July 11, 2025
Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
Lectionary: 387
Reading 1
Israel set out with all that was his.
When he arrived at Beer-sheba,
he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called,
"Jacob! Jacob!"
He answered, "Here I am."
Then he said: "I am God, the God of your father.
Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt,
for there I will make you a great nation.
Not only will I go down to Egypt with you;
I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes."
So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba,
and the sons of Israel
put their father and their wives and children
on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.
They took with them their livestock
and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan.
Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.
His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters—
all his descendants—he took with him to Egypt.
Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph,
so that he might meet him in Goshen.
On his arrival in the region of Goshen,
Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot
and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen.
As soon as Joseph saw him, he flung himself on his neck
and wept a long time in his arms.
And Israel said to Joseph, "At last I can die,
now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive."
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
R. (39a) The salvation of the just comes from the
Lord.
Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart's requests.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
The LORD watches over the lives of the wholehearted;
their inheritance lasts forever.
They are not put to shame in an evil time;
in days of famine they have plenty.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Turn from evil and do good,
that you may abide forever;
For the LORD loves what is right,
and forsakes not his faithful ones.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you to all truth
and remind you of all I told you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his Apostles:
"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071125.cfm
Commentary on
Genesis 46:1-7,28-30
After their emotional reunion with the brother they believed
long dead, Joseph’s brothers return to their father, Jacob, laden with gifts
and with an invitation for the whole extended family to return and live in the
region of Goshen, to the east of the Nile in Egypt. In today’s reading we see Jacob
(now being called by his given name, Israel) setting out from his home in
Hebron and heading to Egypt with all his family members and all his
possessions. Hebron lay to the west of the Dead Sea.
Before leaving Canaan he offers sacrifice to the God of his
father Isaac at Beer-Sheba, which lay to the west of the southern end of the
Dead Seas and south of Hebron on the road to Egypt. Here God speaks to Jacob in
a dream. It is the last of God’s appearances to the patriarchs. He commands
Jacob to go down to Egypt (the Exodus is already in view) just as he had
commanded Abraham to set out for Canaan. The move is clearly presented as God’s
will and not just a family decision.
God promises Jacob his protection and tells him not to be
afraid to go down to Egypt. There he will make Jacob and his descendants into a
great nation. God says:
I myself will go down with you to Egypt…
He also promises to bring Israel back to his ancestral land.
Is there an ambiguity here with the name ‘Israel’? It can mean a promise to bring
Jacob’s body back to Canaan for burial and also the promise that Israel, as a
nation, will return to the Canaan after the Exodus.
And there is a promise that, in death, it will be Joseph,
the son he thought he would never see again, who will close Jacob’s eyes.
Jacob’s sons, together with their wives and children come to take their father
to Egypt in wagons provided by the Pharaoh. The whole family—brothers, wives,
children, grandchildren all move to Egypt to settle there.
On the way, Judah, the eldest son, goes ahead to arrange
that Joseph should meet his father at Goshen. Joseph, riding in his official
chariot, goes to meet his father. One can imagine the feelings of the old man
as he saw Joseph, the son he thought was long dead, arriving in a magnificent
chariot befitting his rank.
Not surprisingly, it is a very emotional meeting. Joseph
throws his arms around his father’s neck and weeps for a long time on his
shoulder. Jacob says to his long-lost son:
I can die now, having seen for myself that you are still
alive.
Later (not in our reading), Jacob and some of his sons will
be introduced to the Pharaoh and are invited to settle in Goshen, which was
situated in the north-east part of the Nile Delta, a place very suitable for
sheep-grazing. Jacob’s sons were shepherds.
Once again we see how what originally seemed like tragedy
turn out to be a source of blessing for so many. It may help us to take a
second look at events in our lives in which we wondered where God was present.
Often, we may have to wait before we see the final outcome. God, as we have
said more than once before, loves to write our life story with crooked lines.
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Commentary on
Matthew 10:16-23
Today’s passage clearly reflects later experiences of the
Church as, for instance, described in many parts of the Acts of the Apostles
and, of course, in the later history of the Church. Matthew’s Gospel was
written some 50 years after the death and resurrection of Christ and naturally
reflects some experiences of this period. It is both a warning and a
description of what has happened and continues to happen to the messengers of the
Gospel.
We are sent out like “sheep among wolves”. We are, in a way,
defenceless, because we renounce any use of violence. There are wolves out
there eager to destroy us because, despite our message of love, justice and
peace, we are seen as a threat to their activities and ambitions.
We are to be clever as snakes and innocent as doves. We are
to be as inventive and creative as we can be in dealing with the world. But we
are to be innocent, not in the sense of being naive, but in the sense of being
completely free of even any suspicion of wrongdoing. The end does not justify
the means!
As has happened so many times and continues to happen,
followers of Christ, simply because they are his followers and for no other
reason, will be hauled into court, will be the victims of intimidation and
torture. This is our opportunity to give witness to Christ and everything that
the Gospel stands for.
“When they hand you over”—a favourite Gospel expression:
John the Baptist was handed over; Jesus himself was handed over first to the
leaders of his people and then to the Romans; his disciples too will be and are
handed over; and in every Eucharist, we hear that Jesus in his Body is handed
over to us:
This is my Body, which is given up [Latin, tradetur:
handed over] for you.
When we are “handed over” we are not to be anxious about
what to say:
…what you are to say will be given to you…
This has been confirmed again and again by people who have
been arrested and interrogated. Not only do they know what to say, but very
often their fear, too, disappears. In fact, once released, they simply go back
to what they were doing when they were first arrested (we see this in the Acts
of the Apostles). And he continues:
…it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you…
The enemies of the Gospel have no ultimate answer to truth,
love and justice.
Jesus also warns:
…you will be hated by all because of my name…
These words of Jesus are sad because they are true. The
following of Christ can break up families. Family members have betrayed each
other, handed each other over. However, once baptised, we enter a new family
with new obligations. Our commitment to God, to love, to truth, to justice, to
freedom, transcends obligations that arise from blood. I cannot obey a father
who tells me to violate the Gospel; I cannot cooperate with a brother who urges
me to do evil. It involves painful choices, but the opposite would be, in the
long run, worse. This is something we can sometimes find difficult to accept.
It is difficult to understand that the following of the loving and loveable
Jesus can create such hostility and hatred.
When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next…
We need to be clear that Jesus never tells us to go out of
our way to seek persecution or to be hated. On the contrary, we are to make
Christianity as attractive as possible. We want people to share our experience
of knowing and being loved by Christ.
One of the reasons why the Church spread so rapidly
throughout the Roman world was precisely because of Christians fleeing from
persecution. There comes a time, however, when we can run no further, or when
it is clear we have to take a stand and cannot compromise.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
Friday,
July 11, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father,
through the obedience of
Jesus, Your servant and Your Son, You raised a fallen world.
Free us
from sin and bring us the joy that lasts forever.
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.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 10: 16-23
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as
serpents and simple as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to
courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before
governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When
they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to
say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be
you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will
hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up
against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of
my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in
one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of
Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Reflection
To the community of His
disciples, called and gathered together around Him and invested with His same
authority as collaborators, Jesus entrusts them with directives in view of
their future mission.
•
Matthew 10: 16-19: Danger and trust in God. Jesus
introduces this part of His discourse with two metaphors: sheep in the midst of
wolves; prudent as serpents, simple as doves. The first one serves to show the
difficult and dangerous context to which the disciples are sent. On the one
hand, the dangerous situation is made evident; on the other, the expression “I
send you” expresses protection. Also regarding the astuteness of the serpent
and the simplicity of the dove Jesus seems to put together two attitudes: trust
in God, and prolonged and attentive reflection on the way in which we should
relate with others.
•
Jesus, then, following this, gives an order that seems
at first sight filled with mistrust: “Beware of men...”, but, in reality, it
means to be attentive to possible persecutions, hostility, and denouncement.
The expression “will deliver you” does not only refer to the accusation in the
tribunal, but above all, it has a theological value: the disciples who are
following Jesus can experience the same experience of the Master of “being
delivered into the hands of men” (17: 22). The disciples must be strong and
resist in order “to give witness.” The fact of being delivered to the tribunal
should become a witness for the Jews and for the pagans. It bears the
possibility of being able to draw them to the person and the cause of Jesus
and, therefore, to the knowledge of the Gospel. This positive implication is
important as a result of witnessing, characterized by credible and fascinating
faith.
•
Matthew 10: 20: the divine help. So that all this may
take place in the missionwitness of the disciples it is essential to have the
help that comes from God. That is to say, we should not trust our own security
and resources, but the disciples, in critical, dangerous, and aggressive
situations, found help and solidarity in God for their lives. The Spirit of the
Father is also promised for their mission (v.20). He is the one who acts in
them when they are committed to their mission of evangelization and of
witnessing. The Spirit will speak through them.
•
Matthew 10: 21-22: Threat-consolation. Once again the
announcement of threat is repeated in the expression “will be delivered”:
Brother will betray brother, a father against his son, the sons against the
parents. It is a question of a true and great disorder in social relationships,
the breaking up of the family. Persons who are bound by the most intimate
family relationships – such as parents, children, brothers and sisters – will
fall in the misfortune of mutually hating and eliminating one another. In what
sense does such a division of the family have to do with witness on behalf of
Jesus? Such breaking up of the family relationships could be caused by the
diverse attitudes that are taken within the family, regarding Jesus. The
expression “you will be hated” seems to indicate the theme of the hostile
rejection on the part of the contemporaries and of those He sent. This phrasing
can also apply to the larger community, using the sense of the word “brother”
as we have done earlier. The community of Israel will find one against another
as those following the Good News will be persecuted and rejected by those
remaining in the old law. The strong sense of Jesus’ words find a comparison in
another part of the New Testament: “Blessed are you if you are insulted for the
sake of Christ’s name, because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests
upon you. No one of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or evil doer or as
a spy. But if one suffers as a Christian, do not blush, because of this name,
rather give glory to God.” The promise of consolation follows the threat (v.3).
The greatest consolation for the disciples will be that of “being saved,” of
being able to live the
experience of the Savior, that is to say, to participate in His victories.
Personal Questions
•
What do these pronouncements of Jesus teach us today
for understanding the mission of the Christian?
•
Do you know how to trust in divine help when you
experience conflicts, persecutions and trials?
•
In what ways have you been persecuted? Was it for
standing with Jesus or was I in the wrong? Did I find strength at any of these
times, or did I fold?
•
Has the Spirit spoken through you to others?
For Further Study
In all the day-to-day
interactions with others, in business, the market, in school, and in community
and family, it is often difficult to discern whether persecutions that day were
for His name or our own views and wants, and whether the Spirit did the talking
or our own pride did. St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, wrote the Spiritual Exercises to help one discern
the action of the Spirit in one’s Life. The theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar
points out that the Exercises direct one to choosing God’s choice in life, a
self-abandonment to God, which is ultimately what today’s Gospel says to do.
There are many books on St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, besides his original
work, which explain what and how. Take time to read one or more and perhaps
practice them.
Concluding Prayer
Give me
back the joy of Your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit. Lord, open my
lips, and my mouth will speak out Your praise. (Ps 51: 12, 15)
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