The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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July 1, 2018

Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

Faith is tested during periods of suffering and a person can be pulled off balance during times of enormous distress. The whole demeanor of a person can change when facing an unsettled future. Some people, when facing health issues, give the impression that they never thought that their own mortality can be a reality. They seem surprised that death dares to confront them. How rude death and illness are to assault them. Doesn’t death know that we should be immortal?

Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman give us two examples of faith-filled people under tremendous distress who suffer greatly. They realize the quotes from the Wisdom passage are true: God does not make death, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living. God made us to be imperishable. We share the same eternal nature as God. For us believers, we realize we are not meant to die so we fight for life. Suffering and the approach of death assaults us and upends our personal sense of immortality.

A true believer realizes that it is our soul that lives on into eternal life after the physical body has died. Immortality with God gives assurance to one who has reconciled with his or her own physical death. Last week I met with a friend whose wife died unexpectedly a few months ago. It was important for him to bury her next to his daughter who died when she was two years old. With all the family’s burial plots arranged, he arrived at a sense of peace and fulfillment and said, “I want to live, but I can go anytime now. My family is at rest. I have nothing more to achieve.” His place next to his loved ones was selected and he was content to know they would rest side by side in death just as they did in life.

Another friend is dealing with his mortality, except not as well. He is recovering from frightening surgery and though he is in his later years of life, he is not expecting that he will die. He does not want to think of cancer spreading throughout his body because he wants the surgeon to remove any last vestiges of the invading foreigner. He has not thought about his burial plot, he has not made plans for his memory-plagued wife’s welfare, and he other many other unreconciled situations that he is not facing squarely. Which of these examples are people with faith? The one who has faith does not fear life.

We will face death and suffering well when we decide to reconcile our actions and relationships. Many people avoid conflict and painful interactions and therefore relationships are never mended. Some people refuse to think about those memories at all, and then all too soon the end of life comes, and it is very late to reconcile all that plagues us. Old age does not always produce wisdom in enough time, and a person realizes that merely speaking words of reconciliation is not enough.

Having faith means that we will choose to begin our process of reconciliation sooner than later, and now is the best time to do it. Waiting until the conditions are optimum is still procrastination. The redemption of our lives is in the balance.

Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman reached out to Jesus in faith. They abandoned all fear because they knew Jesus was the One who could best handle their suffering. We have to learn from them because we carry needless suffering hoping it will go away on its own. It will not. Reaching out to Jesus, who helps us reach out to others, is the answer. He will help us, not to be rid of suffering, but to bear it with grace.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Amos 2) Thus says the LORD: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; Because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way.

Tuesday: (Ephesians 2) W You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together.

Wednesday: (Amos 5) Seek good and not evil, that you may live; Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts, be with you as you claim! Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate.

Thursday: (Amos 7) Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now hear the word of the LORD!"

Friday (Amos 8) Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations.

Saturday (Amos 9) On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 8) A scribe approached and said to Jesus, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

Tuesday: (John 20) Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Wednesday (Matthew 8) When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God?

Thursday (Matthew 9) And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."

Friday (Matthew 9) As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Saturday (Matthew 9) "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Saints of the Week

July 1: Junipero Serra, priest, was a Franciscan missionary who founded missions in Baja and traveled north to California starting in 1768. The Franciscans established the missions during the suppression of the Jesuits. San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Clara are among the most famous. Serra’s statue is in the U.S. Capitol to represent California.

July 2: Bernard Realino, John Francis Regis, Francis Jerome, S.J. are known for their preaching skills that drew many to the faith, including many French Hugeunots. Regis and his companions preached Catholic doctrine to children and assisted many struck by the plague in Frances. Regis University in Denver, Colorado is named after John Regis.

July 3: Thomas, apostle, is thought to have been an apostle to India and Pakistan and he is best remembered as the one who “doubted” the resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels, however, testify to his faithfulness to Jesus during his ministry. The name, Thomas, stands for “twin,” but no mention is made of his twin’s identity.

July 5: Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336), was from the kingdom of Aragon begore she married Denis, king of Portugal, at age 12. Her son twice rebelled against the king and Elizabeth helped them reconcile. After he husband's death, she gave up her rank and joined the Poor Clares for a life of simplicity.

July 5: Anthony Mary Zaccaria, priest (1502-1539) was a medical doctor who founded the Barnabites because of his devotion to Paul and Barnabas and the Angelics of St. Paul, a woman's cloistered order. He encouraged the laity to work alongside the clergy to care for the poor.

July 6: Maria Goretti, martyr (1890-1902) was a poor farm worker who was threatened by Alessandro, a 20-year old neighbor. When she rebuffed his further advances, he killed her, but on her deathbed, she forgave him. He later testified on her behalf during her beatification process, which occurred in 1950.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jul 1, 1556. The beginning of St Ignatius's last illness. He saw his three great desires fulfilled: confirmation of the Institute, papal approval of the Spiritual Exercises, and acceptance of the Constitutions by the whole Society.

·      Jul 2, 1928. The Missouri Province was divided into the Missouri Province and the Chicago Province. In 1955 there would be a further subdivision: Missouri divided into Missouri and Wisconsin; Chicago divided into Chicago and Detroit.

·      Jul 3, 1580. Queen Elizabeth I issued a statute forbidding all Jesuits to enter England.

·      Jul 4, 1648. The martyrdom in Canada of Anthony Daniel who was shot with arrows and thrown into flames by the Iroquois.

·      Jul 5, 1592. The arrest of Fr. Robert Southwell at Uxenden Manor, the house of Mr Bellamy. Tortured and then transferred to the Tower, he remained there for two and a half years.

·      Jul 6, 1758. The election to the papacy of Clement XIII who would defend the Society against the Jansenists and the Bourbon Courts of Europe.

·      Jul 7, 1867. The beatification of the 205 Japanese Martyrs, 33 of them members of the Society of Jesus.