GOSPEL

October 15, 2020 (Thursday) 28th Week in Ordinary Time Psalter: Week 4 / (White)

St. Teresa of Avila, virgin & doctor Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6 The Lord has made known his salvation.

Gospel: Luke 11:47-54

Acurse is onyou, for youbuild monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them! For that reason the wisdom of God also said: I will send prophets and apostles and these people will kill and persecute some of them.

But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of

Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all. A curse is on you, teachers of the law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.”

As Jesus left that place, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to harass him, asking him endless questions, setting traps to catch him in something he might say.

Reflection:

St. Teresa of Avila whose memorial we celebrate today is one who teaches us about the one fundamental law—to contemplate or rest in God’s love. This great contemplative followed in the footsteps of the prophets of the Old Testament.

Against all odds she taught that to be a true disciple of Christ one must love God above all.

So often the world and its allurements beguile us into “loving” this world rather than being in love with God. St. Paul in the first reading tells the Ephesians that we have been chosen from eternity to belong to God. God’s design is for us all to become saints like St. Teresa. The path to sanctity begins with a longing for God. St. Teresa often simply prayed by pronouncing the Holy Name “Senor!” with a heart that simply longed for God! Desire for God is the key to spiritual flight. We may not soar to the 7th mansion like St. Teresa but we can be wafted to the heavens like St. Therese, the Little Flower, with childlike trust in our God of love even as we do our little and ordinary tasks with and for the love of God!