10 Sept 2024 – Tuesday of Week 23

10 Sept 2024 – Tuesday of Week 23

Optional Memorial: St Peter Claver, SJ, 1580-1654, born in Verdú, Catalonia, worked in Colombia among the slaves in Catagena, where he is reported to have baptised more than 300,000.

1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

A people saved by Jesus must have high standards of love and respect

When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life! If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Responsorial: from Psalm 149

R./: The Lord takes delight in his people

Sing to the Lord a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. (R./)

Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory. (R./)

Let the faithful Rejoice in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 6:12-19

Jesus spends the night in prayer and afterwards calls the twelve; then teaches and heals

During those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Things to repent about

Some of the failures listed by Paul are less serious than others, but all were troubling the church in Corinth. The main problem is their disunity, and their complacency when wronging one another, “You yourself injure and cheat your very own brother and sister.” He singles out the scandal of members taking their problems and disputes to secular law courts. Indignantly he adds, “I say this in an attempt to shame you.”

He links the idea of darkness to a list of sins which he found or suspected in Corinth: fornication, idolatry, adultery, sodomy, thievery, miserliness, drunkenness, slander and the rest. Their biggest weakness, in his view, is disunity and their quickness to take offence at one another He singles out the scandal of mistrust and deceit in the Corinthian church, so that members were quick to take their problems and disputes for judgment in secular law courts. He expects more of a tight-knit family of Christians.

Energised by prayer

Jesus went out to the mountain and spent the night in prayer. After quiet communion with God his energies were renewed, so that at daybreak he called his disciples and selected twelve of them to be his apostles. He then proceeded with teaching and healing all who came to him. “Power went out from him which cured all.”

We learn from this example, among many others from the Gospels, the value of giving time to prayer as a way of restoring our energy and motivation, and in particular before making any major decision, whether about our health, our relationships or our work.