Catholic Doctrine and the Sunday Readings for September 2023

The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for September 2023 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. Let’s learn the doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that are supported by key verses from September’s Readings.[i] Doctrines are the Magisterium’s authoritative clarification of Revelation and Faith that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic.

September 3, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s Alleluia paraphrases Ephesians 1:18, which is cited by the Catechism to teach that: “The grace of faith opens ‘the eyes of your hearts’ to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God’s plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery . . . it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith” which will “call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love” (CCC 158[ii]). This quote from the Catechism expresses well the need for this column and this entire series on the doctrinal meaning of the Sunday Readings.

Yes, as St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading, we should offer our bodies as “a living sacrifice” and as “spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). But morality is not the only response God wants us to make to Him. “As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice” (CCC 2031). As the very structure of the Catechism makes clear, to be fully Catholic is to believe, worship, act, and pray in harmony with Catholic Doctrine (see CCC 1-3, 11-18).

Christ’s words in today’s Gospel to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:21-27) are easily misinterpreted. Some Catholics are indeed called to make a vow of poverty. For most Catholics, though, Catholic Doctrine makes clear that “loving [God] with all our being” means that we should “use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him” (CCC 222, 226). Are we spending our time and money well? Yes, if our choices make us better able to believe, worship, act, and pray in harmony with Catholic Doctrine. We do not have to make a vow of poverty in order to grow in our Catholic response to God’s love. “God created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him” (CCC 358). Everyone is called to grow in the virtue of temperance (see CCC 1809).

• From the First Reading[iii] (Jeremiah 20:7-9): Jer 20:7-18 is cited in CCC
• From the Second Reading (Romans 12:1-2): Rom 12:1 is cited in CCC 2031; and Rom 12:2 in CCC 2520 and 2826.
• From the Alleluia (Ephesians 1:17-18): Eph 1:18 is cited in CCC
• From the Gospel (Matthew 16:21-27): Mt 16:21-23 is cited in CCC 540 and 607; Mt 16:21 in CCC 554; Mt 16:22-23 in CCC 554; Mt 16:24-26 in CCC 736; Mt 16:24 in CCC 226, 618, and 2029; Mt 16:25-26 in CCC 363; Mt 16:25 in CCC 2232; and Mt 16:26 in CCC

September 10, Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10), from the Second Reading, means that the Ten Commandments “must be interpreted in light of” the Two Great Commandments given by Christ: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (CCC 2055). The structure of the Catechism reflects this. The first three of the Ten Commandments are presented in the chapter entitled “You Shall Love the Lord Your God . . .” (CCC 2083-2195). The last seven of the Ten Commandments are presented in the chapter entitled “You Shall Love Your Neighbor . . .” (CCC 2196-2557). For more about the true meaning of love, see my commentaries on the Eleventh and Twelfth Sundays in Ordinary Time.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about the power to bind and loose (Matthew 18:18) as He had in the Gospel for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 16:19). This power, which is “the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church” has been entrusted by Jesus not only to Peter and his successors, the popes, but also to the Twelve Apostles and their successors, the bishops (CCC 553, 1444). That the bishops are the successors of the Twelve Apostles is the Doctrine of Apostolic Succession (CCC 77, 861). This means that all current bishops have been ordained bishops by bishops who themselves were ordained bishops by bishops who were also ordained bishops . . . in a line going back to bishops who were ordained bishops by the Apostles. The first Christians were Catholics because they accepted the reality of Apostolic Succession along with the realities of Sacred Tradition, Papal Primacy, and Transubstantiation (although they would not have used these terms).

The bishops in union with the pope make up the Magisterium, which is the ultimate authority Christ Himself established for the Church (CCC 85-87, 888-896, 2032-2040). Why be Catholic? Because the Catholic Church alone has the Magisterium. The Eastern Orthodox Church has Apostolic Succession but does not accept Papal Primacy. No Protestant denomination has Apostolic Succession, and every Protestant denomination rejects Papal Primacy.

As in the case of the pope, no bishop is infallible whenever he teaches. We are free to disagree with bishops when they are not presenting doctrine and discipline. (Not all doctrine is infallible, and no discipline is infallible.) As also in the case of the pope, no bishop has the authority to contradict any doctrine, whether or not it is infallible. For more on infallibility and the authority of the bishop, see CCC 74-100, 888-896, 1555-1561, and 2032-2040. No bishop is superior to the Word of God nor is he the Word of God; every bishop is the servant of the Word of God, which is found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (CCC 86). It seems to me that real clericalism is treating every word from every bishop (and every priest and the pope) as though it were doctrine.

The Catechism refers to today’s Gospel (Matthew 18:16) to assert that Christians must witness to the Gospel in words as well as deeds (CCC 2472). The best words are the words of Catholic Doctrine and words in harmony with it.

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9): Ps 95:1-6 is cited in CCC 2628; Ps 95:7-8 in CCC 2659; 95:7 in CCC 1165; and 95:9 in CCC 2119.
• From the Second Reading (Romans 13:8-10): Rom 13:8-10 is cited in CCC 1824 and 2196; Rom 13:8 in CCC 2845; and Rom 13:9-10 in CCC
• From the Alleluia (2 Corinthians 5:19): 2 Cor 5:19 is cited in CCC 433 and 620.
• From the Gospel (Matthew 18:15-20): Mt 18:16 is cited in CCC 2472; Mt 18:18 in CCC 553 and 1444; and Mt 18:20 in CCC 1088 and 1373.

September 17, Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself” (Romans 14:7). This verse from the Second Reading supports the Catholic doctrine that “the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms” everyone in the Church (CCC 953).

In obedience to Our Lord’s powerful words on forgiveness in today’s Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35), “[t]here is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive” (CCC 982). The Catechism adds, however, “provided his repentance is honest” and he “turns away from sin.” For more on the forgiveness of sins, see CCC 1422-1498.

On our own need to forgive, the Catechism challenges us to have a heart that ”turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession” (CCC 2843). Yet the Catechism also affirms that “[i]t is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense” (CCC 2843). So Our Lord does not require us to deny our emotions when we have been mistreated or to pretend that we were never mistreated. Because Catholic Doctrine includes the right to self-defense (CCC 2263-2264), being forgiving seemingly still means we can defend ourselves. Because Catholic Doctrine obligates those who have mistreated others to give restitution (CCC 2412, 2487), it would seem that those who mistreat us are still obligated to give restitution to us, just as we are obligated to give restitution to those we have mistreated. Because Catholic Doctrine calls us to be prudent (see CCC 1806), it seems that we should be prudent when we forgive. Being prudent might mean sometimes forgiving restitution and sometimes requiring restitution, for example, even though Saint John Paul II went to the prison cell of his would-be assassin to forgive him, the pope did not call for him to be set free from prison.

About family life, the Catechism teaches every member “should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect” (CCC 2227).

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12): Ps 103 is cited in CCC 304.
• From the Second Reading (Romans 14:7-9): Rom 14:7 is cited in CCC 953; and Rom 14:9 in CCC
• From the Alleluia (John 13:34): Jn 13:34 is cited in CCC 782, 1823, 1970, 2822, and 2842.
• From the Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35): Mt 18:21-22 is cited in CCC 982, 2227, and 2845; and Mt 18:23-35 in CCC

September 24, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Responsorial Psalm proclaims “The Lord is . . . compassionate to all his works” (Psalms 145:9). This means that although “God loves all his creatures,” there is a “hierarchy of creatures . . . from the less perfect to the more perfect” (CCC 342). “Man is the summit of the Creator’s work” (CCC 343).

Verses from the Second Reading (Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a) support the Catholic doctrine that death has a positive meaning because it completes Baptism: “through Baptism, the Christian has already ‘died with Christ’ sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this ‘dying with Christ’ and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act” (CCC 1010). “Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s” (CCC 1011).

Catholics obey St. Paul’s instruction to “conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27) when they “see in the faith their new dignity” as “children of God” (CCC 1692). This means “[p]ersonal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church” (CCC 2039), which “sets out the principles of moral life valid for all men” (CCC 2033).

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18): Ps 145:3 is cited in CCC 300; and Ps 145:9 in CCC 295 and 342.
• From the Second Reading (Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a): Phil 1:21 is cited in CCC 1010 and 1698; Phil 1:23 in CCC 1005, 1011, 1021, and 1025; and Phil 1:27 in CCC

[i] There are too many citations, or references, in the Catechism to the verses in a month of Sunday Mass readings to identify all the pertinent doctrines, so I will use my best judgment to select which verses and doctrines to cover in a column that may not exceed 2,000 words. The bullet points allow the reader to explore further the Biblical basis of Catholic Doctrine.

[ii] CCC abbreviates Catechism of the Catholic Church. Any number after it is the number of a paragraph in the Catechism. For example, “CCC 2031” means paragraph 2031 of the Catechism.

[iii] If a Reading is not listed, then none of its verses is cited by the CCC.