|
263 |
|
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 3 July 2022 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 EWTN, USCCB, Universalis. See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-266 - 267. 8-) First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14, Responsorial: Psalms 66:1-7, 16, 20, 2nd Reading: Galatians 6:14-18 & Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20, Gospel Video, CCTNtv.
Others:
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.
COVID-19 Protection in Singapore. New!
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.
Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli
1. Today my thoughts are with those taking part in the national meeting of Catholic associations which is taking place in Genoa, to prepare for the impending meeting of government leaders. In this way they wanted to fulfil the task I entrusted to young people at Tor Vergata: "You will not be resigned", I said, "to a world where other human beings die of hunger, remain illiterate and have no work. You will defend life at every moment of its development; you will strive with all your strength to make this earth ever more liveable for all people".
2. For this reason, the richest and technologically most advanced peoples, aware that God the Creator and Father wants to make humanity one family, must hear the cry of so many poor people of the world - they are simply asking for what is their sacrosanct right.
I would like to assure the leaders of government throughout the world and, in particular, those who will be meeting in Genoa, that the Church, along with people of good will, will do her utmost to ensure that the real winner in the process is going to be mankind. In fact, the common destination of earthly goods is a cornerstone of the Church's social teaching.
First of all, I ask Christians to pray particularly for government leaders. I urge leaders to work together to build a world attuned to the demands of justice and solidarity. Christians need a strong moral and spiritual education, an in-depth knowledge of the Church's social doctrine and great love for Jesus Christ, redeemer of every human being and of the whole human person to be effective. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 8 July 2001)
The Gospel today (cf. Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20) presents Jesus sending out 72 disciples to the villages he is about to visit in order to prepare the way. This is a particular feature of the Evangelist Luke, who stressed that the mission was not exclusive to the Twelve Apostles but extended also to the other disciples. Indeed, Jesus said: "The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few" (Luke 10: 2). There is work for all in God's field. Christ, however, did not limit himself to sending out his missionaries: he also gave them clear and precise instructions on how to behave. He first sent them out "two by two" so that they might help each other and bear witness to brotherly love. He warned them that they would be like "lambs in the midst of wolves". They were to be peaceful in spite of everything, and were to bear a message of peace in every situation; they were not to take clothes or money with them in order to live on whatever Providence offered them; they were to heal the sick as a sign of God's mercy; wherever people rejected them, they were to depart, doing no more than to alert them to their responsibility for rejecting the Kingdom of God. St Luke highlighted the disciples' enthusiasm at the good results of their mission and recorded Jesus' beautiful expression: "Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10: 20). May this Gospel reawaken in all the baptized the awareness that they are missionaries of Christ, called to prepare the way for him with words and with the witness of their lives. May the Virgin Mary protect us always, both in our mission and in well-deserved rest, so that we may joyfully and fruitfully carry out our work in the Lord's vineyard. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 8 July 2007)
See our compilation with pictures in Encouragements-267. 8-)
See our compilation with pictures in Encouragements-268. 8-)
Today the word of God speaks to us of mission. Where does mission originate? The answer is simple: it originates from a call, the Lord’s call, and when he calls people, he does so with a view to sending them out. How is the one sent out meant to live? What are the reference points of Christian mission? The readings we have heard suggest three: the joy of consolation, the Cross and prayer.
1. The first element: the joy of consolation. The prophet Isaiah is addressing a people that has been through a dark period of exile, a very difficult trial. But now the time of consolation has come for Jerusalem; sadness and fear must give way to joy: “Rejoice ... be glad ... rejoice with her in joy,” says the prophet (66:10). It is a great invitation to joy. Why? What is the reason for this invitation to joy? Because the Lord is going to pour out over the Holy City and its inhabitants a “cascade” of consolation, a veritable overflow of consolation – such that it will be overcome – a cascade of maternal tenderness: “You shall be carried upon her hip and dandled upon her knees” (vv. 12). As when a mother takes her child upon her knee and caresses him or her: so the Lord will do and does with us. This is the cascade of tenderness which gives us much consolation. “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” (v. 13). Every Christian, and especially you and I, is called to be a bearer of this message of hope that gives serenity and joy: God’s consolation, his tenderness towards all. But if we first experience the joy of being consoled by him, of being loved by him, then we can bring that joy to others. This is important if our mission is to be fruitful: to feel God’s consolation and to pass it on to others! I have occasionally met consecrated persons who are afraid of the consolations of God, and … the poor things, they were tormented, because they are of this divine tenderness. But be not afraid. Do not be afraid, because the Lord is the Lord of consolation, he is the Lord of tenderness. The Lord is a Father and he says that he will be for us like a mother with her baby, with a mother’s tenderness. Do not be afraid of the consolations of the Lord. Isaiah’s invitation must resound in our hearts: “Comfort, comfort my people” (40:1) and this must lead to mission. We must find the Lord who consoles us and go to console the people of God. This is the mission. People today certainly need words, but most of all they need us to bear witness to the mercy and tenderness of the Lord, which warms the heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people towards the good. What a joy it is to bring God’s consolation to others!
2. The second reference point of mission is the Cross of Christ. Saint Paul, writing to the Galatians, says: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14). And he speaks of the “marks of Jesus”, that is, the wounds of the crucified Lord, as a countersign, as the distinctive mark of his life as an Apostle of the Gospel. In his ministry Paul experienced suffering, weakness and defeat, but also joy and consolation. This is the Paschal mystery of Jesus: the mystery of death and resurrection. And it was precisely by letting himself be conformed to the death of Jesus that Saint Paul became a sharer in his resurrection, in his victory. In the hour of darkness, in the hour of trial, the dawn of light and salvation is already present and operative. The Paschal mystery is the beating heart of the Church’s mission! And if we remain within this mystery, we are sheltered both from a worldly and triumphalistic view of mission and from the discouragement that can result from trials and failures. Pastoral fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Gospel proclamation is measured neither by success nor by failure according to the criteria of human evaluation, but by becoming conformed to the logic of the Cross of Jesus, which is the logic of stepping outside oneself and spending oneself, the logic of love. It is the Cross – always the Cross that is present with Christ, because at times we are offered the Cross without Christ: this has not purpose! – it is the Cross, and always the Cross with Christ, which guarantees the fruitfulness of our mission. And it is from the Cross, the supreme act of mercy and love, that we are reborn as a “new creation” (Galatians 6:15).
3. Finally the third element: prayer. In the Gospel we heard: “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, to send out labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). The labourers for the harvest are not chosen through advertising campaigns or appeals of service and generosity, but they are “chosen” and “sent” by God. It is he who chooses, it is he who sends, it is Lord who sends, it is he who gives the mission. For this, prayer is important. The Church, as Benedict XVI has often reiterated, is not ours, but God’s; and how many times do we, consecrated men and women, think that the Church is ours! We make of it… something that we invent in our minds. But it is not ours!, it is God’s. The field to be cultivated is his. The mission is grace. And if the Apostle is born of prayer, he finds in prayer the light and strength of his action. Our mission ceases to bear fruit, indeed, it is extinguished the moment the link with its source, with the Lord, is interrupted.
Dear seminarians, dear novices, dear young people discerning your vocations. One of you, one of your formators, said to me the other days, “evangeliser, on le fait à genoux” “evangelization is done on one’s knees”. Listen well: “evangelization is done on one’s knees”. Without a constant relationship with God, the mission becomes a job. But for what do you work? As a tailor, a cook a priest, is your job being a priest, being a sister? No. It is not a job, but rather something else. The risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an ever-present danger. If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy duties. And the more the mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your heart be the more closely united to Christ’s heart, full of mercy and love. Herein lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord!
Jesus sends his followers out with no “purse, no bag, no sandals” (Luke 10:4). The spread of the Gospel is not guaranteed either by the number of persons, or by the prestige of the institution, or by the quantity of available resources. What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, which is the Lord’s Cross.
Dear friends, with great confidence I entrust you to the intercession of Mary Most Holy. She is the Mother who helps us to take life decisions freely and without fear. May she help you to bear witness to the joy of God’s consolation, without being afraid of joy, she will help you to conform yourselves to the logic of love of the Cross, to grow in ever deeper union with the Lord in prayer. Then your lives will be rich and fruitful! Amen. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 7 July 2013)
Today’s Gospel passage, taken from the tenth Chapter of the Gospel of Luke (vv. 1-12, 17-20), makes us consider how necessary it is to invoke God, “the Lord of harvest to send out labourers” (v. 2). The “labourers” whom Jesus speaks of are the missionaries of the Kingdom of God, whom he himself calls and sends on “ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come” (v. 1). Their task is to proclaim a message of salvation addressed to everyone. Missionaries always proclaim a message of salvation to everyone; not only those missionaries who go afar, but we too, [are] Christian missionaries who express a good word of salvation. This is the gift that Jesus gives us with the Holy Spirit. This message is to say: “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (v. 9), because God has “come near” to us through Jesus; God became one of us; in Jesus, God reigns in our midst, his merciful love overcomes sin and human misery.
This is the Good News that the “labourers” must bring to everyone: a message of hope and comfort, of peace and charity. When Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him into the villages, he tells them: “first, say ‘Peace be to this house!’ [...]; heal the sick in it” (vv. 5, 9). All of this signifies that the Kingdom of God is built day by day and already offers on this earth its fruits of conversion, of purification, of love and of comfort among men. It is a beautiful thing! Building day by day this Kingdom of God that is to be made. Do not destroy, build!
With what spirit must disciples of Jesus carry out this mission? First of all they must be aware of the difficult and sometimes hostile reality that awaits them. Jesus minces no words about this! Jesus says: “I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves” (v. 3). This is very clear. Hostility is always at the beginning of persecutions of Christians; because Jesus knows that the mission is blocked by the work of evil. For this reason, the labourer of the Gospel will strive to be free from every kind of human conditioning, carrying neither purse nor bag nor sandals (cf. v. 4), as Jesus counselled, so as to place reliance solely in the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ. This means abandoning every motive of personal advantage, careerism or hunger for power, and humbly making ourselves instruments of the salvation carried out by Jesus’ sacrifice.
A Christian’s mission in the world is splendid, it is a mission intended for everyone, it is a mission of service, excluding no one; it requires a great deal of generosity and above all setting one’s gaze and heart facing on High, to invoke the Lord’s help. There is a great need for Christians who joyfully witness to the Gospel in everyday life. The disciples, sent out by Jesus, “returned with joy” (v. 17). When we do this, our heart fills with joy. This expression makes me think of how much the Church rejoices, she revels when her children receive the Good News thanks to the dedication of so many men and women who daily proclaim the Gospel: priests — those brave parish priests whom we all know —, nuns, consecrated women, missionary men and women.... I ask myself — listen to the question —: how many of you young people who are now present today in the Square, hear the Lord’s call to follow him? Fear not! Be courageous and bring to others this guiding light of apostolic zeal that these exemplary disciples have given to us.
Let us pray to the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, that the Church may never lack generous hearts that work to bring everyone the love and kindness of our heavenly Father. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 3 July 2016)
Extracts: In sending out the 72 disciples, Jesus gives them precise instructions which express the characteristics of the mission. The first, as we have already seen, is: pray; the second: go; and then: carry no purse, no bag...; say, ‘Peace be to this house’ ... remain in the same house... do not go from house to house... heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’”. And if they do not receive you, go out into the streets and take your leave (cf. vv. 2-10). These imperatives show that the mission is based on prayer; that it is itinerant: it is not idle; it is itinerant; that it requires separation and poverty; that it brings peace and healing, signs of the closeness of the Kingdom of God; that it is not proselytism but proclamation and witness; and that it also requires frankness and the evangelical freedom to leave while highlighting the responsibility of having rejected the message of salvation, but without condemnation and cursing. If lived in these terms, the mission of the Church will be characterized by joy. And how does this passage end? The 72 “returned with joy” (cf. v. 17). It is not an ephemeral joy, which flows from the success of the mission; on the contrary, it is a joy rooted in the promise that — as Jesus says: “your names are written in heaven” (v. 20). With this expression he means inner joy, and the indestructible joy that is born out of the awareness of being called by God to follow his Son. That is, the joy of being his disciples. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 7 July 2019)
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 3 July 2022 Holy Mass for the Congolese Community Mass video (Homily starts at 28:10/1:33:58). Mass video (American Sign Language), Homily Text. Extracts: Esengo, joy: the Word of God we have listened to fills us with joy. Why, brothers and sisters? Because, as Jesus says in the Gospel, “the Kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:11). It is near: it has not yet been reached, it is partly hidden, but close to us. And this closeness of God in Jesus, this closeness of God that is Jesus, is the source of our joy: we are beloved and we are never left alone. But the joy that is born of God’s closeness, while it gives peace, it does not leave us in peace. It gives peace and does not leave us alone, a special joy. It brings about a transformation in us: it fills us with awe, it surprises, it changes our life. And the encounter with the Lord is a continual beginning, continually taking a step forward. The Lord always changes our life. It is what happens to the disciples in the Gospel: to announce God’s closeness they go far away, they go on mission.
The first surprise: equipment. To undertake a mission in unknown places, one must take along several things, certainly the essential ones. Jesus, on the other hand, does not say what to take, but what not to take: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals” (v. 4). Practically nothing: no baggage, no security, no help. We often think that our church initiatives do not function properly because we lack structures, we lack money, we lack means: this is not true. Jesus himself refutes this. Brothers, sisters, let us not place our trust in riches and let us not fear our poverty, material and human. The more we are free and simple, small and humble, the more the Holy Spirit guides the mission and makes us protagonists of his wonders. Leave room for the Holy Spirit! For Christ, the fundamental “equipment” is another: the brother. This is curious. “He sent them … two by two” (v. 1), says the Gospel. Not alone, not by themselves, always with a brother beside them. Never without the brother, because there is no mission without communion. There is no proclamation that works without taking care of others. So, we might ask ourselves: Do I, a Christian, think more about what I lack in order to live well, or do I think about being closer to my brothers and sisters, of taking care of them?
We come to the second surprise of mission: the message. It is logical to think that, to prepare themselves for the proclamation, disciples must learn what to say, they must study content in depth, prepare convincing and well-articulated discourses. This is true. I do this too. Instead, Jesus leaves them just two short phrases. The first even seems superfluous, since it is a greeting: “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’” (v. 5). In this way the Lord prescribes how to present oneself, in any place, as ambassadors of peace. A Christian always brings peace. A Christian works to bring peace into that place. This is the distinctive sign: the Christian is a bearer of peace, because Christ is peace. From this, we can recognize whether we are his. If instead we spread gossip and suspicions, create divisions, hinder communion, place our own belonging before all else, we do not act in the name of Jesus. Those who foment rancour, incite hatred and override others, do not bring peace. Today, dear brothers and sisters, let us pray for peace and reconciliation in your homeland, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so wounded and exploited. We join in the Masses celebrated in the country following this intention, and pray that Christians be witnesses of peace, capable of overcoming every feeling of rancour, every feeling of revenge, overcome the temptation that reconciliation is not possible, every unhealthy attachment to one’s own group that leads to contempt for others. Brother, sister, peace begins with us; it starts from me and from you, from each one of us, from the heart of every one of us. If you live his peace, Jesus comes and your family, your society change. They change if first of all your heart is not at war, it is not armed with resentment and anger, it is not divided, it is not two-faced, it is not false. Placing peace and order in your own heart, defusing greed, extinguishing hatred and rancour, fleeing from corruption, fleeing from cheating and cunning: this is where peace begins. We would always like to meet gentle, good, peaceful people, starting from our relatives and neighbours. But Jesus says: “You bring peace to your home, you begin by honouring your wife and loving her with your heart, by respecting and caring for your children, your elders and neighbours. Brother and sister, please live in peace, enkindle peace, and peace will dwell in your home, in your Church, in your country”. After the greeting of peace, the rest of the message entrusted to the disciples is reduced to the few words with which we began, and which Jesus repeats twice: “The Kingdom of God has come near to you […] The Kingdom of God has come near” (vv. 9-11). Announcing God’s closeness, which is his style; the style of God is clear: closeness, compassion and tenderness. This is the style of God. Announcing God’s closeness, here is what is essential. Hope and conversion come from here: from believing that God is close and keeps watch over us: he is the Father of all of us, who wants us all to be brothers and sisters. If we live under this gaze, the world will no longer be a battlefield, but a garden of peace; history will not be a race to finish first, but a shared pilgrimage. All of this — let us keep in mind — does not require grand speeches, but a few words and much witness. And so we can ask ourselves: do those who meet me see me as a witness of God’s peace and closeness, or an agitated, angry, impatient, belligerent person? Do I show Jesus, or do I obscure him with these belligerent attitudes?
After the equipment and the message, the third surprise of the mission relates to our style. Jesus asks his followers to go into the world “as lambs in the midst of wolves” (v. 3). The common sense of the world says the opposite: assert yourself, excel! Christ, on the other hand, wants us to be lambs, not wolves. That does not mean being naïve — no, please! — but to abhor every instinct of supremacy and imposition, of greed and possession. Those who live as lambs do not attack, they are not voracious; they stay in the flock, with the others, and find security in the Shepherd, not in force or arrogance, not in the greed for money and goods that causes such evil also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disciple of Jesus rejects violence, hurts no-one: he is peaceful, he loves everyone. And if that seems to be failing, he looks to his Shepherd, Jesus, the Lamb of God who overcame the world in this way, on the cross. In this way he overcame the world. And do I — let us ask ourselves again — live like a lamb, like Jesus, or as a wolf, as the spirit of the world teaches, that spirit that fuels war? That spirit that wages war, that destroys. Pope Francis I (Homily, 3 June 2022)
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 3 June 2022 Angelus video (American Sign Language), Text. Extracts: It was the task of the disciples to go ahead into the villages to prepare the people to receive Jesus; and the instructions he gives them are not so much about what they should say, but how they should be: that is, not on the “phrasebook” of what they should say, no; on the witness of life, the witness to give rather than the words to say. Indeed, he defines them as workers: they are therefore required to work, to evangelize through their behaviour. And the first practical action with which the disciples carry out their mission is precisely that of going two by two. The disciples are not “free riders”, preachers who do not know how to yield the word to another. It is primarily the very life of the disciples that announces the Gospel: their knowing how to be together, their mutual respect, their not wanting to prove that they are more capable than the other, their concordant reference to the one Master.
So, we might wonder: how do we take the good news of the Gospel to others? Do we do so with a fraternal spirit and style, or in the manner of the world, with self-promotion, competitiveness and efficiency. Let us ask ourselves whether we have the capacity to collaborate, whether we know how to take decisions together, sincerely respecting those who are alongside us and taking into account their point of view, whether we do so in community, not by ourselves. Indeed, it is above all in this way that the life of the disciple allows that of the Master to shine through, truly announcing it to others.
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 30 June 2019 Last updated: 17 July 2022, 21:41 SGT
|