July 19, 2016: Tuesday, 16th week, Ordinary Time
- 'Sheep' tie bar: "Shepherd your people" (1st reading)
- 'Signs' tie: "Show us wonderful signs" (1st reading)
- 'Mary' and 'people' pins: "Your mother and brothers are outside" (gospel)
- 'Hand' tie pin: Jesus stretched out his hand toward tis disciples (gospel)
- Green shirt: Ordinary Time season
- Who is my mother?/ Murray: lyrics+ (gospel)
- I want to be as close to you/ Dufner: lyrics, about (gospel)
- Mary heard the angel's message/ Gillette: lyrics+ (gospel)
- Micah 7:18-20: Who is a God like you?/ Mui (1st reading)
The family and the Church
The Church looks with joy to, encourages, and thanks families who remain faithful to the Gospel; they witness to the beauty and indissolubility of marriage. In the family, a domestic church, members enter an ecclesial experience of communion, reflecting the mystery of the Trinity, learning endurance, the joy of work, fraternal love, forgiveness, prayer, worship, and self-offering.
The Church is a family of families, enriched by all those domestic churches. Every family becomes a good for the Church. Reflecting on the interplay between family and Church is a precious gift for the Church. The Church is good for the family, and vice versa. Safeguarding the sacrament of matrimony is a concern not only of families but of the entire Christian community.
Family love gives strength to the Church. The unitive end of marriage is a summons to make married love grow. Through their union, a couple experiences the beauty of parenthood, shares plans, trials, expectations, and concerns, and learns care for one another and forgiveness. They celebrate their happy moments and support each other in hard times. The beauty of this gift, the joy that comes from life and care of family members, makes the vocation of the family unique and irreplaceable for both Church and society. (III:86-88)
- Mi 7:14-15, 18-20 Shepherd your people. Let them feed as when you came from Egypt; show us wonderful signs. No one else removes guilt, pardons sin, and delights in clemency and compassion. You will show faithfulness.
- Ps 85:2-8 "Lord, show us your mercy and love." You have favored your land, brought back captives, forgiven our guilt, and withdrawn your wrath. Restore us, give us life, and save us.
- Mt 12:46-50 “Jesus, your mother and your brothers are asking to speak with you.” / “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does my Father's will is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
Reflect
- Creighton: Teilhard de Chardin, SJ emphasized that cosmic energy is love, and that God, Christ Jesus, Love, loved us into being. In Christ we're all sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers to each other. But we haven't been most loving and have neglected to see people's dignity, beauty, and godliness. Whoever does God's will is Jesus' sister, brother, and mother. God’s will is to love others as ourselves. Pray for Mercy so we can be bridge builders and live in unity and peace....
- One Bread, One Body: "The sign of the cross": One sign for our world is that the Lord will remove our guilt and tread it underfoot. Guilt can weigh on us, but Jesus stomps on it to free us. Sin can cling to us, but Jesus will break its hold and separate our sins from us. Jesus has done these "signs" by taking on human flesh and dying on the cross. The "sign of the cross" is the cause of the signs of freedom, forgiveness, victory, and salvation. May we boast only in the cross and live the sign of the cross....
- Passionist: Jesus says that his mother and brothers are those who do his Father's will. Family goes beyond blood; when we recognize God as our Father, we recognize we're all brothers and sisters, called to love one another. We can respond to recent stories of hatred and violence with anger and hatred, dehumanizing those who hate us, depersonalizing the enemy, not considering them our neighbor, but the only response that works is to heed Jesus' teaching and choose life, discipleship, love, and compassion....
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| St. John Plessington |
- DailyScripture.net: "Who are my brothers and sisters?" Jesus used the occasion of today's gospel to point to our relationship with God and those who belong to God. God's love is consistent, unwavering, unconditional, unrelenting, and unstoppable. He created us to be united with him and share in his love. He made us in his image, free to choose what's good, loving, and just and reject what's contrary to his love and justice. Jesus challenged his followers, even his relatives, to recognize God as the source of all relationships. God wants our relationships to be rooted in his love and goodness. An early martyr said "a Christian's only relatives are the saints." Jesus' disciples enter into a new family, one of "saints" on earth and in heaven. Our adoption as God's children transforms our relationships and requires loyalty to God first and his kingdom of justice and peace....
- Universalis: John Plessington, priest, martyr: “If a priest ordained by authority from Rome is to die as a traitor, what's to become of all Church of England clergy? The Church of Rome ordained their first bishops....”
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