Receive and Believe: The 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

                                                       Receive and Believe:

The 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 2, 2023

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

2 Kings 4:8-16; Psalm 89; Romans 6:3-11; Matthew 10:37-42

 

Did you realize that over one-third of the Gospels are warnings about judgments, but most times we preachers do not address these hard sayings. We want to focus on the good news and not the grim news. We scrub Jesus clean, but we find this theme of judgment in each Gospel. Jesus preaches that salvation is being proclaimed but if his messengers are not received, then the salvation they wanted to bring is being reversed to condemnation. The reign of God becomes about judgment, and it brings about a crisis. It is the disciples of Jesus who will eventually stand in judgment to witness against those who do not receive the reign of God.

 

Jesus hoped that Israel would pay attention to the “signs of the times,” and he wanted to provoke individuals to repentance and to change the course of human history. Part of his goal was so that those who were poor and oppressed, those who have no one to stand with and for them, should be helped now. Today. Society’s sinful structures should be changed now. Israel, and we the followers of Jesus, should no struggle for peace and reconciliation. 

 

We see that struggle in the first reading where this leading, influential woman, who provides charity and support for so many, has been left childless. In recompense for providing hospitality to Elisha, he promises her a son within a year’s time. He is grateful for her care, and he wants to gift her with what she most needs and wants. The effects of gratitude have long-lasting ripples throughout society, where it corrects the hope that has been torn asunder. Elisha and this woman acted righteously in constant, small, almost unnoticeable ways. God’s justice, so says the psalmist, is one of kindness, and because one is faithful, the exalted one will sing of the goodness of the Lord. 

 

God is going to make history clear. History will reveal its own meaning over time. We can be sure that when we face God, our masks will fall, the veils will be torn away, and we will not be able to practice any more self-deception. He hope for positive judgment because we tried our best to be believers and to act as Jesus acted.  God provides clarity, and before God’s truth, we encounter salvation, and this is where God’s mercy is revealed. 

 

We have read of God’s wrath in the Old Testament, but God knows our human suffering and what we go through each day. God will always respond to his people with faithfulness. Any sense of wrath becomes compassion; any sense of judgment becomes salvation. God cannot forget or fail to love what God has created. This is not a cheap love that accepts everything, but we are able to see God who remains faithful when we cannot, and in gratitude we are able to ask Elisha’s question, “Can something be done for God?” The answer is to believe and to depend upon God’s sovereignty.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (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.

 

Tuesday: (Genesis 19) As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom." When he hesitated, the men, by the ORD's mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.

 

Wednesday: (Genesis 21) Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Isaac grew, and on the day of the child's weaning Abraham held a great feast. Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing with her son Isaac; so she demanded of Abraham: "Drive out that slave and her son!

 

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 on a height that I will point out to you."

 

Friday (Genesis 23) The span of Sarah's life was one hundred and twenty-seven years. She died in Kiriatharba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham performed the customary mourning rites for her.

 

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. Take your gear, therefore–your quiver and bow– and go out into the country to hunt some game for me.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (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."

 

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 (Matthew 8) When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?"

 

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." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming.”

 

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. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.

 

Saturday (Matthew 9) The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "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

 

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

 

• 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. 
• 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."