12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) - 23 June

23rd June 2024
“When God is with us, we have nothing to fear.” - Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati
 
A reflection on today's scriptural readings by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
 
"Divine love is sacrificial love. Love does not mean to have and to own and to possess. It means to be had and to be owned and to be possessed. It is not a circle circumscribed by self; it is arms outstretched to embrace all humanity within its grasp. No other love is ever going to be a satisfying love. All that we ever get in this world anyway is just a fragment, a fraction of love. We can catch a spark; it is caught up from the great white flame of love which is God. That’s all we ever get. And if, to remind us of another love, the spark is so bright, then what must be the flame? It’s the cross; it’s self-denial, it’s victimhood, for this is the gospel of Christ, and we cannot soften Him. He is the One Who gave His life, and that’s the way He measures His love. Greater love than this no man has. When we stay close to that love, day after day, hour after hour, others will begin to feel that love.
 
"It is true that in every single system of authoritarianism fear is the basis of obedience. But because we start with the Person of Christ, the basis of our obedience is not fear, it is love. You cannot love dialectical materialism, but you can love a person.
 
"Between our Lord and us there is the bond of love. These two are inseparable. That is why our Lord did not communicate to Peter the power of ruling and governing His Church until Peter told our Lord three times that he loved Him. The power to command in the Church comes only from obedience to Christ. Therefore, the submission that we as Catholics make to the Church is something like the submission that we make to one of our most devoted friends. It is like the obedience of a son to a loving father.
 
"We do not feel any distance between our Lord and us. As a pupil becomes more and more attached to his teacher by absorbing more of the truths of the teacher, so too, the more we become more and more united to Christ, the more we love Him and also the more truth we absorb. The more we know our Lord, the more we obey the truth manifested through His Church, and the less we fear. That is why scripture says, ‘Perfect love casts out fear.’ The more His truth abounds, the more we love Him."
(Through the Year with Fulton Sheen)
 
Prayer for Courage by St Augustine of Hippo
 
God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage.
 
Flood the path with light, turn our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to your honor and glory. Amen. 💐💖🙏