THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE LIKE THE SUN IN THE KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER (Matt 13:43)

⏰Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (31 July 2018 – Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola)

📖Jer 14:17b-22; Ps 79:8, 9, 11, 13 (R.v.9bc); Matt 13:36-43

Revelation 22:14 says, “Happy are those who wash their garments clean for they will have free access to the tree of life and enter the city through the gates.” The saints are those who have washed their garments clean. They belong to that “great crowd that no one could count…standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white” (Rev 7:9). No one can really belong to that great crowd without deep faith.

As we celebrate the memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we celebrate the faithfulness of God in being patient with those of us who are sinners, calling us to repentance and faith in him.

St. Ignatius was a gallant soldier who lived in every way but moral. He was even once jailed for his abuse of the clergy. But God arrested him while he was on the hospital bed nursing an injury he sustained in a battle. This conversion came through just an ordinary book which was given to him to read at the hospital to while away his time.

He went on to become a priest and founded the Society of Jesus (SJ), the Jesuits, which is the Congregation that gave the Church the present Pope, Francis.

God, who created us, planted the good seed of faith in everyone of us. No one is excluded from possessing that faith but he who falls asleep and allows the enemy to plant the weed of distraction into his life. Jesus explained that while those who are of the good seed rejoice, those who allowed the growth of the weed will experience torment (cf. Matt 13:36-43).

May such torment not be our lot, amen.

Can we not join Jeremiah in that wonderful prayer of repentance and perfect declaration of complete dependence on God (Jer 14:17b-22)? If we do that from our heart, our name shall indeed be written in the book of life.

Have a glorious and happy day. Peace be with you.