THE GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Tuesday - July 18, 2023

 

Tuesday - July 18, 2023

"Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection"

~~ St. Benedict

July 18, 2023

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 390

 

Reading I     

                                                                                                Ex 2:1-15a

 

A certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,

who conceived and bore a son.

Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.

When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket,

daubed it with bitumen and pitch,

and putting the child in it,

placed it among the reeds on the river bank.

His sister stationed herself at a distance

to find out what would happen to him.

 

Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe,

while her maids walked along the river bank.

Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.

On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying!

She was moved with pity for him and said,

"It is one of the Hebrews' children."

Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter,

"Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women

to nurse the child for you?"

"Yes, do so," she answered.

So the maiden went and called the child's own mother.

Pharaoh's daughter said to her,

"Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you."

The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.

When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,

who adopted him as her son and called him Moses;

for she said, "I drew him out of the water."

 

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up,

when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor,

he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.

Looking about and seeing no one,

he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!

So he asked the culprit,

"Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?"

But the culprit replied,

"Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us?

Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?"

Then Moses became afraid and thought,

"The affair must certainly be known."

 

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put Moses to death.

But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                                          Ps 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34

 

R. (see 33) Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

I am sunk in the abysmal swamp

where there is no foothold;

I have reached the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms me.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

But I pray to you, O LORD,

for the time of your favor, O God!

In your great kindness answer me

with your constant help.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

But I am afflicted and in pain;

let your saving help, O God, protect me;

I will praise the name of God in song,

and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the LORD hears the poor,

and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."

R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

If today you hear his voice,

harden not your hearts.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 11:20-24

 

Jesus began to reproach the towns

where most of his mighty deeds had been done,

since they had not repented.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst

had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And as for you, Capernaum:

 

Will you be exalted to heaven?

You will go down to the netherworld.

 

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,

it would have remained until this day.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

 

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Miracles that lead to ruin

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus prophesies against those who experience miracles but refuse to reform their ways. Miracles abound in our Church, including at every Mass in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Do we go home unchanged?

 

Where else have you witnessed or experienced God’s supernatural actions? If we don’t use these opportunities to grow spiritually, our church activities will ultimately ruin us! We will be judged by the events that should have purified us and increased our holiness.

 

Are we miracle chasers instead of truth seekers? Do we wear Marian scapulars only because of the promises they carry (what Mary can do for us) instead of promising God that we will grow in holiness using the example of Mary? Do we bury St. Joseph as a statue (upside-down no less) to sell our house instead of asking St. Joseph to help us become a holier family, whether the house sells or not? Do we ask God to rescue us from difficulties to make our lives easier instead of thanking him for the hard times because they’re helping us become holier?

 

Are we changed each time we witness the miracle of bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ at Mass?

 

I’ve been to Capernaum. Since this was the town that Jesus called home after he left Nazareth, you’d think it would be exalted forever. This is where Peter lived and where his mother-in-law was miraculously healed. Across the street is where Jesus preached in the synagogue. As a significant trade center at the Sea of Galilee, many people passed through it and heard Jesus preach and witnessed his miracles. It was a busy, prosperous town that saw a lot of Jesus. It could have become a center for Christianity. It could have become the Vatican — the Seat of Peter!

 

But now it’s a dead town. Capernaum is nothing but ruins.

 

Our lives can become ruins, too. Is there anything deteriorating in your spiritual life? When we’re not growing, we’re falling apart. If we don’t allow God to change us within our daily situations, we’re stagnating like rotting muck in a lifeless pond.

 

God works miraculously for us every day. The evidence is there, but we can’t see it when our expectations are different from his or when we’re not paying attention. Spend more time recalling his mighty deeds. Why is he involved in your troubles? Is it to make your life easy and pain-free? No. It’s to help you overcome obstacles on the road of ever-increasing holiness.

 

Repenting and reforming are never easy, but this is what keeps our faith alive and growing.

 

Prayer

 

Lord: Don’t let my heart harden and lose the ability to see Your miraculous path every day. Give me a humble heart to seek You and praise You for what You have done, for what You are doing, and for what You will do. 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!”