Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Can You Spot the Common Message?

Reading 1:
Jon 3:1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,
put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
“Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth
and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive,
and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 130:1b-2, 3-4ab, 7-8

R. (3) If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.

R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?

If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.

R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?

Let Israel wait for the LORD,
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.

R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?


Gospel
Lk 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The readings at Mass always have a common lesson, or theme, if you will. And the priest expands on this point in his homily. For class, we simply read the Gospel (mostly because the kids' mini-Bible's are only New Testaments) and explain the lesson therein to the kids. So I'm practicing, and I'm just being curious and obnoxious.

What is the message that *you* get out of todays readings?

Also, sekritly becoming redhead. Don't tell anyone. *shhhhhhh*

6 comments:

  1. This is a comment about one of your older posts, "Physicality in Worship"

    I agree wholeheartedly! But much to my frustration the destructive Liberal/Feminists have done everything they can to make it nearly impossible to have the physical mixed in with our worship, from stripping churches bare of sacred art to removing altar rails and side altars where you can kneel and pray and such. In lots of churches they don't even have kneelers any more!

    And now people just stand there and recite rote prayers... they don't fold their hands into a respectful gesture of prayer.

    I also agree wholeheartedly with one of your statements you made in comments:

    "My problem with 'wherever the Spirit leads' is that 'the Spirit' leads different people in different ways - either it's schizophrenic, or not everyone is hearing the Spirit. It's part of why I chose a faith that doesn't lean on my feelings."

    "Wherever the spirit leads" = Relativism. You see a lot of this in Protestant christianity! "I'm not legalistic! If the Holy Spirit isn't convicting YOU to cover your head then don't do it!" What's good for you is good for you, what's good for me is good for me. Whatever the Holy Spirit tell each of us personally!

    Nah. The Holy Spirit would never author chaos!! The Holy Spirit would never lead us in 56 different directions!

    That mind set seems "nice" and "nonthreatening" and "nonjudgemental" but it's still relativism plain and simple. And very destructive to Christian unity and continuity!! Just how Satan likes it...

    As soon as a fellow Christian starts blithering on, oh-so-sweetly, with relativism I start to twitch. Cant...take...this...nonsense...must...bite...back...rude...comment...like...BUCK UP AND BE A CHRISTIAN FOR PITY SAKE!! STOP BEING A MOUSEY LITTLE WIMP!!!!

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  2. Coffee Catholic, your opinion is interesting, but I don't think being lead by the Spirit equals relativism. (Though I DO admit that relativism is a problem and I agree with you that the Protestants' many different paths is shameful.)

    Definitely there are set rules in some areas, but in other areas God gives us freedom to choose. And Paul warns about people who judge another whom God has accepted. The Spirit doesn't always lead everyone in the same way. Did you notice the variety of ways God works in the Bible? It never was something totally predictable and Jesus says the wind (a type of the Spirit) blows however it wishes. Likewise the Spirit works however He wants.

    Anyway...I came here to respond to this post, but saw your comment instead.

    Amber, *to me* the common theme is people crying out to God. In the verses in Jonah, the Ninevites cried out for forgiveness of sins and God heard their cries and forgave them. In the Psalms, the author cries out and speaks of the Lord's forgiveness and redemption.

    Not exactly sure how the NT verses relate except that - once again - someone is crying out to the Lord and He hears her. Martha cried out for help from her sister Mary, but Jesus informs her that Mary has chosen the better thing.

    That's what I got out of it anyway. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Michelle,

    It's sadly true. I can't imagine not having kneelers in church. *shakes head*

    People don't display respect in church. They just don't. I can't begin to describe the things I see go on on an individual basis that are just plain rude!

    "The Holy Spirit would never author chaos!! The Holy Spirit would never lead us in 56 different directions!"

    Exactly!

    We all go around, 'well that's good for you, and that's good for you, and this is my way...' and on the surface we all get along, but underneath, there's a lack of unity! You can't go from one Christian church to another and even be sure they agree on who Christ was! It's chaos out there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susanne,

    My problem is very simply this: very often 'the Spirit' contradicts itself from one person to the next. *That* is not a difference of variety. That speaks, to me, of something that is *not* the Holy Spirit wandering around and portraying itself as such, sewing confusion.

    Moving on to the post though:

    See, I saw the connection (not so much with the responsorial, which I shouldn't have included, really - it's the OT and Gospel readings that are meant to have the common theme, my bad) more as, the things of this world which we so concern ourselves with aren't the most important things.

    Listening to Christ (and God), learning from Them, focusing on the world to come should take up more of our focus than the minutia of the world which seem so important to us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amber, yes, I understand what you mean and that is a valid point. I was talking about "gray" areas and not where "the Spirit" is leading people to contradicting views.

    About the post, oh, yes, that's a great message and I am glad you pointed out the common area. Good stuff and I think I failed your first class! Ha, ha!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Susanne,

    But what's a gray area? Those too can vary from denomination to denomination. Some consider 'this' set in stone, others 'that'. *sigh* Honestly, it all gets very confusing.

    Post: Think of it as one of those quizzes that doesn't really count. A practice quiz. :) We'll have others...

    ReplyDelete

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