A Ministry of Hope: The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                                       A Ministry of Hope:

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 3, 2022

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Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-20

 

          We have work to do. Jesus sends out workers into the peripheries and frontiers as companions who will accompany those who need to hear the Good News that God fully understands our personal and communal human suffering. This weekend we acknowledge the founding impulses of our nation that we would be free to choose how we want to live in the fullness of life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. We come together as a nation divided, as a church divided, and a spirit of joy is elusive.

 

          Our work becomes all the more solemn and meaningful, and how we do our work will determine our credibility. Jesus gives instructions to these pairs of disciples so that they are held above reproach because he knows the human heart has to ability to discredit others and take each other down. He prepares his disciples for the part of human nature that disappoints us, and he helps them hold not hope by giving them good example of character. He also gives them a community, a community to support them and to help them process what they are thinking and feeling. We have to rely upon this community, centered around Jesus, to carry us through trials and tribulations.

 

          Through one another, we hold onto hope. The character instructions that Jesus gives reveals to the world that we are his disciples. His disciples will be known as people who bring peace and reconciliation; the one who separates and alienates, even if they do it in his name, is not his disciple. The one who brings mercy, who enters into the chaos of another person, the one who understands ambiguity in the human heart, and does not speak of judgment is his disciple. When a disciple meets people who sow dissension and discord, her enthusiasm for mission is not diminish because she will pick up and move to a place where she knows peace is possible, where the human heart is open to receive a message of hope and goodness. Only Christ can judge the human heart, and Christ does not judge the weak heart that struggles, but he judges the strong heart that is not even bothered enough to love. 

 

          If our ministry is to be credible, then we have to go to those who struggle and try to do what is right. We are called to go to the frontiers so that people on the margins are able to know through us that God is present to them. We will be known for our compassionate style, our words of encouragement, and for our actions that give them a glimpse of hope. We have to acknowledge the blessings of the community we have to support us so that they our hope is battered and bruised, we are able to give one another a glimpse of hope, that is in the end, all will be well for those who depend upon God. Ours is a ministry of reconciliation, where we bring people whose ambiguous hearts search for God an instance of hope, a hope around which the kingdom is built. Our nation, our church, needs a glimpse of hope. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

 

Monday: (Hosea 2) I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. On that day, says the LORD, She shall call me “My husband,” and never again “My Baal.”

 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. Cast away your calf, O Samaria! my wrath is kindled against them.

 

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.

 

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, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.

 

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) 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.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.”

 

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 summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

 

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

 

Saints of the Week

 

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.

 

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.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• July 3, 1580. Queen Elizabeth I issued a statute forbidding all Jesuits to enter England. 
• July 4, 1648. The martyrdom in Canada of Anthony Daniel who was shot with arrows and thrown into flames by the Iroquois. 
• July 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. 
• July 6, 1758. The election to the papacy of Clement XIII who would defend the Society against the Jansenists and the Bourbon Courts of Europe. 
• July 7, 1867. The beatification of the 205 Japanese Martyrs, 33 of them members of the Society of Jesus. 
• July 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." 
• July 9, 1763. The Society is expelled from New Orleans and Louisiana at the bidding of the French government.