A Prophetic Stand: The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025

                                                       A Prophetic Stand:

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 

February 16, 2025

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26

  ^{To Donate to Boston Marathon – Healthcare for Homeless}

 

Luke gives us his version of the Sermon that outlines the moral lives of his disciples through a series of blessings and woes. Unlike Matthew’s Beatitudes, this sermon is given on the plains to indicate the balanced life for the one who follows God’s laws. He models his words after Jeremiah who likewise speaks of blessings and curses, and the Psalmist who puts trust in the Lord God. These readings say that the one who is blessed is the one who knows God’s teachings and puts them into practice. 

 

A Christian today finds oneself in a precarious situation as one balances political ideology versus the content of Scripture. Many Christians develop a religious ideology that is not based upon our Church teachings. Earlier this week, Pope Francis wrote to the bishops in the United States because he is alarmed at the actions and words of mass deportations within the current administration. Pope Francis is reminding the Church that political ideologies are not in line with Scripture and Tradition. It is important for us to hear the skillful way he reminds the church to care for its poor. He writes: 

 

 “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of vulnerability and defenselessness.”

 

He is saying that we must educate ourselves and form our consciences well by trying to understand the root causes of migration and to refrain from making conclusive judgments. The Pope gets that this is a complicated political issue and that there are no easy answers. He is asking us to collectively and compassionately keep our minds and hearts open to the complicated scenario of many migrants. From our Christian teachings, we can do better as a faithful community to preserve the dignity of individuals. He writes

 

“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity, we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.”

 

This is our faith. It is in the Old Testament, the Psalms, our Wisdom books, and the teachings of Jesus and the saints. Many U.S. Cardinals and Bishops have already spoken to their dioceses to remind them of our social teachings. How we care for the least in society defines who we are as a people. How do we want to be known and judged? The Pope is helping us construct a society that has greater solidarity, less polarity, more connections and encounters, one that is more inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all. It is what our faith demands. Our response to the poor, the disadvantaged, and those with the least opportunities among us reveals how well we know God. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Genesis 4) The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.” Next, she bore his brother Abel.

 

Tuesday: (Genesis 6) When the LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on earth was,
and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.

 

Wednesday: (Genesis 8) At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.

 

Thursday: (Genesis 9) God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 

 

Friday (Genesis 11) The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire."

 

Saturday (1 Peter 5) Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you but be examples to the flock.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 8) The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
“Why does this generation seek a sign?

 

Tuesday: (Mark 8) The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 

 

Wednesday (Mark 8) When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?”

 

Thursday (Mark 8) Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.

 

Friday (Mark 8) Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.

 

Saturday (Mark 16) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

 

Saints of the Week

 

February 17: The Seven Founders of the Servites (Thirteenth Century) were from Florence, and they joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin, who were also known as Praisers. They devoted their apostolate to prayer and service and withdrew to a deserted mountain to build a church and hermitage. After adopting a rule and gaining recruits, they changed their name to the Servants of Mary. 

 

February 21: Peter Damian, bishop and Doctor (1007-1072) was orphaned and raised by his brother, Damian, a priest in Ravenna. He began as a hermit monk and was then made abbot and cardinal. He became a reformer in the church often speaking out against clerical laxness. 

 

February 22: The Chair of Peter is celebrated on this day. Previously, both Peter and Paul were remembered until their feast was transferred to June 29^th. As the custom was ingrained in practice, Christians continued to honor the contributions Peter made to the church as the first of the apostles in continuous succession.

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• February 16, 1776. At Rome, the Jesuit prisoners in Castel S Angelo were restored to liberty. Fr. Romberg, the German assistant, aged 80, expressed a wish to remain in prison. 
• February 17, 1775. The French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Neapolitan Ambassadors in Rome intimate to the newly elected Pope Pius VI the will of their respective sovereigns that the Jesuits imprisoned in Castel S Angelo should not be released. 
• February 18, 1595. St Robert Southwell, after two and a half years imprisonment in the tower, was removed to Newgate and there thrust into a dungeon known as "Limbo." 
• February 19, 1581. The election of Fr. Claude Acquaviva as fifth general in the Fourth General Congregation. He was only 37 years of age and a Jesuit for only 14 years. He was general under eight popes. He had been a fellow novice with St Stanislaus. 
• February 20, 1860. Pope Pius IX visits the rooms of St Ignatius. 
• February 21, 1595. At Tyburn, the martyrdom of Robert Southwell after he had suffered brutal tortures in Topcliffe's house and in prison. He embraced the jailer who brought him word that he was to be executed. As he breathed his last, Lord Mountjoy, who presided over the execution, exclaimed: "May my soul be one day with that of this man." 
• February 22, 1599. By order of Pope Clement VIII, the superiors general of the Jesuits and the Dominicans, assisted by others, met to settle, if possible, the controversies about grace. Nothing came of the meeting, since the Dominicans insisted on the condemnation of the writings of Fr. Molina.