Daily Reading
First Reading
Joel 4:12-21
Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit in judgment upon all the neighboring nations.
Wield the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for their crimes are numerous.
Crowds upon crowds in the Valley of Decision; for near is the day of the Lord in the Valley of Decision. Sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withhold their brightness.
The Lord roars from Zion, and from Jerusalem raises his voice; the heavens and the earth quake, but the Lord will be a shelter for his people, a fortress for the people of Israel.
Then you will know that I the Lord am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will never again travel through her.
On that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills flow with milk, all the streams of Judah will flow with water. A spring will rise from the house of the Lord, watering the Valley of Shittim.
Egypt will be a waste, Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence done to the Judahites, because they shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem for all generations. I will avenge their blood, and I will not acquit the guilt. The Lord dwells in Zion.
Psalm
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12
The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples behold his glory.
Light dawns for the righteous, and gladness for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.
Gospel Reading
Luke 11:27-28
While Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you!”
But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
Reflection
Friends, our Gospel blesses those who hear the word of God and observe it. In this regard, I would like to speak about the response of the Polish people to the word proclaimed by St. John Paul II. The power of the Polish Communist state, and behind that the power of the Soviet Union, is what John Paul faced at the beginning of the 1980s. But he was practiced in the art of facing down oppressive political forces, having grown up under Nazism and Communism.
He spoke of God, of human rights, of the dignity of the individual—frightening at every turn, his handlers worried about diplomatic repercussions. As he spoke, the crowds got bigger and more enthusiastic. This went beyond mere Polish nationalism. At one gathering, the millions of people began to chant “We want God! We want God!” over and over for fifteen minutes.
There was no controlling this power, born of the confidence that God’s love is more powerful than any of the weapons of the empires of the world, from crosses to nuclear bombs. This is, of course, why Communist officialdom tried vehemently to stop John Paul II. But there is no chaining the Word of God!