JULY 23, 206 : SATURDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 400

Reading 1JER 7:1-11

The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD,
and there proclaim this message:
Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah
who enter these gates to worship the LORD!
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
Reform your ways and your deeds,
so that I may remain with you in this place.
Put not your trust in the deceitful words:
“This is the temple of the LORD!
The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!”
Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds;
if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;
if you no longer oppress the resident alien,
the orphan, and the widow;
if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place,
or follow strange gods to your own harm,
will I remain with you in this place,
in the land I gave your fathers long ago and forever.

But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss!
Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,
burn incense to Baal,
go after strange gods that you know not,
and yet come to stand before me
in this house which bears my name, and say:
“We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again”?
Has this house which bears my name
become in your eyes a den of thieves?
I too see what is being done, says the LORD.

Responsorial PsalmPS 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A, 11

R. (2) How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines 
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

AlleluiaJAS 1:21BC

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you 
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMT 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

www.usccb.org

Meditation: Guarding the good seed of God's word in our heart

What can malicious weed-sowing tell us about the kingdom of God? The image Jesus uses here is a common everyday example of planting, harvesting, and sorting the good fruit from the bad. Weeds can spoil and even kill a good harvest if they are not separated and destroyed at the proper time. Uprooting them too early, though, can destroy the good plants in the process.

Guard God's implanted word in your heart
Just as nature teaches us patience, so God's patience also teaches us to guard the word which he has planted in our hearts and to beware of the destructive force of sin and deception which can destroy it. God's word brings life, but Satan, the father of lies, seeks to destroy the good seed which God plants in the hearts of those who listen to his word.

God's judgment is not hasty, but it does come. And in the end, God will reward each person according to what he or she has sown and reaped in this life. In that day God will separate the evil from the good. Do you allow God's word to take deep root in your heart?

"Lord Jesus, may your word take deep root in my heart and may I bear good fruit for your glory. May I hunger for your righteousness now that I may also look forward to the day of judgment with joy rather than with dismay."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The Lord sows good seeds in our heart, by Chromatius (died 406 AD)

"The Lord clearly points out that he is the sower of good seeds. He does not cease to sow in this world as in a field. God’s word is like good seed in the hearts of people, so that each of us according to the seeds sown in us by God may bear spiritual and heavenly fruit." (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 51.1)

[Note: Chromatius was an early Christian scholar and bishop of Aquileia, Italy. He was a close friend of John Chrysostom and Jerome. He died in 406 AD. Jerome
described him as a "most learned and most holy man."]

www.dailyscripture.net

SATURDAY, JULY 23, MATTHEW 13:24-30
Weekday
(Jeremiah 7:1-11; Psalm 84)

KEY VERSE: "Let them grow together until harvest" (v 30).
TO KNOW: The parable of the weeds among the wheat is a story of good and evil, which will exist together until the end of the world. The image in this parable would be familiar to the farmers in Jesus' audience. An underhanded man deliberately sowing bad seed in someone else's field was sometimes done. The weed in the story was darnel, a poisonous plant that looked very much like wheat when it was young. So it is with evil; it is difficult to detect in its early stages until it grows strong and destroys what is good. But to pull up the weeds before the wheat matured would endanger its immature roots. When the wheat ripened it grew taller and stronger than the weeds. Then the experienced eye could distinguish the two and easily separate them. Jesus said that it was not the work of God's servants to make this judgment. Both the weeds and the wheat should be allowed to flourish until the harvest when the testing of time would separate error from truth.
TO LOVE: Do I tend to be judgmental toward others?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to refrain from judging the actions of others until I know the truth.
​ Optional Memorial of Saint Bridget of Sweden, religious

Bridget began receiving visions, mostly of Jesus’ crucifixion, at age seven. In 1316, at age thirteen, she wed Prince Ulfo of Nercia in an arranged marriage. She was the mother of eight children including St. Catherine of Sweden. After her husband’s death in 1344 Bridget pursued a religious life, for which she was harassed by others at the court. She eventually renounced her title of princess, and founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior (Bridgettines) at Vadstena in 1346. The order received confirmation by Pope Urban V in 1370, and survives today. She chastened and counseled kings and Popes Clement VI, Urban VI, and Gregory XI, urging them to return to Rome from Avignon. She encouraged all to meditate on Jesus Crucified. Bridget recorded the revelations given in her visions, and these became hugely popular in the Middle Ages. 

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Saturday 23 July 2016

Sat 23rd. St Bridget of Sweden 
Jeremiah 7:1-11. How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, mighty God!—Ps 83(84):3-6, 8, 11. Matthew 13:24-30.

Readings

Why not pull out the weeds? It's what we do in our own gardens. But the wisdom of Jesus is not our wisdom, he knows full well there is light and shadow in our souls and our hearts are a divided kingdom. To help build God's kingdom we are called to encourage the good in our lives, to nourish virtue in the hope it will outgrow evil and in time overshadow it. Jesus is patient, so let us, too, be patient and trust him to help us. If we turn to him and heed all he shows us in prayer, then maybe the harvest will be good and the weeds of little account. Lord, help me to extinguish my own weeds and accept the weeds in others with whom I travel, so we may grow together into all you have called us to be.

www.pray.com.au

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Character Formation

Teaching by example forms a durable base from which to form character. It is the base, but alone it won’t raise the kind of person you want. Being a moral adult is fundamental to teaching children morals. But it is not sufficient, in and of itself.

— from Advice Worth Ignoring 

July 23
St. Bridget
(1303?-1373)

From age seven on, Bridget had visions of Christ crucified. Her visions formed the basis for her activity—always with the emphasis on charity rather than spiritual favors.

She lived her married life in the court of the Swedish king Magnus II. Mother of eight children (the second eldest was St. Catherine of Sweden), she lived the strict life of a penitent after her husband’s death.

Bridget constantly strove to exert her good influence over Magnus; while never fully reforming, he did give her land and buildings to found a monastery for men and women. This group eventually expanded into an Order known as the Bridgetines (still in existence).

In 1350, a year of jubilee, Bridget braved a plague-stricken Europe to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Although she never returned to Sweden, her years in Rome were far from happy, being hounded by debts and by opposition to her work against Church abuses.

A final pilgrimage to the Holy Land, marred by shipwreck and the death of her son, Charles, eventually led to her death in 1373. In 1999, she, Saints Catherine of Siena (April 29) and Teresa Benedicts of the Cross (Edith Stein, August 9) were named co-patronesses of Europe.

Comment:

Bridget’s visions, rather than isolating her from the affairs of the world, involved her in many contemporary issues, whether they be royal policy or the years that the legitimate Bishop of Rome lived in Avignon, France. She saw no contradiction between mystical experience and secular activity, and her life is a testimony to the possibility of a holy life in the marketplace.

Quote:

Despite the hardships of life and wayward children (not all became saints), Margery Kempe of Lynn says Bridget was “kind and meek to every creature” and “she had a laughing face.”

Patron Saint of:

Europe

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO: MATTHEW 13,24-30

Lectio Divina: 

 Saturday, July 23, 2016

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Lord,
be merciful to your people.
Fill us with your gifts
and make us always eager to serve you
in faith, hope and love.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 13,24-30

Jesus put another parable before them, 'The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off.
When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well. The owner's labourers went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?"
He said to them, "Some enemy has done this." And the labourers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?" But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn." '

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel speaks to us about the parable of the seed. Whether in society or in the community or in our family and personal life, there is a mixture of good qualities and of incoherencies, limitations and errors. Persons of diverse origins, each one with her own story, with her own lived experience, her own opinion, her own yearnings, her own differences, meet in community There are some persons who do not know how to live with differences. They want to be the judges of others. They think that they are the only ones who are right, and that others are in error. The parable of the seed and the darnel helps us not to fall into the temptation of excluding from the community those who do not think like us.
•The background of the parable of the seed and the darnel. During centuries, because of the observance of the laws of purity, the Jews lived separated from other nations. This isolation had marked them. Even after being converted, some continued to follow this observance which separated them from others. They wanted total purity! Any sign of impurity had to be eradicated in the name of God. “Sin cannot be tolerated” some would say. But others, as for example Paul, taught that the new law which Jesus asked them to observe said the contrary! “Sin cannot be tolerated, but it is necessary to be tolerant with the sinner!”
• Matthews 13,24-26: The situation: the darnel and the wheat grain grow together. The Word of God causes communities to be formed and this is good seed, but within the communities there are always things which are contrary to the Word of God. From where do these come? This was the discussion, or mystery which led to keep the parable of the darnel and the wheat.
• Matthew 13, 27-28a: The origin of the mixture which exists in life.The labourers asked the owner, the sower: “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” The owner responded: Some enemy has done this. Who is this enemy? The enemy, the adversary, Satan or the Devil (Mt 13,39), is the one who divides, who takes away from the right path. The tendency to division exists in the community and in each one of us. The desire to dominate, to take advantage of the community in order to be more important and so many other interested desires divide, they are the enemy which sleeps in each one of us.
• Matthew 13,28b-30: The diverse reaction before ambiguity. In the face of this mixture of good and of evil, the labourers want to eliminate the darnel. They thought: "If we leave everything in the community, we lose our reason for being! We lose our identity!” They wanted to send away those whom they thought were diverse. But this is not the decision of the owner of the land. He says: “Let both the darnel and the wheat grow together till the harvest!” What is decisive is not what each one says, but that which each one lives and does. God will judge us according to the fruit which we will produce (Mt 12,33). The force and the dynamism of the Kingdom will manifest themselves in the community. Even if it is small and full of contradictions, it is a sign of the Kingdom. But it is not the master or the owner of the Kingdom, neither can it consider itself totally just. The parable of the seed and of the darnel explains the way in which the force of the Kingdom acts in history. It is necessary to make a clear option for the justice of the Kingdom, and at the same time, together fight for justice, have patience and learn to live and to dialogue with differences and with contradictions. When harvest comes then there will be the division, the separation.
• The teaching in Parables. The parable is a pedagogical instrument which uses the daily life to indicate that life speaks to us of God. It becomes a reality and renders the look of people contemplative. A parable tends towards the things of life, and because of this it is an open teaching, because we all have some experience of things of life. The teaching in parables makes the person start from the experience that she has: seed, light, sheep, flowers, birds, father, net, little children, fish, etc. In this way daily life becomes transparent, revealing the presence and the action of God. Jesus did not usually explain the parables. He left the sense open, he did not determine it. This was a sign that he believed in the capacity of the people to discover the sense of the parable beginning from the experience of life. Some times, at the request from the disciples, he would explain the sense (Mt 13,10.36). For example, this is what he did with the parable of the seed and the darnel (Mt 13,36-43).

4) Personal questions

• How is the mixture between the seed and the darnel manifested in our community? Which are the consequences of this for our life?
• Looking into the mirror of the parable, with whom do I feel more in agreement: with the labourers who want to cut away the darnel, or with the owner of the field who orders to wait until the time of the harvest?

5) Concluding Prayer

My whole being yearns and pines
for Yahweh's courts,
My heart and my body cry out
for joy to the living God. (Ps 84,2)

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