Readings for the week of September 21st
-
National Hispanic Heritage Month is annually observed from September 15 to October 15 in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic culture to the nation's achievements, culture, and history.
Dr. Cecilia González-Andrieu is a professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University and President of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States. She completed her doctorate at the Graduate Theological Union and UC Berkeley, where she was first to combine systematic theology with religion and the arts. She is a leading scholar in the field of theological aesthetics, which is an approach to understanding the things of God using beauty and the arts as the lens. She is also active in social justice, and much of her teaching centers on immigration, DACA students and undocumented workers and the role that art and theology play in social movements.
In a lenten reflection earlier this year, Dr González-Andrieu wrote:
“More times than there are days in a year, scripture tells us to not be afraid; to take heart. In these precarious times, it is more important than ever to allow God to encourage us—literally give us the heart we need—to overcome our self-doubts and the doubts we may have about our neighbor; to meet hard-heartedness with the tenderness and mercy that is a gift of the Spirit.”To read some of the articles she has written, click here: https://www.americamagazine.org/author/cecilia-gonzalez-andrieu/
To read about or purchase her book, click here: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602583535/bridge-to-wonder/
-
Jeremiah laments over Judah
My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick.
Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?")
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken, I mourn, and horror has seized me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
-
Deliver us and forgive our sins
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
-
Those who trample the needy
Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
-
God, the helper of the needy
Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised.
The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!
-
Make thanksgivings
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,
for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.
This is right and acceptable before God our Savior,
who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all--this was attested at the right time.
For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.
-
Serving God or wealth
Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.
So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.'
Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'
So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'
Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'
And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
