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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 20 June 2021 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.
Readings at Mass: See here or EWTN, USCCB.
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Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
Today his Word questions our faith, which sometimes falters, causing us unfounded fears: “Why are you afraid?” he asks, “Have you no faith?” (Mark 4:40). There are many fears that torment us and can induce us to cowardice or discouragement: fear of the seeming silence of God, fear of the great world powers that claim to compete with God’s omnipotence and providence, and lastly, fear of a culture that seems to marginalize the religious and Christian meaning of life by depriving it of social significance.
The Gospel scene of the boat threatened by the waves, calls to mind the image of the Church plying the seas of history, on her way to the fulfilment of God’s kingdom. Jesus, who promised to remain with his own until the end of time (cf. Matthew 28:20), will not leave the ship to drift. In times of hardship and trouble, she continues to hear his voice: “Courage! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It is a call to strengthen continually her faith in Christ, and not to give in to difficulties. In moments of trial, when the “dark night” seems to obscure her way or when the storm of difficulties worsens, the Church knows she is in good hands.
The words we have heard in the second reading also urge us to trust in the Lord’s presence and to renew our life as true believers: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In the newness of life, a gift of our Lord to all who are baptized, there is no room for uncertainty and hesitation. Trust and peace are the sign of deep communion with Jesus Christ, who died “for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
As I cordially greet everyone here, especially the students of the Pontifical Spanish and Pontifical Mexican Colleges in Rome who, with this celebration, have wished to reaffirm their adherence to the Successor of Peter, I invite all to feel the joy of the Lord’s presence in this Eucharist that we are celebrating in the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, as if desiring Mary's protection in the meeting with her divine Son. May she accompany and sustain us with her motherly intercession on our journey of faith, helping us to gain an ever deeper understanding of the mystery of Christ’s person and to taste that inner peace which comes from the firm conviction of his presence among us. Amen. Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily, 22 June 1997)
Extracts: Reconciliation is a gratuitous gift of God. It is grace, as the Apostle Paul explains to the first Christians of this city of Rome, and through them, to the whole world: “For, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10). We have been reconciled because we were forgiven, we were forgiven because we were loved. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
2. Reconciliation with God deeply renews man. Immersed in Christ’s death through Baptism, he rises with him to new life and is called to realize fully in himself the image and likeness of God. In the community relationships are also transformed: reconciliation seeks to extend itself to all our brothers and sisters.
Extracts: 3. The first reading, in which the prophet Isaiah describes several significant traits of the future Messiah, sheds light on just such a project: "He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth" (Isaiah 42: 1-4). At the centre of this Jubilee there is Christ, the prisoner; at the same time there is Christ the lawgiver. It is he who establishes the law, proclaims it and strengthens it. However he does this not with arrogance, but with meekness and love. He heals what is sick, strengthens what is bruised. Where a faint flame of goodness still burns, he revives it with the breath of his love. He forcefully proclaims justice and heals wounds with the balm of mercy.
In Isaiah's text another series of images opens the prospect of life, joy and freedom: the future Messiah will come and open the eyes of the blind and bring out the prisoners from the dungeon (cf. Isaiah 42: 7). Dear brothers and sisters, I imagine that particularly these last words of the prophet will find an immediate, hope-filled echo in your hearts.
4. However, the message of God's Word must be accepted with its full meaning. The "dungeon" from which the Lord comes to release us is first of all the one where the spirit is chained. Sin is the prison of the spirit. In this regard, how can we forget Jesus' profound words: "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8: 34)? This is the slavery from which he above all came to save us. For he said: "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free" (John 8: 31)
However, the prophet Isaiah's words about liberation should be understood in the light of the whole history of salvation, which culminates in Christ, the Redeemer who took upon himself the sin of the world (cf. John 1: 29). God cares about the total liberation of the human person, a liberation not only concerns physical and external conditions, but is first and foremost a liberation of the heart.
5. The hope of this liberation - the Apostle Paul reminds us in the second reading - is found throughout creation: "The whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now" (Romans 8: 22). Our sin has disrupted God's plan, and its effects are not only felt in human life but also in creation itself. This cosmic dimension of the effects of sin becomes almost tangible in ecological disasters. No less worrying is the damage caused by sin to the human psyche, to human biology itself. Sin is devastating. It drives peace from hearts and causes a chain of sufferings in human relationships. I imagine how frequently you can observe this truth as you reflect on your personal histories or listen to those of your cell mates.
This is precisely the slavery from which the Spirit of God comes to deliver us. He, the Gift par excellence which Christ obtained for us, "helps us in our weakness ... intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8: 26). If we follow his promptings, he achieves our complete salvation, "adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8: 23).
6. Therefore, he, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, must be the one who works in your hearts, dear brother and sister prisoners. The Holy Spirit must pervade this prison where we are meeting and all the prisons of the world. Christ, the Son of God, became a prisoner; he let them tie his hands and then nail them to the cross precisely so that his Spirit could touch the heart of every man. The Spirit of Christ, the Redeemer of the world, must breathe even where people are chained in prisons according to the logic of a still necessary human justice. Punishment cannot be reduced to mere retribution, much less take the form of social retaliation or a sort of institutional vengeance. Punishment and imprisonment have meaning if, while maintaining the demands of justice and discouraging crime, they serve the rehabilitation of the individual by offering those who have made a mistake an opportunity to reflect and to change their lives in order to be fully reintegrated into society. Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily, 9 July 2021)
Extracts: 1. This morning I had the joy of meeting the inmates of "Regina Caeli" Prison for the celebration of the Great Jubilee. It was a touching moment of prayer and humanity. Looking into their eyes, I tried to glimpse the sufferings, anxieties and hopes of each one. I knew that in them I was meeting Christ, who identified with them in the Gospel to the point of saying: "I was in prison and you came to me" (Matthew 25: 36).
Precisely with their hard situation in mind, I asked in my Message for the Jubilee in Prisons that on the occasion of the Holy Year they would be offered a gesture of clemency. I especially asked lawmakers throughout the world to rethink the prison system and the penal system itself, in order to make it more respectful of human dignity in accord with a justice that redeems the offender and not only repairs the disorder caused by crime. Those who have made mistakes must be helped to begin a process of moral redemption and personal and community growth for their effective return to society. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 9 July 2000)
Extracts: 1. Today, 6 July, we conclude the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of St Maria Goretti, "little and sweet martyr of purity", as my venerable Predecessor Pius XII defined her. Her mortal remains rest in the Church of Nettuno in the Diocese of Albano, and her beautiful spirit lives in God's glory. What does this fragile but Christianly mature girl say to today's young people, through her life and above all through her heroic death? Marietta, as she was lovingly called, reminds the youth of the third millennium that true happiness demands courage and a spirit of sacrifice, refusing every compromise with evil and having the disposition to pay personally, even with death, faithful to God and his commandments.
How timely this message is! Today, pleasure, selfishness and directly immoral actions are often exalted in the name of the false ideals of liberty and happiness. It is essential to reaffirm clearly that purity of heart and of body go together, because chastity "is the custodian" of authentic love.
2. St Maria Goretti helps all young people to experience the beauty and joy of the evangelical Beatitude: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5: 8).
Purity of heart, as with every virtue, requires a daily discipline of the will and a constant interior discipline. Above all, it calls for assiduous recourse to God in prayer. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 6 July 2003)
Extracts: At the origin of every man and woman, and thus in all human fatherhood and motherhood, we find God the Creator. For this reason, married couples must accept the child born to them, not simply as theirs alone, but also as a child of God, loved for his or her own sake and called to be a son or daughter of God. What is more: each generation, all parenthood and every family has its origin in God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit… The Church does not cease to remind us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God’s image and likeness. Christian education is consequently an education in freedom and for freedom. "We do not do good as slaves, who are not free to act otherwise, bur we do it because we are personally responsible for the world; because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore his creatures as well. This is the true freedom to which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us (Homily for the Vigil of Pentecost, 3 June 2006).
Jesus Christ is the perfect human being, an example of filial freedom, who teaches us to share with others his own love: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love" (John 15:9). And so the Second Vatican Council teaches that "Christian married couples and parents, following their own way, should support one another in grace all through life with faithful love, and should train their children, lovingly received from God, in Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues. Because in this way they present to all an example of unfailing and generous love, they build up the brotherhood of charity, and they stand as witnesses and co-operators of the fruitfulness of Mother Church, as a sign of and a share in that love with which Christ loved his Bride and gave himself for her" (Lumen Gentium, 41).
The joyful love with which our parents welcomed us and accompanied our first steps in this world is like a sacramental sign and prolongation of the benevolent love of God from which we have come. The experience of being welcomed and loved by God and by our parents is always the firm foundation for authentic human growth and authentic development, helping us to mature on the way towards truth and love, and to move beyond ourselves in order to enter into communion with others and with God.
To help us advance along the path of human maturity, the Church teaches us to respect and foster the marvellous reality of the indissoluble marriage between man and woman which is also the origin of the family. To recognize and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person…
The Christian family - father, mother and children - is called, then, to do all these things not as a task imposed from without, but rather as a gift of the sacramental grace of marriage poured out upon the spouses. If they remain open to the Spirit and implore his help, he will not fail to bestow on them the love of God the Father made manifest and incarnate in Christ. The presence of the Spirit will help spouses not to lose sight of the source and criterion of their love and self-giving, and to cooperate with him to make it visible and incarnate in every aspect of their lives. The Spirit will also awaken in them a yearning for the definitive encounter with Christ in the house of his Father and our Father. And this is the message of hope that, from Valencia, I wish to share with all the families of the world. Amen. Pope Benedict XVI (Homily, 9 July 2006)
SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist
Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist
Extracts: In the Opening Prayer, we prayed: “Give your people, Father, the gift of living always in veneration and love for your Holy Name, so that Your grace may not be deprived from those whom you have established on the rock of your love”. The readings that we have heard show us how God’s love for us is: it is a faithful love, a love that re-creates everything, a stable and secure love.
The Psalm invites us to give thanks to the Lord for “his love is everlasting”. Thus, a faithful love, fidelity: it is a love that does not disappoint, it never fails. Jesus embodies this love, He is the Witness. He never tires of loving us, of supporting us, of forgiving us, and thus He accompanies us on the path of life, according to the promise He made to the disciples: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Out of love He became man, out of love He died and rose again, and out of love He is always at our side, in the beautiful moments and in the difficult ones. Jesus loves us always, until the end, without limits and without measure. And He loves us all, to the point that each one of us can say: “He gave his life for me”. For me! Jesus’ faithfulness does not fail, even in front of our infidelity. St Paul reminds us of this: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
Jesus remains faithful, even when we have done wrong, and He waits to forgive us: He is the face of the Merciful Father. This is a faithful love.
The second aspect: the love of God re-creates everything, that is He makes all things new, as we are reminded in the Second Reading. To recognize our limits, our weaknesses, is the door that opens the forgiveness of Jesus, to his love that can deeply renew us, that can re-create us. Salvation can enter in the heart when we open ourselves to the truth and recognize our mistakes, our sins; now let us make an experience, that beautiful experience of He who has come not for the healthy, but for the sick, not for the just ones, but the sinners (cf. Matthew 9:12-13); let us experience his patience, his tenderness, his will to save all. And what is the sign? The sign that we have become “new” and that we have been transformed by the love of God is to strip off the worn out and old clothes of grudges and enmities to wear the clean robes of meekness, goodness, service to others, of peace in the heart, of children of God. The spirit of the world is always looking for something new, but it is only the faithfulness of Jesus that is capable of true innovation, of making us new men, of re-creating us.
Finally, the love of God is stable and secure, as the rocky shores that provide shelter from the violence of the waves. Jesus manifests this in the miracle recounted in the Gospel, when He calms the storm, commanding the wind and the sea (cf. Mark 4:41). The disciples are afraid because they realize that they will not make it, but He opens their hearts to the courage of faith. In front of the man who shouts: “I can’t do it anymore”, the Lord meets him, offers the rock of his love, to which everyone can cling, assured of not falling. How many times we feel that we can’t do it anymore! But He is near us, with his outstretched hand and open heart. Pope Francis I (Homily, 21 June 2015)
At the end of this celebration, our thoughts go to the Virgin Mary, a loving, caring mother towards all her children, whom Jesus entrusted to her as he offered Himself on the Cross in the greatest act of love. An icon of this love is the Shroud, which has again drawn so many people to Turin. The Shroud attracts people to the face and tortured body of Jesus and, at the same time, urges us on toward every person who is suffering and unjustly persecuted. It urges us on in the same direction as Jesus’ gift of love. “The love us Christ urges us on”: these words of St Paul were the motto of Joseph Benedict Cottolengo. Recalling the apostolic fervour of so many holy priests of this region, starting with Don Bosco, the bicentennial of whose birth we commemorate, with gratitude I greet you, priests and religious… Pope Francis I (Angelus, 21 June 2015)
Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
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 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 13 June 2021, 17:18 SGT Last updated: 19 June 2021, 16:10 SGT
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