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| For your convenience you can now listen to Fr. Bob’s reflection, click here. |
12th Sunday of Ordinary Time
6-21-20 |
| Our
gospel tells us today do not let anyone intimidate you. Do not be
afraid of anything. Sounds wonderful, but what is the reality? Just take
a look at our world, sometimes you just do not want to listen to the
news or read the paper. The protests, riots and new COVID numbers and
mandates we see on the evening news are filled with tragedies,
disappointments and losses. Even in our families some have left the
church, switched religions, or just dropped out. It seems sometimes that
we are inundated with bad news as a daily diet. |
| Our
newscasts and our papers fill us with endless images of infidelity,
war, torture and moral mayhem. Our movies and TV can desensitize us to
violence and suffering. So much of our time it feels like we are forced
to concentrate on life’s horrors. We may want to repeat the question we
find in scripture and ask Jesus what happened to all the good things you
promised. Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another? |
| Didn’t
you tell us that we should fear nothing that we are worth more than an
entire flock of sparrows? Jesus might reply, you are the victims of too
much bad news. Take time to look at the good news, then you will
perceive the Kingdom. So where is the good news? Well right now churches
are opened with limited capacity, as we sit here there are countless
Catechists in countless parishes letting in the light of the Gospel to
our young. Although schools are currently closed our catholic schools
endured great hardship in our big cities in educating hundreds of
thousands of under-privileged children, many of them non-Catholic. |
| For
the most part, these schools are staffed by dedicated, hardworking and
underpaid staff and teachers who have now shifted to online learning.
New churches are being built, but we only read about parish closings. As
the world returns to normal, we find churches open again in limited
capacities. People recover from addictions, accidents, illness and
depression in so many catholic institutions. Catholic relief services is
one of the largest single private charitable services in the world.
Every day the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are being carried
out in hundreds of ways but they never make the news. Look around at
this parish, the great kids, the wonderful parents, how you all simply
care about each other. |
| We
take all of these things for granted. For example, I have always
maintained that all parents are guaranteed heaven. Remember there is
only one place in the gospel where Jesus gives the credence of who gets
to heaven. In Matthew 25-When I was hungry, you gave me to eat, when I
was thirsty, you gave me to drink, when I was ill you visited me. As
long as you did it to one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you
did it to me, enter into the joy of the Lord. The corporal and spiritual
works of mercy are built into family life by nature. That is why I say
that all parents are guaranteed heaven. |
| Mom,
what will I wear? Counseling the doubtful. Dad, will you help with my
math homework? Instructing the ignorant. The 2am bottle, giving drink to
the thirsty. Changing diapers, clothing the naked. Preparing meals,
feeding the hungry. The cat died, burying the dead. Are you still in the
bathroom? Visiting the imprisoned. And being good parents you will say,
I have to do these things; it is my job and my duty. As if that made it
less wonderful, less meritorious. Less the fulfillment of Jesus’
criteria for heaven. My point is these things go on all the time. |
| The
Kingdom of Jesus is here, goodness abounds. Love is given and received.
People are faithful, caring, courtesy and good deeds are commonplace.
Do not let the daily diet of bad news trip you up. When we look around
the world out of control, we all have doubts at times. I guess that is
one good reason why we come to church every week. To recover our sense
of vision, to celebrate the God we bumped into all week without knowing
it. To handle the word and the bread and to see this very congregation
with the new realization. |
| That such ordinary stuff as the word, the bread and wine, the people all harbor the very presence of God and that is good news. |
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| Yours in Christ, |
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| Fr. Bob Warren, SA |
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