15th Week: July 14-19:
July 14 Monday: Saint Camillus de Lellis, priest & in the U. S. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin: Mt 10:34–11:1:
The context:
Jesus makes the controversial statement that he has come to
inaugurate a series of divisions in families and in the society as a whole
between those who accept him as Lord and Savior and those who oppose him, his
ideas and his ideals. He concludes his great “missionary discourse” with an
instruction to his twelve Apostles on the cost and the reward found in the
commitment to be his disciple. The first half of these sayings of Jesus is
about the behavior expected from his disciples, and the second half is about
the behavior of others towards the disciple. “I have not come to bring
peace, but a sword”: Jesus clarifies that he came to give people
lasting peace, not temporary, worldly peace — the simple absence of war and
freedom from all conflicts in the family and society. Our role is to keep
fighting against our evil habits and addictions using the spiritual sword of
the word of God which is “lively and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). “Whoever
loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me….” : What Jesus
means is that all loyalties must give place to loyalty to God. In other words,
we cannot condone immoral practices even in members of our family. Jesus is not
speaking against the family, but rather reminding us that we are part of the
larger family of our fellow-Christians and, hence, we have more
responsibilities. We must be ready to lose our lives for Christ:
By “losing one’s life” Jesus means, not only suffering death
rather than betray him, but also that, daily, we must stop living for ourselves
alone. Instead, we must spend our lives for others and care for those who are
sick and hungry. We are to give hospitality to strangers in Jesus’
name.(“offer a cup of cold water”): There are four main links
in the chain of salvation: i) God who has sent Jesus with His message, ii)
Jesus who has preached the “Good News,” iii) the human messenger who preaches
Jesus’ message through his words and life, and iv) the believer who welcomes
the message and the messengers. Hence, giving hospitality to a preacher or a
believer is the same as welcoming Jesus himself. The basis of all hospitality
is that we all belong to God’s family, and that every person is our brother or
sister.
Life message: 1) We need to be hospitable and
generous: Hospitality allows us to encounter the presence of God in others,
usually in those in whom we least expect to find Him, and to share our love
with them. We become fully alive as Christians through the generous giving of
ourselves to others.
(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 15 Tuesday: Saint Bonaventure, bishop
and doctor: Mt 11:20-24:
The context: Jesus reminds these cities that they
deserve God’s punishment because they have forgotten the responsibilities which
their numerous meetings with the Messiah in their midst have laid upon them.
They should have listened to his message, put it into practice, and borne
witness to the miracles he had worked for them.
Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum: Nothing is
mentioned in any of the Gospels about the “wonders” Jesus
worked in these cities. Bethsaida was a fishing village on the west bank of
Jordan at the northern end of the lake. Chorazin was a town one hour’s walking
distance north of Capernaum. Jesus expresses his holy anger and sorrowful pity
from a broken heart at the irresponsible disregard and indifference these three
ungrateful cities have shown to the Good News. Jesus warns them, “it shall
be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for Tyre and Sidon
.. [and] the land of Sodom”than for them, because Tyre,
Sidon, and Sodom were not fortunate enough to hear Jesus and to receive the
opportunity for conversion given to Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum.
Life Messages: Privileges always carry
responsibilities: 1) We are privileged to have the holy Bible, so we have the
responsibility of making use of it. 2) We are privileged to have the
Eucharistic celebration every day in our Churches, so we have the responsibility
of participating in it when we are able to do so. 3) We are privileged to have
the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so we have the responsibility of using it to
be reconciled with Jesus and his Church. 4) We are blessed to have the Holy
Spirit guiding the teaching authority in the Church, so we have the
responsibility of studying and following the Church’s directives and teachings.
5) We have the inestimable gift of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as our Heavenly
Mother, and the company of numerous saints who serve as our role models, so we
have the responsibility of following Jesus in their footsteps. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 16 Wednesday, OT 15 — Mt 11:25-27:
The context: Jesus knew that ordinary people
with large, sensitive hearts, rather than proud intellectuals like the Scribes
and the Pharisees, were able accept the “Good News” he preached.
Such people would inherit Heaven rather than the learned and the wise who
prided themselves on their intellectual achievements. Hence, in the first part
of today’s Gospel Jesus prays loudly, thanking God his Father and praising Him
for revealing Himself to the simple-hearted, thus condemning intellectual
pride. A person who is full of self-centeredness fails to perceive supernatural
things as real.
Jesus’ unique claim of being God’s perfect
reflection: “No one really knows the Father except the Son,
and him to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27).The claim that
Jesus alone can reveal God to men forms the center of the Christian Faith. John
records Jesus’ claim in different words which He spoke at the Last
Supper: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).
What Jesus says is, in effect, this: “If you want to see what God is like,
if you want to see the mind of God, the heart of God, the nature of God, if you
want to see God’s whole attitude to men–look at Me!”
Life message: We need to learn how to know and love
God better by studying Jesus’ revelation about God his Father. We do this by
daily reading the Holy Bible, especially the Gospels, by meditating on the
passages read and by applying them to our lives. The more we study the Bible,
the more we learn about the Triune God, and especially about Jesus our Savior.
This knowledge will help us to love Jesus more, experience his presence in our
daily lives, see his face in everyone around us and surrender our lives to
Jesus by rendering humble service to everyone around us. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
[July 16 Optional Memorial: Our
Lady of Mount Carmel:
Mount Carmel is a
mountain in northern Palestine about twenty miles from Nazareth, overlooking
the Mediterranean Sea, three miles south of Haifa in modern Israel. 1 Kgs
Chapter 18 describes how the prophet Elijah’s prayer on Mount Carmel for
rain was answered and how he defeated the 450 pagan priests of Baal on the same
mountain. He challenged them to bring fire from Heaven to burn the sacrificed bulls
placed on the altar, and he proved that only Yahweh was the true God.
According to the most ancient Carmelite chronicles, the Order had its origins with
the disciples of the prophets Elijah and Eliseus on Mount Carmel. They lived
very ascetic lives in caves on Mount Carmel honoring the “Holy Virgin” of the
Messianic prophecies who would give birth to the promised Messiah. When
the Apostles started preaching Jesus, the pious ascetics of Carmel accepted the
Christian Faith. In the 13th century, a group of pilgrims who followed the
Crusaders was impressed by the lifestyle of the disciples of Elijah. Hence,
they set up a religious community on the western slopes of Mount Carmel and
started living very ascetic lives. This was the beginning of the modern
Carmelite Order, whose members started leading a contemplative life under the
patronage of Mary, honoring her as the Mother of God and Our Lady of
Mount Carmel. The people began to call them Friars of the Blessed
Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Pope Honorius III approved the order’s rule in
1232 (or 1236?). Since the Turks had started conquering Palestine by 1235, the
hermits decided to go back to Europe, where they built monasteries in Cyprus,
Italy, France, and England. Simon Stock, an English Carmelite, became the
superior of all the Carmelites in 1247. He helped the order expand and adapt to
the times, patterning the order on the Dominicans and Franciscans. The feast of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel was instituted first for the Carmelites in 1332 to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the approval of the rule
of the Carmelite Order. The Order of Discalced Carmelites of
the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (OCD) resulted from 16th century
reforms of the Carmelites by St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and
later by reforms made by the order Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI)
in the Kerala State of India
Our Lady of Mount
Carmel and the Brown capular:
According a popular
legend, Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251, and gave him the
Brown Scapular with the following words: “This will be for you and for
all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal
fire.” Mary promised her protection to all those who would wear the blessed
habit and lead a life of prayer and sacrifice. Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914)
declared that that the common people could have the same blessings if they
would wear the metal scapular medal carrying the picture of Our Lady of the
Scapular on one side and the Sacred Heart on the other. The feast of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel challenges us both to imitate the simple and ascetic life of
the Blessed Virgin Mary with her trusting Faith in God and her humility, and to
seek her guidance and maternal protection in our Christian lives. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 17, Thursday: Mt
11:28-30:
The context: In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers rest to
those
who labor and are burdened, if they are ready to accept his easy
yoke and light burden. For the Orthodox Jew, religion was a matter
of burdens, namely, 613
Mosaic laws and thousands
of oral interpretations, which dictated every aspect of life. Jesus
invites the overburdened Israel, and us, to take his yoke upon
our shoulders. In Palestine, ox-yokes were made of wood
and were carved to fit the ox comfortably. The yoke of Christ can be seen
as the sum of our Christian responsibilities and duties. Jesus’ yoke is light because it is given
with
love. It is the commandment to love others as Jesus did.
Besides, the yoke of Christ is not just a yoke from Christ
but also a yoke with him. So, we are not yoked singly to pull
the plow by our own unaided power. We are yoked together with Christ to work with
him using his strength. Jesus is inviting each one of us to be yoked with him,
to unite our life with him, our will with his will, our heart with his heart.
By saying that his “yoke is easy,” Jesus means that whatever
God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly. The second
part of Jesus’ claim is: “My
burden is light.” Jesus does not mean
that his burden is easy to carry, but that it is laid on us in love. This burden
is meant to be carried in love, and love makes even the heaviest burden light.
By following Jesus, one will find peace, rest, and real refreshment. We
are burdened with many things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage,
money, health, children, security, old age, and a thousand
other things. Jesus is asking us to give him our burdens and take on his yoke.
By telling us, “Take my yoke .. . and you will find rest,” Christ
is asking us to do things the Christian way. When we are centered in God, when
we follow God’s commandments,
we have no heavy burdens.
Life messages:
1) We need to befreed from unnecessary burdens: Jesus
is interested in lifting from our backs the burdens that drain us and suck the
life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own
yoke and his burden which bring to us, and to others through us, new
life, new energy, and new joy. 2) We need to unload our burdens
before the Lord. One of the functions of worship for many of us is
that it gives us a time for rest and refreshment, when we let the overheated
radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially
true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries and evil addictions on
the altar and offer them to God during the
Holy Mass. (Fr. Kadavil) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 18 Friday; Saint Camillus de
Lellis,
priest (in the U. S.): Mt 12:1-8:
The context:
Today’s Gospel passage gives us Jesus’ teaching on the
purpose of the Sabbath and on its proper observance. This was his response to a
criticism and a silly accusation made by Pharisees against his disciples who,
on a Sabbath, to satisfy their hunger, plucked ears of grain from a field and
ate the grains
after removing the husks by rubbing the grains between their palms
and blowing away the chaff. The Pharisees
accused them of violating Sabbath laws by performing three items of work forbidden
on Sabbath, namely, harvesting, threshing, and winnowing.
Counterarguments: Jesus gives three counterarguments
from Holy Scripture defending his apostles.
(1) Basic human needs, like hunger, take precedence
over Divine worship and Sabbath observance. Jesus cites from the Scripture
the example of the hungry David and his selected soldiers. They
approached Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, who gave them for food
the “offering bread” which only the priests
were allowed to eat (1 Sm 21:1-6).
(2) No law can stand against Divine worship. That is
why the priests were not considered as violating Sabbath
laws although they did the work of preparing two rams for sacrifice in theTemple
(Nm 28:9-10).
(3) God desires that we practice mercy: Jesus
quotes the prophet Hosea to tell the accusers God’s words: “I want
mercy, not sacrifice” (Hos 6:6).
Life messages: Like the Jewish Sabbath, the
Christian Sunday is to be
1) a day for rest and refreshment with members of
the family;
2) a day for thanksgiving and the recharging of
spiritual batteries through participation in the Eucharistic celebration for
Catholics and through worship service for the Non-Catholics;
3) a day parents should use for teaching religious
Faith
and Bible lessons to their children;
4) a day for doing works of charity in the neighborhood
and in the parish;
5) a day for socializing with family members,
neighbors, and fellow parishioners. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 19 Saturday: Mt 12:14-21
The context: The confrontation between Jesus and
the Pharisees reached its climax with Jesus’ “blasphemous”
statement: “The Sabbath is made for man and not man for
the Sabbath. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus realized
that there was more work of preaching and healing that needed to be done. So,
withdrawing to a less-known place to avoid a premature arrest, Jesus asked
people not to give publicity to their miraculous healings. Further, Jesus
wanted to avoid being labelled a false messiah or revolt-inducer against the
Roman empire, allegations the hostile religious and political leaders of Israel
longed to make and substantiate. Matthew interprets this temporary withdrawal
of Jesus from the crowd as a fulfilment of Isiah’s Messianic prophecy about
the “Suffering Servant” (Isaiah 42:1-4). It teaches the
apostles and the people that the Messiah’s role is not using crushing power to
subdue people but offering sacrificial service to uplift them. Isaiah 42:1-4
directly refers to the conquering Persian king Cyrus (whom God used as His
instrument to discipline His people), but indirectly and in its full meaning,
it refers to the promised Messiah, Jesus. The prophecy also teaches that 1) the
Messiah will be anointed with God’s Spirit; 2) the Messiah will teach justice
to the Gentiles in showing them how to give to God what is due to Him and to
men what is due them; 3) the Messiah will preach gentle and forgiving love; 4)
the Messiah will bring God’s healing love of hope and encouragement to the
Gentiles, even though their Faith and witnessing may be weak as a reed or
feeble as a flickering lamp.
Life messages: 1) Let us have the courage of our
Christian convictions in the face of opposition to our practice of the Faith.
2) Let us keep hoping in God and trusting in His mercy and justice in the pains
and suffering inflicted on us by others. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
