Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family. Isaiah 22:23

Today, Conception Abbey and Seminary College hosts our third annual Seminary Open House for our friends and benefactors. We’re all under a big, white tent like you’d see at a wedding reception. A fitting similarity. Like those at a wedding banquet, we are rejoicing in and celebrating a union made possible by mutual love, trust, and companionship. But the union today is not one between a man and a woman; rather, we are celebrating our fellowship with one another in Christ and with God our Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Sounds like a foretaste of what Heaven will be like!

This big, white tent is raised up by many supports and staked down by many pegs. We hear about a peg in the First Reading today at Mass. The Lord is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to Shebna, the “master of the palace” of Jerusalem, about how the Lord will replace him with Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. Master of the Palace is a high office, but not the highest, like the king himself. Shebna was exalting himself by preparing his own tomb, a place of honor after his death, among the kings’ tombs (see Isaiah 22:16).

Because of his self-assurance in his high office, the Lord is taking this privilege away from him and giving it to another. This new man, Eliakim, the Lord “…will fix him like a peg…” (Isaiah 22:23), a nail upon which the Lord “…shall hang all the glory of his ancestral house: descendants and offspring, all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs” (Isaiah 22:24). But not even this new officeholder will stay long! An added oracle decrees Eliakim’s demotion from the office of master and steward (see Isaiah 22:25).

But thanks be to God! In his infinite wisdom, King Jesus bequeaths a key, a symbol of authority and high office, that will be passed from one generation to the next for the new office of “Master of the Palace” of the Church. It was first held by a man he called Cephas, the Rock, who came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, “the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And it may quite well be him, St. Peter, who will graciously open the gates of Heaven for us, God willing, for us to attend the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb (see 2 Peter 1:11 and Revelation 19:7).

For Today:
Let us pray for our Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, who is the descendant of a long line of Masters of the Palace.

O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
look favorably on your servant Francis,
whom you have set at the head of your Church as her shepherd;
Grant, we pray, that by word and example
he may be of service to those over whom he presides
so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care,
he may come to everlasting life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

(USCCB, Prayer for Pope Francis)

Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB