October 5

A great day for readings today. But first, a "cheat sheet" on the readings used at Mass. If you need it, read it, if not, skip over it.

Sunday readings have a theme running through them. The First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Second Reading, and Gospel are chosen to convey an idea, a thought, well... a theme.

Weekday readings, on the other hand, come together almost by chance. First, let me say that by "weekday readings", I mean the readings used at Masses for the days of Ordinary Time. Readings for the Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter seasons and the readings for Saints' feast days are more like Sundays in that regard. When the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council decided that it would be a good thing that the readings at Mass exposed Catholics to more of Sacred Scripture, the Lectionary cycle was created so that one could hear just about all of Scripture at one time or another over a five-year period (Sunday Readings are on a three-year cycle, whilst Weekday Readings are on a two-year cycle).

I loved today's readings together. The readings from Jonah and Luke's Gospel paired off very nicely.

• Jonah had every reason to preach to the Ninevites (I mean, God asked him to do it), and ran the other way.
• The Good Samaritan had every reason to walk the other way (given the tensions between Jews and Samaritans), and still forgot about what was going on in his own life in order to care for the man.

What a great lesson in our own lives of the hundreds of little "forks in the road" that we face. Do I help this person or not? Do I engage in the gossip or not? Do I wander on the internet or not? Do I check on my elderly neighbor or not? Do I go to this meeting or not? Our holiness is not in making one big decision well, but lots and lots of little decisions well.