Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
Lectionary: 400
Lectionary: 400
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.
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 Psalm PS 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!
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!
Gospel MT 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.”’”
“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.”’”
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.
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."
 Rolling Up the Sleeves and Gathering the Sheaves |
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July 26, 2014, Memorial of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne,
parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Matthew 13: 24-30
Jesus proposed another parable to them. "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."´
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in your Church. I believe that it is the
sacrament of salvation, and that you have chosen to lead me to heaven. Lord,
I hope in you. I hope in you because you have gone to prepare a place for me
in heaven. Lord, I love you because you loved me first. I love you for giving
yourself up for me on the cross.
Petition: Forgive me, Lord, for offending you, and help me to make
reparation.
1. Verdant Farm or Barren Wasteland? Lord, you have
given me the gift of Baptism and of being your child. “Baptism is God´s most
beautiful and magnificent gift” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1216).
This gift you have given me is something that I do not deserve. I was born with
original sin, and yet, out of your infinite goodness and mercy, you have
chosen to nourish my barren field and offer me the Kingdom of heaven. Through
the life-giving waters of the sacrament of Baptism, you have taken my field
that used to be wasteland and desert and have made it flourish. You have sown
wheat in my field so that it may yield abundant fruit.
2. A Tainted Field? Lord, even though you have grafted me into your family
through Baptism, there are times when I forget the goal of my life, which is
heaven. I am weak, and because of my weakness, at times I taint my field with
weeds. “Certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as
suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses
of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition
calls concupiscence, or metaphorically, ‘the tinder for sin’ (fomes peccati);
since concupiscence ‘is left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who
do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ.’ Indeed,
‘an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules’” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1264).
3. God Never Gives Up On Me: Lord, even though I have let weeds
grow in my field where there was once only wheat, you have given me time to
let the good grain grow. You know that all is not lost. There is still hope,
and there is still time. Even though I have offended you because of my sins,
and even though I have not conquered myself and my tendency to sin, I still
experience your love and your mercy. You have not given up on me, although it
seems to me that I have often given up on myself. You have given me the gift
of time for me to weed my field and to increase the good wheat that is within
it, so that the harvest I bear may be fruitful and rich.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for the gift of your
mercy. Thank you for being patient with me, for loving me for who I am, and
for encouraging me to continue to grow as I should.
Resolution: I shall take some time to prepare to make a good
confession.
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SATURDAY, JULY 26, MATTHEW 13:24-30
(Jeremiah 7:1-11; Psalm 84)
(Jeremiah 7:1-11; Psalm 84)
KEY VERSE: "Let them grow together until harvest" (v 30).
READING: 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.
REFLECTING: Am I judgmental toward others?
PRAYING: Lord Jesus, help me to refrain from judging the actions of others until I know the truth.
Memorial of Joachim and Anne, parents of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Joachim was the husband of Anne, father of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and grandfather of Jesus Christ. He was probably well off. Tradition says that while he was away from home, he and Anne each received a message from an angel that she was pregnant. It is believed that Joachim and Anne gave Mary to the service of the Temple when the girl was three years old. Joachim is mentioned in neither historical nor canonical writings. The information we have on Joachim derives mainly from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James.
MINUTE MEDITATIONS
Notes to Self
Don’t pretend to be a saint—intend to be one. Bend your knees but
never your morals.
How lovely is your dwelling-place,
Lord, mighty God!
Jesus tells the parable of the weeds in today’s gospel.As with all parables, the aim is to stretch us, to encourage us to think and reflect, and to reveal more about our God. Today we are reminded that good and evil will always be found together in persons and institutions. The invitation is for us to recognise both the good and evil that we are capable of. The message always has a radical edge, a challenge not only of awareness, but also of changing our behaviour, our actions. Rather than operating in a dualistic space of good and bad, right and wrong, we are stretched to recognise both the good and bad that is part of us. The labelling of others as ‘evil’ throughout history has often led to intolerance, tension, hatred and violence. Consistently Jesus models that we need to change the ‘other’ into ‘another’ in our hearts and minds.
July
26
Sts. Joachim and Anne
Sts. Joachim and Anne
In the Scriptures, Matthew and Luke furnish a legal family history
of Jesus, tracing ancestry to show that Jesus is the culmination of great
promises. Not only is his mother’s family neglected, we also know nothing
factual about them except that they existed. Even the names Joachim and Anne come
from a legendary source written more than a century after Jesus died.
The
heroism and holiness of these people, however, is inferred from the whole
family atmosphere around Mary in the Scriptures. Whether we rely on the legends
about Mary’s childhood or make guesses from the information in the Bible, we
see in her a fulfillment of many generations of prayerful persons, herself
steeped in the religious traditions of her people.
The
strong character of Mary in making decisions, her continuous practice of
prayer, her devotion to the laws of her faith, her steadiness at moments of
crisis, and her devotion to her relatives—all indicate a close-knit, loving
family that looked forward to the next generation even while retaining the best
of the past.
Joachim
and Anne—whether these are their real names or not—represent that entire quiet
series of generations who faithfully perform their duties, practice their faith
and establish an atmosphere for the coming of the Messiah, but remain obscure.
Comment:
This is the “feast of grandparents.” It reminds grandparents of their responsibility to establish a tone for generations to come: They must make the traditions live and offer them as a promise to little children. But the feast has a message for the younger generation as well. It reminds the young that older people’s greater perspective, depth of experience and appreciation of life’s profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.
This is the “feast of grandparents.” It reminds grandparents of their responsibility to establish a tone for generations to come: They must make the traditions live and offer them as a promise to little children. But the feast has a message for the younger generation as well. It reminds the young that older people’s greater perspective, depth of experience and appreciation of life’s profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.
Quote:
“...[T]he family is the foundation of society. In it the various generations come together and help one another to grow wise and to harmonize personal rights with the other requirements of social life” (Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 52).
“...[T]he family is the foundation of society. In it the various generations come together and help one another to grow wise and to harmonize personal rights with the other requirements of social life” (Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 52).
DIVINA LECTIO:
SAINTS JOACHIM AND ANN, PARENTS OF MARY
Lectio:
Saturday, July 26, 2014
1) Opening prayer
Lord, God of our fathers,
through Saints Joachim and Anne
You gave us the Mother of Your Incarnate Son.
May their prayers help us
to attain the salvation
You promised to Your people. Amen.
through Saints Joachim and Anne
You gave us the Mother of Your Incarnate Son.
May their prayers help us
to attain the salvation
You promised to Your people. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 13,16-17
'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because
they hear! In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see
what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
3) Reflection
• Matthew 13,16-17: “But blessed are your eyes because they
see, your ears because they hear“. All this explains the last phrase:
“But blessed are your eyes because they see your ears because they hear. In
truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see
and never saw it, to hear what you hear and never heard it!”
• The Parables: a new way of speaking to the people
about God. People remained impressed about the way in which Jesus
taught. “A new way of teaching! Given with authority! Different from that of
the Scribes! (Mk 7,28). Jesus had a great capacity for finding very simple
images to compare the things of God with the things of life which people knew
and experienced in the daily struggle to survive. This presupposes two things:
to be inside the things of the life of the people, and to be inside the things
of God, of the Kingdom of God. In some parables there are things that happen
and that seldom arrive in life. For example, when has it ever happened that a
shepherd, who has one hundred sheep, abandons the flock with 99 to go and look
for the lost sheep? (Lk 15,4). Where have we ever seen a father who accepts
with joy and a feast his son who had squandered all his goods, without saying a
word of reproach to him? (Lk 15,20-24). When has it been seen that a Samaritan
man is better than a Levite, than a priest? (Lk 10,29-37). The parable makes
one think. It leads the person to enter into the story beginning from the
experience of life. And through our experience it urges us to discover that God
is present in our daily life. The parable is a participative form of teaching
and of educating. It does not change everything in one minute. It does not make
one know, it makes one discover. The parable changes our look, it renders the
person who listens to be a contemplative, it helps her to observe reality. This
is the novelty of the teaching of the parables of Jesus, different from that of
the doctors who taught that God manifests himself only in the observance of the
law. “The Kingdom is present in your midst” (Lk 17,21). But those who listened
did not always understand.
4) Personal questions
• Jesus says: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries
of the Kingdom”. When I read the Gospels am I like those who understand nothing
or like those to whom it has been granted to know the Kingdom?
• Which is the parable of Jesus with which I identify myself more? Why?
• Which is the parable of Jesus with which I identify myself more? Why?
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh, your faithful love is in the heavens,
your constancy reaches to the clouds,
your saving justice is like towering mountains,
your judgements like the mighty deep. (Ps 36,5-6)
your constancy reaches to the clouds,
your saving justice is like towering mountains,
your judgements like the mighty deep. (Ps 36,5-6)
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