16th Week: July 19-24:
July 19 Monday:
The context: Since there had been many false prophets and false messiahs in the past, and since the pride and prejudice of the scribes and the Pharisees did not permit them to see the Messiah in Jesus, a “carpenter-from-Nazareth-turned-wandering-preacher,” these Jewish religious leaders demanded that Jesus show some “Messianic” signs and miracles from their list. They would not believe that Jesus’ numerous miraculous healings were the Messianic signs foretold by their prophets.
Jesus’ negative response: Calling them an apostate
generation who refused to believe in their own prophets and who denied the hand
of God in the miracles Jesus had worked, Jesus warned them that they would be
condemned on the Day of Judgment by the people of Nineveh and by the Queen of
Sheba from the South. The pagan Ninevites had heard the voice of the Lord
God in the prophet Jonah, had repented and had been spared. The Queen of
Sheba had recognized God’s wisdom in King Solomon and had traveled to Israel to
receive more of it. Nevertheless, Jesus gave the scribes and Pharisees “the
sign of Jonah,” who had spent three days and three nights in the belly of the
giant fish, the undeniable Messianic sign of Jesus’ own Resurrection from the
tomb on the third day after dying and being entombed.
Life messages: 1) Let us recognize the God-given
signs in our lives: Let us examine our conscience and see if we are able to see
God’s presence in ourselves and in others, His hand behind the small and big
events of our lives, and His provident care in our lives. 2) Let us open our
ears to hear God’s message given to us through others and through nature.
We should be able read God’s message in the Bible and adjust our lives
accordingly.
3) Let us try our best to open our hearts to God and be
receptive to His Spirit through our active participation in the liturgy,
instead of looking for signs in weeping Madonnas, bleeding crucifixes, and
visionaries. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
July 20 Tuesday (St. Apollinaris, Bishop, Martyr):
The context: As Jesus became a strong critic of
the Jewish religious authorities, family members brough Jesus’ Mother with them
when they came to take Jesus to Nazareth by force, perhaps because they feared
that he was “out of His mind,” and would be arrested and put
to death and so would they. Jesus’ plain statement: Today’s Gospel episode
seems to suggest that Jesus ignored the request of the family and Jesus’ Jesus’
Mother, who had traveled such a long distance. But everyone in the audience
knew how Jesus had always loved and, working as a carpenter, had taken care of
Mary. 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
Mary who had 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, means, 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 His adoption of us 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. [Brothers and sisters of Jesus: The Catholic Church
teaches that Jesus did not have blood brothers and sisters. In the Hebrew and
Aramaic languages, no special words existed for cousin, nephew, half-brother,
or stepbrother; so, they used the word brother in all these
cases. The Greek translation of the Hebrew texts used the word adelphos in
these cases. In addition, other Gospel passages clarify these
relationships between James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. James the Less and Joses
were the sons of Mary the wife of Clopas (Tradition holds him to be brother of
Joseph) (Mk 15:40, Jn 19:25), and James the Less was also identified as “the
son of Alphaeus” (Lk 6:15), a synonym of “Clopas.” James the Greater and John
were the sons of Zebedee with a mother other than our Blessed Mother Mary (Mt
20:20ff). After the birth of our Lord, although the Gospels do not give us many
details of His childhood, no mention is made of Mary and Joseph ever having
other children. Never does it refer to the “sons of Mary” or “a son of Mary,”
but only the son of Mary. By this time, St. Joseph has died.
Since Jesus, the first born, had no “blood brother,” He entrusted Mary from the
cross to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple.]
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. 2) Hence, we have the
obligation to treat others with love and respect and to share our love with
them by corporal and spiritual works of mercy. 3) We are also to be hearers as
well as doers of the word of God as Mary was. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
July 21 Wednesday (St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest,
Doctor of the Church):
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 Jesus personally interprets for the Apostles.
This parable was intended as a warning to the hearers to be attentive and to
the apostles to be hopeful receivers, living out Jesus’ teachings and ideas.
The sower is God, while the Church, with the parents in their homes, are 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 who are
unwilling to “put down roots” surrendering 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 crucified 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/21
July 22 Thursday (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 had recognized Jesus,
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 did so at once, her introduction being,
“I have seen the Lord,” with Jesus’ message following. This
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 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.
(Fr. Tony) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
July 23 Friday (St. Bridget, Religious):
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives us
Jesus’ interpretation of the parable of the sower, seeds sown, and the yield
depending upon the type of soil. 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 Jesus’ teachings and ideas. The
sower is God Who sows His word through the Church, parents, friends, and
teachers. The seed sown is the high-yielding word of God which is “a sharp
sword” (Is 49:2), “two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), and “fire and hammer” (Jer
23:29).
Soil type and the yield: The hardened soil on the footpath
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. “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh
and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). The soil filled
with weeds represents people addicted to evil habits and evil tendencies and
those whose hearts are filled with hatred, jealousy, or the greed that makes
them 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,
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. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
July 24 Saturday (St. Sharbel Makhluf, Priest):
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 or 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, not only because they are not
wheat, but because they are slightly poisonous.
