The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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July 8, 2018

Ezekiel 2:2-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

In some ways it is consoling that Jesus of Nazareth encountered stiff resistance and rejection from his own people because it gives us the courage to speak up for what is right. No doubt he experienced hardship for telling his townspeople that he was embarking on a new mission from God, a message they flatly disregarded. To them, he was not better than they were, but Jesus did not depend upon their approval to carry on his mission.

When we are rejected, some of us second-guess our abilities and we focus on our limitations and weaknesses. We become highly sensitized to the opinions of others and we wonder what we can do to get on the right side of an influential person. Sometimes the joy of our labors lessens because our major work becomes getting the person’s favor once again.

St. Paul reminds us that our limitations and humiliations are often the sources of our strength. He learns to let it no longer debilitate him because it can fuel his energy and give direction to his work. Too often, the areas that we see are our weaknesses are the places God wants to use to show grace. The benefit of our own “thorns in the flesh” is that it limits our pride, our sense of self-accomplishment and self-righteousness, and it beckons us to turn to God to fill the greatest areas of our needs. When we finally seek God’s approval, grace happens.

         Dependency upon the approval of others is a form of pride, which keeps us away from grace. Our pride makes us stubborn because we hold onto our sets of beliefs or to those who are able to influence us, and then we do not have the capacity to hold another’s informed thoughts. When we depend upon God’s approval, we are amazed at the extent of our capacity to honor, revere, and behold another person’s beliefs without rejecting our own.

         I think of the ways I edit myself as a priest. I want to speak for God’s justice and for the principles that Scriptures teach us. Among those are: hospitality, the preferential love of the poor, gentleness, giving shelter to the foreigner or refugee, and the works of mercy. I model my life after these principles and yet I do not always get to say what I believe because someone else wants to tell me what they believe. My primary goal is to do no harm and to present no obstacles to anyone seeking Christ. And yet, in these turbulent times, I feel impelled to speak out as Christ’s agent knowing that it will cause persecution and insults, even by those who are close to me. As a believer, I have no choice because I know Christ will speak out of my weakness. As I share in his suffering, I know I will also get a glimpse of his freedom and joy, and that is what I want.   

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Hosea 2) Thus says the LORD: I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the LORD.

Tuesday: (Hosea 8) They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval. With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves, to their own destruction.

Wednesday: (Hosea 10) Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built; The more productive his land, the more sacred pillars he set up. Their heart is false,

Thursday: (Hosea 11) When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms.

Friday (Hosea 14) Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good.

Saturday (Isaiah 6) In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 9) “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”

Tuesday: (Matthew 9) A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

Wednesday (Matthew 10) Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Thursday (Matthew 10) “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Friday (Matthew 10) I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.

Saturday (Matthew 10) “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master.

Saints of the Week

July 9: Augustine Zhao Rong, priest and companions, Chinese martyrs (1648-1930) were 120 Chinese martyrs that included priests, children, parents, catechists and common laborers. Christians were persecuted throughout Chinese history. Augustine Zhao Rong was a diocesan priest who was brought to the faith after the example of the French missionary bishop Dufresse. Zhao Rong was arrested in 1815 and died in prison.

July 9: Leo Mangan, S.J.

July 11: Benedict, Abbot (480-547), was educated in Rome, but left after a few years to take on a life of solitude. He became a monk at Subiaco and lived alone, but his lifestyle developed followers so he built 12 monasteries for them. He left to found a monastery at Monte Cassino where he wrote his Rule that became a standard for Western monasticism. He adopted the practices of the austere Desert Fathers for community life and emphasized moderation, humility, obedience, prayer, and manual labor. 

July 13: Henry, king (972-1024) was a descendent of Charlemagne who became king of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor. His wife had no offspring. He merged the church's affairs with the secular government and built the cathedral in the newly erected diocese of Bamberg. He was a just ruler who paid close attention to his prayer.

July 14: Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk chief. As a child, she contracted smallpox and was blinded and severely disfigured by it. She was baptized on Easter Sunday 1767 by Jesuit missionaries and was named after Catherine of Siena. She kept a strong devotion to the Eucharist and cared for the sick. She is named "the Lily of the Mohawks."

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jul 8, 1767. D'Aubeterre wrote to De Choiseul: "It is impossible to obtain the Suppression from the Pope [Clement XIII]; it must be wrested from him by occupying papal territory."

·      Jul 9, 1763. The Society is expelled from New Orleans and Louisiana at the bidding of the French government.

·      Jul 10 , 1881. Fr. Frederick Garesche' wrote from Sequin, Texas, to his Superior: "The cowboys who had not deigned at first to lift their hat to the priest or missionary; who had come to the mission as to a camp meeting, for the fun of the thing, gave in, and their smiles and awkward salutes showed that they had hearts under their rude exterior."

·      Jul 11, 1809. After Pius VII had been dragged into exile by General Radet, Fr. Alphonsus Muzzarrelli SJ, his confessor, was arrested in Rome and imprisoned at Civita Vecchia.

·      Jul 12, 1594. In the French Parliament Antoine Arnauld, the Jansenist, made a violent attack on the Society, charging it with rebellious feelings toward King Henry IV and with advocating the doctrine of regicide.

·      Jul 13, 1556. Ignatius, gravely ill, handed over the daily governance of the Society to Juan de Polanco and Cristobal de Madrid.

·      Jul 14, 1523. Ignatius departs from Venice on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.