This week's readings Week of August 25 - 31 Sunday, Aug. 25, 2002 Reading I: Is 22:19-23 Reading II: Rom 11:33-36 Gospel: Mt 16:13-20 Monday, Aug. 26, 2002 Reading I: 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12 Gospel: Mt 23:13-22 Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2002 Reading I: 2 Thes 2:1-3a, 14-17 Gospel: Mt 23:23-26 Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002 Reading I: 2 Thes 3:6-10, 16-18 Gospel: Mt 23:27-32 Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 Reading I: 1 Cor 1:1-9 Gospel: Mk 6:17-29 Friday, Aug. 30, 2002 Reading I: 1 Cor 1:17-25 Gospel: Mt 25:1-13 Saturday, Aug. 31, 2002 Reading I: 1 Cor 1:26-31 Gospel: Mt 25:14-30 Pope's Prayer Intentions August General Intention Development of consciences that respect the environment: That all of us, individually and collectively, may develop a growing respect for the environment as God's gift to us. August Mission Intention Prayerful support for missionaries who work in the world's shantytowns: That the missionaries in the world's vast shantytowns may manage to alleviate the suffering that injustice inflicts and help the people living in them to develop to the fullest.

Upon this Rock:
The Church is built

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

A couple weeks ago hundreds of thousands of youth and other Catholics gathered with Pope John Paul II in Toronto, Canada, to celebrate World Youth Day.

Celebrations of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, catechetical sessions, and other events took place as our young people welcomed the Pope in their midst, and he in turn looked upon them with the love of Christ, whose Vicar he is. His example of deep faith and commitment inspired them and inflamed them with the Holy Spirit's fire of service, generosity, and love.

Just as, after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, the people to whom Peter and the Apostles preached experienced the presence and continuing mission of Jesus, so too does the Church today in the offices and persons of the Pope and the Bishops. "Upon this rock (Peter) I will build my church," Jesus said. He revealed himself as the Christ to the Apostles, and gave them the spiritual and temporal authority of service in his Church.

Readings for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Aug. 25) Is 22:19-23 Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8 Rom 11:33-36 Mt 16:13-20

We who look at the Pope in awe for his strength, courage, conviction, fortitude, and genuine love for the Church are looking upon that rock. By our prayers we hold up Pope John Paul II and ask the Holy Spirit to continually fill him with the Spirit's gifts and guide him in the ministry entrusted to him.

Saint Paul, another apostle who shared a final ministry in Rome with Peter, wrote to the Romans of "the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God." Paul writes, "How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways." No one can know what God is thinking, Paul seems to say. No one can plumb the depths of his wisdom, of his plans.

The Lord has taken a man named Karol Wojtyla, a lowly man from a poor country, and made him the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II. A learned man, yes. A holy man, yes. A great man, yes. Not as the world accounts learnedness, or holiness, or greatness, but as Christ accounts them. It is in humility, patience, service, and love that the wisdom, holiness, and greatness of anyone are made to serve the mission of Christ in the Church.

To the Pope and bishops, to the Church, Jesus has entrusted a great gift: his own ministry and mission of service and redemption. Through the ministry of the Pope and bishops, and their helpers the presbyters or priests, Jesus continually makes present his sacrifice on the Cross in the Mass. At their hands he becomes present in the mystery of his Body and Blood. On their lips are his words of forgiveness. In their hearts are his prayers for the people for whom he died.

Amid the buffets and storms which assail the Church in our day, the Rock stands strong. Faithful to the teaching of the Church, the Pope is the one who "confirms the brethren," strengthening them as Christ strengthened the Apostles when they were weak, as Peter strengthened the new Church by his own life and martyrdom.

Our young people know that. They look upon the Pope and see there not an elderly man, but a man of service. They see there not a man wounded by frailty, but strengthened by Christ. They see there not a man tormented by physical ailment, but gladdened by the hope which only Christ can bring. He is truly our Rock, and by his leadership - as with his predecessors and his future successors - "the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against" the Church.

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.