom, was here. He did did indicate that a new-age appropriate fasting would develop after his "removal." Thus there should be no wholesale dropping of tradition as has happened sometimes in the Church, but examination and discernment by competent authorities, not just to drop things, but to see if this or that pious practice no longer has the appropriate effect in this current age and culture of the Church AND if new practices would convey the same effect. Examples are given from penitential disciplines and choices that this priest has made.

Notes

Transcript

Title

Discerning the Times

Outline

Our readings today do not seem to fit well together

The first is an example of ex opere operato - Isaac is deceived by Jacob at Rebekah’s (his wife’s) instigation, who had heard the prophecy “the elder shall serve the younger,” and, even though deceived, speaks the blessing formula in his role as family patriarch and it is effective. It is not that Jacob will not pay a price for the deception, for he has significant troubles ahead with his relatives and he will never see his mother Rebekah again after he leaves. But the blessing “sticks.”

Then we have the question about Jewish fasting and Jesus’ practice

The Pharisaic practice was not only to fast on the Day of Atonement, but also to fast on Mondays and Thursdays in sadness over the destruction of the Temple in 586 and the desecration of the Temple in 189 respectively. They did this despite the fact the Temple was restored and functioning relatively independently of the Roman overlords. We do not know about John the Baptist’s practice; it may have paralleled Pharisaic practice, may have been the stricter practice of Qumran, and certainly had to do with his call to repentance.

The point is that while each practice had its justification neither was part of the Torah and both were pre-Jesus.

Jesus points out that with him a new age had arrived, that the Bridegroom of Israel was here, and that repentance and mourning with respect to the past were no longer appropriate.

In fact, as his illustrations show, the attempt to merge these no-longer-appropriate traditional practices into the new age of Jesus would be mutually damaging to both the traditional piety and the renewed kingdom community.

Yet lest one think that he therefore is excluding ascetic practices from the kingdom community, he points out that when the “Bridegroom is taken away from them” (perhaps merging both his death and the loss of his physical presence in his ascension) his disciples will fast, but they will fast for the loss of his presence, not for the loss of the Temple.

Now, Sisters, this takes discernment to apply

It certainly does not mean the dropping of traditional pious practices as happened “in the spirit of” Vatican II in the late 1960’s through at least the 1980’s and in “the new wine of the Spirit” in the Catholic Charismatic Movement (or parts thereof), the damage of which we are still reaping.

It does mean that pious practices need to be examined from time to time by competent and spiritual Church authorities to see if what was appropriate in a given culture and a given situation of the Church within this new age of Jesus, particularly ascetic practices, is tying us to an age and phase of the Church that no longer exists and is harming rather than helping the fabric of the Church.

And while there are many pious practices that might at least be examine from time to time (some of which have change in canon law over the years), let me simply cite two or three relatively non-controversial ones which at least in my formation no longer figured: when St Benedict was plagued with what we would now call phonographic images, he stripped off his habit and rolled in a thornbush outside the cave he lived in - I have cited this in confession in a “do what you must to get the results you need” sense, but never as a penance. St Francis buried a recalcitrant friar up to his neck for a couple of days to bring him to repentance - today we would call this abusive. And St Dominic “took the discipline” up to three times nightly, and "the discipline” penance is recommended by both St. Alfonsus Liguroni and St Francis de Sales. Modern books on confession are silent on it, with good reason.

I hope in late September to go on a 3-day priest’s course with Liber Christi in the Diocese of Austin to get some contemporary disciplines from those who take asceticism and combatting the demonic seriously that are effective within the modern context. Perhaps weekends without screens or a month without screens to detox (as Bishop Barron suggests) would be more effective (and likely just as painful).

Many traditions that are not required canonically or scripturally should be embraced in continuity with the saints and for our current good - that is why I usually wear a cassock although it is “optional” under the rules of the USCCB. Others should be shifted to forms the convey the same pious meaning within the context of our culture and Jesus’ heavenly rule.

And that calls for discernment, corporate discernment, so that dirty bathwater is not used to wash new babies, babies are not tossed out with the bathwater, and babies are brought to the bath only to find no water or soap there. The important thing is that Jesus remains central and his rule and his sacraments continue as we move through history towards the consummation of the age.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 7-8-2023: Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Genesis 27:1–5, 15–29

1 When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” he replied. 2 Isaac then said, “Now I have grown old. I do not know when I might die. 3 So now take your hunting gear—your quiver and bow—and go out into the open country to hunt some game for me. 4 Then prepare for me a dish in the way I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

5 Rebekah had been listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the open country to hunt some game for his father,

15 Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear; 16 and with the goatskins she covered up his hands and the hairless part of his neck. 17 Then she gave her son Jacob the dish and the bread she had prepared.

18 Going to his father, Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?” 19 Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your firstborn. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.” 20 But Isaac said to his son, “How did you get it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The LORD, your God, directed me.” 21 Isaac then said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, that I may feel you, to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob moved up closer to his father. When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.” 23 (He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.) 24 Again Isaac said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob said, “I am.” 25 Then Isaac said, “Serve me, my son, and let me eat of the game so that I may bless you.” Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Finally his father Isaac said to him, “Come closer, my son, and kiss me.” 27 As Jacob went up to kiss him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes. With that, he blessed him, saying,

“Ah, the fragrance of my son

is like the fragrance of a field

that the LORD has blessed!

28 May God give to you

of the dew of the heavens

And of the fertility of the earth

abundance of grain and wine.

29 May peoples serve you,

and nations bow down to you;

Be master of your brothers,

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.

Cursed be those who curse you,

and blessed be those who bless you.”

Catholic Daily Readings 7-8-2023: Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 135:3a

3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good!

Sing to his name, for it brings joy!

PSALM

Psalm 135:1b–6

1 Hallelujah!

Praise the name of the LORD!

Praise, you servants of the LORD,

2 Who stand in the house of the LORD,

in the courts of the house of our God!

3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good!

Sing to his name, for it brings joy!

4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel as his treasured possession.

5 For I know that the LORD is great,

that our Lord is greater than all gods.

6 Whatever the LORD desires

he does in heaven and on earth,

in the seas and all the depths.

Catholic Daily Readings 7-8-2023: Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 10:27

27 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

GOSPEL

Matthew 9:14–17

14 Then the disciples of John approached him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast [much], but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 7-8-2023: Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2023 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Genesis 27:1–5, 15–29

Response Psalm 135:3a

Psalm Psalm 135:1b–6

Gospel Acclamation John 10:27

Gospel Matthew 9:14–17

GREEN but WHITE for BVM

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