GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Wednesday - June 22, 2022

 

Wednesday - June 22, 2022

Pride makes us forgetful of our eternal interests. It causes us to neglect totally the care of our soul.

 

-- St John Baptist de la Salle

June 22, 2022

WEDNESDAY OF THE TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Lectionary: 373

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3

 

The high priest Hilkiah informed the scribe Shaphan,

“I have found the book of the law in the temple of the LORD.”

Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.

Then the scribe Shaphan went to the king and reported,

“Your servants have smelted down the metals available in the temple

and have consigned them to the master workmen

in the temple of the LORD.”

The scribe Shaphan also informed the king

that the priest Hilkiah had given him a book,

and then read it aloud to the king.

When the king heard the contents of the book of the law,

he tore his garments and issued this command to Hilkiah the priest,

Ahikam, son of Shaphan,

Achbor, son of Micaiah, the scribe Shaphan,

and the king’s servant Asaiah:

“Go, consult the LORD for me, for the people, for all Judah,

about the stipulations of this book that has been found,

for the anger of the LORD has been set furiously ablaze against us,

because our fathers did not obey the stipulations of this book,

nor fulfill our written obligations.”

 

The king then had all the elders of Judah

and of Jerusalem summoned together before him.

The king went up to the temple of the LORD with all the men of Judah

and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

priests, prophets, and all the people, small and great.

He had the entire contents of the book of the covenant

that had been found in the temple of the LORD, read out to them.

Standing by the column, the king made a covenant before the LORD

that they would follow him

and observe his ordinances, statutes and decrees

with their whole hearts and souls,

thus reviving the terms of the covenant

which were written in this book.

And all the people stood as participants in the covenant.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  119:33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40

 

R. (33a) Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

 

Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,

that I may exactly observe them.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

Give me discernment, that I may observe your law

and keep it with all my heart.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

Lead me in the path of your commands,

for in it I delight.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

Incline my heart to your decrees

and not to gain.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

Turn away my eyes from seeing what is vain:

by your way give me life.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

Behold, I long for your precepts;

in your justice give me life.

R. Teach me the way of your decrees, O Lord.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2:8 Jn 15:4a, 5b          

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord;

whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           Mt 7:15-20

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,

but underneath are ravenous wolves.

By their fruits you will know them.

Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Just so, every good tree bears good fruit,

and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,

nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down

and thrown into the fire.

So by their fruits you will know them.”

 

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What it Means to be a True Prophet

As we read in today's Gospel passage, evil can penetrate into our lives when we make the mistake of trusting and spreading wrong messages. A true prophet is someone who takes everything to the Holy Spirit for good discernment while testing his/her accuracy with knowledge of what the Bible and the Church's teachings say about it, and then speaks up. Such a person is a teacher of truth, not only in word, but also in deed, for a holy life is what proves the prophet to be true.

 

In our baptisms, we were reborn into Christ and his three-fold ministry of priest, prophet, and king. Let's consider what it means to be a prophet like Christ. Do our lives prove that we believe the truths that we profess as Christians? Do our actions and attitudes teach the truth? Or do we unknowingly accept falsehoods into our beliefs and then impart them to others by the way we fail to follow Jesus?

 

Perhaps we combine Christian attitudes with the contradictory mindsets of the world, and thus our example teaches others to pursue unholy goals instead of Godly ways. Or we've allowed New Age concepts or moral relativism to be woven into our Christian beliefs, thinking this to be harmless, thereby misleading not only ourselves but also others into lifestyles that are not based on Christ nor centered on Christ.

 

It's alarming how few Catholics actually still trust the Church Magisterium (i.e., the official teachings of the Church as written in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, papal encyclicals, etc.). Moral relativism has infiltrated faithful Christians everywhere like cancer, thus allowing the Enemy to influence society, so that now good is considered to be evil, and sin is considered to be "politically correct".

 

I've heard blame for this being cast in the wrong direction. Some moral conservatives believe that the cure is an ultra-conservative return to the Church the way it was before Vatican Council II. Why? Because holy obedience and faithfulness deteriorated after that Council. But let's widen our lens and look at what was happening in society coincidentally at the same time as Vatican Council II. It was the 1960s, the decade of the sexual revolution and the loosening of social mores in the US and other western cultures, which then spread to other cultures. Changes in society eroded faithfulness, not the changes in the Church.

 

How sick is the cancer? To some extent, most of us have been influenced by the notion that "if it seems right to me, I'll go ahead and do it, even if it goes against a Church teaching" (sexual relations outside the Sacrament of Marriage and the use of artificial contraception are two of the most common examples), because we fail to research the Church's teaching on it and therefore we remain ignorant about the foundation and goals of love within it.

 

Some falsehoods are so subtle that we assume they're coming from God. For example, many have accepted the worldly belief that we're not supposed to suffer or make sacrifices. What does this teach the world around us? That the way of Christ, which includes the cross, is wrong!

 

With so many false teachings in our ears, how do we know the difference between what is truth and what is false? Jesus provided the answer: Look at the fruits. Does the message (or the attitude or the decision) lead us -- and others -- to become more like Christ?

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Lord, may my words and deeds be fruit produced by Your Spirit working in me, for unless my life is well-lived, I will confuse those who are waiting on You. Amen.

 

 

God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”