Let’s Move on: The Thirteen Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                                            Let’s Move on:

The Thirteen Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 26, 2022

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

 

          These readings reveal to us an essential aspect of discipleship: we need to be free enough to accept the invitation and to move forward. In the book of Kings, God selected Elisha to succeed Elijah as prophet to the nation, and Elisha did what was prescribed before he left his family to learn from Elijah. Discipleship has great demands, and one has to be available to answer the call. 

 

We see Jesus setting his sights his sights on Jerusalem but stopping in a Samaritan village where he is not welcomed because of his people’s faith. It is like a person of a political party looking for welcome in a rival’s hometown. People are just not going to accept him. Jesus has to move on, but on the way, and it is not clear whether the man is a Samaritan or not, a possible disciple pledges to go with Jesus where he goes, and Jesus wisely tells the man that his mission deprives him of a place to call home. His home is on the road, and mission is to tell the people about God’s inbreaking presence. Jesus, his potential disciple, and Elisha all have one thing in common: they must move forward.

 

We have to remember this as well, as discipleship means that we have to access our freedom. At a time when some people are finding fascination with Liturgical vestments and practices of old, we have to help them to change direction, to move forward instead. There is no going back to a better time because it did not ever exist. The better times are the ones that we chart together for the future. The beauty is that we are in this together, united by the Spirit, and that our happiness is found in the present moment, and at no other time. ‘

 

Therefore, we commit to each other, under Christ’s way of being, today, to bring about the kingdom as he saw it – a kingdom that respects all people, not just the ones that are like us, a kingdom that shows mercy because it seeks to understand the suffering that people face, a kingdom that serves the lesser fortunate and is one in which we get our satisfaction being a people for others, and a kingdom that builds community and establishes communion whenever and wherever we find people of goodwill. This is a kingdom that goes beyond the Golden Rule because this is a kingdom in which we are called to not just like but to love those who are foreigners, strangers, and adversaries. This is a kingdom without borders, in which no frontiers exist, because all belong to God, and we see our common humanity in each person. This is a kingdom on the move. 

 

It is onward and upwards, my friends. This is a kingdom that moves gingerly into the future and yet with confidence that the Lord will be on the journey with us. 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading: 

 

Monday: (Amos 2) For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; Because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals.
They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth, and force the lowly out of the way.

 Tuesday: (Amos 3) You alone have I favored, more than all the families of the earth; Therefore, I will punish you for all your crimes.

 

Wednesday: (Act 3) Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.

 

Thursday: (Amos 7) Amos has conspired against you here within Israel; the country cannot endure all his words. For this is what Amos says: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be exiled from its land. 

 

Friday (Amos 8) We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”

 

Saturday (Amos 9) On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, That they may conquer what is left of Edom and all the nations that shall bear my name.

 

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 21) Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and, when they had finished breakfast, said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

 

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 27: Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and doctor (376-444), presided over the Council of Ephesus that fought Nestorian the heresy. Cyril claimed, contrary to Nestorius, that since the divine and human in Jesus were so closely united that it was appropriate to refer to Mary was the mother of God. Because he condemned Nestorius, the church went through a schism that lasted until Cyril's death. Cyril's power, wealth, and theological expertise influenced many as he defended the church against opposing philosophies. 

 

June 28: Irenaeus, bishop and martyr (130-200) was sent to Lyons as a missionary to combat the persecution the church faced in Lyons. He was born in Asia Minor and became a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle John. Irenaeus asserted that the creation was not sinful by nature but merely distorted by sin. As God created us, God redeemed us. Therefore, our fallen nature can only be saved by Christ who took on our form in the Incarnation. Irenaeus refutation of heresies laid the foundations of Christian theology.

 

June 29: Peter and Paul, apostles (first century) are lumped together for a feast day because of their extreme importance to the early and contemporary church. Upon Peter's faith was the church built; Paul's efforts to bring Gentiles into the faith and to lay out a moral code was important for successive generations. It is right that they are joined together as their work is one, but with two prongs. For Jesuits, this is a day that Ignatius began to recover from his illness after the wounds he sustained at Pamplona. It marked a turning point in his recovery.

 

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. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 26, 1614. By a ruse of the Calvinists, the book, "Defensio Fidei" by Francis Suarez was condemned by the French Parliament. In addition, in England James I ordered the book to be publicly burned. 
• June 27, 1978. Bernard Lisson, a mechanic, and Gregor Richert, a parish priest, were shot to death at St Rupert's Mission, Sinoia, Zimbabwe. 
• June 28, 1591. Fr. Leonard Lessius's teaching on grace and predestination caused a great deal of excitement and agitation against the Society in Louvain and Douai. The Papal Nuncio and Pope Gregory XIV both declared that his teaching was perfectly orthodox. 
• June 29, 1880. In France the law of spoliation, which was passed at the end of March, came into effect and all the Jesuit Houses and Colleges were suppressed. 
• June 30, 1829. The opening of the Twenty-first General Congregation of the order, which elected Fr. John Roothan as General. 
• July 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. 
• July 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.