17th Week: July 27- Aug 1:
July 27 Monday: Mt 13:31-35: The
context: Today’s Gospel contains two of Jesus’ one-line parables
about the Kingdom of God. The parable of the mustard seed probably shows
that Gentiles in the Church will one day outnumber Jews. The parable of
the yeast indicates that all are invited to salvation, and that the power of
the Holy Spirit working within the Church will enable it to grow.
The small beginnings and great ending: Using a pair
of mini-parables — the mustard seed and the
yeast — Jesus explains how the Kingdom of God, or rule of God, grows
within us by the power of the Word of God and power of the Holy Spirit living
within us. When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and allow his Word
to take root in our hearts, we are transformed and made holy by the power of
the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us. In the Parable of the
mustard seed, the primary point of comparison is the contrast between
the smallness of the seed and the greatness of the result (“the largest
of plants”). The life-principle in a small mustard seed enables it to
grow into a large bush by a slow but steady process. In the Parable
of the Yeast the microscopic yeasts within a small piece of leaven
transform a thick lump of dough overnight into soft, spongy bread.
Christianity had a small beginning, like a mustard seed or yeast, with Jesus
and a band of twelve apostles in a remote corner of the world. But
through the power of the Holy Spirit living in individual Christians,
Christianity has become the largest religion in the world, spreading in all
countries embracing all races of people.
Life messages: 1) We need to
allow the Holy Spirit to transform us, changing our evil ways and
tendencies to a life of holiness; from unjust and uncharitable conversations to
speaking with God and listening to Him (prayer); from a judgmental attitude
expressed in scornful criticism, to non-judgmental acceptance of people as our
brothers and sisters in Christ, and from destructive gossip to a loving,
welcoming attitude, lived out in willing help, patience, and consoling,
encouraging, inspiring support.
2) We need to act like yeast, influencing the lives
of others around us: Just as Christianity in the past transformed the
treatment of women, children, slaves, the sick, and the poor by the power of
Jesus’ Gospel, we Christians, in our time, have the duty to transform the lives
of people around us by our exemplary lives, led according to the promptings of
the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 28 Tuesday: Mt 13:36-43: The
context: Today’s Gospel text is Jesus’ explanation of the Parable
of the wheat and weeds. This parable teaches us that a very patient
and compassionate God is hopeful that the so-called “weeds” among us
will be converted, and that we should not be in a hurry to eliminate such
elements from the Church, society, or the family, on the basis of unwarranted
and hasty judgment.
Through the Parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus
assures us that we are the field of God. We are the ground Jesus works,
as well as the seed Jesus plants, and the seedlings Jesus nurtures. We
are the people upon whom Jesus rests his hopes, and the folks in whom he plants
the seed — the Word of God. We are the congregation He anoints with the
Holy Spirit. In today’s parable, Jesus shows us a wise and patient God
Who allows the good and the evil to coexist in the world, so that the ones who
do evil may come to conversion before their time ends, and He must punish
them: “Let the seed and the darnel grow together till the harvest
time.” In other words, God awaits repentant sinners, giving them
the strength to acknowledge their weakness: “God’s delays are not
God’s denial.” God calmly recognizes that there is evil in the world,
but He sees that evil as no excuse for the good people who have God’s
grace at their disposal not to do good. Through the Parable of
the wheat and the weeds in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to be
patient with those who, as we see them, fail to meet the high
ethical standard expected of a Christian. If we don’t spend all our time
wondering why there is so much evil in the world, we will have more left for
wondering why there is so much good!
Life message: 1) We need to
practice patience. We need to be patient with ourselves and with
others, especially those who annoy us and those who offend us. Let us patiently
and lovingly treat the “weeds” in our society
as our brothers and sisters and do all in our power to put them back
on the right road to Heaven, especially by our good example and our fervent
prayer for their conversion. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 29 Wednesday: St. Martha, Mary &
Lazarus:
July 29th was traditionally celebrated as
the feast day of St. Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus. But, on February
2, 2021, Pope Francis expanded this memorial to include Martha’s sister and
brother, Mary and Lazarus, close friends of Jesus. Since they lived in Bethany,
less than two miles from Jerusalem, Jesus visited their home each time he, with
his disciples, participated in a major feast in the Temple of Jerusalem, and
Martha prepared meals for them. It was during one of those meals that Jesus
praised Mary for finding time to listen to him and gently told Martha that she
was worrying too much about the details of the cooking and serving of the meal
she was preparing for Him and His Apostles, while Mary, sitting and listening
to Him was serving Him also, and better.
Pope Francis decided in February, 2021 to include all three
siblings, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, in today’s feast. Martha is
presented as a woman of great dynamism and action who despite her deep sorrow
at her brother’s death, believed in Jesus as the Lord of life and death and
proclaimed him by her strong profession of Faith as the Messiah and God. Mary is
included in the feast as a model of the keen listener to the word of God who
was keen on applying the word she heard into her life. Correcting the
unbiblical belief that Mary of Magdala and the sinful woman who anointed the
feet of Jesus at the house of a Pharisee were identical with Mary
of Berthany, the sister of Lazarus, the Pope approved the unanimous
opinion of modern Bible scholars that these three Marys are distinct
and different women. Lazarus is included in the feast because of his
courageous, strong testimony that he had been resuscitated by Jesus, despite
the Pharisees’ threat to arrest him. When this memorial was established, the
Congregation for Divine Worship said, “In the household of Bethany, the Lord
Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus, and for this reason the Gospel of John states that he loved them.”
Life messages: 1) Let us
invite Jesus into our families by consecrating our families to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and by allowing him to rule our lives. 2) We need
both Marthas and Marys in the Church –
women of action and women of contemplation. How would the Church survive
if not for the Marthas and Bills who sing in the choir, teach in the Sunday
school, work with the youth, run the altar guild, work with the homeless, and
build the Church? The same is true with the family. We need
responsible people to do the work in the house: to cook, to clean, to keep the
house operating, to pay the bills, to keep the cars running, not to speak of
rearing the children and loving the spouse. Households can’t survive
without Marthas and Bills, nor can offices, schools or businesses. 3) But we
must all find time to listen to God speaking to us through His
word, and time to talk to God. Where would we all be without
the cloistered monks and nuns who spend their lives praising God and praying
for all of us? Jesus clearly told us to be hearers and doers of
the word; he never reversed that order.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 30 Thursday: St. Peter Chrysologus,
Bishop, Doctor of the Church: Mt 13:47-53: The
context: Today’s Gospel presents the third in a set of three
parables Jesus preached on the Kingdom of God/Heaven and the conditions for
entering it. The Parable of the fishing net: In
Palestine, there were two main ways of fishing. The first was with the
casting-net, which required a keen eye and great skill in throwing the net at
the correct moment. The second was with a dragnet or seine. Galilean
seine nets were tied to two boats and drawn through the water. The catch was
sorted only afterwards, with edible (kosher) fish going to market
and unacceptable fish being thrown away. Just as a dragnet
collects good and bad fish indiscriminately, so the Church is bound to be a
mixture of all kinds of people, good and bad, useless and useful. This parable
encourages the Church to adopt an open approach to Evangelization. The parable
also teaches that the time of separation will come in the Final Judgment, when
the good and the bad will be sent to their respective, freely chosen,
destinies. This parable is, thus, a counterpart to the Parable of the
weeds and the wheat. The concluding simile or mini-parable:
Jesus concludes his parables by advising the listeners to imitate wise
scribes (Jewish religious teachers who specialized in Sacred Scripture and its
application to life). A scribe/scholar need not give up his scholarship when he
became a Christian; rather he should use his learning for Christ. Christians
are also expected to be like scholars who study both the old wisdom of their
ancestors and the new vistas of knowledge. They have a duty to pass on to
others the Christian teaching they have received in language their hearers can
understand.
Life message: 1) We need to learn
loving patience and compassionate understanding.) The lesson of this
parable is that the Church is a mixed body of saints and sinners (good and bad
fish). There will be always a temptation on the part of some who feel
they are more “faithful” to separate themselves from the “unfaithful.”
But Jesus reminds us that the final judgment resulting in reward or
punishment is the work of God. Thus, we must
learn to be loving, patient, compassionate, and understanding of others,
resisting firmly the temptation to pass judgment on them, even if only
silently, as falling “far below the requirements” of the Gospel and
the Kingdom. Let us humbly admit the fact that only Jesus and
Mary were not a mixture of good and evil. Let
us acknowledge as St. Paul did, “I am what I am with
the grace of God” (1 Cor 15:10.)
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
July 31 Friday: St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest: Mt 13:54-58
The context: Today’s Gospel describes
how, on a Sabbath, Jesus stood before the people in the synagogue of his
hometown, Nazareth, reading and interpreting what Isaiah had prophesied
about the Messiah and his mission. Jesus claimed that he was the One
sent “to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberation to captives,
recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed.” To the
great amazement and disbelief of his own townsmen, Jesus declared that Isaiah’s
prophecy was being fulfilled at that very moment “in your hearing,”
because the prophet was foretelling and describing Jesus’ mission and
ministry. Luke reports that the initial reaction of the people was
surprise at the power and eloquence of this son of their soil. They were
amazed that one of their fellow villagers could speak with such grace and
eloquence and with such authority. Luke says they were “amazed
at the gracious words that came from his lips,” because they knew him
only as a carpenter from a poor family, with no formal training in Mosaic Law.
But their amazement turned into displeasure when, during his “Inaugural
Address” or “Mission Statement,” Jesus took upon
himself the identity of a prophet, different from the image of the
miracle-worker that people wished to see. Then their
displeasure turned into anger when Jesus claimed that he was the promised
Messiah of Isaiah’s prophecy. They challenged his Messianic claim,
asking, and “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” They could not
understand how a mere carpenter could be the Messiah who
would liberate them from Roman rule and reestablish the Davidic kingdom. Jesus explained
their attitude by saying “No prophet is accepted in his native place” (Is
13:57).
Life messages: 1) We need
to face rejection with prophetic courage and optimism. Perhaps we have
experienced the pain of rejection, betrayal, abandonment, violated trust,
neglect, or abuse, even from friends and family members, when we reached out to
them as God’s agents of healing and saving grace. Perhaps we ourselves are
guilty of the same rejection of God in His agents. Perhaps we, too, have
been guilty of ignoring or humiliating people with our arrogance and
prejudice. Let us learn to correct our mistakes and to face rejection
from others with courage.
2) Let us not, like the people in Jesus’
hometown, reject God in our lives. We reject God when we are unwilling
to be helped by God, or by others. Such unwillingness prevents us
from recognizing God’s directions, help and support in our lives, through His
words in the Bible, through the teaching of the Church, and through the advice
and examples of others.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Aug 1 Saturday: St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop,
Doctor of the Church: Mt 14:1-12:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents the
last scene of a tragic drama with three main characters, Herod, Herodias, and
John the Baptist. Herod Antipas, (4 BC – AD 39), was a
jealous, weak puppet-king with a guilty conscience. He feared the prophet John
because John had publicly pointed out the evil Herod had done in divorcing his
lawful wife without adequate cause and then marrying his sister-in-law, Herodias,
thus committing a double violation of Mosaic Law. Herodias was
an immoral, greedy woman, stained by a triple guilt and publicly criticized by
John. 1) She was an unfaithful woman of loose morals. 2) She was a greedy and
vengeful woman. 3) She was an evil mother who used her teenage daughter for the
wicked purposes of murder and revenge by encouraging her to dance in public in
the royal palace against the royal etiquette of the day. John the
Baptist was a fiery preacher and the herald of the Promised Messiah.
He was also a Spirit-filled prophet with the courage of his convictions who
criticized and challenged an Oriental monarch and his proud wife in public for
doing evil.
God’s punishment: After the martyrdom of John,
Herod was defeated by Aretas, the father of Herod’s first wife. Later, both
Herod and Herodias were sent into exile by Caligula, the Roman emperor.
Life messages: 1) As Christians we need
to live out the moral integrity and the courage of our convictions as John did.
2) Let us remember that sins of revenge and cruelty will never go unpunished.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
