Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Gospel: Lk 12: 13 – 21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
With the rise of secularism, sadly, many fail to acknowledge the fact, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in Charity in Truth, that all that we have is “gift” from God.
We live in a world in which individualism, selfishness, greed and materialism lead many to believe that what is important in this life is storing up wealth here on earth and keeping it all so that they can have a good time – like the rich man in today’s Gospel (Luke 12:13-21) who plans to build bigger barns to store up his “treasures” here on earth and then “take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time”.
Gospel: Lk. 11: 1 – 13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”
In today’s Gospel (Luke 11:1-13), some of Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than the one we read in Matthew 6:9-11. During Holy Mass, the Lord’s Prayer is placed after the Eucharistic Prayer and before communion.
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.”