Day Three: Saturday, September 12, 2015

Theme: Mary built her faith on the rock that is Jesus

Saturday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time: Lectionary: 442

Reading 1: 1 Timothy 1:15-17

Beloved:This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance:Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.Of these I am the foremost.But for that reason I was mercifully treated,so that in me, as the foremost,Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an examplefor those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Alleluia: John 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Whover loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 6:43-49

Jesus said to his disciples:“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.For every tree is known by its own fruit.For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,nor do they gather grapes from brambles.A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,listens to my words, and acts on them.That one is like a man building a house,who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;when the flood came, the river burst against that housebut could not shake it because it had been well built.But the one who listens and does not actis like a person who built a house on the groundwithout a foundation.When the river burst against it,it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”

La Salette Scripture Reflection: Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week of the Year

Luke 6:43-49: "A good man produces goodness from the good in his heart; an evil man produces evil out of his store of evil. Each man speaks from his heart's abundance."

We cannot be judged in any way except through our deeds. Our actions certainly speak louder than our words and leave impressions long after our words are forgotten.

On January 23, 1998, a fence which for 163 years divided graves in a city cemetery in Jasper, Texas, was taken down. The ministers in that town had often spoken of racial harmony, but when loved ones were buried, the blacks were always on one side of the fence and whites were on the other side. That fence made sure that even in death, blacks and whites would be separated.

But on that chilly January morning, as members of the town gathered in prayer, that fence was torn down. Perhaps the tearing down of an old iron fence in a small cemetery seems insignificant in this country's battle with racism and segregation but to the people of that community, it was an important symbol of good people producing goodness from their heart of hearts.

The message of La Salette was not merely for the people living in that small hamlet high in the French Alps. It was a message of God's deep love and Mary's great concern for all people in all places. Mary spoke of “a great famine coming,” in which people would pay for their sins through hunger. There seems to be such a hunger today for genuine equality in our society where all people, regardless of race or religion, should have the same opportunities and freedoms. And that hunger seems to arise from God.

Some Reflection Questions: By my actions, do I speak words of peace or of discord, of equality or of racism, of justice or of injustice? Which is “truly abundant” in my heart?