The Rise of Consciousness: The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

                                                     The Rise of Consciousness:

The Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 

June 9, 2024

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

Genesis 3:9-15; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35

 

One of the great points of the Adam and Eve story is that they recognize they are naked, humans realize they have consciousness, which separates them from other living beings in creation. It is an important moment in the evolving nature of the universe because consciousness means that we can reflect upon ourselves. It is a dramatic moment in history because we can now contemplate God and the created world. We can reflect upon our freedom, which necessarily entails responsibility, and we can discern right from wrong. Life changes dramatically when realize we have become aware.

 

The Gospel shows us two moments of awareness in the history of Jesus of Nazareth. First, his family is scandalized because he is causing them public scandal. His brothers and sisters thought he was crazy and imbalanced, and they wanted to seize him and bring him to his senses. Jesus’s actions embarrassed his family and brought shame upon them. Second, he further scandalized the family when he renounced their claim upon him. He renounced Joseph because there could be only one Father and that was God in heaven, and he renounced family unless they choose to enter his new community. Fathers, tribes, and family are the basic fabric of life in the biblical Middle East. Biology doesn’t make family in the new community that Jesus was beginning. Being open to God and doing God’s will makes one part of the new family of Jesus. Consciousness, freedom, and choice brings one into the community.

 

How conscious are we of God and of God’s works today? A person of gratitude may wake up morning after morning and say a word of thanks to God upon rising. All that we are and all that we have is from God. God is the grounding presence of all life, and we may acknowledge God in our moments of suffering when we need help. God is the creative force in our lives who brings all who trust in God to wholeness and satisfaction. God is the creator, redeemer, sustainer of life, and God helps each person strive for life, liberty, and happiness. 

 

We behold our nakedness when we turn our eyes from our gratitude to God and focus upon our own goals. When we no longer are a child of God, but a member of a political party, a title that we earned, a role that we become, we are frustrated. We have little control over the world, but we try hard to make ourselves known through our force or strength. We become lazy and we make judgments rather than to discern and to think. We find new evidence to support our positions and to make ourselves right at the cost of another person. When we encounter someone who sees an issue differently than we do, we assume the person is foolish, ignorant, or simply mean. A person who relies upon God and has learned from Jesus will set aside our emotional response and presuppose good intentions on the part of the other. 

 

We set out to win. If I am to win the important arguments, then my mind and consciousness has already shut down. I have become closed. A person with an expanded consciousness, will see the goodwill in other people and will discover what is important in another person’s perception, experience, and beliefs. A person who values learning must approach moral situations with openness. Winning an argument gets me nowhere and I will lose the value of the other person’s insights and perceptions. The other person will learn too and will understand one’s own propositions better that will enrich the person and lead to a deeper truth.

 

We must discover the child of God who is striving to understand the truth and to figure out complex worlds. We need to set our criteria on who is doing the will of God, rather than who agrees with me. Once we suffer the person who strives and suffers, we will see the goodwill and the good struggle, and it is only then, that we will see the person fully clothed, clothed in God’s will, and that person will become brother, sister, and friend.             

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (1 Kings 17) Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab: “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.” The LORD then said to Elijah: “Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”

 

Tuesday: (Acts 11) In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.

 

Wednesday: (1 Kings 18) Ahab sent to all the children of Israel and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel. Elijah appealed to all the people and said, "How long will you straddle the issue? If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." The people, however, did not answer him.

 

Thursday: (1 Kings 18) Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went up to eat and drink, while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, crouched down to the earth, and put his head between his knees.

 

Friday (1 Kings 19) At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by."

 

Saturday (1 Kings 19) Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him. Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you."

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 5) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

 

Tuesday: (Matthew 5) You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

 

Wednesday (Matthew 5) Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.

 

Thursday (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

 

Friday (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

 

Saturday (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

 

Saints of the Week

 

June 9: Ephrem, deacon and doctor (306-373), was born in the area that is now Iraq. He was ordained a deacon and refused priestly ordination. After Persians conquered his home town, Ephrem lived in seclusion where he wrote scriptural commentaries and hymns. He was the first to introduce hymns into public worship.

 

June 9: Joseph de Anchieta, S.J., priest (1534-1597), was from the Canary Islands and became a leading missionary to Brazil. He was one of the founders of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero. He is considered the first Brazilian writer and is regarded as a considerate evangelizer of the native Brazilian population. Alongside the Jesuit Manuel de Nobrega, he created stable colonial establishments in the new country.

 

June 11: Barnabas, apostle (d. 61), was a Jew from Cyprus who joined the early Christians in Jerusalem to build up the church. His name means "son of encouragement." He accepted Paul into his community and worked alongside him for many years to convert the Gentiles. He was stoned to death in his native Cyprus. He was a towering  authority to the early church. 

 

June 13: Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor (1195-1231), became a biblical scholar who eventually joined the Franciscans. Francis sent him to preach in northern Italy, first in Bologna and then Padua. He very especially beloved because of his pastoral care, but he died at age 36.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 9, 1597. The death of Blessed Jose de Ancieta, Brazil's most famous missionary and the founder of the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. 
• June 10, 1537. Ignatius and his companions were given minor orders at the house of Bishop Vincenzo Negusanti in Venice, Italy. 
• June 11, 1742. The Chinese and Malabar Rites were forbidden by Pope Benedict XIV; persecution broke out at once in China. 
• June 12, 1928. Fr. General Ledochowski responded negatively to the idea of intercollegiate sports at Jesuit colleges because he feared the loss of study time and the amount of travel involved. 
• June 13, 1557. The death of King John III of Portugal, at whose request Francis Xavier and others were sent to India. 
• June 14, 1596. By his brief Romanus Pontifex, Pope Clement VIII forbade to members of the Society of Jesus the use or privilege of the Bulla Cruciata as to the choice of confessors and the obtaining of absolution from reserved cases. 
• June 15, 1871. P W Couzins, a female law student, graduated from Saint Louis University Law School, the first law school in the country to admit women.