Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

Celebrant: Christ our teacher and Lord gathers us together to worship.  In faith, we lift up our hearts and prayers to the Father through him.

Deacon/Lector:

That the Church may be united in professing her faith in Jesus Christ to a troubled world, we pray to the Lord...

That the pastors of the Church may generously minister to the people of God, we pray to the Lord…

That we, who all have one Father, may build a society that treats the unborn, the inconvenient, and the burdensome as brothers and sisters, we pray to the Lord...

That we always will be humble stewards of the many gifts God has given us, we pray to the Lord…

That the sick will be comforted by loving friends and family, and granted the grace of both physical and spiritual healing, we pray to the Lord…

That all who have been called from this life may rest in the peace of God’s love, we pray to the Lord…

Celebrant:

Loving Father,
we pray today with humble and contrite hearts.
Be merciful to us and grant the petitions we have presented
through Christ our Lord.

On May 7, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI said the following in a homily in Rome: “The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery.”

In our day, some try to justify the killing of the unborn by appealing to “freedom of choice.” Tragically, however, women getting abortions feel that they have no freedom and no choice. They feel trapped, and this is why the pro-life movement provides alternatives to abortion. Moreover, this “freedom to kill” leaves no freedom or choice for the child who is killed.  Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want; freedom is the power to do what is right, to always respect the truth and to choose life.

Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
Mt 23:1-12

View a video with homily hints

The first reading from Malachi asks, “Have we not all one Father? Has not the one God created us?” This theme is echoed in the Gospel’s teaching, “Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.”

In a culture of death, the worldview is that we are responsible only for those for whom we choose to be responsible, and that this choice is a purely individual, private matter. Such a culture would have us believe that someone’s decision to abort a child is “none of our business.”

But if we all have one Father, then that makes us brothers and sisters, and means that our lives are entrusted to one another’s care. We are responsible for each other before we choose to be. The abortions that others have are our business, because those children – as well as their parents -- are also entrusted to our care, in the one family of God. Ours is the business of love, to care as much as we can for all our brothers and sisters.