Sunday 3 October 2021
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Pastoral Guide, by Pope St Gregory the Great
Let the pastor be discreetly silent, and to the point when he speaks
A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught. Pastors who lack foresight hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favour of men. As the voice of truth tells us, such leaders are not zealous pastors who protect their flocks, rather they are like mercenaries who flee by taking refuge in silence when the wolf appears.
The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion he complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defence of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.
When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the Lord again says to his unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of the prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and they consequently lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing.
The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Finally, that is also the reason why the Lord warns us through Isaiah: Cry out and be not still; raise your voice in a trumpet call.
Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously.
________
In other parts of the world and other calendars:
The Blessed Martyrs of Sussex
From the Speech of Blessed William Howard, Viscount Stafford, before his execution on Tower Hill
I have no reason to be ashamed of my religion
By the permission of Almighty God, I am this day brought hither to suffer death, as if I were guilty of High Treason. I do most truly, in the presence of the Eternal, Omnipotent and all-knowing God, protest upon my salvation, that I am as innocent as it is possible for any man to be so much as in a thought of the crimes laid to my charge.
Since my long imprisonment, I have considered often what could be the original cause of my being thus accused, and I cannot believe it to be upon any other account than my being of the Church of Rome. I have no reason to be ashamed of my religion, for it teacheth me nothing but the right worship of God, obedience to the King, and due subordination to the temporal laws of the Kingdom. And I do submit to all Articles of Faith believed and taught in the Catholic Church, believing them to be most consonant to the Word of God.
I believe and profess that there is one God, one Saviour, one holy Catholic Church, of which through the mercy, grace and goodness of God I die a member. To my great and unspeakable grief, I have offended God in many things, by many great offences; but I give Him most humble thanks, not in any of those crimes of which I was accused.
I shall end with my hearty prayers for the happiness of His Majesty, that he may enjoy all happiness in this world and the world to come, and govern his people according to the laws of God, and that the people may be sensible what a blessing God hath so miraculously given them, and obey him as they ought. I ask pardon of Almighty God, for all the great offences that I have committed against His Divine Majesty, and hope through the Merits and Passion of Christ Jesus to obtain Everlasting Happiness. Into His hands I commit my spirit, asking pardon of every person that I have done any wrong unto. I do freely forgive all that have any ways wronged me. I do with all the devotion and repentance that I can, humbly invoke the mercy of Our Blessed Saviour. I beseech God not to revenge my innocent blood on the nation, or on those that were the causes of it; I do with my last breath truly assert my innocency, and hope the Omnipotent, All-Seeing, Just God will deal with me accordingly.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.