JULY 27, 2019 : SATURDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 400

Reading 1EX 24:3-8

When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,  
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 
Then, having sent certain young men of the children of Israel
to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
"This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his."

Responsorial PsalmPS 50:1B-2, 5-6, 14-15

R.(14a) Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
"Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
"Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me."
R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

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.

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."'"

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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 27, MATTHEW 13:24-30
Weekday
(Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 50)

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. At times, an underhanded man deliberately sowed bad seed in someone else's field. 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. The Church will always be a place of saints and sinners. But the weeds and the wheat should be allowed to flourish until the harvest when God 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 THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Chapter V of the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, issued by the Holy See in December 2001, describes the Church's traditional dedication of Saturday to the Virgin Mary. "Saturdays stand out among those days dedicated to the Virgin Mary. These are designated as memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (218). The chapter also describes the importance of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in Catholic devotional life, in the Liturgy, and reflections on popular devotions to Mary, her feast days, and the Rosary. 

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Saturday 27 July 2019

Exodus 24:3-8. Psalm 49(50):1-2, 5-6, 14-15. Matthew 13:24-30.
Offer to God a sacrifice of praise – Psalm 49(50):1-2, 5-6, 14-15
‘Let both grow till the harvest.’

What a beautifully consoling parable of weeds among wheat. What a wonderful exhortation to patience with ourselves and with others. Often, more aware of our faults than of the richness that lies within, we spend energy trying to root out faults, rather than letting our richness grow. And our awareness of others’ faults blocks our perception of the goodness in them. So we have a cause for personal disharmony and interpersonal division emerging from how we see self and others.

In the Eucharist we are called to look at ourselves as we really are and become reconciled to being who we are. Lord, I know you love me with all my limitations and imperfections, even sins. There are many harvest times in my life when I look back and see the growth of my capacity to trust, to hope and to love. Even with the darnel still there!

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Blessed Antonio Lucci

Saint of the Day for July 27

(August 2, 1682 – July 25, 1752)

Blessed Antonio Lucci’s Story

Antonio studied with and was a friend of Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani, who after Antonio Lucci’s death, testified at the diocesan hearings regarding the holiness of Lucci.

Born in Agnone in southern Italy, a city famous for manufacturing bells and copper crafts, he was given the name Angelo at baptism. He attended the local school run by the Conventual Franciscans and joined them at the age of 16. Antonio completed his studies for the priesthood in Assisi, where he was ordained in 1705. Further studies led to a doctorate in theology and appointments as a teacher in Agnone, Ravello, and Naples. He also served as guardian in Naples.

Elected minister provincial in 1718, the following year he was appointed professor at St. Bonaventure College in Rome, a position he held until Pope Benedict XIII chose Antonio as bishop of Bovino in 1729. The pope explained, “I have chosen as bishop of Bovino an eminent theologian and a great saint.”

His 23 years as bishop were marked by visits to local parishes and a renewal of gospel living among the people of his diocese. He dedicated his episcopal income to works of education and charity. At the urging of the Conventual minister general, Bishop Lucci wrote a major book about the saints and blesseds in the first 200 years of the Conventual Franciscans.

Antonio Lucci was beatified in 1989, three years after his friend Francesco Antonio Fasani was canonized. His Liturgical Feast Day is July 25.

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Reflection

As Pope Paul VI wrote in 1975, people today “are more impressed by witnesses than by teachers, and if they listen to these it is because they also bear witness” (Evangelization in the Modern World, #41).

www.franciscanmedia.org

Lectio: Matthew 13:24-30

Lectio Divina

Saturday, July 27, 2019

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 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."'"

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 as well as inconsistencies, limitations and errors. People of various origins, each one with her own story, with her own lived experience, her own opinion, her own yearnings, her own differences, meet in community.  Some people 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 to exclude from the community those who do not think like us.

•The background of the parable of the seed and the darnel. For 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, 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 keeping the parable of the darnel and the wheat.

• Matthew 13:27-28a: The origin of the mixture which exists in life. The laborers 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 distracts 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 different reaction in the face of ambiguity. Faced with this mixture of good and of evil, the laborers 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 who they thought were different. 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 what each one lives and does. God will judge us according to the fruit which we  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. One must make a clear option for the justice of the Kingdom, and at the same time, fight together 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.

• Teaching in Parables. The parable is a pedagogical tool which uses daily life to indicate that life speaks to us of God. It becomes a reality and renders the people’s perspective contemplative. A parable deals with 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 meaning open. He did not determine it. This was a sign that he believed in the capacity of the people to discover the meaning of the parable, beginning with their experience of life. Sometimes, at the request of the disciples, He would explain the meaning (Mt 13:10, 36). 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 of seed and darnel manifested in our community? What 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 laborers who want to cut away the darnel, or with the owner of the field who orders them to wait until the time of the harvest?
• This parable adequately describes both good and evil co-existing, and the darnel may impact the wheat exteriorly, but the wheat cannot become darnel. As humans, we can take on the habits and attributes of those around us, thereby losing our beginning character and taking on another. In many ways this is growth when it happens in a positive way. Can one, living in community and accepting differences and contradictions, continue to be “wheat” among “darnel”? How can this be done? What must one do?

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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