Sunday 3 November 2019
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Morning Masses 8.30 & 10.15am Evening 6pm
St Peter's Catholic Church SS9 4BX
Eastwood Parish Leigh on Sea
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Today-Sung Mass in the Ordinariate Use -
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
12 noon 3rd November
Next Ordinariate Use weekday Mass
Readings:
Wisdom 11:22–12:2
Psalm 145:1–2, 8–11, 13–14
2 Thessalonians 1:11–2:2
Luke 19:1–10
Tuesday 5 November 7.30pm
Requiem for our Deceased Members
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Lover of Souls: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings:
Wisdom 11:22–12:2
Psalm 145:1–2, 8–11, 13–14
2 Thessalonians 1:11–2:2
Luke 19:1–10
Our Lord is a lover of souls, the Liturgy shows us today. As we sing
in today’s Psalm, He is slow to anger and compassionate toward all that
He has made.
In His mercy, our First Reading tells us, He overlooks our sins and
ignorance, giving us space that we might repent and not perish in our
sinfulness (see Wisdom 12:10; 2 Peter 3:9).
In Jesus, He has become the Savior of His children, coming Himself to save the lost (see Isaiah 63:8–9; Ezekiel 34:16).
In the figure of Zacchaeus in today’s Gospel, we have a portrait of a
lost soul. He is a tax collector, by profession a “sinner” excluded
from Israel’s religious life. Not only that, he is a “chief tax
collector.” Worse still, he is a rich man who has apparently gained his
living by fraud.
But Zacchaeus’ faith brings salvation to his house. He expresses his
faith in his fervent desire to “see” Jesus, even humbling himself to
climb a tree just to watch Him pass by. While those of loftier religious
stature react to Jesus with grumbling, Zacchaeus receives Him with joy.
Zacchaeus is not like the other rich men Jesus meets or tells stories about (see Luke 12:16–21; 16:19–31; 18:18–25). He repents, vowing to pay restitution to those he has cheated and to give half of his money to the poor.
By his humility he is exalted, made worthy to welcome the Lord into
his house. By his faith he is justified, made a descendant of Abraham
(see Romans 4:16–17).
As He did last week, Jesus is again using a tax collector to show us the faith and humility we need to obtain salvation.
We are also called to seek Jesus daily with repentant hearts. And we
should make our own Paul’s prayer in today’s Epistle: that God might
make us worthy of His calling, that by our lives we might give glory to
the name of Jesus.
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