July 12 Monday:
The context: Jesus declares, “I have not come to bring peace but the sword,” meaning the Messianic ministry will divide family member and the society as a whole between those who accept the ideas and ideals preached and the Master who preaches them, from those who oppose both. Jesus then concludes this great “missionary discourse” with an instruction to the twelve Apostles on the cost and the reward found in the commitment to discipleship.
The first half of these sayings of Jesus is about the behavior expected from the apostles and disciples, and the second half is about the behavior of others towards them. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword: Jesus clarifies that Hen Messianic mission offers people lasting, rather than the temporary, worldly peace, of the simple absence of war and freedom from all conflicts in the family and society instead of the transformation of all in that True Peace. 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” (Hebrews 4:12). “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy ofM….” : 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, let alone in ourselves. 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 that 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 messengers and then lives out the message. Hence, giving hospitality to a preacher or a believer is the same as welcoming Jesus, the messenger’s Master. 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. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
July 13 Tuesday (St. Henry):
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 the Master’s message, put it into practice, and
borne witness to the miracles Jesus 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 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 opportunitoes 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 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 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 with having the Holy Spirit to guide the teaching authority
in the Church, so we have the responsibility of studying and following the
Church’s directives and teachings. 5) We have Mary, the mother of Jesus, and
numerous saints as our role models, so we have the responsibility of following
Jesus in their footsteps. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
July 14 Wednesday (St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin, U.
S. A.)
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” the Master
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.
Jesus’ unique claim of God’s perfect reflection: “No
one really knows the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son wishes to
reveal Him” (Matthew 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: 1) We need 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. 2) 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 Jesus’ presence in our
daily lives, see Jesus’ face in everyone around us, and surrender our lives to
Jesus by rendering humble service to everyone around us. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
July 15 Thursday (St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Doctor of
the Church): https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-bonaventure
The context: In today’s Gospel, Jesus
offers rest to those who labor and are burdened, if they are
ready to accept Christ’s 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. Christ invites the overburdened Israel, and us, to take Jesus’ 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 Jesus. So, we are not yoked alone to pull
the plow by our own unaided power. We are yoked together with Christ to work
with Christ using Christ’s strength. Jesus is inviting each one of us to be
yoked this way , to unite our life, our will, and our heart with the Life,
,Will, and Heart of Christ. By saying that this “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 this 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 all these burdens and take on the yoke offered here.. 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 off our backs the burdens
that drain us and suck the life out of us, so that Christ can
place around our necks Jesus’ own yoke and Jesus’ burden, that 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) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
July 16 Friday (Our Lady of Mount Carmel) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/our-lady-of-mount-carmel : Mt
12: 1-8: Mount Carmel is a mountain in northern Palestine about twenty
miles from Nazareth and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, it lies three miles
south of Haifa in modern Israel. 1 Kgs 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. St. 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 the order Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI)
still later in Kerala state of India. Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the
Brown scapular: 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 metallic 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. (Fr. Tony) L/21
July 17 Saturday:
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 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.
Jesus uses the occasion (quoting from the “Suffering Servant” prophecy, Isaiah
42:1-4), to teach 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
teaches that 1) the Messiah will be anointed with God’s Spirit; 2) the Messiah
will bring 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 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 thepains and suffering inflicted on us by others. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
