June 9, 2021

June 9

June 9, 2021:  Wednesday, 10th week, Ordinary Time


Listen
    For Psalm 99
    Pope Francis

    To John 17 Movement:  We're all children of the same Father, irrespective of our place of origin, nationality, or skin color.  Love is an encounter of life, first with Jesus; from this are born friendship, brotherhood, and certainty of being children of the same Father.  With life shared and dedicated to a higher purpose, love can change the world, but it changes us first.  Because God is love, we can change ourselves and the world.  Love is concrete, giving life for others as Jesus did.  The Love that became flesh and gave his life for us is the way.  Love has to be lived.  Keep walking together and sharing life and love. 

    To Laity, Family and Life forum re applying Amoris Laetitia:  This is an essential moment of dialogue between the Holy See, episcopal conferences, movements, and family associations; it's a time for the Church, pastors, and laypersons to listen together to families' needs and help them renew the proclamation of the Church.  Delegates from the Family Offices of over 60 episcopal conferences and over 30 international movements will ask, Where do we stand with Amoris laetitia?  How will we apply it?  The meeting is to stimulate discernment on family pastoral care from the perspective of new evangelization.

    Amoris Laetitia requires patient implementation and conversion.  Implementation takes cooperation, responsibility sharing, discernment, and closeness to families.  We must listen to and involve families, especially amidst difficulties caused by the pandemic that lacerate family life.  To bring God’s love to families, we need their help and experience.  Spouses and pastors must walk with other families, help the weak, and announce Christ is present in the Sacrament of Marriage to give tenderness, patience, and hope.

    Set aside messages that don't connect to real problems, and the idea that evangelization isn't for everyone.  The family is a ‘domestic Church’ where Christ's sacramental presence acts between spouses and between parents and children, and the experience of love in families strengthens the Church.  Pastors must be enlightened by the Spirit so the salvific proclamation may be realized by married couples not yet called on.  As masculine and feminine combine to make up the family, so too do Orders and Matrimony both build up the Church as a family of families.

    Identify the priorities in Amoris laetitia that best correspond to each local Church's need, then pursue them with creativity and zeal.  In the wake of Evangelii gaudium and Amoris laetitia, may communities work toward pastoral and missionary conversion.  We must work to form spouses, families, and other lay people to understand the importance of their ecclesial commitment and mission.

    Marriage preparation, accompaniment of couples, education, attention to the elderly, and closeness to wounded families and to couples who want to live their Christian experience to the full require renewed pastoral efforts.  Let's share ideas and experiences and create a network to proclaim the Gospel of the family effectively in response to the signs of the times.

    Read
    Yodh (animate)
    • 2 Cor 3:4-11  We have confidence through Christ toward God, who's qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, one of the spirit who gives life.  The ministry of the Spirit will be glorious....
    • Ps 99:5-9  "Holy is the Lord our God."  Extol and worship the Lord.  Many called upon him, he answered, and they heard the law he gave.
    • Mt 5:17-19  “I came not to abolish the law and prophets but to fulfill them.  Whoever breaks the least commandment will be called least in the Kingdom, but whoever obeys and teaches the commandments will be called great.”
    Reflect
    • Yodh (Yud), the "smallest letter" of the Hebrew alphabet, is the first letter of God's Name; its top spur is "the smallest part of a letter" (Mt 5:18).  Not the smallest letter or part will disappear from the Word.  God uses the small to demonstrate his power.  More
      Tetragrammaton (YHWH)
      starting with Yodh
      (remember Hebrew is right-to-left)
    • Creighton:  Jesus, expanding on the Ten Commandments, reminds us, his teachings and God’s will for us are lived out and embodied in how we relate with others.  “I watch what I do to see what I really believe....  It’s one thing to say I’m a Christian, but I have to live it” (Sr. Helen Prejean).  The Beatitudes, the Commandments, many of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, guide us to live in right relationship with others, with a preference for those most in need or oppressed.  Jesus reminds us we can't pick what to follow and what not.  We turn away from right relationship with God and others.  We can't perfectly follow what Jesus asks of us in this Gospel, but we always strive to.  God in mercy forgives us when we sin, calling us forth to heal and return to right relationship.  Where have I turned away from right relationship with God or another person recently? What does it feel like?  Who's in need or oppressed right now?  How can I give more generously of myself?  What's in the way of healing the broken relationships?    What's the injustice or broken system?  How can I be part of the healing?  What might I pray for to come to right relationship:  humility, openness, detachment from resources, wisdom, love?
    • One Bread, One Body:  Teach “the Law and the Prophets.”  At Pentecost, 3,000 received the Spirit when Peter preached from the Old Testament.  Jesus’ Transfiguration featured the Law and the Prophets, represented by Moses and Elijah.  Jesus fulfilled the old covenant; he didn’t bypass it.  When on the road to Emmaus Jesus changed the two disciples' hearts, he began with “Moses and all the prophets.”  Jesus said the Old Testament can change a hard heart better than a man rising from the dead.  Teach the Old Testament to a hard-hearted world.
    • Passionist:  Laws can protect us, help us live positively and avoid harm to ourselves and others. The prophets spoke of a new law written in the heart.  Jesus gave a new commandment: love as he loves; he modeled the love by washing his disciples' feet.  Law works for Israel as a sacrament does for the Church; both are encounters with God’s love.  In keeping the law Israel saw the face of God.  The commandments were signs of God's covenant with Israel:  "I love you; love me by loving others..  Here's how...."  If you substitute 'love' for each 'law'-word in Ps 119, the psalm becomes a meditation on law as an act of God’s love..  But we still find ways to break laws and rationalize it....
    • DailyScripture.net:  "Great are those who teach and obey the commandments":  Jesus' loved and meditated on God's law.  "The law" referred to the 10 commandments, the Pentateuch/Torah, or God's whole teaching to his people; Jews also used it to describe the oral law to which scribes added more than God intended.  Jesus made it clear God's commandments must be fulfilled.  God's law of grace, love, and freedom flows from his love, goodness, and holiness.  Jesus taught reverence for God, the Lord's Day, parents, life, property, oneself, and others.  Respect for God's commandments teaches us love of God and neighbor.  God gives us grace to love, forgive, think, and act like him.  We must love his commandments and hate wrongdoing.  The Spirit writes God's law on our hearts, gives us wisdom and understanding, helps us in our weakness, strengthens us in temptation, and transforms us into the likeness of Christ....
      • Columba (Columbkille), abbot, poet, scribe, spiritual guide, creation lover
    Dress legend
    • 'J' tie bar (10th letter, like י):  "Not the smallest letter will pass from the law..."; Jesus is fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (gospel); the 'letter' brings death,... (1st reading)
    • 'Holy Spirit' pin:  ...but the Spirit gives life (1st reading)
    • 'Stone' tie pin:  The ministry of the Spirit will be more glorious than the ministry of death carved on stone  (1st reading)
    • 'Phone' tie bar:  They 'called' on the Lord, and he answered (psalm)
    • Tie with 'clouds':  The Lord spoke from the pillar of cloud (psalm)
    • 'Alps' pin:  "Worship at his holy mountain" (psalm)
    • Face of Moses / 'Commandments/tablets' tie:  The children of Israel couldn't look intently at the face of Moses (1st reading); Moses and Aaron were among his priests (psalm); "I came to fulfill, not abolish, the law..."  (gospel) 
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