Archive for August 4, 2018

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: August 4, 2018 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Endurance Test: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:

Exodus 16:2–4, 12–15
Psalm 78:3–4, 23–25, 54
Ephesians 4:17, 20–24
John 6:24–35

The journey of discipleship is a life-long exodus from the slavery of sin and death to the holiness of truth on Mount Zion, the promised land of eternal life.
The road can get rough. And when it does, we can be tempted to complain, like the Israelites in this week’s First Reading.
We have to see these times of hardship as a test of what is in our hearts, a call to trust God more and to purify the motives for our faith (Deuteronomy 8:2–3).
As Paul reminds us in this week’s Epistle, we must leave behind our old self-deceptions and desires and live according to the likeness of God in which we are made.
Jesus tells the crowd in this week’s Gospel that they are following Him for the wrong reasons. They seek Him because He filled their bellies. The Israelites, too, were content to follow God so long as there was plenty of food.
Food is the most obvious of signs—because it is the most basic of our human needs. We need our daily bread to live. But we cannot live by this bread alone. We need the bread of eternal life that preserves those who believe in Him (Wisdom 16:20, 26).
The manna in the wilderness, like the bread Jesus multiplied for the crowd, was a sign of God’s Providence—that we should trust that He will provide.
These signs pointed to their fulfillment in the Eucharist, the abundant bread of angels we sing about in this week’s Psalm.
This is the food that God longs to give us. This is the bread we should be seeking. But too often we don’t ask for this bread. Instead we seek the perishable stuff of our everyday wants and anxieties. In our weakness we think these things are what we really need.
We have to trust God more. If we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all these things will be ours as well (Matthew 6:33).

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: August 4, 2018 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Speaking up for the truth is never easy. Yet it could make the difference of soul saved or lost. And there is nothing more precious then the saving of souls. We know this to be true because our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ spoke the truth always, urging us to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand then sacrificed His life for us so that we might have hope of eternal life with Him.

Not all of us will be called to give up our lives for speaking the truth or for pointing the way to our Lord Jesus Christ. But even if we were to lay down our lives for His namesake, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain! For the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Amen

First reading

Jeremiah 26:11-16,24
‘This man has spoken to us in the name of the Lord’

The priests and prophets addressed the officials and all the people, ‘This man deserves to die, since he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.’ Jeremiah, however, replied to the people as follows:
‘The Lord himself sent me to say all the things you have heard against this Temple and this city. So now amend your behaviour and actions, listen to the voice of the Lord your God: if you do, he will relent and not bring down on you the disaster he has pronounced against you. For myself, I am as you see in your hands. Do whatever you please or think right with me. But be sure of this, that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its citizens, since the Lord has truly sent me to you to say all these words in your hearing.’
The officials and all the people then said to the priests and prophets, ‘This man does not deserve to die: he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’
Jeremiah had a protector in Ahikam son of Shaphan, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Gospel

Matthew 14:1-12
The beheading of John the Baptist

Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus, and said to his court, ‘This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’
Now it was Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John had told him, ‘It is against the Law for you to have her.’ He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the people, who regarded John as a prophet. Then, during the celebrations for Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and so delighted Herod that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked. Prompted by her mother she said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head, here, on a dish.’ The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he ordered it to be given her, and sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went off to tell Jesus.