Today’s scriptures emphasize the fundamental link between love of God and love of our neighbors, especially those who are most in need. Love of God should compel us to love the people whom God cherishes. Conversely, work for justice and charity for those in need should be rooted in our love of God.

That connection and balance, however, isn’t always easy to maintain in our lives. Even in religious orders, we find that some Christians are more oriented toward contemplation and prayer, while others are more active in reaching out to those who are oppressed. Today Jesus reminds us of the necessity for both in the life of faith.

Power struggles occur on every level of society from the world stage to relationships at work, to our own homes. We struggle for position in the hierarchy of power. Who has power over whom? How do they wield it? What is the source of that power? What is the healthy response?

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading the Pharisees engage Jesus in a power struggle over whether Jews should show tribute to Caesar by paying taxes. Jesus’ response puts this and every struggle for power into perspective. In harmony with the words of Isaiah and Paul, Jesus teaches us that God is the ultimate source of all power—the power of earthly rulers, the Pharisees, Jesus, the Church, and the power within ourselves.

The mountain of the Lord described in today’s first reading is a place where there is no more hunger, no more weeping, and no more division of any kind. We need to pause and ponder these images every now and then, especially given the fact that we live in such a fractured world.

The responsorial psalm continues to paint a picture of a place where only goodness and kindness flourish. These readings describe the heavenly banquet, to which God calls each of us through baptism and continues to call us throughout our lives. Let us “RSVP” to God’s invitation and live our lives consistent with gospel values so that one day we will be welcomed to the table of the kingdom.

Today’s readings focus our attention on vineyards. Isaiah’s song concerning his friend’s vineyard begins with inspiring and poetic images of an idyllic vineyard where the choicest harvest is expected. Instead, the vineyard yields wild grapes, which causes the owner to abandon it.

In the stream of readings during this portion of Ordinary Time one week’s texts can often appear to pick up exactly where the previous week’s concluded. The sentiments expressed in today’s first reading seem to be a direct reaction to the Gospel passage we heard last week. In that Gospel, the landowner pays the same wages to his workers whether they worked for a full day or for only a few minutes. Today Ezekiel gives us the lament, “The LORD’s way is not fair!” (Ezekiel 18:25). These Sundays in Ordinary Time offer us a glimpse into the ways of the Lord. We see how God’s way has the tendency to turn the accepted conventions of the day upside down. Those who always expected that their way to heaven was guaranteed are disappointed. Those who thought they never had a chance are given that chance. Today offers us another opportunity to discover the abundance of God’s mercy and love.

Eucharistic Prayer IV is, like Eucharistic Prayer III, a fresh composition from the 1960s, based on a prayer from the tradition of the ancient church of Alexandria. It has an interesting structural feature. The new prayers all nod toward the East with the epiclesis, or calling down of the Spirit, over the gifts. In this prayer the Spirit is asked to come down again, after the consecration, to make holy the communicants who “partake of this one Bread and one Chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.” This beautiful phrase is well worth meditating on. What is the goal of your reception of Holy Communion today?

The preface for this Eucharistic Prayer is firmly attached to the prayer and the directives for using the prayer anchor it to Ordinary Time. It is not intended to be an option if the Mass has a proper preface of its own, like a funeral, a Lenten weekday, or a great feast. It is not often used these days, in part because of these limitations. At first, it was suggested that this prayer was better suited to small groups of people who were well educated in scripture. This was kind of an odd stipulation, especially since its images are so beautiful and worthy of attention.