The Church’s Liturgical year concludes in several weeks with the Solemnity of Christ the King. The Sunday readings for these last several weeks draw our attention to the End Times: our personal end (when one dies), and the end of time when the Lord returns in glory. This is an additional reason why November is set aside as a special time to pray for the dead.
Every Sunday at Mass the Church provides for our instruction three readings from the Sacred Scritures: one from the Old Testament (except during the Easter season, when the first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles), one from the letters of the New Testament, and one from the Gospels.
The account of the Rich Young Man in today’s Gospel presents Jesus with another opportunity to speak on a common topic: money and materialism. Over half of the parables or stories Jesus tells in the Gospels relate to the proper (or improper) use of material things.
Among the many issues on which our Catholic Faith conflicts with the prevailing secular culture, the teaching on marriage certainly is one of the most important. In fact, the secular culture rejects every aspect of Christian marriage: that it is a lifelong and faithful bond between one man and one woman, which is open to the gift of children.
Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” This is the response Moses gave to Joshua, according to today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers. Joshua had reported to Moses that two of the men had begun to prophesy in the camp – an act which Joshua interpreted as challenging the singular authority of Moses.
People have long recognized that the books of the Old Testament have different styles. Usually they are put in one of three categories: historical books, like the books of Genesis and Exodus, which present a narrative story; prophetic books, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, which record the teaching of the prophets; and the wisdom books, like Proverbs and the book of Wisdom, which contain instructions on how one should live.