THE GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Thursday - July 21, 2022

Thursday - July 21, 2022

"Mary, give me your Heart: so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate; your Heart so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life and love Him as you love Him and serve Him in the distressing guise of the poor." 

-- Blessed Mother Teresa

July 21, 2022

Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 398

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    JER 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13

 

This word of the LORD came to me:

Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear!

I remember the devotion of your youth,

how you loved me as a bride,

Following me in the desert,

in a land unsown.

Sacred to the LORD was Israel,

the first fruits of his harvest;

Should any presume to partake of them,

evil would befall them, says the LORD.

 

When I brought you into the garden land

to eat its goodly fruits,

You entered and defiled my land,

you made my heritage loathsome.

The priests asked not,

“Where is the LORD?”

Those who dealt with the law knew me not:

the shepherds rebelled against me.

The prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after useless idols.

 

Be amazed at this, O heavens,

and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD.

Two evils have my people done:

they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;

They have dug themselves cisterns,

broken cisterns, that hold no water.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 36:6-7AB, 8-9, 10-11

 

R. (10a) With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

 

O LORD, your mercy reaches to heaven;

your faithfulness, to the clouds.

Your justice is like the mountains of God;

your judgments, like the mighty deep.

R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

How precious is your mercy, O God!

The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house;

from your delightful stream you give them to drink.

R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

For with you is the fountain of life,

and in your light we see light.

Keep up your mercy toward your friends,

your just defense of the upright of heart.

R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2: MT 11:25 8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;

you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           MT 13:10-17

 

The disciples approached Jesus and said,

“Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?”

He said to them in reply,

“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven

has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;

from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because

they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.

Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

 

You shall indeed hear but not understand,

you shall indeed look but never see.

Gross is the heart of this people,

they will hardly hear with their ears,

they have closed their eyes,

lest they see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts and be converted

and I heal them.

 

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,

and your ears, because they hear.

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

longed to see what you see but did not see it,

and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

 

**********************************

ARE YOU IN THE PITS?

SoSome people dig their own holes and then fall into them. As we consider the meaning of today's first reading for our needs today, the cistern can represent our own efforts to make our lives good. God is the source -- the water -- that nourishes a truly good life. He is the fountain of life, as it says in today's responsorial psalm, and when we rely on ourselves or other non-God resources, our lives become empty and dry. We are drained by the cracks of our brokenness.

 

Can you remember a time when you were enthusiastic about relying on Jesus? We've all been excited about the Lord, usually right after any sort of conversion experience. At such times, we were fully devoted to loving God and learning everything we could about the faith. We wanted to please him. We wanted to be holy.

 

But oops! We tripped and fell into a hole. The road wasn't as smooth as we thought it would be. The journey became more difficult, and we said, "Hey! I don't like the hard work of holiness!" And so we went elsewhere in search of refreshing waters. We dug a hole for collecting this other water, and then we fell into it and discovered that it was quite dry or that the "water" was really sewage.

 

When we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus picks us up, pulls us out, wipes off the dirt, and sets our feet back on the road. Then he tells us to move forward ("go and sin no more"). But what if we don't want to humble ourselves and utilize this sacrament? What if we try to climb out of our holes without the special graces that come with God's sacramental help?

 

We tear at the sides of the hole in a desperate search for footholds, but this actually enlarges it. We might ask Jesus to help us, but if we have no desire to change, we're only grabbing at tools that claw away at the sides and make the hole bigger.

 

The longer we remain in this condition, the deeper we dig. When people fall hard and hit bottom, they've been digging for a long time. Fortunately, the deeper the bottom is, the less they can see when they look up out of the hole, and eventually (if they have not closed their eyes to the truth) the only thing they will be able to see is the hand of Jesus reaching down to them. Then the only option is to choose God's way out or continue to sit in the muck.

 

A Christian who's sinking into a hole is someone who listens to God but fails to understand. Humility enables us to accept what we do not understand, and this opens our eyes to the hand of Jesus reaching down to us. In humility, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to explain the truth and change our minds. Until we trust God this way, we will look intently but we will not see the true way out of our pits.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Lord, You granted me the grace to recognize Your voice and to understand Your Word. Do not let my heart be hardened nor drive others away from You with my wrong deeds. 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!”