Wednesday, July 3, 2019

The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time


The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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July 7, 2019
Isaiah 6:10-14; Psalm 66; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20


After selecting Twelve Disciples who will be his closest associates, Jesus sends out thirty-six pairs of disciples to preach that the kingdom of God is near. Jesus knows that to be in ministry, having a partner is essential because ministry is demanding and has many pitfalls. We need to support one another, to help process our interactions with a friend, and to keep each other safe. Ministry is done within the context of a community because we are always part of a larger reality.

Jesus was creating a new family with God as its father, and he preached that God could be accessed wherever two people were gathered in his name. The Kingdom was open to all who believed that Jesus was God’s chosen messenger and in his message of radical counter-cultural love. Jesus wanted us to be mindful that at our very root our commonalities are stronger than our distinctions. When we focus on what we have in common, we see that we all love, laugh, suffer, and want reconciled relationships with our loved ones and with God.

Our faith is not private and is manifested in our wider community. When we bring our mindfulness into communities, these societies create change when they harness the energies of the group. Jesus and the disciples knew this. The disciples were bringing to the villages an attractive way of life that was represented in their behaviors and thinking. They helped the society move towards a transformed way of seeing, and this new sight, this new understanding comes before our actions are changed. Societies have more power to deal with larger issues because of the multiplicity of gifts the individuals bring to it. A community can be much more generous than a single individual, and Jesus understood this dimension of social life. As ministers, we have to see ourselves as part of a larger community, and that the community is part of us.

It all begins with the thoughts we create. We write, we speak, our bodies communicate as we express our thoughts. We can produce beautiful thoughts, speech, and actions that produce more love, compassion and harmony. Likewise, we can produce more suffering and violence. What do we want to leave as our legacy? We express with our bodies, words, thoughts, intentions, and actions. We are what we do. Every thought we produce, each attitude we create brings about a fruit. Being in community with each other calls us to be a better person than we would be all on our own. We are creating all the time, and if I did something yesterday that was not right, I have the ability to change it today. Beautiful thoughts produce beautiful actions.

The gift of being sent out in pairs or groups means that we can enjoy the relationships around us. We are not responsible for the whole enterprise but only a small part of it. The right types of communication we have in groups have great power – to heal the past, to enjoy the present, and to prepare the ground for a good future. Being a disciple isn’t always about laboring hard to do the Lord’s work. It is about taking time to celebrate, to rejoice, to play and have fun with those we are sent. Jesus took time to rejoice with his friends. We have to make sure we always take time to play and enjoy our time with the Lord, and with his friends.
        
Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 
Monday: (Genesis 28) Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran. When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set, he stopped there for the night. Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens.

Tuesday: (Genesis 32) Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."

Wednesday: (Genesis 41) When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the cities that had grain and rationed it to the Egyptians, since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt. In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain.

Thursday: (Genesis 44) Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him. Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.' When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

Friday (Genesis 46) There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called, "Jacob! Jacob!" He answered, "Here I am." Then he said: "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.

Saturday (Genesis 49) Jacob gave his sons this charge: "Since I am about to be taken to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.

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.

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) When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

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. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!

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 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.

This Week in Jesuit History

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

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