15th Week: July 17-22
July 17 Monday:
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. (“offering 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 18 Tuesday: St. Camillus de Lellis, priest (U. S. A.):
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 19 Wednesday:
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 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 20 Thursday: St. Apollinaris, Bishop, Martyr:
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 be freed 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 21 Friday: St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Bishop, Doctor of the Church:
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 the Temple (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/)
Juily 22 Saturday: St. Mary Magdalene:
The context: Today’s Gospel presents the great recognition scene in the New Testament when Mary Magdalene, at the tomb early in the morning, was not able to recognize the Risen Jesus until Jesus called her by name. Gradual recognition, or misunderstanding, as a stage on the path to belief and understanding occurs frequently in the narratives of John’s Gospel. [See, for
example, the conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus (ch. 3), and the Samaritan woman (ch. 4).] In today’s passage, we find it once again: Mary thought at first that Jesus was the gardener.
Mary Magdalene failed to recognize Jesus because of her false assumption that Jesus’ dead body had been taken away from the tomb. Her attention was concentrated on the now-empty tomb. Her tears of intense grief could also have blurred her vision. Once Mary heard Jesus call her by name, she recognized him, exclaiming “Rabboni!” Jesus told her, “… go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary obeyed at once, her introduction to the apostles being, “I have seen the Lord,” with Jesus’ message following. This procedure and message became the basis and essence of the later preaching of the apostles and of all Christian witness-bearing. St Thomas Aquinas said that one old lady (una vetera), might have more Faith than a host of learned theologians.
Life messages: 1) We need to be open in mind and heart to experience the presence of the Risen Lord in our lives through our prayer, our Sacramental life, and our meditative reading of the Bible. These all enable us to bear witness to the Risen Lord in our Jesus, the Risen Lord. 2) Jesus, risen from the dead, is truly alive and present under the appearances of the consecrated Bread and Wine. 3) Jesus, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, is also present, in our souls, and so in our daily lives; it is the indwelling Triune God Who gives us the strength to fight temptations and to serve our brothers and sisters in corporal and spiritual works of mercy with love.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
