Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke— A Man with Dropsy (edema) is Healed on the Sabbath teaches us the meaning of the Sabbath: rest in Christ! The Sabbath is not “the work of not working” but ministry of our Lord’s Word and Sacrament through which we receive the rest of sins forgiven and new life in His mercy. The Great Supper teaches us that “the call of the Gospel to receive salvation in Christ is like an invitation which is rejected because people have ‘more important things to do.’ Those who are helpless and needy receive the invitation and believe the Gospel. Those who believe they have no need reject the invitation and are excluded from salvation.” The Lost Sheep teaches us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save the lost sinner who was not worth saving. Jesus’ passion to save the single lost soul is illustrated in this parable in which a man does the unthinkable: He leaves the many to rescue the one. This work delights the Lord and all of heaven.” The Lost Coin follows the theme of the Lost Sheep and teaches us that “Jesus’ desire to save the lost sinner is like a woman who is possessed with an obsessive desire to find something she has lost, and not to rest until she does. The Lord and His angels have no greater joy than the salvation of a sinner.” This week also affords us opportunity to meditate upon two minor festivals: St. Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus’ had cast seven demons and who was the first witness to the resurrection, and St. James the Elder, the brother of John, and the first of the Apostles to be martyred CP250720