DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Saturday, June 21, 2014 11th Week in Ordinary Time - Psalter 3 (White) Feast of St. Alysius Gonzaga, Religious Readings: 2 Chr 24:17-25; Ps 89:4-34; 2 Cor 8:9; Matt 6:24-34 Response: Forever I will maintain my love for my servant. Rosary: Joyful Mysteries Key Verse: Consider the Lilies in the fields. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious St. Aloysius was born in Castiglione, Italy. The first words St. Aloysius spoke were the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. He was destined for the military by his father (who was in service to Philip II), but by the age of 9 Aloysius had decided on a religious life, and made a vow of perpetual virginity. To safeguard himself from possible temptation, he would keep his eyes persistently downcast in the presence of women. St. Charles Borromeo gave him his first Holy Communion. A kidney disease prevented St. Aloysius from a full social life for a while, so he spent his time in prayer and reading the lives of the saints. Although he was appointed a page in Spain, St. Aloysius kept up his many devotions and austerities, and was quite resolved to become a Jesuit. His family eventually moved back to Italy, where he taught catechism to the poor. When he was 18, he joined the Jesuits, after finally breaking down his father, who had refused his entrance into the order. He served in a hospital during the plague of 1587 in Milan, and died from it at the age of 23, after receiving the last rites from St. Robert Bellarmine. The last word he spoke was the Holy Name of Jesus. St. Robert wrote the Life of St. Aloysius. READINGS FOR THE DAY: READING 1: Second Chronicles 24:17-25 17 After Jehoiadas death the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king listened to their advice, 18 and they abandoned the Temple of Yahweh, God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Judah and Jerusalem incurred wrath because of this guilt of theirs. 19 He sent their prophets to lead them back to Yahweh; these put the case against them, but they would not listen. 20 The spirit of God then invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, God says this, Why transgress Yahwehs commands to your certain ruin? For if you abandon Yahweh, he will abandon you. 21 They then plotted against him and, at the kings order, stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. 22 Thus King Joash, forgetful of the devotion which Jehoiada father of Zechariah had displayed on his behalf, murdered his son, who cried out as he died, Yahweh will see this and avenge it! 23 At the turn of the year, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. When they reached Judah and Jerusalem, they massacred all the nations government officials and sent all their booty to the king of Damascus. 24 Although the invading Aramaean army was only a small body of men, Yahweh allowed them to defeat a very large army because they had abandoned Yahweh, God of their ancestors; thus they executed judgement on Joash. After they had retired -- for they left him seriously wounded-- 25 his own retainers plotted against him to avenge the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest and murdered him in his bed. When he died he was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34 4 I have made your dynasty firm for ever, built your throne stable age after age.Pause 5 The heavens praise your wonders, Yahweh, your constancy in the gathering of your faithful. 30 Should his descendants desert my law, and not keep to my rulings, 31 should they violate my statutes, and not observe my commandments, 32 then I shall punish their offences with the rod, their guilt with the whip, 33 but I shall never withdraw from him my faithful love, I shall not belie my constancy. 34 I shall not violate my covenant, I shall not withdraw the word once spoken. GOSPEL, Matthew 6:24-34 24 No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money. 25 That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing! 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? 27 Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life? 28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; 29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these. 30 Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith? 31 So do not worry; do not say, What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear? 32 It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. 33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on Gods saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Almighty God, our hope and our strength, without you we falter. Help us to follow Christ and to live according to your will. Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: 2 Chronicles 24:17-25 (Joashs infidelity) The account of the reign of Joash is written with a clearly pedagogical purpose; we divide it into two stages, to help show the religious message it contains. The first stage (vv. 1-16) is all about the collection of monies to pay for the restoration of the temple (it follows the parallel passage of 2 Kings 12:1-17). During these years the real protagonist is Jehoiada the priest, who implemented the kings initiatives to do with rebuilding the temple and returning it to its original splendour (v. 13). When Jehoiada died, he was buried in the city of David, that is to say, he was accorded royal honours. The second stage was marked by disloyalty to the Lord and by idolatry. The military defeats and conspiracies were forms of punishment for the kings transgressions (vv. 17-26). Joashs worst crime was the shameful execution of the son of Jehoiada, the prophet Zechariah (not the same person as the last of the minor prophets), who had dared to denounce the kings crimes. For this sin the king himself will lose his life at the hands of conspirators (v. 25). Once again we can see that God does not leave crimes unavenged. This Zechariah is probably the prophet Jesus referred to as a prime example of an innocent victim sacrificed by his own people: “that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar” (Mt 23:35). The fact that Jesus calls him “son of Barachiah” instead of “son of Jehoiada” could be because different genealogies were being used, or elsethere may have been some error in the transmission of the text. Anyway, given that the book of Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus is saying that all innocent victims, from the first (Abel) to the last (Zechariah), are figures of the Christian martyrs and share in the redemption Christ effected by his death on the cross: “Moreover, my brothers, you must not think that all those good men who suffered persecution at the hands of the wicked – including those who were sent to announce the coming of the Lord – were not members of Christ’s body. Any man who belongs to the city of which Christ is the king must be a servant of Christ. That city runs from the blood of the innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah. And on from there, from the blood of John [the Baptist], through that of the apostles and martyrs and all those who were faithful to Christ: these people together make up the city of which we speak” (St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 61, 3). ON THE GOSPEL: Matthew 6:24-34 (Trust in Gods Fatherly Providence) Today’s Gospel helps us to review the relationships with material goods and presents two themes of diverse importance: our relationship with money (Mt 6, 24) and our relationship with Divine Providence (Mt 6, 25-34). The advice given by Jesus gave rise to several questions of difficult response. For example, how can we understand today the affirmation: “You cannot serve God and money” (Mt 6, 24)? How can we understand the recommendation not to worry about food, about drink and about dress (Mt 6, 25)? Matthew 6, 24: You cannot serve God and money. Jesus is very clear in his affirmation: “No one can serve two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot serve God and money… Each one has to make his/her own choice. They should ask themselves: “To what do I give the first place in my life: to God or to money?” On this choice will depend the understanding of the advice which follow on Divine Providence (Mt 6, 25-34). It is not a question of a choice made only in one’s head, but rather of a very concrete choice of life that has something to do also with attitudes. Mans ultimate goal is God; to attain this goal he should commit himself entirely. But in fact some people do not have God as their ultimate goal, and instead choose wealth of some kind--in which case wealth becomes their god. Man cannot have two absolute and contrary goals. Matthew 6, 25: Jesus criticises the excessive worry about eating and drinking. This criticism of Jesus, even in our days, causes great fear in people, because the great worry of all parents is how to get food and clothing for their children. The reason for the criticism is that life is worth more than food and the body more than the clothes. In order to clarify or explain his criticism Jesus presents two parables: the birds of the air and the flowers. In this beautiful passage Jesus shows us the value of the ordinary things of life, and teaches us to put our trust in Gods fatherly providence. Using simple examples and comparisons taken from everyday life, He teaches us to abandon ourselves into the arms of God. Matthew 6, 26-27: The parable of the birds of the air: life is worth more than food. Jesus orders them to look at the birds. They do not sow, or reap or gather into barns, but they always have something to eat because the Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?” Jesus criticises the fact that the worry about food occupies the whole horizon of the life of persons, without leaving space to experience and relish gratuity of the fraternity and of the sense of belonging to the Father. This is why the neo-liberal system is criminal because it obliges the great majority of persons to live 24 hours a day, worried about food and clothing, and produces in a rich minority, quite limited one, the anguish of buying and consuming up to the point of not leaving space for nothing else. Jesus says that life is worth more than the goods to be consumed! The neo-liberal system prevents from living the Kingdom. The word span could be translated as stature, but span is closer to the original (cf. Luke 12:25). A cubit is a measure of length which can metaphorically refer to time. Matthew 6, 28-30: the Parable of the lilies in the fields: the body is worth more than clothing. Jesus asks to look at the flowers, the lilies of the fields. How elegant and beautiful God dresses them! “Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith?” Jesus says to look at the things of nature, because seeing the flowers and the field, people will remember the mission which we have: to struggle for the Kingdom and to create a new life living together which can guarantee the food and the clothes for everybody. Matthew 6, 31-32: Do not be like the Gentiles. Jesus once again criticises the excessive worry for food, drink and clothing. And he concludes: “The Gentiles are concerned about these things!” There should be a difference in the life of those who have faith in Jesus and those who do not have faith in Jesus. Those who have faith in Jesus share with him the experience of the gratuity of God the Father, Abba. This experience of paternity should revolutionize the life together. It should generate a community life which is fraternal, and the seed of a new society. Matthew 6, 33-34: Set your hearts on the Kingdom first. Jesus indicates two criteria: “To seek first the Kingdom of God” and not to worry about tomorrow”. To seek first the Kingdom and its justice is a means to seek to do God’s Will and allow God to reign in our life. The search for God is concretely expressed in the search of a fraternal and just life together. And from this concern for the Kingdom springs a community life in which all live as brothers and sisters and nobody is lacking anything. Here there will be no worry of tomorrow, that is, there will be no worry to store up things. Here again the righteousness of the Kingdom means the life of grace in man -- which involves a whole series of spiritual and moral values and can be summed up in the notion of holiness. The search for holiness should be our primary purpose in life. Jesus is again insisting on the primacy of spiritual demands. Commenting on this passage, Pope Paul VI says: Why poverty? It is to give God, the Kingdom of God, the first place in the scale of values which are the object of human aspirations. Jesus says: Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. And He says this with regard to all the other temporal goods, even necessary and legitimate ones, with which human desires are usually concerned. Christs poverty makes possible that detachment from earthly things which allows us to place the relationship with God at the peak of human aspirations (General Audience, 5 January 1977). Our Lord exhorts us to go about our daily tasks serenely and not to worry uselessly about what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow. This is wisdom based on Gods fatherly providence and on our own everyday experience: He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap (Eccles 11:4). What is important, what is within our reach, is to live in Gods presence and make good use of the present moment: Do your duty now, without looking back on yesterday, which has already passed, or worrying over tomorrow, which may never come for you (St. J. Escriva, The Way, 253). Seek first of all the Kingdom of God and its justice. The kingdom of God should be in the centre of all our concerns. The Kingdom demands a life together, where there is no storing up of things, but sharing in such a way that all have what is necessary to live. The Kingdom is the new fraternal life together, in which each person feels responsible for others. This way of seeing the Kingdom helps to understand better the parables of the birds and the flowers, because for Jesus Divine Providence passes through the fraternal organization. To be concerned about the Kingdom of God and its justice is the same as to be concerned about accepting God, the Father and of being brother and sister of others. Before the growing impoverishment caused by economic neo-liberalism, the concrete form which the Gospel presents to us and thanks to which the poor will be able to live is the solidarity and the organization. A sharp knife in the hands of a child can be a mortal weapon. A sharp knife in the hand of a person hanging on a cord can be an arm which saves. The words of God on Divine Providence are like this. It would not be evangelical to say to a jobless father, who is poor, who has eight children and a sick wife: “Do not worry about food or drink! Because why worry about health and clothes?” (Mt 6, 25-28). We can say this only when we ourselves imitate Jesus, organize ourselves to share, guaranteeing in this way to the brother the possibility to survive. Otherwise, we are like the three friends of Job, that in order to defend God they told lies on human life (Job 13, 7). It would be like “abandoning an orphan and betraying a friend” (Job 7, 27). In the mouth of the system of the rich, these words can be a mortal arm against the poor. In the mouth of the poor they can be a real and concrete outlet for a better life together, more just and more fraternal. FINAL PRAYERS: I observe your instructions, I love them dearly. I observe your precepts, your judgements, for all my ways are before you. (Ps 119,166-167) Lord, strengthen our courage to confront unkindness, gossip, jealous quips and belittling remarks. Help us to reach out to those who need comfort and encouragement. Let us do these things not because of a good feeling or acknoAmen.wledgement, but because that is what a relationship with you calls us to do. Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 23:18:56 +0000