The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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June 30, 2019

1 Kings 19:16, 19-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62

Today’s readings give us examples of people who left their present contexts to enter more deeply into a relationship with a prophet who called them into a deeper relationship with God. Elisha is intrigued with the prophet Elijah and begs to go with him into ministry. He makes a bountiful offering to please Elijah, who takes him on as an attendant. In the Gospel, a man runs up the Jesus to say he will become his disciple, but first he wants to bury his father and rejoin Jesus. Jesus tells the man that the time for discipleship is now. We only have the present to respond to the invitations of Jesus.

An encounter with Jesus, an experience of the holy, puts us in touch with our perfected selves, the selves we really like. This part of the self we encounter begins with a confession of who we are – with our limitations and those parts of us of which we are not proud. We believe we know ourselves better than the God who calls us, and we will find many ways to deflect the call, and we will put up obstacles that delay our response to that call.

First, we have to realize that Jesus sees us differently than the way we see ourselves because we put on masks of various types and functions. We live out masks in the roles we assume for our relationships. Our job is to learn to see ourselves more clearly, which often means to let our distorted image of ourselves be restored to our real identity. It means we can discover that our sins, the choices we have made of which we are not proud, Jesus doesn’t see those things. Jesus does not focus upon our guilt and shame, especially if someone else hurts us and sins against us. Our self-image becomes damaged because of those violent transgressions, and therefore our view of God becomes distorted. Instead, Jesus has compassion upon us and calls us to be reconciled with the self that he intends for us. Jesus wants us to grow into the image that he sees, and we are filled with a desire to love and see the world the way that Jesus loves and sees the world.

Our relationship with Jesus will increase our capacity to love because it gets us in touch with our perfected selves, which is the place where our love is nurtured. The false self, the one covered by masks, cannot love because it is consumed with its pursuits of filling its unmet needs. Love of self, love by Jesus, displaces the false self and is supplanted by the truer self. Love begins with right seeing. We have to see ourselves rightly, and then we can see others as they rightly deserve.

Once we have the capacity to have compassion on others, we see that others suffer, and we try to find out why. As I need to see myself rightly, I see to also see the suffering of others, which means I have to look at them, look upon them, to see the world as they see it, so that I can begin to understand. It is about honoring the person enough to take him or her seriously. Love is the point of our lives. As we are part of God’s creation, we have a responsibility for the needs and concerns of others, and we try to ease the burden another person carries. It is where our lives become meaningful because it is perfectly aligned with God’s plan.

To love God is to love what God loves. The call of Jesus is simply that. It is no big mystery. We do not have to be set apart of travel to remote, forgotten places. We simply say yes as he says, “Follow me more deeply.” We simply have to increase our capacity to love in whatever place we find ourselves. The love we generate radiates a light and a warmth to a world that needs them in order to survive.  

        

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Genesis 18) Then the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out.

Tuesday: (Genesis 19) The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulfurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil. But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Wednesday: (Ephesians 2) 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.

Thursday: (Genesis 22) God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied. Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering.

Friday (Genesis 23) After the transaction, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

Saturday (Genesis 27) When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him,
he called his older son Esau and said to him, "Son!" "Yes father!" he replied. Isaac then said, "As you can see, I am so old that I may now die at any time.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 8) A scribe approached and said to him, “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: (Matthew 8) As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"

Wednesday (John 20) Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Thursday (Matthew 9) After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. 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."

Friday (Matthew 9) As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.

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

June 30: The First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (c. 64) were martyrs under Nero's persecution in 64. Nero reacted to the great fire in Rome by falsely accusing Christians of setting it. While no one believed Nero's assertions, Christians were humiliated and condemned to death in horrible ways. This day always follows the feast of the martyrs, Sts. Peter and Paul.

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

·      Jun 30, 1829. The opening of the Twenty-first General Congregation of the order, which elected Fr. John Roothan as General.

·      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.