Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha,
Virgin
Lectionary: 390
Lectionary: 390
In the days of Ahaz, king of
Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah,
Rezin, king of Aram,
and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah,
went up to attack Jerusalem,
but they were not able to conquer it.
When word came to the house of David that Aram
was encamped in Ephraim,
the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled,
as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
Rezin, king of Aram,
and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah,
went up to attack Jerusalem,
but they were not able to conquer it.
When word came to the house of David that Aram
was encamped in Ephraim,
the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled,
as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go
out to meet Ahaz,
you and your son Shear-jashub,
at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,
on the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him:
Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear;
let not your courage fail
before these two stumps of smoldering brands
the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans,
and of the son Remaliah,
because of the mischief that
Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah,
plots against you, saying,
“Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force,
and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.”
you and your son Shear-jashub,
at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,
on the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him:
Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear;
let not your courage fail
before these two stumps of smoldering brands
the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans,
and of the son Remaliah,
because of the mischief that
Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah,
plots against you, saying,
“Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force,
and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.”
Thus says the LORD:
This shall not stand, it shall not be!
Damascus is the capital of Aram,
and Rezin is the head of Damascus;
Samaria is the capital of Ephraim,
and Remaliah’s son the head of Samaria.
This shall not stand, it shall not be!
Damascus is the capital of Aram,
and Rezin is the head of Damascus;
Samaria is the capital of Ephraim,
and Remaliah’s son the head of Samaria.
But within sixty years and five,
Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!
Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!
Responsorial
Psalm48:2-3A, 3B-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (see 9d) God upholds his city
for ever.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
For lo! the kings assemble,
they come on together;
They also see, and at once are stunned,
terrified, routed.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Quaking seizes them there;
anguish, like a woman’s in labor,
As though a wind from the east
were shattering ships of Tarshish.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
For lo! the kings assemble,
they come on together;
They also see, and at once are stunned,
terrified, routed.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Quaking seizes them there;
anguish, like a woman’s in labor,
As though a wind from the east
were shattering ships of Tarshish.
R. God upholds his city for ever.
AlleluiaPS 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the nether world.
You will go down to the nether world.
For if the mighty deeds done in
your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
For the readings of
the Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, please go here.
Meditation: Will
You Be Exalted to Heaven?
If Jesus were to visit your community today, what would he say?
Would he issue a warning like the one he gave to Chorazin and Bethsaida? And
how would you respond? Wherever Jesus went he did mighty works to show the
people how much God had for them. Chorazin and Bethsaida had been blessed with
the visitation of God. They heard the good news and experienced the wonderful
works which Jesus did for them. Why was Jesus upset with these communities? The
word woe can mean misfortune, calamity, distress, sorrow, sadness, misery,
grief, or wretchedness. It is as much an expression of sorrowful pity and grief
as it is of dismay over the calamity and destruction which comes as a result of
human folly, sin, and ignorance.
Why does Jesus lament and issue a stern warning? The people who heard the Gospel here very likely responded with indifference. Jesus upbraids them for doing nothing! Repentance demands change - a change of heart and way of life. God's word is life-giving and it saves us from destruction - the destruction of heart, mind, and soul as well as body. Jesus' anger is directed toward sin and everything which hinders us from doing the will of God. In love he calls us to walk in his way of truth and freedom, grace and mercy, justice and holiness. Do you receive his word with faith and obedience or with doubt and indifference?
Why does Jesus lament and issue a stern warning? The people who heard the Gospel here very likely responded with indifference. Jesus upbraids them for doing nothing! Repentance demands change - a change of heart and way of life. God's word is life-giving and it saves us from destruction - the destruction of heart, mind, and soul as well as body. Jesus' anger is directed toward sin and everything which hinders us from doing the will of God. In love he calls us to walk in his way of truth and freedom, grace and mercy, justice and holiness. Do you receive his word with faith and obedience or with doubt and indifference?
Most High and glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our hearts
and give us a true faith, a certain hope and a perfect love. Give us a sense of
the divine and knowledge of yourself, so that we may do everything in
fulfillment of your holy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Prayer of
Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226)
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Even
after miracles they did not repent, by Jerome (347-420 AD)
"Our Savior laments Chorazin and Bethsaida, cities of
Galilee, because after such great miracles and acts of goodness they did not
repent. Even Tyre and Sidon, cities that surrendered to idolatry and other
vices, are preferred to them. Tyre and Sidon are preferred for the reason that
although they trampled down the law, still Chorazin and Bethsaida, after they
transgressed natural and written law, cared little for the miracles that were
performed among them." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW
2.11.22.1)
TUESDAY, JULY 14, MATTHEW 11:20-24
(Isaiah 7:1-9; Psalm 48)
(Isaiah 7:1-9; Psalm 48)
KEY VERSE: "Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented" (v. 20).
TO KNOW: The cities, Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida formed what is called the “Evangelical Triangle,” the small area where Jesus worked most of his miracles. These "mighty deeds" were manifestations of God's power meant to turn the people away from their sins and point them toward salvation; nevertheless, many people refused to repent (Greek, metanoia; Hebrew, t’shuvah). Jesus grimly reminded the crowds that sin had its consequences. The pagan cites of Tyre and Sidon, port cities on the Mediterranean coast, were denounced by the prophets for their wickedness (Joel 4:4-7). Divine judgment was passed upon Sodom (and its neighboring cities), when it was consumed by fire and brimstone (Gn 19:1-29). If such miracles had been worked in Sodom, the people would have repented and that corrupt city would still be standing. Jesus lamented the fact that the people of Sodom would be judged less severely than his own people because he was in their midst. Yet they closed their eyes and ears to his message.
TO LOVE: In what ways do I need to change my life?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to see the miracles that you work in my life.
Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
Kateri was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman captured by the Iroquois and married to a non-Christian Mohawk chief. Kateri was orphaned during a smallpox epidemic, which left her with a scarred face and impaired eyesight. She converted to the Christian faith and was baptized in 1676 by a Jesuit missionary. Shunned and abused by relatives for her faith, Kateri escaped through 200 miles of wilderness to the Christian Native American village of Sault-Sainte-Marie, and took a vow of chastity in 1679. Known for spirituality and an austere lifestyle, her grave became a pilgrimage site and place of miracles for Christian Native Americans and French colonists. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, known informally as the Lilly of the Mohawks, was canonized on 10/21/2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. She is the first Native American to be canonized.
Tuesday 14 July 2020
St Camillus de Lellis
Isaiah 7:1-9. God upholds his city for ever – Psalm 47(48):2-8.
Matthew 11:20-24.
‘Isaiah tells the king not to fear’
If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all. What
challenging words God says to us. God who promises us deliverance and reassures
us in our fears, also declares that if we do not stand firm in faith, we shall
fall. What does that look like for us in our world today? What does it mean to
fall if we do not stand firm in faith?
It means we lose touch with our heart, with our conscience, with
our God. And once we lose that, we stumble. We waver, we make decisions without
praying with God about them and without discerning the better path. We end up
living a life in which God is shut out. Not necessarily deliberately, but by
omission, by forgetfulness, by pride, by self-reliance. And once we try to
stand on our own resources alone with no reliance on God, we will inevitably
fall. May we always abide in God and stand firm within God’s love.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Saint of the Day for July 14
(1656 – April 17, 1680)
 |
| Stained glass of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha | Saint Stephen Catholic Church, Chesapeake, Virginia | photo by Nheyob |
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s Story
The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints. Nine years after the
Jesuits Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lelande were tomahawked by Iroquois warriors,
a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom, Auriesville, New York.
Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the
Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and
fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was four, Tekakwitha lost her parents
and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured and half
blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief. He hated
the coming of the Blackrobes—Jesuit missionaries—but could do nothing to them
because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages with
Christian captives. She was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who lodged
with her uncle, but fear of him kept her from seeking instruction. Tekakwitha
refused to marry a Mohawk brave, and at 19 finally got the courage to take the
step of converting. She was baptized with the name Kateri–Catherine–on Easter
Sunday.
Now she would be treated as a slave. Because she would not work
on Sunday, Kateri received no food that day. Her life in grace grew rapidly.
She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being
baptized. She was powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the
dignity of each of her people.
She was always in danger, for her conversion and holy life
created great opposition. On the advice of a priest, Kateri stole away one
night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at
Sault St. Louis, near Montreal.
For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a
priest and an older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God in long hours
of prayer, in charity, and in strenuous penance. At 23, Kateri took a vow of
virginity, an unprecedented act for an Indian woman whose future depended on
being married. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour a
day—and was accused of meeting a man there!
Her dedication to virginity was instinctive: Kateri did not know
about religious life for women until she visited Montreal. Inspired by this,
she and two friends wanted to start a community, but the local priest dissuaded
her. She humbly accepted an “ordinary” life. She practiced extremely severe
fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation. Kateri Tekakwitha died the
afternoon before Holy Thursday. Witnesses said that her emaciated face changed
color and became like that of a healthy child. The lines of suffering, even the
pockmarks, disappeared and the touch of a smile came upon her lips. She was
beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2012.
Reflection
We like to think that our proposed holiness is thwarted by our
situation. If only we could have more solitude, less opposition, better health.
Kateri Tekakwitha repeats the example of the saints: Holiness thrives on the
cross, anywhere. Yet she did have what Christians—all people—need: the support
of a community. She had a good mother, helpful priests, Christian friends.
These were present in what we call primitive conditions, and blossomed in the
age-old Christian triad of prayer, fasting and almsgiving: union with God in
Jesus and the Spirit, self-discipline and often suffering, and charity for her
brothers and sisters.
Lectio Divina: Matthew 11:20-24
Lectio Divina
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
God our Father,
Your light of truth
guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow Him
reject what is contrary to the gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Your light of truth
guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow Him
reject what is contrary to the gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds
had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you,
Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell
you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than
for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go
down to the nether world. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
3) Reflection
• The Discourse on the Mission occupies chapter 10.
Chapters 11 and 12 describe the mission which Jesus carried out and how He did
it. The two chapters mention how the people either adhered to Him, doubted the
evangelizing action of Jesus, or rejected it. John the
Baptist, who looked at Jesus with the eyes of the past, does not succeed in
understanding Him (Mt 11:1-15). The people, who looked at Jesus out of
interest, were not capable of understanding Him (Mt 11:16-19). The great cities
around the lake, which listened to the preaching of Jesus and saw His miracles,
did not want to open themselves up to His message (this is the text of today’s
Gospel) (Mt 11:20-24). The wise and the doctors, who appreciated everything
according to their own science, were not able to understand the preaching of
Jesus (Mt 11:25). The Pharisees, who trusted only in the observance of the law,
criticized Jesus (Mt 12:1-8) and decided to kill Him (Mt 12:9-14). They said
that Jesus acted in the name of Beelzebul (Mt 12:22-37). They wanted a proof in
order to be able to believe in Him (Mt 12:38-45). Not even His relatives
supported Him (Mt 12:46-50). Only the little ones and the simple people
understood and accepted the Good News of the Kingdom (Mt 11:25-30). They
followed Him (Mt 12:15-16) and saw in Him the Servant announced by Isaiah (Mt
12:17-21).
• This way of describing the missionary activity of Jesus was a
clear warning for the disciples who together with Jesus and walked through
Galilee. They could not expect a reward or praise for being missionaries
of Jesus. This warning is also valid for us who today read and meditate on this
discourse on the mission, because the Gospels were written for all times.
They invite us to confront the attitude that we have with Jesus with the
attitude of the people who appear in the Gospel and to ask ourselves if we are
like John the Baptist (Mt 11:1-15), like the people who were interested (Mt
11:16-19), like the unbelieving cities (Mt 11:20-24), like the doctors who
thought they knew everything and understood nothing (Mt 11:25), like the
Pharisees who only knew how to criticize (Mt 12:1-45) or like the simple people
who went seeking for Jesus (Mt 12:15) and who, with their wisdom, knew how to
understand and accept the message of the Kingdom (Mt 11:25-30).
• Matthew 11:20: The word against the cities which did not
receive Him. The space in which Jesus moved during those three years of His
missionary life was small; only a few square kilometers along the Sea of
Galilee around the cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin. Only
that! So it was in this very limited space where Jesus made the majority
of His discourses and worked His miracles. He came to save the whole of
humanity, and almost did not get out of the limited space of His land.
Tragically, Jesus had to become aware that the people of those cities did not
want to accept the message of the Kingdom and were not converted. The cities
become more rigid in their beliefs, traditions and customs and did not accept
the invitation of Jesus to change their life.
• Matthew 11:21-24: Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum are worse
than Tyre and Sidon. In the past, Tyre and Sidon, inflexible enemies of Israel,
ill treated the People of God. Because of this they were cursed by the
prophets. (Is 23:1; Jer 25:22; 47:4; Ezek 26:3; 27:2; 28:2; Joel 4:4; Am 1:10).
And now Jesus says that these cities, symbols of all evil, would have already been
converted if in them had been worked all the miracles which were worked in
Chorazin and Bethsaida. The city of Sodom, the symbol of the worst
perversion, was destroyed by the anger of God (Gen 18:16 to 19:29). And now
Jesus says that Sodom would exist today, because it would have been converted
if it had seen the miracles that Jesus worked in Capernaum. Today we still live
this same paradox. Many of us who are Catholics since we were children,
have many solid and firm convictions, so much so that we stop reaching for
perfection of charity. And in some places, Christianity, instead of being a
source of change and of conversion, becomes the refuge of the most reactionary
forces of the politics of the country.
4) Personal questions
• How do I place myself before the Good News of Jesus: like John
the Baptist, like the interested people, like the doctors, like the Pharisees
or like the simple and poor people?
• Does my city, or my country, deserve the warning of Jesus against Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida?
• If someone, a Christian, already follows Jesus, how does this passage apply? What is the message for them?
• Does my city, or my country, deserve the warning of Jesus against Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida?
• If someone, a Christian, already follows Jesus, how does this passage apply? What is the message for them?
5) Concluding Prayer
Great is Yahweh and most worthy of praise
in the city of our God, the holy mountain,
towering in beauty,
the joy of the whole world. (Ps 48:1-2)
in the city of our God, the holy mountain,
towering in beauty,
the joy of the whole world. (Ps 48:1-2)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét