Wednesday, July 10, 2019

The Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time


The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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July 14, 2019
Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37


The parable of the Good Samaritan is a foundational source that helps us resolve today’s moral dilemmas because it has the potential to reshape our attitudes towards those in need. Jesus gave this parable in response to two questions: (1.) What must I do to inherit eternal life? And (2.) Who is my neighbor? This scripture passage provides insights from Jesus who links care for neighbor to our pursuit of salvation. We are given the command: Go and do likewise. As we reflect upon the implications of this teaching, we have to consider how we classify people, and we ask ourselves, “Who do I put in the inside of my circle, and who do I exclude?”

We know the story. A priest, followed by a Levite, walk past a robbed, injured Jewish man who was leaving Jerusalem for Jericho. Each has his motivation for not getting involved, and we can understand the constraints that are put upon one’s position and status. It takes a foreigner, a Samaritan, who is not fully bound by Jewish law and teachings, to care for a man left for dead. He goes above and beyond in his care for the man because he pays for his hospitalization when he does not know if the man will survive. This foreigner treated the man with mercy, and we are told we are to go and do likewise.

Who was neighbor to the robber’s victim? The one who did mercy. How is mercy defined? It is to enter into the chaos of another’s life. According to Jesus, what state are we in if we do not provide mercy? A sinful state. We have sinned because Jesus defines sin as failing to even bother to care for another person. This even exists in the Law given by Moses in the First Reading because we have a fundamental choice to make – to choose life or to choose a different path. Our choices to see the person in need as our neighbor is fundamental to our moral life.

We have to remember that our moral life depends upon our initial thoughts. We are responsible for creating our thoughts, which can be loving or unloving. If we produce an initial loving thought, then it is likely that we will take care of those in need. Our thoughts produce our attitudes and sin arises from our attitudes. If our attitudes reveal our compassion for another person, our speech and then our actions flow from this loving process and we are likely to help the one in need. If my initial thoughts are: This man is hurt and is in need, and I want to help, then the man will be cared for. If my initial thoughts are: I think I see a man in a ditch but I don’t know him, I’ll cross to the other side and I won’t see that he is in pain, then I will not bother to care for him.

Of course, there are circumstances that affect how we can respond because, and it gets complicated especially when the one in need is an estranged family member or one who has mental health issues, addictions, co-dependency, or other family history factors. It gets exponentially more complicated when we view our moral responsibility to our neighbor in the national debates about immigration, health-care, equal rights, acceptance of those who are marginalized, or the challenges to a wide-ranging consistent ethic of life platform. It gets even more complicated in our international decisions on building up economies of fragile governments, so citizens are not displaced, on nuclear arms stability, humanitarian mission, and the care for our common home – our environment. The question about ‘who is my neighbor’ has become more nuanced and complicated since the time of Jesus, but the eternal question remains.

In each of these situations, ask yourself this question, “Who is my neighbor?” What are my initial thoughts and attitudes as I see my brothers or sisters in need? Do I even see them? Am I ready to enter into the chaos of their lives as an act of my faith, as an act of mercy? To sin is to even bother to enter into the chaos of another person. The scribe answered Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor of yourself.” Who is my neighbor? The one who does mercy. Go and do likewise.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 
Monday: (Exodus 1) A new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He said to his subjects, "Look how numerous and powerful the people of the children of Israel are growing, more so than we ourselves!

Tuesday: (Exodus 2) A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, who conceived and bore a son. When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank.

Wednesday: (Exodus 3) There an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.

Thursday: (Exodus 3) When I go to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?" God replied, "I am who am."

Friday (Exodus 11) Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders in Pharaoh's presence, the Lord made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.

Saturday (Exodus 12) The children of Israel set out from Rameses for Succoth. A crowd of mixed ancestry also went up with them, besides their livestock, very numerous flocks and herds. Since the dough they had brought out of Egypt was not leavened, they baked it into unleavened loaves. They had rushed out of Egypt and had no opportunity even to prepare food for the journey.

Gospel: 
Monday: (Matthew 10) I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household.

Tuesday: (Matthew 11) For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

Wednesday (Matthew 11) I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.

Thursday (Matthew 11) Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.

Friday (Matthew 12) "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?

Saturday (Matthew 12) The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all.

Saints of the Week

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."

July 15: Bonaventure, bishop and Doctor (1221-1273), was given his name by Francis of Assisi to mean "Good Fortune" after he was cured of serious childhood illnesses. He joined the Franciscans at age 20 and studied at the University of Paris. Aquinas became his good friend. Bonaventure was appointed minister general of the Franciscans and was made a cardinal. He participated in the ecumenical council at Lyons to reunite the Greek and Latin rites. Aquinas died on the way to the council.

July 16: Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patronal feast of the Carmelites. The day commemorates the day Simon Stock was given a brown scapular by Mary in 1251. In the 12th century, Western hermits settled on Mount Carmel overlooking the plain of Galilee just as Elijah did. These hermits built a chapel to Mary in the 13th century and began a life of solitary prayer.

July 18: Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614), began his youthful life as a soldier where he squandered away his father's inheritance through gambling. He was cared for by Capuchins but was unable to join them because of a leg ailment. He cared for the sick in hospitals that were deplorable. He founded an order that would care for the sick and dying and for soldiers injured in combat.

July 20: Apollinaris, bishop and martyr (1st century) was chosen directly by Peter to take care of souls in Ravenna. He lived through the two emperors whose administrations exiled and tortured him, though he was faithful to his evangelizing work to his death.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jul 14, 1523. Ignatius departs from Venice on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
·      Jul 15, 1570. At Avila, St Teresa had a vision of Blessed Ignatius de Azevedo and his companions ascending to heaven. This occurred at the very time of their martyrdom.
·      Jul 16, 1766. The death of Giusuppe Castiglione, painter and missionary to China. They paid him a tribute and gave him a state funeral in Peking (Beijing).
·      Jul 17, 1581. Edmund Campion was arrested in England.
·      Jul 18, 1973. The death of Fr. Eugene P Murphy. Under his direction the Sacred Heart Hour, which was introduced by Saint Louis University in 1939 on its radio station [WEW], became a nationwide favorite.
·      Jul 19, 1767. At Naples, Prime Minister Tannic, deprived the Jesuits of the spiritual care of the prisoners, a ministry that they had nobly discharged for 158 years.
·      Jul 20, 1944. An abortive plot against Adolf Hitler by Claus von Stauffenberg and his allies resulted in the arrest of Fr. Alfred Delp.

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