Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
In the 1st reading of today’s Mass Paul writes that the sufferings Christ undertook during his passion have an absolute value; however they must be applied in time. Pascal put it more succinctly: Jesus’ agony goes on until the end of the world. What! How? Christ wills that we imitate him in our sufferings; He needs our cooperation for the salvation of the world, for the redemption of others.
Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. Notice he was not thinking of just those about him, but even of those he did not know, that they may be “enriched with full assurance by their knowledge of the mysteries of God – namely Christ.”
On this Labor Day we might reflect that each of us is called to work to bring the Gospel, the mystery of Christ, to the whole world, and we do this through our particular work and our sufferings, united to the work and sufferings of Jesus. Today we pray especially for the “Laodiceans” in Moslem lands who are called to participate heroically in the Passion of Christ.