June 16, 2017

June 16

June 16, 2017:  Friday, 10th week, Ordinary Time

  • '[Lucy in the sky with] diamonds' tie:  "We hold this treasure..." (1st reading)
  • 'Earth-colored' suspenders:  "...in earthen vessels" (1st reading)
  • Crucifix pin:  We carry Jesus' dying so his life may be manifested... (1st reading)
  • 'Phone' tie bar:  I'll 'call' upon the Lord's name (psalm)
  • 'Eyeball' pin:  Precious in the Lord's eyes is the death of his faithful (psalm); if your eye causes you to sin...; if I look with lust,... (gospel)
  • 'Heart' tie bar:  ...I commit adultery in my heart (gospel)
  • 'Hand' tie pin:  If your hand causes you to sin... (gospel)
  • Green in shirt:  Ordinary Time season
    Listen

    For 1st reading

    Pope Francis homily
    We're all vulnerable, fragile, weak, and in need of healing, but recognizing our vulnerability is so hard.  We can try to cover it up or pretend it doesn't exist, but disguises are shameful hypocrisy.  Besides being hypocritical towards others, we're also hypocritical within ourselves when we think we don't need healing and support.  This is the path to vanity and pride for those who don't feel themselves made of clay and so seek salvation and fulfillment in themselves.  But God's power saves us because of our vulnerability, so we're troubled but not crushed, shaken but not desperate, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not killed.  There's a relationship between clay and power, clay and treasure, but there's the temptation to cover, conceal, and not believe we're made of clay; this is the hypocrisy towards ourselves.
    Rather than confessing our sins in a way that whitewashes the clay, we must accept our weakness and vulnerability, even when it's difficult; hence the importance of "shame".   The shame of being clay, not a gold vase, broadens the heart and allows God's power in.  When Peter objected to Jesus washing his feet, he didn't realize he was made of clay and needed the Lord to be saved.  When we accept we're clay, God's extraordinary power comes and gives us the fullness, happiness, and joy of being saved and receiving the Lord's "treasure."
    Read
      If your right hand causes you to sin...
      (animate)
    • 2 Cor 4:7-15  We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power may be God's.  We're afflicted but not constrained, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying Jesus' dying so that his life may be manifested in us.  Since we have the same faith, we believe and speak, knowing God will raise us....

    • Ps 116:10-11, 15-18  "To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise."  Precious in the Lord's eyes is the death of his faithful.  I'll call on your name and pay my vows to you.
    • Mt 5:27-32  “You've heard, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I say, all who look at a woman with lust have already committed it.  If your eye or hand causes you to sin, get rid of it.  You've heard, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce,' but I say, whoever divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery...”
    Reflect
      • Creighton:  The most valuable item we have isn't stored in a safe but an earthen vessel made from the dust we were and will become, our bodies.  This treasure is the Gospel of the Lord that fills our hearts, souls, and minds.  But with it comes responsibility, duty, and sacrifice.  Being filled with the Gospel will leave us afflicted but not constrained; perplexed but not destroyed; persecuted but not abandoned.  God wants us to live a life of choices that glorify him, doing right, loving and serving others.  Do we put this treasure to good use or just save it for our own desires?  May we find more ways to use it....  God gave us the Gospel to share for his greater glory.
        The earthen vessel and
        Ignatian spirituality
      • One Bread, One Body:  "Dying to serve Jesus":  Each day, we're a day closer to death.  We're called to die to ourselves, to put our sinful nature to death, to renounce ourselves and our possessions to become Jesus' disciples.  We empty ourselves and count all as loss.  In this emptiness, we receive Jesus, Life, and his life is revealed in us so it's obvious to all that what we do is God's doing.  This is the essence of the Paschal mystery.  Jesus said, "This is My body to be given for you."  May we say, "Jesus, this is my body, to be given for You" and offer him our bodies as living sacrifices, so dead to self that nothing can block his life flowing through us, and so make God's glory known.
      • Passionist:  Matthew is sometimes called the Rule (or Manual) of Discipline; it's designed to help the community locate the charism of Jesus.  Matthew wants to move his community from rule/manual to the heart!  The heart in Jewish thought is a person's inmost being, where failure, faults, virtue, and holiness begin.  For Matthew sin was alienation from the community and even oneself; it jeopardizes family, community, and all relationships.  His community had wrongs that needed to be replaced with virtues:  murder, adultery, false oaths, revenge, and hate, rooted in anger, lust, swearing, and spite; they're rooted in our hearts. But there's a "new law" in our hearts....
      • DailyScripture.net:  "If your eye causes you to sin":  Jesus used forceful language to urge us to choose for life; just as a doctor might remove a diseased body part to preserve a life, so we must part with whatever causes us to sin.  Jesus warns us we must set no stumbling block (e.g., give no bad example) that might lead another astray.  We must understand the intention of God's commands, decide to obey the Lord, and be docile to the Holy Spirit's help.
      • Universalis:  St. Richard of Chichester, turned around farm, bishop. reformer:  “Thank you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits you bestowed on me, for all the pains and insults you bore for me.  You know, Lord, I'm ready to bear insults, torments, and death for you; and as you know this, have mercy on me, for to you I commend my soul.”  See above for music for his famous prayer, which is a theme of the 2nd week of the Spiritual Exercises (text):  "I want... interior knowledge of the Lord, Who for me became man, that I may more love and follow Him" (1st day, contemplation on the Incarnation, 3rd prelude).  More on the connection at Three things I pray.
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