18 September 2010

18 Sep 2010, Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49


Brothers and sisters:
Someone may say, "How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they come back?"

You fool!
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be
but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.
It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.
It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

So, too, it is written,
"The first man, Adam, became a living being,"
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

Gospel
Lk 8:4-15


When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
"A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold."
After saying this, he called out,
"Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
"Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.

"This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance."

Meditation: 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49

“It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.” (1 Corinthians 15:43)


On top of all the other problems that were besetting the church in Corinth, some of the believers were beginning to dispute the resurrection. No one could describe just how it came about, they reasoned, or what a resurrected body looked like. Lacking such proof, they challenged the concept of resurrection and tried to discredit Paul’s claim that Jesus was raised from the dead. But Paul reminded them that the gospel is not simply doctrine; it is “a demonstration of spirit and power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

We don’t have to rely on visual evidence for the resurrection, or even on indisputable arguments. Each of us can know personally that it is real and that our bodies will one day be transformed to mirror Jesus’ glorified body. We can know it as we see the Holy Spirit at work in us: cleansing our conscience after Confession, giving us peace as we receive the Eucharist, and giving us a sense of closeness with our Father in our prayer lives.

We should never doubt that God is doing something wonderful in each of us! He is always at work, changing us more and more into his likeness. What might some of these changes look like? People may notice a difference in our attitudes, as we become more joyful, peaceful, humble, wise, and gentle. Sometimes we notice changes in ourselves, as we grow less fearful, more compassionate and understanding, or more generous with our time. And sometimes physical changes occur: Our worry lines relax, we stand taller, and begin to look others in the eye, or we smile more often.

These changes are only a foretaste, however, of the eternal life we will experience with the Father. But we can be confident that he already sees in us the emergence of the marvelous person he has created each of us to be. Daily, he who raised Jesus from the dead is giving us new life through his Holy Spirit. Resurrection? Absolutely! The small evidences we see of it now can convince us that we will one day be raised by the glory of the Father as surely as Jesus was!

“Father, thank you that I am becoming the person you made me to be! Continue to renew me in your Spirit, that my life may reveal the reality of your resurrection.”

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