11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 18 June
16th June 2023
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 18 June
“This Divine Heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into it the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.” - St Margaret Mary Alacoque
A reflection on today's readings by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"How does God deal with humanity when humanity begins to multiply? Out of all of the peoples of the world, He chooses one people who are to be His people. This group, this corporation, or this special people are to be the means of bringing salvation to everyone else in the world. Now who were His people? His people were the people of Israel, and He called them first through Abraham, and He governed them through Moses; He ruled them through the judges and the kings; He threatened, pleaded, and coaxed; He warned, and He loved through the prophets. Over and over in the Old Testament we find that God who loves humanity deals with them through this particular group. In His own words, God says in the book of Exodus, ‘You shall be my peculiar possession above all people. For all the earth is Mine, and you shall be to Me a priestly kingdom, a holy nation.’ And again God speaks and says, ‘You shall be My people, and I shall be your God.’
"When our Lord does come to use the word qahal – word used for God’s people – He calls it ‘my qahal’: I will found My Church, My people. The bond that Christ establishes with this new qahal is not a bond of law, it is a bond of love. The very best moment for establishing this bond was a banquet where His Twelve sat about Him in love. Just as Moses often sprinkled blood upon the people as a sign of covenant, so He said that He would make a new covenant, a new pact, a new testament. And there was the sprinkling of the blood of goats and bullocks and sheep; He gave His own Blood and said, ‘This is the Blood of the new covenant’ – the new testament, the new pact. This is the bond that will unite all of My people together.
"When God with His divine nature came down to this world and took upon Himself the human nature from the womb of His Blessed Mother, He took upon Himself an instrument. Once God took upon Himself our human nature, He could act in our name. And every one of the actions of that human nature would have an infinite value. Not a sigh, a word, a tear, a step of that human nature was inseparable from the Person of God. That is why one breath of God-made-man would have been enough to have redeemed the world. Why? Because it was the breath of God, and therefore had an infinite value. Why then did God suffer so much when He took upon Himself our human nature? God’s love knows no limits. The only way to prove perfect love is by surrender of all that one has in oneself. God took upon Himself our human nature, and He said that He loved us unto the end, even to death.
"Our Lord was hopeful about humanity. He always saw men the way He originally designed them. He saw through the surface, the grime and the dirt, the real man underneath. He never identified a person with sin. He saw sin as something alien and foreign, something that did not belong to a man, something that mastered him but from which he could be freed in order to be his real self. Just as every mother sees her own image and likeness beneath the dirt on the face of her child, so God always saw the divine image and likeness beneath our sin. He looked on us much the same way a bride looks on a bridegroom the day of marriage, and as a bridegroom looks on a bride: each to the other looks the best.
"One day a woman came to me and told me that she could never love her husband again. I told her to try and think back to how much she loved him the day of their marriage, as they stood side by side at the altar. For that is the way he really was. What the woman had to do was to see, beneath the distorted image, the real person to whom she committed her life. This is precisely what our Lord does in coming to this earth. Even when men raged and stormed beneath His cross, He saw them as homeless and unhappy children of the Father in heaven. For them He grieved and for them He died. This is the vision our Lord has of humanity." (Through the Year With Fulton Sheen)
Unity Prayer by Elizabeth Kindelmann, T.OCarm
My adorable Jesus, May our feet journey together. May our hands gather in unity. May our hearts beat in unison. May our souls be in harmony. May our thoughts be as one. May our ears listen to the silence together. May our glances profoundly penetrate each other. May our lips pray together to gain mercy from the Eternal Father. Amen. 🙏💖💐
Food for thought
“Anyone who wishes to follow Me must deny himself, take up the cross daily and follow Me” (Lk 9:23).
These words of Our Blessed Lord were spoken for people of all times and localities, from the very young to the elderly. In our modern times they are definitely a challenge, surrounded as we are by the comforts and conveniences of modern inventions. Often we can be come immersed in the material world, forgetting our eternal destiny. Each day, practice some form of self-denial. Instead of browsing social media or watching TV, pray the Rosary. Take time each day to speak with Jesus, to draw closer to Him. Love Him and keep Him for your friend, for when all others forsake you, He will not leave you nor let you perish in the end.