12th Week: June 20-25:
June 20 Monday:
The context: In today’s passage, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus condemns our careless, malicious, and rash judgments about others’ feelings, motives, behavior, or actions.
Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No
one, except God, is good enough, and only He has the right and authority, to
judge us, because only He sees the whole truth and only He can read the human
heart. 2) We do not see all the facts or circumstances, nor
the power of the temptation, behind a person’s evil deed. 3) We
have no right to judge others because we have the same faults as the ones we
are judging and often in a higher degree (remember Jesus’ funny example of a
man with a wooden beam in his eye trying to remove the dust particle from
another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a
drunkard: “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.” 4) We
are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be
expected from us.
Life messages: 1) Let us leave the judgment to
God and refrain from being critical and judgmental. 2) Let us remember the
advice of saints: “When you point one finger of accusation at another, three of
your fingers point at you. Let us heed the Jewish rabbi’s advice: “He who
judges others favorably will be judged favorably by God.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
June 21 Tuesday: (St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious); https://www.epriest.com/reflections.
The context: Today’s Gospel passage, taken from
the Sermon on the Mount, speaks about the proper use of holy things, the Golden
Rule we have to obey, and the less-traveled narrow way we have to take in our Christian
lives.
1) Jesus advises his listeners to use holy things in a holy
manner. The Jews had a statement in their Scriptures (“Do not put a
golden ring in the nose of a pig or on the ears of a dog” Prv 11:22),
parallel to Jesus’ statement, “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do
not throw your pearls before swine”(Mt 7:12) The Jews understood the
injunction to mean the exclusiveness of their religion, which meant that they
should not teach the Law to the Gentiles. The early Church interpreted Jesus’
statement in its earliest catechism,the Didache, to mean that
only the baptized should approach the Eucharistic table. This view is reflected
in the canons of the Oriental Churches, introducing a command in the text of
the Mass before Eucharistic prayer, “Let the catechumens, hearers and
unbelievers quit,” and a serious warning before Holy Communion, “Holy
things are for holy people.” 2) The statement of the Golden Rule,
“Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Mt
7:12), is Jesus’ positive contribution to ancient and negative Jewish
principles, meaning that real Christianity consists in doing good to others by
loving service and works of mercy.
3) Enter by the narrow gate: Supplementing the instructions
given by Moses (Dt 30:15-20), Joshua (Dt 24:15), and Jeremiah (21:8), Jesus
challenges his followers to “enter by the narrow gate and take the hard way
that leads to life.”
Life message: 1) Let us learn to reverence and
respect holy things in a holy manner. 2) Let us do to others what we wish them
to do to us. 3) Let us choose Jesus’ narrow way of sacrificial love and humble
service. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
June 22 Wednesday: (St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop,
The context: In today’s Gospel passage, taken
from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives his Church a warning against false
prophets and their false doctrines. Jesus compares them to wolves in sheep’s
clothing and tells us we can recognize them by observing the lives they lead
and the doctrines they teach.
False and true prophets: The Old Testament speaks of false
prophets and how they mislead God’s people. Jeremiah 23:9-40 is a classic
example. The prophet condemns the false prophets of Baal. The Old Testament
gives three signs of true prophets: a) they honor God and promote the worship
of the one true God; b) they care for the poor; c) they fight for justice.
Modern false prophets in the Church try to remove the cross from Christianity,
dilute sin, and avoid teaching about God’s judgment while teaching that
morality is relative, which God abhors: “Woe to those who call evil good and
good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness” (Is
5:20). They try to separate the people of God from the Magisterium of the
Church. But modern true prophets lead exemplary and righteous lives, obey God’s
laws and the Church laws and demonstrate the virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity,
Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance. In addition, they produce the
fruits of the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). The pre -Vatican II Baltimore
Catechism expanded this passage from Galatians to Twelve Fruits: “Charity,
Joy, Peace, Patience, Benignity [Kindness], Goodness,
Long-suffering [Patience] Mildness [Gentleness], Modesty,
Continency, Chastity [three effects of Self-Control].
Life message: 1) As Christians, we participate
in the prophetic role of Christ. Hence, we have the duty of leading others to
Christ by our exemplary Christian lives. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
June 23 Thursday: (The nativity o St. John the
Baptist)
The context:Today’s Gospel describes the birth and
naming of St. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet. He was given
the mission of heralding the promised Messiah and of preparing the Chosen
People to welcome that Messiah by preaching to them repentance and the renewal
of life. John was born to the priest, Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth in
their old age. Today’s Gospel passage describes John’s birth, Circumcision, and
Naming ceremony.
A miraculous birth and an event of double joy: His elderly
parents rejoiced in John’s birth, as he was a gift from God in their old age.
Since the child was a boy, all their neighbors rejoiced with them, and the
village musicians celebrated the birth by playing their joyful music. The Naming
followed the baby’s Circumcision, and Elizabeth insisted that the child should
be named John (which means “the Lord is gracious”), the name given him by the
Archangel Gabriel when he spoke to Zechariah. The mute Zechariah approved that
name by writing, “His name is John.” At that action of obedient surrender to
the Lord God, the priest’s speech was restored, and he loudly proclaimed the
praises of God for blessing him with a son and Israel with her Deliverer, Whose
herald his son would be.
Life messages: 1) We need to pray for our
parents and be thankful to them for the gift of life, the training and
discipline they have given us, and the love and affection they have lavished on
us. Let us ask God’s pardon if we are, or were, ungrateful to them, do/did not
take proper care of them in their illness or old age or ever inflicted pain on
them.
2) We need to remember and pray for our godparents who
sponsored us in Baptism, which made us children of God, brothers and sisters of
Jesus, heirs of Heaven and members of the Church.
3) We should have the courage of our Christian convictions
as John the Baptist did, and we should become heralds of Christ as the Baptist
was, by our transparent Christian lives. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
June 24 Friday: (Most Sacred Heart of Jesus):
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/the-sacred-heart-of-jesus: Luke
15: 3-7:
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the second popular
Catholic devotion among Catholics, the first being the Rosary. The infinite
love and mercy of God is shown in many different metaphors and symbols like the
Baby in the manger, the Good Shepherd, the Crucifix, the Sacred Heart, and the
Divine Mercy Picture. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on
the apparitions of Our Lord from 1673 to 1675 to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a
nun of the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial in France. The Gospel passage,
“They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:35-37) lies
at the foundation of the whole tradition of devotion to the Divine Heart. The
practices of the “Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” in the
home and the “Consecration and dedication of the family to the Sacred Heart”
were begun by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts
of Jesus and Mary and were later approved by the popes. Official and social
recognition of the rule of Jesus over the Christian family is the purpose of
the consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The “Holy Hour,”
the “Litany of the Sacred Heart,” “The Act of Consecration of the
Family and the Human Race to the Sacred Heart,” the “First Friday
Devotion” and the “Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” are
different forms of this devotion.
Life Messages: 1) An invitation for heart
transplant. Our hearts become stony and insensitive through our daily exposure
to acts of cruelty, terrorism, injustice and impurity. Hence God prescribes a
change of heart through His prophet Ezekiel (Ez 11:19-20) to make
our hearts soft, elastic, large and sensitive:” I will give them a new heart
and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their
bodies and replace it with a natural heart.” The Sacred Heart of Jesus
should be the ideal heart for this medical procedure because Jesus said, “Learn
of me I am meek and humble of heart.” Let us ask to have the heart of
Jesus.
2) An invitation to love. The Sacred Heart of Jesus
challenges us to love others as Jesus loved, selflessly, unconditionally and
sacrificially, and to express this love in humble and loving service done to
others.
c) An invitation to pray: First, let us continue to pray for
the grace of healing for those who have been the victims of sexual abuse by the
clergy as the Church expresses its sorrow and seeks forgiveness from these
victims. Let us also pray that these victims may, in turn, accept the grace to
forgive those who have harmed and betrayed them. Second, let us pray for the
grace of courage for our bishops to be true shepherds in caring for their
flocks; in restoring discipline in clerical and religious life and in ending
the dissent that has undermined the Magisterium. Third, let us pray
for the grace of perseverance, that clergy and laity alike will keep the Faith
and not lose hope in difficult time of purification. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
June 25 Saturday (The Immaculate Heart of the
Blessed Virgin Mary)
This feast commemorates the joys and sorrows of the Mother of
God, her virtues and perfections, her love for God and her Divine Son and her
compassionate love for mankind. … In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the
Saturday, immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a special form of devotion to the
venerable person of Mary, similar to devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. Mary’s Immaculate Heart represents her interior
life and the beauty of her soul.
Devotion to the Heart
of Jesus is especially directed to the Divine Heart as
overflowing with love for
men. This devotion is an attempt to respond to Jesus’ love and to make
reparation for the lack of love on the part of mankind. In the devotion to the
Heart of Mary, on the other hand, what seems to attract us above all else is
the love of
Mary’s Immaculate Heart for Jesus and
for God.
The objective is to love God and Jesus better,
by uniting ourselves to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. In
this devotion, we think of the love,
virtues, and sentiments of Mary’s interior life and try to put them into
practice.
Scriptural basis of this devotion: It was mostly the love,
humility, faith, and other virtues of the Heart of Mary that attracted early
Christians to Mary, the mother of Jesus. They saw Mary’s heart in its true
color at the foot of the Cross. Simeon’s prophecy furnished this devotion with
its most popular representation: the heart pierced with a sword. St. Augustine
remarks: “At the foot of the cross, Mary cooperated with Jesus in the work of
our redemption through charity.” One Scriptural passage in support of this
devotion is the twice repeated saying of St. Luke given in today’s Gospel
that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart,
that she might ponder over them and live by them. A few of the sayings of Mary
recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat, disclose new
features in Marian psychology. Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has
believed the words of the angel. The Magnificat is also an
expression of her humility. Answering the woman in the crowd who praised Jesus’
mother as blessed, Jesus commented “Blessed rather are they that hear
the word of God and keep it.” It was Mary’s readiness to hear and do
the will of God that endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the
Mother of Jesus.
Life message: Let us take Mary as our role model and practice her virtues of trusting Faith, serving humility and readiness to do God’s will in our daily lives, thus becoming immaculate children of an Immaculate Heavenly Mother. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)