Saint Pairs and Christ With Us
by Tom and April Hoopes in Faith on Saturday, August 15, 2009 5:00 PM
(In this weekly column, Tom and April Hoopes share family-friendly ways of observing the liturgical year and celebrating the Sunday readings.)
Sunday, Aug. 16 is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B). Sunday, Aug. 23 is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Aug. 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption but is not a U.S. holy day of obligation this year, since it falls on a Saturday.
Family
There are plenty of “saint pairs” to note in August.
St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Assumption. After he took the place of another prisoner slated for execution in the Auschwitz concentration camp, he was cremated on the feast of the Assumption, a good day to follow his example and say a prayer of consecration to Mary.
The Assumption and the Coronation. Together, these celebrations point to our final end: We’re made to get where she went, and she’s “on the other side” pulling for us.
St. Monica and St. Augustine. The story of Monica and Augustine, her son, is a great story of how a mother’s simple prayers for her son changed the world.
Aug. 16 Readings
Proverbs 9:1-6; Psalm 34:2-3, 10-15; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
Our Take
Today’s first reading is a mystical, remote preparation for the Eucharist. It speaks of Wisdom building a house of seven columns and offering food and wine there. It’s a clear image of the Church.
But notice who gets invited: “‘Let whoever is simple turn in here; to the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!’”
Those who are already “wise” need not apply. Yet she doesn’t want any “foolishness” either.
In the second reading, St. Paul explains what’s going on here. The Church is indeed a place for the simple to come, but only in order that they might learn to act according to God’s wisdom.
And once again, in the Gospel, Christ fulfills the greatest expectations of the Old Testament.
They dreamed of a palace with seven pillars where we all — not just an elite group — can commune with God. We live the dream. We each have the Catholic Church with the seven pillars of the sacraments.
What they heard about in visions, we have in our tabernacles.
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