11th Week Ordinary time, Tuesday, June 18

 11^th Week Ordinary time, Tuesday, June 18

1 Kings 21:17-29 / Matthew 5:43-48

Ahab’s wife leads him astray: Ahab sinned gravely against God.

 A Catholic boy married a non-Catholic girl. After two years of marriage the girl enrolled in the parish RCIA program and became a Catholic. In the months and years that followed, she became deeply involved in the parish. As the boy’s wife became involved, so did the boy. Later he told some of his friends, “If it weren’t for the example and inspiration of my wife, I wouldn’t be involved at all in the Church. I’d probably not even be a Catholic anymore.”

In contrast to Ahab’s wife, the wife of this young man drew him to God, rather than away from God. She became a force for good in his life, not a force for evil, like Ahab’s wife.

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Do we lead those we love closer to God or further away from God? “Our chief want in life is someone who shall make us do what we can.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Science and technology have really helped to discover the potential of things. For example, fiber-optics have helped tremendously in communication and information-transfer. Microchips have helped reduce the size of electronics equipment and increased the efficiency of machines. On the contrary, the discovery of the real potential of persons is somehow lagging behind. It is not just about the potential skills and talents of the person. It is about the spiritual potential of the person, especially in the area of love and forgiveness. 

Every person has the potential to love those who have done him wrong and to forgive them. The late Pope John Paul II exhibited this potential when he forgave the man who shot him by visiting him in prison and he even hugged him. That act should make us reflect about our own potential to love and forgive. If Jesus said that we must be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect, then we also must pray and ask our heavenly Father to help us discover and release in us the potential to love and forgive.

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 Tuesday -11^th week

Introduction

Penitential Rite: 

-You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, LHM

-You tell us to pray for those who persecute, you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, CHM

-You call us to be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”, LHM

 Opening Prayer

Father in heaven, God of love, in your Son Jesus Christ you have shown us your tenderness and accepted us, sinful people, as your sons and daughters. Share your heart with us, make us merciful and understanding people, that we may learn from the way you have treated us to accept everyone without conditions, to forget and forgive all hurts, so that we can become more like you.We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Intercessions

– Lord, let your Spirit give us the courage to pray for those who hate or harm us, and to do good to them, we pray:
– Lord, change the hearts of those who cannot forgive or refuse to do so, and remind them how you have forgiven them, we pray:
– Lord, that those in charge of charitable organizations and works may be honest in administering what has been entrusted to them, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts Heavenly Father, these are the gifts of peace we bring before you to celebrate the feast of love of your Son. Help us to discover with him the best that is in each of us and to create one another anew with the same liberating and forgiving love that you have shown us Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Father in heaven, we have celebrated with your Son
the sacrifice that has brought us peace. By his Words and his life he has taught us to forgive one another wholeheartedly. Let his Spirit dwell in us, that our pardon may be without regret and that we may go with one another much farther than we are asked on the way to each other and to you, our holy God, now and for ever.

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 It is the ungrateful and risky task of the prophet to speak out against injustice, even when committed by the mighty of this earth. Jesus concludes part of his Sermon on the Mount with the Words "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." A goal not easy to attain! Our love must go out to everyone; it must include even enemies and must imitate God's love, who lets his sun shine on good and bad alike.

Jesus calls us to a higher way of life than we could ever obtain on our own. Mere human wisdom does not permit us to conceive of a way of life in which enemies are loved and persecutors are prayed for. Only the Lord can bring us to a way of life in which we live by His words and follow His example of forgiving even those we despise most intensely. Love always brings out the best in us; love is the answer to the problems of this world. We do not grow stronger by carrying around a grudge. 

Abraham Lincoln succeeded Buchanan as president in 1861. Stanton, a member of Buchanan's cabinet, disdained Lincoln. He ridiculed him publicly, calling him the "original Gorilla." A year into the presidency, Lincoln had to replace his Secretary of War. He chose Stanton, saying, "I know the terrible things he said about me. But he's the best man for the job." Shortly after Lee surrendered to Grant, Lincoln was assassinated One of the first public official's to reach Lincoln's side was Stanton. When Lincoln breathed his last, Stanton said with heartfelt sincerity, "There lies the world's greatest ruler. Now he belongs to the ages." 

How do I respond to ridicule? What keeps me from responding as Lincoln did? Without love and compassion for others, our own apparent love for Christ is fiction. (Thomas Merton)