Saturday October 23

TWENTY-NINETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YOU ARE IN THE SPIRIT

Introduction

      Christians too, like anyone else, have to fight within themselves the tyranny of sin. They are torn beings, capable of the worst, yet capacitated for the best by the Spirit of Christ. They have to make Christ’s experience their own. We have to struggle to make the Spirit come to life in us and under his guidance and with his vitality seek the identity of Christ.

      We are sinners, deserving of punishment. But God is a patient God, willing to give new chances.

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
you enter our existence,
torn and divided as it is,
and with death written into it,
to set us free with the life of your Spirit.
May we give space to your Spirit
to work in us, to unify and renew
our being and our actions,
that with his help we may overcome
the forces of evil in us.
May we not be cut down like fruitless trees
but live for life and for love
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reading 1: Rom 8:1-11

Brothers and sisters:
Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has freed you from the law of sin and death.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do,
this God has done:
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh
are concerned with the things of the flesh,
but those who live according to the spirit
with the things of the spirit.
The concern of the flesh is death,
but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.
For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God;
it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 24:1b-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

(see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Alleluia: Ez 33:11

Alleluia, alleluia.
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion that he may live.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Lk 13:1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree     
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.'”

Intercessions

–   That all the faithful, leaders and members, may heed the call of the Church to look into our own hearts and to change what ought to be changed, we pray:

–   That we may bring a bit of warmth to those whose hearts are empty and cold, that they may discover happiness in the love of God and neighbor, we pray:

–   That the word of God may stir us to bear fruits of justice and love, and that the bread of life of the eucharist may make us strong and faithful, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord, God of life and love,
you created people in your own likeness
and then you sent your Son among us
to take on our own human likeness.
As he comes now among us,
he who knew how to cope with sin,
may his Spirit become the source
of our vitality and strength,
that your Son’s experience may become ours
and that with him we die to sin
and live for a life that never ends.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God,
may we be so guided in life by your Spirit,
who is also the Spirit of Jesus, your Son,
that we may not be merely grateful
for the freedom he brought us,
nor claim his message as our ideology.
We pray you rather
that your Son may live in us in such a way
that people recognize that he is alive in us
who is our Lord for ever.

Blessing

God sent his Son to take sin away and to make us live in the Spirit, who brings us life and peace. So we must live the life of the Spirit, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Commentary

The great human tragedy is to die without repentance. That is the lesson of today’s Gospel. To sin seriously is one thing; to persist in sinfulness is another. It is this latter that the Lord warns against. But his teaching is balanced by his great patience. The man who came to the fig tree for three years is willing to wait another year before destroying the tree. This he does to give the gardener time to cultivate the tree.

Paul today points out our reason for joy in having been touched by God’s saving grace. The law of sin and death now has no place in our lives, we who now live the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus. For the law of sin, enclosed in the flesh, has been condemned and rendered powerless that its righteous decrees might be fulfilled in us who live now, not in flesh, but in the Spirit. The great hope lives in us. If the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us, life will be given to our mortal bodies as well.

This great message of life and hope is one of joy and conso­lation. Our life, not unlike Paul’s, brings its share of sorrow and disappointment. But to read Paul’s message and to believe in it enables us to cope with any trial.

And the message of the gospel teaches us never to lose hope in our prayers for anyone. The patience of Christ is without meas­ure. Sursum corda! Lift up your hearts!

Points to Ponder

The patience of God

The law of righteousness

The basic joy of Christianity.