Archive for July 12, 2014

July 13th 2014 – Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: July 12, 2014 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Sunday Bible Reflections with Dr. Scott Hahn

The Word’s Return

Readings:
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 65:10-14
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
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Today’s readings, like last week’s, ask us to meditate on Israel’s response to God’s Word—and our own. Why do some hear the word of the kingdom, yet fail to accept it as a call to conversion and faith in Jesus? That question underlies today’s Gospel, especially.

Again we see, as we did last week, that the kingdom’s mysteries are unfolded to those who open their hearts, making of them a rich soil in the which the Word can grow and bear fruit.

As we sing in today’s Psalm, in Jesus, God’s Word has visited our land, to water the stony earth of our hearts with the living waters of the Spirit (see John 7:38; Revelation 22:1).

The firstfruit of the Word is the Spirit of love and adoption poured into our hearts in baptism, making us children of God, as Paul reminds us in today’s Epistle (see Romans 5:5; 8:15-16). In this, we are made a “new creation” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17), the firstfruits of a new heaven and a new earth (see 2 Peter 3:13).

Since the first humans rejected God’s Word, creation has been enslaved to futility (see Genesis 3:17-19; 5:29). But God’s Word does not go forth only to return to Him void, as we hear in today’s First Reading.

His Word awaits our response. We must show ourselves to be children of that Word. We must allow that Word to accomplish God’s will in our lives. As Jesus warns today, we must take care lest the devil steal it away or lest it be choked by worldly concerns.

In the Eucharist, the Word gives himself to us as bread to eat. He does so that we might be made fertile, yielding fruits of holiness.

And we await the crowning of the year, the great harvest of the Lord’s Day (see Mark 4:29; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 1:10)—when His Word will have achieved the end for which it was sent.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: July 12, 2014 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Is my faith a private one between me and God my Father alone? Am I to be silent when I witness and injustice? Do I not speak out against wrong doings and practices especially within my own home? Am I holy myself? Have I gone often for the sacrament of reconciliation? So that I can stand ready to do God’s Will? Ready to spread His message of love and mercy?

Here I am Lord!

Why should I be afraid to proclaim the Gospel? Why should I speak softly afraid others might hear? Is it not the truth I speak? The only one I should be wary of is the Evil One who will try try to take me away from my Lord. But even he has no hold over me because I have chosen to walk with the Lord and He walks with me. I am under God’s protection, so that even if I lay down my life in service of my Lord; into His hands I commend my spirit. Amen

Here I am Lord, I’ve come to do Your Will!

FIRST READING
Isaiah 6:1–8

GOSPEL
Matthew 10:24–33

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”