27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 8th October 2017)
Seeing our lives within the story of the life of Jesus – (Matthew 21:33-43)
October has been associated with the Most Holy Rosary ever since the battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571. At the battle a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece. The Ottoman navy was far superior to anything the western powers could muster. But Pope Pius V asked all Catholic nations to pray the Most Holy Rosary for the victory of the Christian forces. The surprising victory was attributed to the powerful intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Up until the Church calendar was changed after Vatican II, the first Sunday in October was always known as Rosary Sunday. I mention this because in the Rosary we meditate on the life, death and resurrection of Our Blessed Lord. But we don’t think solely on his life as if we are looking at a movie. We endeavour to see how we can understand the mysteries of our own lives in the light of the mysteries of his life. Like Mary I ponder over in my heart how the life of Jesus adds meaning to my life.
This is exactly what Jesus is doing in this Sunday’s Gospel. He is telling a parable but his listeners are not to see themselves as uninterested spectators. He is saying that they are to put themselves into the story and see how it reflects on their lives. This is exactly what we do as we pray the Most Holy Rosary. I see my journey through life as gaining meaning as it is united to Jesus’ journey through his life. His life teaches me how to live my life, his sufferings gives meaning to all sufferings once they are untied to his. His death helps us to face our deaths because we face our deaths now in the light of His resurrection.
As Pope Francis writes in his encyclical on Faith “Christ is the one with whom we are united precisely in order to believe. Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes; it is a participation in his way of seeing”.
This month of the Most Holy Rosary let us ask Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, to help us to see all that is going on in our lives within the story of Jesus life.