32nd Week in Ordinary Time
Josaphat

1st Reading: Wis 7:22b—8:1
Gospel: Lk 17:20–25
The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was to come. He answered, “The kingdom of God is not like something you can observe and say of it: ‘Look, here it is! There it is!’ See, the kingdom of God is among you.”
And Jesus said to his disciples, “The time is at hand when you will long to see one of the glorious days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Then people will tell you: ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go, do not follow them. As lightning flashes from one end of the sky to the other, so will it be with the Son of Man. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this people.”

Commentary
Abbe Pierre, the famous rag picker of Paris, lived in a large house with a dozen religious brothers. In the middle of January, when ice and snow covered the ground, a poor freezing family rang the doorbell of the large house and begged for some corner to sleep in; otherwise, they would all freeze to death. Abbe Pierre was worried because every room in the house was filled. Only the little chapel was not. So he took the Blessed Sacrament from the altar and carried it up to the attic, where it was too cold to live. Then he bedded down the family in that only prayer room in the house, which was Christ’s own room, so to speak.
The next morning, the brothers were shocked to see the Blessed Sacrament gone and a family sleeping on the floor. They were horrified at this disrespect for the Lord’s room and were angry when Abbe Pierre told them that he had place the Blessed Sacrament in the attic, where snow was blowing in through the roof tiles. Then the Abbe explained, “My brothers, Christ feels no cold or heat in the Blessed Sacrament. But Christ in people feels everything they do!”

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