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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 2 July 2023 Note: Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I had been compiled for you after the Mass Readings below. Happy Reading! Liturgical Colour: Green.
Mass Readings from USCCB, ETWN, Universalis (Christian Art). 1st Reading: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a, Responsorial: Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 2nd Reading: Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 & Gospel Reading: Matthew 10:37-42.
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1. Criminal Investigation Department, Singapore Police Force harassed Law-abiding Citizen. Latest! https://twitter.com/Michael65413248/status/1510086218851270658 (2 April 2022) #Singapore Police Force harassing the same law abiding business owner again from 92298844, 97397514, 83487591, 96645914, 63914706, 82825465, 97378102, 90360045, 92981234! They can’t perform to contain COVID, so they bully to appear busy? Shameless? You decide! 2. See another Police case to frame against the Innocent! Please spread the News to help them who commit no crime. Many Thanks. Till this day, the harassment continues and there is no apology from the Rulers and no compensation paid for damages inflicted. 3. See the Bloggers went MISSING before / after the Singapore General Election on 10 July 2020. Please pray for their safety as we search for them actively. Many Thanks. 5. Do you want this kind of “pastoral care”? Latest updates!
Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
Homily, 13 June 1999 (Apostolic Journey to Poland: Beatification of 108 martyrs of the Second World War and the Servants of God: Sr Regina Protmann and Edmundo Boyanowski – Warsaw) 2. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). This Sunday’s liturgy gives our thanksgiving a particular aspect. It enables us to see all that is going on in the history of this generation from the perspective of God’s eternal mercy, which was revealed more fully in the saving work of Christ. Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). The Paschal mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God has given a new direction to human history. Though we see in this history the painful signs of the action of evil, we are certain that in the end evil will not prevail over the fate of man and the world. This certainty arises from faith in the mercy of the Father “who has so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Hence today, as Saint Paul points to the faith of Abraham: “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God” (Romans 4:20), we are able to discern the source of this strength, thanks to which not even the most difficult trials were able to separate us from the love of God.
Faith in divine mercy made it possible for hope to endure in us. This hope did not concern social rebirth alone, or merely the restoration of dignity to man in the different world contexts. Our hope penetrates far deeper: it is directed in fact to the divine promises which go far beyond temporal realities. Its definitive object is the sharing in the fruits of the saving work of Christ. This can be reckoned to us as justice, if we “believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord” (Romans 4:24). Only the hope which comes from faith in the Resurrection can inspire us to give a worthy response in our daily lives to God’s infinite love. Only with such hope can we go out to the “sick” (Matthew 9:12) and be apostles of God’s healing love. Twenty years ago I said that “Poland has become in our time a land of particularly responsible witness” (Homily in Victory Square, 2 June 1979). Today, it must be added that this should be a witness of active mercy built on faith in the Resurrection. Only this kind of witness is a sign of hope for contemporary man, especially for the younger generations; and if for some it is also a “sign of contradiction”, this contradiction never distracts us from fidelity to the Crucified and Risen Christ…
If we rejoice today for the beatification of one hundred and eight martyrs, clergy and lay people, we do so above all because they bear witness to the victory of Christ, the gift which restores hope. As we carry out this solemn act, there is in a way rekindled in us the certainty that, independently of the circumstances, we can achieve complete victory in all things through the One who has loved us (cf. Romans 8:37). The blessed martyrs cry to our hearts: Believe in God who is love! Believe in him in good times and bad! Awaken hope! May it produce in you the fruit of fidelity to God in every trial!
5. Rejoice, Poland, for the new Blessed: Regina Protmann, Edmund Bojanowski and the 108 Martyrs. It pleased God “to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness” towards your sons and daughters in Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 2:7). This is “the richness of his grace”, this is the foundation of our unshakeable confidence in the saving presence of God along the paths of man in the Third Millennium! To him be the glory for ever and ever. Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily, 13 June 1999)
A short time ago I visited a place which is especially important in our national history. The memory of the Battle of Warsaw, fought near here in August 1920, is still fresh in our hearts. It was a great victory by the Polish Army, a victory so great that it could not be explained in purely natural terms and was therefore called “the Miracle on the Vistula”. Fervent prayer by the nation preceded the victory. The Polish Bishops, gathered at Jasna Góra, consecrated the whole nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and entrusted it to the protection of Mary, Queen of Poland. We think today of all those who, at Radzymin and in many other places of this historic battle, gave their lives in defence of our homeland and its endangered freedom. Among others, we remember the heroic priest Ignacy Skorupka, who lost his life not far from here, at Ossów. We commend their souls to the Divine Mercy. For decades, silence surrounded “the Miracle on the Vistula”. Today, in a certain sense, Divine Providence assigns to the new Diocese of Warszawa-Praga the task of preserving the memory of this great event in the history of our nation and the whole of Europe, which took place on the eastern side of Warsaw.
2. “Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).
To understand God’s plan for the Church, we must go back to what happened on the eve of the Passion and Death of Christ. We must go back to the Upper Room in Jerusalem. The reading from John’s Gospel takes us precisely to the Upper Room, to Holy Thursday: “Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”. This “to the end” seems to bear witness here to the absolute character of this love. Following upon the Gospel’s account, it is Jesus himself who explains in detail the nature of this love, when he begins to wash the feet of his disciples. With this gesture, he shows that he has come into the world “not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus presents himself as a model of this love: “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). To those who believe in him, he teaches the love of which he himself is the model and entrusts this love to them, wanting it to grow like a great tree over the whole earth.
Yet this “to the end” was not accomplished in the humble gesture of washing feet. It was fully accomplished only when “Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take and eat; this is my body'. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Take and drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new and eternal Covenant, which will be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'” (cf. Matthew 26:26-28).
Here is the total gift. Before offering his life on the Cross for the salvation of man, the Son of God offered it sacramentally. He gives his Body and Blood to the disciples, so that, in consuming them, they may share in the fruits of his saving Death. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ left the Apostles this sacramental sign of love. He said to them: “Do this in memory of me” (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:24). The Apostles did this and, passing on the Gospel to their disciples, they passed on the Eucharist as well. From the Last Supper onwards, the Church has been built and formed through the Eucharist. The Church celebrates the Eucharist and the Eucharist forms the Church. This has always been the case wherever new generations of Christ’s disciples gradually became the Church. This has always been the case on Polish soil too, and so it is today, as we approach the threshold of the third millennium: to those who will come after us, we pass on the Gospel and the Eucharist.
3. “They devoted themselves to the . . . breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The first Christian community, which Luke presents in the Acts of the Apostles as an example for us, drew strength from the Eucharist. The celebration of the Eucharist is most important for the Church and for her individual members. It is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). Saint Augustine calls it “the bond of love” (In Evangelium Iohannis Tractatus, 26, 6, 13). As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, this “bond of love” was from the first a source of unity in the community of Christ’s disciples. From it there sprang care for the needy brethren so that from the community’s goods “they distributed to all, as any had need” (cf. Acts 2:45). It was a wellspring of joy, of simplicity of heart, and mutual kindness. Thanks to this Eucharistic “bond of love”, the community could live united, attend the Temple and praise God with a single heart (cf. Acts 2:46-47), and all of this was a witness which the world could read: “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
The unity in love which springs from the Eucharist is not only an expression of human solidarity, but is a sharing in the very love of God. Upon this unity the Church is built. It is this which determines the success of her saving mission.
“I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). These words of Christ contain a great challenge for the Church, for all of us who make up the Church – for the Bishops, the priests, the religious men and women and for the lay faithful: to bear witness to this love, make it visible and put it into practice every day. Today the world needs this witness of love, unity and perseverance in community so that, as Christ said, people “might see your good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven” (cf. Matthew 5:16). Here, it is a question primarily of unity within the Church on the model of the unity of the Son with the Father in the gift of the Holy Spirit. “The whole Church”, says Saint Cyprian, “appears as a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. All believers bring to this community their own contribution, their own talents, according to the vocation and role which is theirs to fulfil. Unity in variety is a great richness of the Church which ensures that she grows constantly and dynamically. In a spirit of great responsibility to Christ who is ceaselessly present in the Church, we strive to accomplish this unity for the good of the whole community.
This is why the Church attributes such great importance to sharing in the Eucharist, especially on the Lord’s Day, that is, Sunday, when we celebrate the memorial of the Resurrection of Christ. In the Church in Poland devotion to the Eucharist was always intense, as was the people’s fidelity to attendance at Sunday Mass. On the threshold of the third millennium, I ask all my fellow Poles: hold fast to this good tradition. Respect the commandment of God about keeping the Lord’s Day holy. May it truly be the first of all days and the first of all feasts. Express your love for Christ and the brethren by sharing in the Sunday banquet of the New Covenant – the Eucharist.
In a special way I appeal to parents, to support and encourage the beautiful Christian custom of going to Mass with their children. May the sense of this duty always live in the hearts of children and young people. May the grace of love which we obtain when we receive the Eucharistic Bread strengthen the bonds of the family. May it become for the Christian family a source of apostolic energy.
I also appeal to you, dear Brothers in the priesthood: enkindle in human hearts devotion and love for the Eucharist. Show what a great boon for the whole Church is this sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord – the sacrament of love and unity. In your diocesan and religious communities, stay united in prayer. Remain faithful to the breaking of the bread, grow stronger in Eucharistic life and develop yourselves spiritually in the presence of the Eucharist. The Eucharist “is the chief and central raison d’être of the sacrament of the Priesthood. Therefore the priest is united to the Eucharist in a singular and exceptional way. He is in a certain way 'from the Eucharist' and 'for the Eucharist'. He is also responsible for the Eucharist in a special way. The faithful expect from the priest a particular witness of reverence and love for the Eucharist, so that they too may be able to draw strength and life from it” (cf. On the Mystery and Worship of the Most Holy Eucharist, 2).
4. It is surprising how the Church, developing in time and space, thanks to the Gospel and the Eucharist, remains herself. We can say this even when we look at the history of the Church from the outside, but it is experienced especially from the within. This is the experience of all those who celebrate the Eucharist and of those who share in it. It is the memorial and renewal of the Last Supper. And the Last Supper made sacramentally present the Passion and Death of Christ on the Cross – the sacrifice of Redemption.
We proclaim your Death, Lord Jesus; we declare your Resurrection and, one in the love which comes from you, we await your Coming in glory. Amen. Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily 13 June 1999)
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46)
Together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, we praise God and exult in him, “because he has looked upon his servant in her lowliness” (Luke 1:48) and has chosen her to cooperate in the work of our salvation. Thanks to her, God the Father has done great things in the Holy Spirit, through his Son Jesus Christ. Her generous fiat has, in a sense, opened a new path in history, along which for two thousand years the Incarnate God has faithfully walked with man. Mary, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church, never ceases to point to this presence of Christ, she helps us to renew continually our acceptance of it, to meditate upon it in our hearts and to rejoice in it.
Together with Mary, we give thanks to God for those from our own generation who are witnesses to his presence. We give him thanks, believing that from him comes the power which enables the weak to persevere in love, despite trials and difficult experiences; may the example of the martyrs, raised today to the altars, strengthen our religious life, our hope and our confidence; may it become a support for those who are tempted to doubt or despair because of the difficulties of daily life. May we never cease to draw from Christ, the Son of Mary, the strength which fills the human heart with the courage of faith, with trust in Divine Providence and with the love that is stronger than death.
We praise God also for the faith, hope and love of the two confessors, who today have been raised to the glory of the altars: Regina Protmann and Edmund Bojanowski. Their total self-giving to the service of Christ, the Church and their neighbour, especially to the service of those in need of material and spiritual support, became the path of witness to the love of the Father who is in Heaven. For them it became the path of holiness. For the disciples of Christ today, may their witness lead to a new awareness of the needs of others; may it inspire them to serve others selflessly, in a spirit of love of God and neighbour. May it indicate the path for all those who desire holiness.
Mother of the Incarnate Word, Our Lady of Graces, protect Warsaw, its people and all our homeland! Guard the presence of your Son in the hearts of all the baptized, so that they will always remember their dignity as men and women redeemed by the blood of Christ, called to place their trust in God and to serve their neighbour with love. Implore for your people the perseverance they need to carry out the will of the Heavenly Father and to obtain the salvation promised. May the seed of holiness, scattered so richly on Polish soil and given life by the Holy Spirit, grow constantly under your protection, and may it bear rich fruit for the coming generations. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 13 June 1999)
1. "For my yoke is easy and my burden light" (Matthew 11,30).
Jesus' words to his disciples, which we just heard, help us to understand the most important message of this solemn celebration. Indeed, in a certain sense, we can consider them as a magnificent summary of the whole life of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, today proclaimed a saint. The evangelical image of the "yoke" recalls the many trials that the humble Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo had to face. Today we contemplate in him how gentle the "yoke" of Christ is, and how truly light is his burden when it is borne with faithful love. The life and mission of Padre Pio prove that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted out of love, are transformed into a privileged way of holiness, which opens onto the horizons of a greater good, known only to the Lord.
2. "But may I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6,14). Is it not, precisely, the "glory of the Cross" that shines above all in Padre Pio? How timely is the spirituality of the Cross lived by the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina. Our time needs to rediscover the value of the Cross in order to open the heart to hope. Throughout his life, he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross. In God's plan, the Cross constitutes the true instrument of salvation for the whole of humanity and the way clearly offered by the Lord to those who wish to follow him (cf. Mark 16,24). The Holy Franciscan of the Gargano understood this well, when on the Feast of the Assumption in 1914, he wrote: "In order to succeed in reaching our ultimate end we must follow the divine Head, who does not wish to lead the chosen soul on any way other than the one he followed; by that, I say, of abnegation and the Cross" (Epistolario II, p. 155).
3. "I am the Lord who acts with mercy" (Jeremiah 9,23). Padre Pio was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making himself available to all by welcoming them, by spiritual direction and, especially, by the administration of the sacrament of Penance. I also had the privilege, during my young years, of benefitting from his availability for penitents. The ministry of the confessional, which is one of the distinctive traits of his apostolate, attracted great crowds of the faithful to the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. Even when that unusual confessor treated pilgrims with apparent severity, the latter, becoming conscious of the gravity of sins and sincerely repentant, almost always came back for the peaceful embrace of sacramental forgiveness. May his example encourage priests to carry out with joy and zeal this ministry which is so important today, as I wished to confirm this year in the Letter to Priests on the occasion of Holy Thursday.
4. "You, Lord, are my only good". This is what we sang in the responsorial psalm. Through these words, the new Saint invites us to place God above everything, to consider him our sole and highest good. In fact, the ultimate reason for the apostolic effectiveness of Padre Pio, the profound root of so much spiritual fruitfulness can be found in that intimate and constant union with God, attested to by his long hours spent in prayer and in the confessional. He loved to repeat, "I am a poor Franciscan who prays" convinced that "prayer is the best weapon we have, a key that opens the heart of God". This fundamental characteristic of his spirituality continues in the "Prayer Groups" that he founded, which offer to the Church and to society the wonderful contribution of incessant and confident prayer. To prayer, Padre Pio joined an intense charitable activity, of which the "Home for the Relief of Suffering" is an extraordinary expression. Prayer and charity, this is the most concrete synthesis of Padre Pio's teaching, which today is offered to everyone.
5. "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because ... these things ... you have revealed to little ones" (Matthew 11,25). How appropriate are these words of Jesus, when we think of them as applied to you, humble and beloved Padre Pio. Teach us, we ask you, humility of heart so we may be counted among the little ones of the Gospel, to whom the Father promised to reveal the mysteries of his Kingdom. Help us to pray without ceasing, certain that God knows what we need even before we ask him. Obtain for us the eyes of faith that will be able to recognize right away in the poor and suffering the face of Jesus. Sustain us in the hour of the combat and of the trial and, if we fall, make us experience the joy of the sacrament of forgiveness. Grant us your tender devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother. Accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage toward the blessed homeland, where we hope to arrive in order to contemplate forever the glory of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily, 16 June 2002)
At the centre of the liturgy of the Word for this Sunday there is a saying of the Prophet Hosea to which Jesus refers in the Gospel: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6: 6). It is a key word, one of those that bring us into the heart of Sacred Scripture. The context in which Jesus makes it his own is the calling of Matthew, a "publican" by profession, in other words a tax collector for the Roman imperial authority: for this reason the Jews considered him a public sinner. Having called Matthew precisely when he was sitting at his tax counter - this scene is vividly depicted in a very famous painting by Caravaggio -, Jesus took his disciples to Matthew's home and sat at the table together with other publicans. To the scandalized Pharisees he answered: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.... For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9: 12-13). Here, the Evangelist Matthew, ever attentive to the link between the Old and New Testaments, puts Hosea's prophecy on Jesus' lips: "Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice'".
These words of the Prophet are so important that the Lord cited them again in another context, with regard to the observance of the Sabbath (cf. Matthew 12: 1-8). In this case too he assumed responsibility for the interpretation of the precept, showing himself to be "Lord" of even the legal institutions. Addressing the Pharisees he added: "If you had known what this means, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice', you would not have condemned the guiltless" (Matthew 12: 7). Thus in Hosea's oracle Jesus, the Word made man, fully "found himself", as it were; he wholeheartedly made these words his own and put them into practice with his behaviour, even at the cost of upsetting his People's leaders. God's words have come down to us, through the Gospels, as a synthesis of the entire Christian message: true religion consists in love of God and neighbour. This is what gives value to worship and to the practice of the precepts.
Addressing the Virgin Mary, let us now ask for her intercession in order to live in the joy of the Christian experience always. Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, awaken within us sentiments of filial abandonment to God who is infinite mercy; help us to make our own the prayer that St Augustine expresses in a well known passage of his Confessions: "Lord, have pity on me.... I hide not my wounds; you are the physician, I the sick; you merciful, I miserable.... and all my hope is no where but in your exceeding great mercy" (X, 28, 39; 29, 40). Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 8 June 2008)
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Note: This webpage has many hyperlinks to the Vatican Webpage. The above extracts were compiled for your easy reading. This Publication is aimed to encourage all of Goodwill around the World. It is not for business or profit purposes but it is our way to thank our Creator for His continuous blessings!
Compiled on 18 June 2020, 06:30 SGT Last updated: 1 July 2023, 18:38 SGT
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