July 22 Monday (St. Mary Magdalene): Jn 20: 11-18: St.
Mary Magdalene: 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as
she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white,
sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
14 Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know
that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do
you seek?”
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 he called her by name. Gradual recognition, or misunderstanding, as a
stage on the path to belief and understanding, frequently occurs 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 his body had been stolen. Her attention was concentrated
on the empty tomb. Her tears of intense grief could also have blurred her
vision. Once Mary had recognized Jesus, he gave her a message to be conveyed to
his Apostles about His plan to leave them and ascend to his Father. Mary’s
message to Jesus’ disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” became the
basis and essence of later preaching and Christians’ 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 can be open 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 daily lives.
2) It is our powerful conviction of the Real Presence of the
Risen Lord, both in the Eucharist and in our lives, which gives us the strength
to fight temptations and to serve our brothers and sisters in corporal and
spiritual works of mercy. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19
July 23 Tuesday (St. Bridget, Religious): Mt 12: 46-50: 46
While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers
stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told
him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his
hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For
whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and
mother.”
The context: As Jesus became a strong
critic of the Jewish religious authorities, his mother and cousins came to take
him to Nazareth by force, perhaps because they feared that he was “out
of His mind,” and would be arrested and put to death.
Jesus’ plain statement: Today’s Gospel episode
seems to suggest that Jesus ignored the request of his mother and close
relatives who had traveled a long distance to talk to him. But everyone
in the audience knew how Jesus loved his mother and had taken care of her,
working as a carpenter. Besides, Jesus’ plain answer, “My mother and my
brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it,” was indeed a
compliment to his mother who always listened to the word of God and obeyed
it. Jesus was declaring “Blessed are those who have heard and kept the
word of God as she is faithfully doing” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium,
58). Jesus was also using the occasion to teach the congregation a new
lesson in their relationship with God. Being a disciple of Jesus, a
Christian, is, first and foremost, being in a relationship – a relationship of
love and unity with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and with all who
belong to God as His children. Jesus changes the order of relationships
and shows us that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood.
God’s gracious gift to us is our adoption as his sons and daughters. This
gift enables us to recognize all those who belong to Christ as our brothers and
sisters. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our
relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and to his
kingdom. Everyone who does the will of the Father, that is to say, who
obeys Him, is a brother or sister of Christ, because he is like Jesus who
fulfilled the will of his Father. Life messages: 1)
Let us remember that by Baptism we become the children of God, brothers and
sisters of Jesus and members of the Heavenly family of the Triune God. Hence,
we have the obligation of treating others with love and respect and of sharing
our love with them by corporal and spiritual works of mercy. 2) We are
also to be hearers as well as doers of the word of God as Mary did. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19
July 24 Wednesday St. Sharbel Makhluf,
Priest): Mt 13:1-9: 1 That same day Jesus went out
of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so
that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach.
3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4
And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and
devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much
soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but
when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered
away. 7 Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8
Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some
sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives
us the parable of the sower, the seeds sown, and the yield depending upon the
type of soil. It is the first parable of Jesus in the New Testament about the
Kingdom of Heaven. It is also a parable interpreted by Jesus himself. This
parable was intended as a warning to the hearers to be attentive and to the
apostles to be hopeful about Jesus’ preaching in the face of growing opposition
to him and his ideas. The sower is God, the Church and the parents, the
teachers. The seed sown is the high-yielding word of God, which has a cutting
edge like “a sharp sword” (Is 49:2), “two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), and a
purifying and strengthening power like “fire and hammer” (Jer 23:29).
Soil type & the yield: The hardened soil on
the foot path represents people with minds closed because of laziness, pride,
prejudice or fear. The soil on flat rock pieces represents emotional
types of people who go after novelties without sticking to anything and are
unwilling to surrender their wills to God.The soil filled with weeds represents
people addicted to evil habits and evil tendencies and those whose hearts are
filled with hatred, jealousy and greed. They are interested only in
acquiring money by any means and in enjoying life in any
way possible. The good and fertile soil represents
well-intentioned people with open minds and clean hearts, earnest in hearing
the word and zealous in putting it into practice. Zacchaeus, the sinful woman,
and the thief on Jesus right side, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, and
St. Francis Xavier, among others, fall into this category of the good soil.
Life message: Let us become the good soil
and produce hundred-fold yields by earnestly hearing, faithfully assimilating
and daily cultivating the word of God we have received, so that the Holy Spirit
may produce His fruits in our lives. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19
July 25 Thursday (St. James the Apostle): Mt 20:20-28: 20
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him, with her sons, and
kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What
do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these two sons of mine may sit,
one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus
answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup
that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You
will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to
grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24 And
when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus
called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it
over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 26 ..28
The context: Today we celebrate the feast
of James, the Apostle. James was the son of Zebedee the fisherman and
Salome, the sister/cousin of Jesus’ mother, and the brother of John, the
Evangelist and Apostle. James was one of Jesus’ inner circle of three
disciples who had the privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the
raising to life of the daughter of Jairus, and Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. He
is in the first three of every list of the apostles in the four Gospels.
Jesus called James and John “boanerges,” or “sons of
thunder,”probably because of their volatile character and high
ambitions. They once offered to use Jesus power to send fire down on the
Samaritan village which had refused Jesus permission to cross through their
village because he was going to Jerusalem. Jesus rejected the offer. Later,
James was known as Jamesthe Greater to distinguish him from James
the Less, the son of Clopas, who was leader of the Church in Jerusalem
and wrote the Epistle that bears his name. James the Greater was probably
the first apostle martyred — by Herod in 44 AD, in his attempt to please the
Jews (Acts 12:1-3).
The Gospel episode: The incident described in today’s
Gospel shows us how ambitious, far-sighted and power-hungry James and his
brother John were in their youth with their impulsive and hot-tempered Galilean
blood. They asked their mother to ask Jesus to make them the second and
third in command when Jesus established his Messianic Kingdom after ousting the
Romans. They must have been shocked when their request prompted Jesus to
make a third prediction of his passion and death, promising them a share in his
sufferings. Jesus told the apostles that it was only the spirit of
service which would make his disciples “great,” because he himself had come “not
to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” St.
James is the patron saint of Spain.
Life messages: 1) The leaders in
Jesus’ Church must be the servants of all as Mary was (“Behold the
handmaid of the Lord”). That is why Pope is called “the servant of the
servants of God” and the priesthood of our pastors is called “ministerial
priesthood.” 2) Our vocation as Christians is to serve otherssacrificially,
with agápe love in all humility, without expecting anything in
return, and our spiritual leaders must be humble, loving, selfless and
serviceable, just as Jesus was, for he loved and served us all (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19
July 26 Friday (St. Joachim & Ann, parents of
Blessed Virgin Mary): (Grandparents’ Day): Mt 13:16-17: 16 But
blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly, I
say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did
not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
The Bible does not say anything about the parents of Mary.
The traditional belief that they were Joachim, a shepherd from the tribe of
Judah and Anne from the tribe of Levi is taken from the legendary apocryphal
source (Protoevangelium Jacobi) written more than a century after Jesus
died. According to Protoevangelium Jacobi, Mary was born to
her parents in their old age as a gift from God for their fervent and
persistent prayer for a child. Mary’s parents offered her to the Temple, and as
it was the custom, she was entrusted to the custody of pious widows who
assisted the priests in the Temple worship. They taught Mary the prayers, hymns
and psalms and services in the Temple until she became a teenager. Her parents
then gave her in marriage to St. Joseph, the carpenter. St. Joachim and St.
Anne continued their lives of prayer until God called them home to Heaven. They
transmitted to Mary and helped her develop all her good qualities like trust in
God’s providence, humility, love of the Word of God and spirit of committed and
loving service. They faithfully performed their duties, practiced their Faith
and established an atmosphere for the coming of the Messiah, but remained
obscure. The Veneration of St. Anne as the patroness of childless women and
miners originated in the East in the 6th century. Devotion to
St. Joachim began in the eighth century. France and Canada possess the
principal sanctuaries of Saint Anne: in France, at Apt in Provence, and at
Auray in Brittany; in Canada at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in the Province of
Quebec.
Life message: 1) Let us remember
and pray for our grandparents on this feast of the grandparents of
Jesus, gratefully acknowledging the lessons of Faith they taught us and the
good religious training they imparted to us, directly or through our parents
whom they trained. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19
July 27 Saturday: Mt 13:24-30: 24
Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men were
sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 So
when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And
the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ 28 He said to them, `An enemy
has done this.’ The servants said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather
them?’ 29 But he said, `No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat
along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest
time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles
to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'”
The context: Today’s readings give us the
warning that we should not be in a hurry to eliminate the “weeds” or so called
“bad people” from the parish or society or the family on the basis of unwarranted
and hasty judgment, because our compassionate God patiently waits for them to
be converted into good people.
The parable of the wheat and the weeds: The weeds
among the wheat in the parable are a variety of tares known
as “bearded darnel.” They resemble wheat plants so closely that
it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other except when the heads of
seed appear. By that time, their roots are so intertwined that the tares cannot
be weeded out without plucking the wheat out with them. At the end
of the harvest, tares and wheat must be separated by hand, through examining
the color difference between darnel and wheat grains. The darnel grains must be
removed also because they are slightly poisonous.
Why we should be tolerant and patient instead of treating
“weeds” as lost cases: The parable tells us why we should not
treat others as “weeds,” i.e. evil or wicked. 1) Each one of us is a
combination of wheat and weeds because there is a lot of good in the worst of
us and a lot of evil in the best of us. Hence, it is impossible to separate the
evil people from the good ones. So, we, too, must learn to be kind to the evil
people, relying on the power of God to convert them. 2) Many evil people
are converted at a certain time in their lives because of the grace of God. Our
God awaits repentant sinners, giving them the strength to acknowledge their
weakness. 3) Since the good example of practicing Christians can influence and
occasion the conversion of evil people, it is the duty of all Christians to live
exemplary lives, treating evil people with love, compassion and the spirit of
forgiveness. Hence, let us grow up as healthy wheat in God’s field, leaving the
weeds for Jesus to take care of. 4) There will be a separation of weeds
and wheat, good and bad fish (13:47-50), sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46).
But this separation will take place at the end of the world, on God’s
timetable not ours. Hence, let us leave the judgment to God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/19