Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflection June 15, 2019

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:33-37

Friends, today’s Gospel speaks of vows. It calls to mind the story of Ann Russell Miller, a fabulously wealthy San Francisco socialite. Ann had ten children and nineteen grandchildren, was a denizen of the finest clubs, and liked to vacation on her yacht in the Mediterranean. But Ann was also a very devout Catholic, and she and her husband made a vow that whoever died first, the surviving partner would dedicate his or her life to God. So when Ann’s husband died relatively young of cancer, Ann resolved to give her life to God in the most dramatic way. She threw one more huge party for her friends—and then gave everything away and joined the cloistered Carmelite sisters in Des Plaines, Illinois. She now wears the simple brown habit of a Carmelite religious and lives a life of utter devotion, in poverty, chastity, and obedience. She sleeps on wooden planks covered by a thin mattress; she eats the simplest meatless dishes served in the convent refectory. She is no longer Ann Russell Miller; she is Sr. Mary Joseph of the Trinity. Sr. Mary fulfilled the vow she made to her husband by taking new vows as a religious. The new vows she now appreciates not as burdens but as a means to freedom. For now, in the most radical sense, she is free to give her life utterly to God. Now, I realize that her path is a radical one, and that not everyone is called to this sort of total surrender. But everyone is indeed called to the spirit of the evangelical counsels, for we must all become detached from wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. They don’t matter at the end of the day. Only God matters. Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 364 Reading 1 2 Cor 5:14-21 Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Gospel Mt 5:33-37 Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the Evil One."