August 9, 2016

Aug. 9

August 9, 2016:  Tuesday, 19th week, Ordinary Time

  • 'Hand' tie pin:  "I saw a hand stretched out to me..." (1st reading)
  • 'Scroll' pin:  "...in which was a written scroll" (1st reading)
  • Gold- and silver-colored accessories:  "The law of your mouth is to me more precious than... gold and silver" (psalm)
  • 'Heart' pin:  "Your decrees are my inheritance, the joy of my heart." (psalm)
  • '?' tie pin:  “Who's the greatest in the Kingdom?” (gospel)
  • 'Children' tie:  “Unless you turn and become like children, you won't enter..." (gospel)
  • 'Angel' pin:  "Their angels in heaven look on my Father's face." (gospel)
  • 'Sheep' tie bar:  If you have 100 sheep and one goes astray, you won't leave the 99 (gospel)
  • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season
Listen

For the gospel
Pope Francis to Dominicans
Incarnate the Gospel through preaching, witness, and charity.
God inspired St. Dominic to found the Order of Preachers and put preaching at the heart of their mission, just as Jesus had taught his disciples.  The Word of God burns from within and incites us to go proclaim Christ to all.  Dominic said, "Contemplate, then teach."  Evangelized by God to evangelize.  Without deep union with him, preaching won't change hearts.
God's Word requires faithful teachers and worthy witnesses of the Gospel.  The witness incarnates what's taught, makes it tangible, makes it call, leaves no one indifferent, adds to the truth the joy of the Gospel, makes people aware God's love and mercy is for them.
The preacher and witness also needs charity.  Jesus' living, suffering body was inscribed in Dominic's existence.  Christ's body cries out to the preacher and doesn't leave him tranquil.  The cry of the poor and discarded makes us understand Jesus' compassion.  It is in the encounter with the living Christ that we're evangelizers, we recover the passion to be preachers and witnesses of his love, and we free ourselves from the temptation of Gnosticism.
Read
  • Ezk 2:8-3:4  "Son of man, eat what I'll give you."  I saw a hand stretched out to me with a scroll he unrolled.  Written on it:  Lamentation, wailing, woe!  "Eat it, then go speak to Israel."  I ate it.  "Fill your stomach with it."  It was as sweet as honey.  "Go to Israel and speak my words to them."
  • Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131  "How sweet to my taste is your promise!"  I rejoice in your decrees; they are my counselors, more precious than gold.  I gasp open-mouthed in my yearning for your commands.
  • Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14  Disciples / Jesus:  “Who's greatest in the Kingdom?”  Calling a child over:  “Unless you turn and become like children, you won't enter the Kingdom.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest, and whoever receives a child in my name receives me; their angels look on my Father's face. / If a man has a hundred sheep and one goes astray, won't he leave the rest and search for the stray?  If he finds it, he rejoices more than over the others.  In the same way, your Father doesn't want one of these to be lost.”
Reflect
    • Creighton:  It takes humility to admit dependence on God as children do.  The humble understand that everyone is in God’s hands and must seek his protection.  Even if we receive great gifts, we're not in control of our lives.  God is the source of our achievements.  Jesus asks us to recognize our reliance on God and our interdependence with others....
    • One Bread, One Body:  "The living Bible":  Before we can speak God's Word in power, we must hear, accept, and digest it; we must eat the scroll and become letters written by the Spirit on tablets of flesh in the heart."  We become walking Bibles when we eat the scroll, the only Bibles many will ever read.  We become so by hearing, welcoming, meditating on, doing, and sharing God's Word....
    • Passionist:  "Edith Stein, Jew and Christian, embraced by the Passion":  The unfaithfulness of Judah in the south would invite further disaster upon Israel.  The final prophet we read is Ezekiel, also an exile.  Ezekiel has hope and promise.  He tells us of the horror of God leaving the temple, but ends with God returning to a new one and giving a new heart and spirit to Israel.  While not in exile the chosen people are scattered. If you follow Jesus, don't look down on those who don't.
    Edith Stein / Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was a world-class philosopher, student, and teaching assistant.  Though she couldn't teach at a university, she did teach young women and spoke for women’s organizations.  Her love for Christ brought her special love of the Passion. Her final book is The Science of the Cross.  She died in Auschwitz with her blood sister Ruth....
    • DailyScripture.net:  "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven":  We too quibble about who's the greatest.  Children had no rights, position, or privileges; Jesus placed a child before him to teach humility.  The simple of heart know they belong to and depend on God.  Shepherds normally counted their sheep at day's end to account for them all.  A shepherd's anxiety is turned to joy when he restores a lost sheep to the fold.  Jesus taught that sinners must be sought out; heaven rejoices when a sinner is restored.  Do I seek those who have lost their way?
      • Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), philosopher with Freiburg doctorate, but career impeded because of her gender.  Converted upon reading St. Teresa's autobiography. Taught at a Dominican girls’ school; lecturer at the Münster Institute for Pedagogy but was thrown out because of Nazi anti-Semitism.  Entered Carmelite monastery; they moved her to keep her safe from Nazis. Killed at Auschwitz in retaliation for Dutch bishops' public condemnation of Nazi racism; authorities targeted Jewish converts to Christianity.  See Edith Stein, Apostate Saint, and read her essays online.
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