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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 13 February 2022 Liturgical Colour: Green. 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!
Readings at Mass: See below or EWTN, USCCB.
First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-8 A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord
The Lord says this: ‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from the Lord. He is like dry scrub in the wastelands: if good comes, he has no eyes for it, he settles in the parched places of the wilderness, a salt land, uninhabited.
‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-4,6 Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind. For the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20 If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins
If Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.
But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.
Gospel Acclamation Matthew 11:25 Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children. Alleluia!
Or: Luke 6:23ab Alleluia, alleluia! Rejoice and be glad: your reward will be great in heaven. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 6:17,20-26 Happy are you who are poor, who are hungry, who weep
Jesus came down with the Twelve and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said:
‘How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh. Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets.
‘But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now. Alas for you who have your fill now: you shall go hungry. Alas for you who laugh now: you shall mourn and weep. ‘Alas for you when the world speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.’
Acknowledgment: We thank the Publisher for allowing us to publish the Mass Readings to be used as reference for Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us around the World.
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Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
1. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). Before ascending to the Father, Jesus entrusts his Apostles with the mandate to continue his mission on earth by announcing his salvation to the whole world. This task, which characterizes the Church, the People of God on their way towards the heavenly homeland, is expressed in the plurality of ministries and charisms with which Christ enriches it. Pastors and confessors of the faith, virgins and martyrs, priests and laity, holy men and women of every age offer effective help in spreading the Gospel to every corner of the globe.
Saints Cyril and Methodius completed this work. Natives of Thessalonica and fearless witnesses to the Gospel, we could say that they were the first in a long line of apostles who worked actively in the service of Christ among the Slavic peoples. Your parish is honoured in having as its special protectors these two great co-patron saints of Europe. Their example is also very significant for us. In fact, as I emphasized in the Encyclical Slavorum Apostoli, “it can be said that their memory is particularly vivid and relevant to our day” (n. 1).
Although they had the opportunity to pursue brilliant political careers, these two brothers dedicated themselves completely to the Lord. At the request of Prince Rastislav of Greater Moravia to Emperor Michael III, they were sent to proclaim the Christian faith to the people of Central Europe in their own language. They thus devoted their lives to this work, facing many difficulties and sufferings, persecutions and imprisonment, and both becoming shining examples of devotion to the cause of Christ and of love towards their brethren who were thirsting for the Gospel truth.
2. The words of St Paul that we heard a few moments ago certainly apply to them: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). In opening his soul to the Christians of Corinth, the Apostle expresses his awareness of the need and urgency of the Gospel message. He considers it a great gift but also an inescapable duty: a real “obligation” (cf. ibid.), for which he is responsible together with the other Apostles. By making himself “all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (ibid., n. 22), he shows us how every evangelizer must learn to adapt himself to the language of his listeners, in order to be deeply attuned to them.
This is what the two saints whom we remember today did most admirably: their entire mission was aimed at “incarnating” the Word of God in the Slavic language and culture. It is to them that we owe the transcription of the sacred and liturgical texts into the Old Slavonic language with a new alphabet. In order to maintain strong ecclesial communion, they came to Rome and received the approval of Pope Hadrian II. It was in Rome that Cyril died on 14 February 869, while Methodius, having been consecrated a Bishop for the territory of the ancient Diocese of Pannonia and appointed Papal Legate for the Slavic nations, continued the missionary task which he had begun with his brother.
We give thanks to God for these two saints, Cyril and Methodius, who were wise messengers of the Gospel in Europe. Even today they continue to teach the evangelizers of our time the courage to preach and the necessary attitude for enculturating the faith.
5. “All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). As we heard in the first reading, the prophet Isaiah foretells the universality of salvation, offered to all peoples without distinction of race, language and culture. Every believer is called, according to his own capabilities and responsibilities, to participate in the great mission of evangelization. This task must also be pursued with perseverance and faithfulness in your parish, so that the Gospel may enter every home, family and the various contexts of daily life.
May the Spirit of the Lord enlighten you and support you in this important apostolic task. Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray together that the values of the Gospel, in particular those regarding life and the family based on marriage, will be defended and shared. Let us pray for young people, that they may find in the love of the Lord the strength to resist the temptations and dangers that threaten them. Let us pray that all men of goodwill will commit themselves to building a society that is more in harmony with the Gospel message. I entrust this community to the heavenly protection of Mary and the Holy Brothers of Thessalonica. I likewise entrust to them the path of the Slavic peoples and the future of all Europe. Saints Cyril and Methodius, apostles of the Slavic peoples and co-patrons of Europe, pray for us! Pope Saint John Paul II (Homily, 15 February 1998)
The feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius also gives me the opportunity to remind Christians and all people of goodwill on our continent of what we could call the European challenge, that is, the need to build a Europe which is deeply mindful of its own history, seriously committed to seeing that human rights are put into practice, united with the peoples of the other continents in promoting peace and development on a global scale. However these lofty objectives cannot be pursued without a deep and constant spiritual motivation, which the citizens and nations of Europe can draw from the rich cultural heritage they share, in fruitful dialogue with other great currents of thought, as they have always done during the best moments of their 2,000-year-old civilization.
Therefore, celebrating these eminent apostles of Europe means renewing our commitment to the new evangelization of the continent, so that, in the historical transition from the second to the third millennium, its Christian roots will receive new nourishment for the benefit of all European peoples, their culture and their peaceful coexistence.
Through the intercession of Mary most holy, as deeply beloved and venerated in the East as in the West, may today’s Christians harmoniously co-operate in the new evangelization and may all the nations of Europe come together in a common house, each making its own contribution and putting it at the service of all. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 15 February 1998)
1. Today, the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick is being celebrated. The place designated this year for the significant event is Sydney, Australia, where Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, went with his assistants. Every diocesan community, moreover, is turning its attention to the sick and to health-care workers. In St Peter's Basilica the traditional Eucharistic celebration will also take place this afternoon, with Cardinal Camillo Ruini presiding. At the end of Mass I myself will come down to meet the sick and pilgrims attending.
In my Message for this World Day, published on 22 August last year, I reflected on the theme: "The New Evangelization and the Dignity of the Suffering Person". Hospitals, centres for the sick or the elderly and every home where human suffering is present are privileged settings for proclaiming the Gospel message of hope. It is therefore important at the beginning of the third millennium to give new energy to the Church's age-old involvement in the world of health care, a genuine workshop for the civilization of love.
2. Looking at the current world situation, I cannot forget that many, too many, brothers and sisters still lack necessary health care. This is a grave injustice which urgently demands effort on everyone's part, starting especially with those who have greater political and economic responsibilities.
On this significant occasion, I would like to give credit to everyone, individuals, religious institutions and non-governmental organizations, who devote themselves with admirable care to the service of the sick and the suffering. I am thinking specifically of the host of men and women religious who work along with many lay people at hospitals and small health-care centres in the poorest countries amid problems and conflicts, risking their lives to save those of their brethren. I encourage them all to persevere in this praiseworthy task, which in many nations is leading to a vast and providential sensitizing of consciences.
3. Let us now turn our gaze to the Blessed Virgin. The cathedral of Sydney, where solemn Mass is being celebrated, with Cardinal Edward Bede Clancy, Archbishop of that city, presiding in my name, is dedicated to St Mary Auxilium Christianorum, "Help of Christians". For nine years, in various parts of the world, this appointment with suffering and hope has been renewed under the sign of Our Lady of Lourdes. Let us entrust to her the sick of the whole world and all who put their professional skill and sometimes their whole lives at their service. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 11 February 2001)
1. Yesterday, 14 February, we celebrated the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs and, together with Abbot St Benedict, Patrons of Europe. By evangelizing the central and eastern regions of the Continent, they made a crucial contribution to ensuring that Christian Europe could breathe with both its lungs: that of the West and that of the East. Indeed, just as it is impossible to think of European civilization without the Benedictine work and legacy, it is impossible to disregard the evangelizing and social action of the two holy Brothers from Thessalonica.
2. In these months, the process of the political integration of the Continent involves certain Eastern European Countries in which Saints Cyril and Methodius were active. These Nations bring their specific cultural and spiritual riches: Christianity has exercised an extraordinary cohesive force on them with respect for their specific characteristics.
One example in this regard was the evangelizing method of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Motivated by the ideal of uniting the new believers in Christ, they adapted liturgical texts to the Slavic language and the customs of the new peoples to Greco-Roman law (cf. Encyclical Slavorum Apostoli, nn. 12-13).
3. The encounter of the Gospel with the cultures ensured that Europe became a "workshop" where important and lasting values were forged down the centuries. Let us pray that in our day too, the universal Message of Christ entrusted to the Church may be the light of truth and the source of justice and peace for the peoples of the Continent and the whole World. We ask this through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints who are invoked as Patrons of Europe. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 15 February 2004)
Today, the Church recalls the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to St Bernadette, which took place on 11 February 1858 in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes. It was a miraculous event which made that town, located in the French Pyrenees, a world centre of pilgrimages and intense Marian spirituality. In that place, now almost 150 years ago, the Blessed Mother's call to prayer and penance resounds strongly, almost as a permanent echo of Jesus' invitation which inaugurated his preaching in Galilee: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1: 15). Moreover, that Shrine has become the goal of numerous sick pilgrims who are encouraged by listening to Mary Most Holy to accept their sufferings and offer them for the world's salvation, uniting them to those of Christ Crucified. Precisely because of the bond that exists between Lourdes and suffering humanity, 15 years ago our beloved John Paul II willed that, on the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick would also be celebrated.
This year the heart of this celebration is in the city of Seoul, South Korea, where I sent as my representative Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. I address a cordial greeting to him and to all those gathered there. I would like to extend a greeting to the health-care workers of the entire world, knowing well of their important service to the sick persons in our society. Above all, I would like to express my spiritual closeness and affection to our sick brothers and sisters, with a particular remembrance for those struck by graver illnesses and pain: to them, our attention is dedicated in a special way on this Day. It is necessary to maintain the development of palliative care that offers an integral assistance and furnishes the incurably ill with that human support and spiritual guide they greatly need.
This afternoon, in St Peter's Basilica, many sick will gather around Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who will preside at the Eucharistic celebration. At the end of Holy Mass, I will have the joy, as last year, to spend some time with them, reliving the spiritual climate that I experienced at the Grotto of Massabielle. I would now like to entrust to the maternal protection of the Immaculate Virgin, with the prayer of the Angelus, the sick and suffering in body and spirit of the entire world. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 11 February 2007)
The liturgical year is a great journey of faith made by the Church, always preceded by her Mother the Virgin Mary. This year, during the Sundays in Ordinary Time, the path is marked by readings from Luke's Gospel. Today it brings us to "a level place" (Luke 6: 17), where Jesus stops with the Twelve and where a crowd of other disciples and people who had come from everywhere gather to listen to him. This is the setting for the proclamation of the "Beatitudes" (Luke 6: 20-26; cf. Matthew 5: 1-12). Jesus, lifting up his eyes to his disciples, says: "Blessed are you poor.... Blessed are you that hunger.... Blessed are you that weep.... Blessed are you when men hate you... when they cast out your name" on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because God's justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists, which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted themselves (cf. Luke 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times "blessed are you", adds four admonitions: "Woe to you that are rich.... Woe to you that are full now.... Woe to you that laugh now" and: "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you", because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed; the last will be first, and the first will be last (cf. Luke 13: 30).
This justice and this Beatitude are realized in the "Kingdom of Heaven", or the "Kingdom of God", which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history. Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God's justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord's disciples are called to carry out also in today's society. I am thinking of the Hostel run by the Roman Caritas at Termini Station, which I visited this morning. I warmly encourage all who work in that praiseworthy institution and those who, in every part of the world, volunteer themselves generously to similar works of justice and of love.
This year I dedicated my Message for Lent which will begin this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday to the theme of justice. Today I would therefore like to deliver it, in spirit, to all of you, inviting you to read and meditate on it. Christ's Gospel responds positively to Man's thirst for justice, but in an unexpected and surprising way. He does not propose a social or political revolution but rather one of love, which he has already brought about with his Cross and his Resurrection. It is on these that are founded the Beatitudes which present a new horizon of justice, unveiled at Easter, thanks to which we can become just and build a better world.
Dear friends, let us turn now to the Virgin Mary. All the generations call her "blessed", because she believed the good news that the Lord proclaimed (cf. Luke 1: 45-48). Let us be guided by her on our Lenten journey, to be freed from the illusion of self-sufficiency, to recognize that we need God and his mercy, and thus to enter into his Kingdom of justice, of love and of peace. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 14 February 2010)
2016 had entered the Lenten Season.
Extracts: Jesus proclaims the poor, the hungry, the suffering and the persecuted blessed, and he admonishes those who are rich, satisfied, who laugh and are praised by the people. The reason behind this paradoxical beatitude lies in the fact that God is close to those who suffer, and intercedes to free them from their bondage. Jesus sees this; he already sees the beatitude beyond its negative reality. And likewise, the “woe to you” addressed to those who are doing well today, has the purpose of “waking” them from the dangerous deceit of egotism, and opening them up to the logic of love, while they still have the time to do so.
The page from today’s Gospel thus invites us to reflect on the profound sense of having faith, which consists in our trusting completely in the Lord. It is about demolishing worldly idols in order to open our hearts to the true and living God. He alone can give our life that fullness so deeply desired and yet difficult to attain. Brothers and sisters, indeed there are many in our day too who purport to be dispensers of happiness: they come and promise us swift success, great profits within our reach, magical solutions to every problem and so on. And here it is easy to slip unwittingly into sinning against the first Commandment: namely idolatry, substituting God with an idol. Idolatry and idols seem to be things from another age, but in reality they are of all ages! Even today. They describe certain contemporary attitudes better than many sociological studies do. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 17 February 2019)
Daily Blessings to You from Emmanuel Goh & Friends
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 10 February 2019 Last updated: 12 February 2022, 15:21 SGT
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