Celebrate Sunday Mass - 1.30.22

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1/30/2022 (2 years ago)

By Deacon Keith Fournier

January 30, 2022 -- Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Catholic Online Community and Catholic Online School students...

I AM HAPPY TO OFFER EACH OF YOU AN INVITATION TO SUNDAY MASS on January 30, 2022, in the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

In our first reading, we heard the call and Commission of the Prophet Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you".

Jeremiah was a great Hebrew Prophet. Through him, the Lord spoke profoundly to His chosen people, calling them back to fidelity and true worship.

Each one of us has been called by the Lord.

In the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes "...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:3-5)

God has a loving plan for each one of us. He chose us, in Christ, before the world began. He has a mission for each one of us. If we do not believe this, we need to ask Him to reveal it to us. He will do so.

In our second reading, taken from St Paul's letter to the Corinthians, we heard the chapter which follows the Apostle's teaching on the gifts of the Spirit and the offices and ministries within the Church. We heard those words last Sunday.

This Chapter reminds us that our baptismal calling, and the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, are all intended to assist us in walking the more "excellent way", the way of love which the Apostle Paul addresses in the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. We need to remember, as the Apostle John reminded us in his first letter to the early Church that God IS LOVE:

"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:7-12)

Finally, in the Gospel appointed for this Sunday, we continued in the 4th chapter of St Luke. Last week we heard of Jesus walking into the synagogue at Nazareth, taking the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, finding the passage pointing to the promised Messiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Wow. What a scene! The scriptures say "...all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" (Luke 4:16-23)

But soon, as we heard in our Gospel excerpt for today, even though they initially spoke well of him, they soon turned against Him. In fact, they drove him out of town. They even tried to hurl him over a cliff. Why? Because He spoke the truth. He exposed their unwillingness to believe He was the One who was sent by the Father and promised by the Prophets.

This may happen to each one of us - if we get serious about living our Catholic Christian faith beyond what we do on Sunday mornings.

People often react when we point out that much of what is collapsing around us, in the Church and in the culture, are a result of our having sinned, compromised and engaged in a rebellion against God and His Law.

Yet, we must continue in our mission, without compromise. And seek to manifest the Love of God to an increasingly hostile culture.

Have a Blessed Lords Day,

Deacon Keith Fournier
Dean of Catholic Online School
Chaplain of Your Catholic Voice Foundation

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