July 15, 2016: St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor
- 'Houses' tie: "Put your house in order" (1st reading)
- 'Grain' pin: Jesus was going through a field of grain. (gospel)
- 'Shield' tie pin: "I'll be a shield to this city" (1st reading)
- '"Boundless mercy" sign' button: "This will be the sign for you" (1st reading); "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (gospel); the Lord's mercy in answering Hezekiah's prayer (1st reading) and saving the psalmist (psalm). (See REcongress.org about the theme button. Chris, thanks for updating the heading and image.)
- Green, white in shirt: Green for Ordinary Time season, white for St. Bonaventure memorial
- My days, I said, are now cut off (though lyrics aren't Yahweh directive-compliant; for music, check out the 8888/LM (long meter) or 8888D/LMD (long meter double) hymn tunes; the links are MIDI audio files (how to play them) (canticle)
- Lord of the Sabbath, hear us pray/ Doddridge: lyrics+ (gospel)
Transmission of life / rearing of children
Marriage is an intimate partnership of life and love, a good for the spouses, and sexuality is ordered to the spouses' conjugal love. Spouses who haven't been able to have children can still have a meaningful conjugal life, but conjugal union is ordered to procreation by its nature. The child doesn't come from outside as something added to the spouses' mutual love but is the fruit and fulfillment of their mutual giving. The child is present from the beginning of love as an essential feature, one that can't be denied without disfiguring the love. Love doesn't close in on itself; it's open to fruitfulness that goes beyond itself.
A child deserves to be born of that love, not by other means. Conjugal love and transmission of life are ordered to each other. The Creator made people share in his creative work and made them instruments of his love, entrusting to them the transmission of human life.
The growth of a mentality that would reduce the generation of human life to one variable of an individual’s or a couple’s plans is clearly evident. Church teaching is meant to help couples experience in a complete, harmonious, and conscious way their communion with each other, with their responsibility for procreation. We need to return to the Humanae Vitae message, the need to respect human dignity in assessing how to regulate birth. Adoption or foster parenting can express the fruitfulness of married life. The Church thanks and supports families who accept, raise, and show affection to children with disabilities. (III:80-82)
- Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 As Hezekiah was dying, Isaiah told him: “The Lord says: Put your house in order; you won't recover.” Hezekiah prayed and wept, and the Lord told Hezekiah through Isaiah, “I've heard your prayer and will give you 15 years and rescue and shield the city.” Hezekiah / Isaiah: “What's the sign?” / “The Lord will make the shadow... retreat 10 steps.” It did.
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| St. Bonaventure |
- Is 38:10-12abcd, 16 "You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die." I said, “I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living,” but those live whom the Lord protects....
- Mt 12:1-8 When Pharisees saw Jesus' disciples picking and eating grain on the sabbath, they told him, “What your disciples are doing is unlawful on the sabbath.” Jesus: “When David was hungry, he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, and priests serving in the temple who violate the sabbath are innocent; there's something greater than the temple here. If you understood 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you wouldn't have condemned these innocent men. The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
St. Bonaventure
- Franciscan Archive: biographies, original works, articles, art
- Universalis: Bishop, doctor, teacher, philosopher, friend and colleague of St. Thomas Aquinas, defended/ruled Franciscan order. See also Catholic Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. (Universalis also mentions Swithun, bishop, and Osmund of Salisbury, bishop and royal chaplain.)
- Pray for peace: Archbishop Gomez invites you to participate in a Novena of Prayer for Peace initiated by the Knights of Columbus through next Friday: While we mourn the deaths of police and others who have died in violence, let's ask God’s comfort for their families and loved ones, pray St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer for peace, and ask God for peace here and worldwide. May this peace begin in our hearts. [Sing and learn about the prayer.]
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| St. Bonaventure receiving the banner of the Holy Sepulchre from the Blessed Virgin Mary/ Solimena |
- Creighton: Jesus was an itinerant rabbi without income, and at times he and his disciples were hungry, as in today's gospel; they helped themselves to a few heads of grain. The Pharisees saw a violation of a behavior norm, but Jesus rejected placing norms above people. Norms are for people....
- One Bread, One Body: "A kingdom of priests": The Pharisees accused Jesus and his disciples of "harvesting" on the Sabbath, violating one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus responds by referring David's allowing his warriors to eat the bread that only priests were allowed to eat; he was comparing them to priests and allowed them to perform a priestly act. He was transforming the Levitical priesthood into his new covenant priesthood. Jesus was fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy to put his house in order....
- Passionist: Did Jesus believe laws were made to be broken? He respected laws, coming to fulfill the law and saying "Repay Caesar what belongs to him,” but he saw the need to redefine laws, often saying “You've heard it said… but I tell you” and inviting people to look at laws' real meaning. When the Pharisees took issue with the disciples breaking the Sabbath law, Jesus turned the discussion to the Pharisees' judgmental, malicious behavior on the Sabbath. Human need and love are greater than the law, so they ate, and Jesus healed, on the Sabbath. May we be understanding, compassionate, and merciful, not judgmental, harsh, or spiteful....
- DailyScripture.net: "Mercy, not sacrifice": The Sabbath was set apart to praise God, his work, and his saving actions, to remember and celebrate the goodness of God and his work. It was intended to bring everyday work to a halt and to provide needed rest and refreshment. The Pharisees scolded the apostles not for plucking and eating corn but for doing it on the Sabbath. Jesus argues that human need has precedence over ritual custom. While the claims of ritual sacrifice are important to God, mercy and kindness in response to human need are even more important....
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