Today we have a recurring guest blogger: Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org)
Scripture readings for this reflections can be found at Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB
Item for the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella on the XIV Sunday in Ordinary Time
© All Rights Reserved personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, July 7th, 2024 ©
Earlier this week, Americans from sea to shining sea celebrated the 248th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the incipient United States from the British Empire. With love for our homeland, many of us held cookouts and parties or even attended events held communally such as fireworks or parades to celebrate the Fourth of July. Perhaps some of us sang patriotic hymns and taught them to those younger than us. Maybe a few of us went to Mass or gave prayerful thanks for God’s blessings to our country before the barbequed lunch or grilled dinner. If so, for those of us who went to Mass or at least gave prayerful thanks to God before a meal, truly “our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for His mercy.” Cf. Psalm 123, the responsorial psalm for today’s Mass in the Ordinary Form.
The readings of the XIV Sunday in Ordinary Time demand our humility before God and simultaneously prophetic boldness from us Catholics in God’s name to our beloved America. The first reading from Ezekiel 2:2-5 narrates the moment of God’s sending St. Ezekiel the prophet to his fellow Israelites, “a rebellious house.” Ez 2:5. Our responsorial psalm, Psalm 123, expresses the honesty of a chastened Israel turning to God for deliverance and admitting Israel’s fault for its dire straits. Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul the Apostle perceives God’s curious plan to ensure the humility of St. Paul while glorifying God’s power made manifest in St. Paul’s weakness. 2 Cor 12:7-10 (our second reading). Finally, a curious limit seems to be placed on the power of Our Lord Jesus in the Gospel today (Mk 6:1-6) not so much for a deficiency of Jesus in His humanity but due to the “lack of faith” (Mk 6:6), namely, the closed minds and hearts, of Jesus’s neighbors in Nazareth. These Nazarenes thought that they had Jesus all figured out and probably the Torah and Judaism all figured out, thus they thought they had nothing to learn from anyone else. Ironically, these people closed themselves from Jesus’s life- changing power in body and soul, with only a few exceptions. Are you or am I any better than they?
If there is anything that the last few years have taught us, especially by the revelations and admissions of the limits of human science and how quickly many Americans gave up supernatural faith or their God-given rights and responsibilities, is that for all our scientific and technological progress, neither we Americans nor any people on Earth have things all figured out. Yet with the fullness of Christianity, we Catholics do have a message from God to the world – Thus says the Lord God per Ez 2:4 – to be shared not only orally but also in the very living of our Catholic faith amongst our fellow Americans in times of plenty and in times of hardship. However, only if we Catholic Americans show ourselves to be more open to the teachings of Our Lord Jesus than His self-satisfied neighbors at Nazareth, only if we show fruits from the power of Christ in and through our lives individually, as families, as parishes, and as communities, would our neighbors in New York and throughout America find credible that in the midst of our human weakness as Catholics, that God’s strength is shown in us and through us, and that truly we Catholics bring “glad tidings” of “the Spirit of the Lord” (Lk 4:18) to our fellow Americans, who have become confused by so many lies and whose moral vision is clouded by so much (self)deception.
From Arlene B. Muller
ReplyDeleteYES, I can acknowledge that in my life as a lifelong faithful, active Catholic I can & probably do fall prey to the tendency to think that I have everything figured out & to look down on those who do not live according to the teachings of Our LORD as revealed in Scripture & the teachings of the Catholic Church, especially the disobedient politicians who call themselves Catholic & yet seem to do everything in their power to oppose Catholic moral teaching in their public policies. I see the world around me & wonder why so many people are so foolish & don't simply obey GOD & if they did they & the whole world would avoid a lot of sin, problems & suffering & the world would be a much better place. For example, there would be much fewer crisis pregnancies & temptations to have abortions if people would only refrain from engaging in premarital & extramarital sex--a very simple solution that many people refuse to accept & even mock!
I need to remember that although I seek to avoid evil, to do good & to BE good, which is only possible (especially to BE good, which is the elusive something that goes beyond avoiding evil & doing good) through the working of the Holy Spirit & the grace of GOD continually working in me, I still have areas of sinfulness & weakness & I need GOD every second of my life to protect & preserve me.
Right now I am going through a time of financial struggle after having had 3 years of living under the financial blessing of an inheritance that is now used up, partly as a result of my generosity & partly because I should have been my prudent in my spending & should have set some aside for the future. Financial struggle is a good lesson in humility & a good reminder if my total dependence on the LORD & an opportunity to allow His strength to be made perfect in my weakness.