25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - Matt 20: 1-16

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 9: 1-6 - 'Take nothing for the journey.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 551 (in 'the Keys of the Kingdom') - From the beginning of his public life Jesus chose certain men, twelve in number, to be with him and to participate in his mission. He gives the Twelve a share in his authority and 'sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 8: 19-21 - 'My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God.'Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudyFor complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pMatthew 9: 9-13 - 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 581 (in 'Jesus and the Law') - The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people "as one who had authority, and not as their scribes" In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But I say to you. . ."With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void the word of God"- 589 (in 'Jesus and Israel's faith in the one God and Saviour') - Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet (abbreviated).- 2100 (in 'Sacrifice') - Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit...." The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pMatthew 20: 1-16 - 'Why be envious because I am generous?'Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 8: 4-15 - 'The parable of the sower.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 2731 (in 'Facing Difficulties in Prayer') - Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit." If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.- 1151 (in 'Signs and Symbols') - Signs taken up by Christ. In his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs of creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God (abbreviated).- 2847 (in 'And Lead us not into Temptation') - The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death. God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings.... There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.- 368 (in 'Body and Soul but Truly One') - The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one's being, where the person decides for or against God.- 2668 (in 'Prayer to Jesus') - The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 8: 1-3 - 'The women who accompanied Jesus.'Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 7: 36-50 - 'Her many sins have been forgiven, or she would not have shown such great love.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 575 (in 'Jesus and Israel') - To be sure, Christ's relations with the Pharisees were not exclusively polemical. Some Pharisees warn him of the danger he was courting; Jesus praises some of them, like the scribe of Mark 12:34, and dines several times at their homes (abbreviated).- 588 (in 'Jesus and Israel's faith in the One God and Saviour') - Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves. Against those among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others", Jesus affirmed: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves.- 2616 (in 'Jesus hears our prayer') - Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman).- 1441 (in 'Only God Forgives Sin') - Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, "The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven" (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pLuke 7: 31-35 - 'We played the pipes, and you wouldn't dance.'Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pJohn 19: 25-27 - 'Woman, this is your Son.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 726 (in 'Rejoice you who are full of grace') - At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve ("mother of the living"), the mother of the "whole Christ" (abbreviated).- 2618 (in 'The Prayer of the Virgin Mary') - It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross, that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living" (abbreviated).- 501 (in 'Mary ever-virgin') - Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: "The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love."- 964 (in 'Wholly united with her Son') - Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is made      manifest above all at the hour of his Passion: Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son."- 2677-2679 (in 'In Communion with the Holy Mother of God') - Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. and our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise...Mary is the perfect Orans (prayer), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus' mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. the prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope. (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!

To support the ministry and access exclusive content, go to: ⁠⁠http://patreon.com/logicalbiblestudy⁠⁠For complete verse-by-verse audio commentaries from Logical Bible Study, go to: ⁠⁠https://mysoundwise.com/publishers/1677296682850pJohn 3: 13-17 - 'God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved.'Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:- 423 (in 'The Good News: God has sent his son') - We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He 'came from God', 'descended from heaven', and 'came in the flesh'. For 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. . . and from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.'- 440 (in 'Christ') - Jesus unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man "who came down from heaven", and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed only when he is raised high on the cross (abbreviated).- 661 (in 'He Ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father') - This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.- 219 (in 'God is love') - God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."- 458 (in 'Why did the Word become Flesh'?) - The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."- 678-679 (in 'To Judge the Living and the Dead') - Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgement of the Last Day in his preaching. Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned...Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgement on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. the Father has given "all judgement to the Son". Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love (abbreviated).Got a Bible question? Send an email to [email protected], and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!