GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - July 01, 2023

 

Saturday - July 01, 2023

He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come in conflict with it.

~~Blessed Titus Brandsma

July 1, 2023

Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 376

 

Reading I     

                                                                                                Gn 18:1-15

 

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the Terebinth of Mamre,

as Abraham sat in the entrance of his tent,

while the day was growing hot.

Looking up, he saw three men standing nearby.

When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them;

and bowing to the ground, he said:

"Sir, if I may ask you this favor,

please do not go on past your servant.

Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet,

and then rest yourselves under the tree.

Now that you have come this close to your servant,

let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves;

and afterward you may go on your way."

The men replied, "Very well, do as you have said."

 

Abraham hastened into the tent and told Sarah,

"Quick, three measures of fine flour!

Knead it and make rolls."

He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer,

and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it.

Then Abraham got some curds and milk,

as well as the steer that had been prepared,

and set these before them;

and he waited on them under the tree while they ate.

 

They asked him, "Where is your wife Sarah?"

He replied, "There in the tent."

One of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year,

and Sarah will then have a son."

Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years,

and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods.

So Sarah laughed to herself and said,

"Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old,

am I still to have sexual pleasure?"

But the LORD said to Abraham: "Why did Sarah laugh and say,

'Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?'

Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do?

At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you,

and Sarah will have a son."

Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, "I didn't laugh."

But he replied, "Yes you did."

 

Responsorial Psalm                                                          Luke 1:46-47, 48-49, 50 and 53, 54-55

 

R. (see 54b) The Lord has remembered his mercy.

 

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

R. The Lord has remembered his mercy.

"For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name."

R. The Lord has remembered his mercy.

"He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty."

R. The Lord has remembered his mercy.

"He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

The promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children for ever."

R. The Lord has remembered his mercy.

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Christ took away our infirmities

and bore our diseases.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 8:5-17

 

When Jesus entered Capernaum,

a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,

"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."

He said to him, "I will come and cure him."

The centurion said in reply,

"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;

only say the word and my servant will be healed.

For I too am a man subject to authority,

with soldiers subject to me.

And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes;

and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes;

and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,

"Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,

and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,

but the children of the Kingdom

will be driven out into the outer darkness,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

And Jesus said to the centurion,

"You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you."

And at that very hour his servant was healed.

 

Jesus entered the house of Peter,

and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.

He touched her hand, the fever left her,

and she rose and waited on him.

 

When it was evening, they brought him many

who were possessed by demons,

and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,

to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:

 

He took away our infirmities

and bore our diseases.

 

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

Touched by Grace

Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. Matthew 8:14–15

 

How do we properly respond to the action of God in our lives? In the passage above, we are given the witness of Peter’s mother-in-law to answer that question. It should be noted that Jesus was on a continual mission of healing. In fact, before arriving at the house of Peter, Jesus had just healed a centurion’s servant. When the centurion came to Jesus stating that he was not even worthy to have Him enter his house, Jesus saw the centurion’s faith and healed his servant from a distance. After arriving at the house of Peter, we are told that many people brought to Jesus those who were possessed by demons, and Jesus healed them all. But between the healing of the servant and the healings of the many, another healing occurred. The response to this healing sets for us a wonderful example.

 

Peter’s mother-in-law was ill and in bed with a fever. It’s unclear just how ill she was, but the fact remains that she was ill to the point of being in bed. Notice, first, that Jesus was not even asked to heal her. Rather, He “saw” her ill and in bed, approached her of His own choosing, “touched her hand,” and she was healed.

 

Within the same sentence describing Jesus’ healing, we are told that “she rose and waited on him.” First of all, “she rose.” This should be seen as a symbolic depiction of what we must do when we are touched by grace. The grace of God, when it is given to us, must have the effect of causing us to rise. We rise from sin when we confess that sin and receive forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We rise up every time God enters our lives to give us direction, clarity and hope. To rise is to be strengthened to dispel the burden that sin and confusion causes. We rise in strength, renewed and determined to go about the will of God.

 

After this woman rose, she “waited” on Jesus. This is the reason we rise up when touched by grace. We are not given God’s grace so that we can go back to our sin, or pursue our own ventures, or do our own will. We rise so that we can serve our Lord and His holy will. In a sense, Jesus’ actions in our lives impose upon us a holy burden. But it is a burden that is light. It’s an obligation to serve and give ourselves to our Lord to attend to Him, His holy will, and to all that He calls us to do.

 

Reflect, today, upon this threefold action of the Gospel. See Jesus approaching you and touching you in your prayer. Know that He comes to you not only because you pray to Him but out of His own initiative when He sees you will respond. Then consider your response. Rise from that which keeps you down. Let God’s grace free you from the burdens you carry. And as He grants you this grace, determine to wait on Him and to serve His will alone. The service of our Lord is what we are made for, and doing so will enable us to continually receive His grace through His touch of love.

 

Prayer

 

My merciful Jesus, You continually come to me, approaching me to reach out and touch me with Your grace. You desire my healing and strengthening every day. Help me to be open to all that You wish to bestow and please free me from all that keeps me down. May I rise up in service of You and Your holy will so that Your Kingdom may be built up more fully through me. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

 

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!”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Friday - June 30, 2023

  

Friday - June 30, 2023

Never address your words to God

while you are thinking of

something else.

-- Teresa of Avila

June 30, 2023

Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 375

 

Reading I     

                                                                                                Gn 17:1, 9-10, 15-22

 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him

and said: “I am God the Almighty.

Walk in my presence and be blameless.”

 

God also said to Abraham:

“On your part, you and your descendants after you

must keep my covenant throughout the ages.

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you

that you must keep:

every male among you shall be circumcised.”

 

God further said to Abraham:

“As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai;

her name shall be Sarah.

I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her.

Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations,

and rulers of peoples shall issue from him.”

Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself,

“Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?

Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?”

Then Abraham said to God,

“Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!”

God replied: “Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son,

and you shall call him Isaac.

I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact,

to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.

As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him.

I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly.

He shall become the father of twelve chieftains,

and I will make of him a great nation.

But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac,

whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year.”

When he had finished speaking with him, God departed from Abraham.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                                          128:1-2, 3, 4-5

 

R. (4) See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

 

Blessed are you who fear the LORD,

who walk in his ways!

For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;

blessed shall you be, and favored.

R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

 

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

in the recesses of your home;

Your children like olive plants

around your table.

R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

 

Behold, thus is the man blessed

who fears the LORD.

The LORD bless you from Zion:

may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life.

R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Christ took away our infirmities

and bore our diseases.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 8:1-4

 

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,

“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,

“I will do it. Be made clean.”

His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,

but go show yourself to the priest,

and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

 

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

When love hurts: healing the lepers of today

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus shows his compassion for a leper by healing him with a touch of his hand. Who are the lepers of today? In biblical times, lepers were outcasts, forced to spend the rest of their years in leper colonies because healthy people might catch the disease. Touch was forbidden.

 

How important touch is! Abandoned babies in institutions die from lack of touch. Marriages wither from lack of hugging. Children grow up with poor self esteem from lack of physical nurturing. Jesus knew how important touch is. He not only healed the leper’s skin, he also healed his spirit by giving him what he needed most — human touch.

 

Who are the lepers in your life, i.e., the people who need your healing touch but who repulse you? I propose that they are the addicts you know. It can be any kind of addiction, including the most subtle. The primary symptom is that they are difficult to love because they never try hard enough to change. They repeatedly give us more grief than anyone else.

 

What do addicts/lepers need most? The healing touch of love, which is the gift of mercy for those who don’t deserve it. Jesus loves them unconditionally, and he wants us to do the same. The reason that most addicts are addicts is because they never received enough love as children and they still don’t know what love really is. They cannot give to us what they do not have.

 

However, Jesus is no longer here with a physical hand unless he touches the lepers through us. He needs us to reach out for him. They need us to be his healing hand, but this is a very difficult ministry. We prefer to limit our love to those who love us back. And yet, what they need most is our unconditional love — or more accurately, Jesus’ love coming to them through us.

 

To fulfill this mission, we have to be willing to forgive them over and over and over again. They don’t know how to receive our love. They don’t even know how to recognize it. So we have to persist and forgive and persist and forgive until finally — finally! — our love breaks through and the cleansing begins. And when they slip back into their old leprosy, we forgive them again. Our persistence in love, when combined with persistence in pointing them to other helping hands of Jesus, such as doctors and therapists, will eventually bring them all the way to the full cleansing that Jesus wants to give (although sometimes it doesn’t happen until the moment of their death).

 

Remember, you do an important ministry with Jesus when you serve as his healing hand. And it’s one of the most difficult ministries on earth. If we really want to be good Christians, we have to say yes to this calling. But we can succeed only if we continually turn to Jesus for strength, healing, and guidance.

 

* NOTE: If you are in an abusive relationship, your love will not make a difference unless the pattern of abuse is broken. Create separation until the abuser becomes safe and goes to therapy and/or anger management training. And go to a counselor yourself to learn how to avoid enabling the disease.

 

Prayer

 

Lord Jesus, you know the roots of what makes it difficult for me to love and be loved. Pronounce your Word upon me, and I’ll be healed. Then I’ll be a witness and instrument to heal with your love those who need it more. 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!”