13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 2 July
2nd July 2023
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 2 July
“Only one thing is necessary in your anguish: bear everything with resignation to the Divine Will; for this will help you to attain your eternal salvation. Hope with a lively faith and you will receive everything from Almighty God.” - St Gerard Majella
A reflection on today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"The Apostles were forewarned that those who accepted Him would be hated by the members of their own families. The Gospel would stir up strife between those who would accept Him and those who would reject Him. The unconverted mother would hate her converted daughter, and the unconverted father would hate the converted son, so that a man’s bitterest foes would be those of his own household. But they were not to think that all this was a loss. There is a double life; the physical and the spiritual. Tertullian noted that when the Romans put the early Christians to death, the pagan appeal always was: “Save your life; do not throw your life away.” But as He would lay down His life and take it up again, so too what they would lose biologically, they would save spiritually. What was sacrificed to Him was never lost. They did not understand what He was saying, but He was summarising for them again His Cross and Resurrection:
"‘He who secures his own life will lose it; It is the man who loses his life for My sake that will secure it’ (Matt 10:39).
"The Apostles had often seen the Romans, who possessed their land, crucify many of their own people. Our Lord’s words referred to the custom of criminals carrying a cross before they were crucified upon it. That the Cross was the crowning incident in His life, the primary reason for His coming, is evident once again as He invited them to the Crucifixion. It is unthinkable that He would urge them to a ransoming death unless He Himself had willed it for Himself as the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. Later on, Peter and Andrew would understand what He meant that day, when they too would be crucified.
"Immediately after Pentecost, when Christ sent His Spirit upon the Apostles, the full meaning of the Crucifixion dawned on Peter, and he summarised what he heard in the pre-Calvary instructions of Our Lord:
"‘This Man you have put to death… but God raised Him up again, releasing Him from the pangs of death; It was impossible that death should have mastery over Him’ (Acts 2:23, 24).
"The Cross was no accident in His life; it would be none in theirs or His followers’ either." (Life of Christ)
Prayer for Final Perseverance
O Sovereign and Eternal Father, I humbly adore You, and thank You for having created me, and for having redeemed me by means of the passion and death of Your Son and my Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank You most sincerely for having made me a Christian, by giving me the true faith, and by adopting me as Your child, in the sacrament of baptism.
I thank You for having, after the numberless sins I had committed, waited for my repentance, and for having pardoned (as I humbly hope) all the offences which I have offered to You, and for which I am now sincerely sorry, because they have been displeasing to You, who are infinite goodness. I love You above all things, and I repent with all my heart of all my offences against You.
I thank You for having preserved me from so many relapses, of which I would have been guilty if You had not protected me. But my enemies still continue, and will continue till death, to combat against me, and to endeavour to make me their slave. If You do not constantly guard and succour me with Thy aid, I, a miserable creature, shall return to sin, and shall certainly lose Your grace.
I beseech You, then, for the love of Jesus Christ, to grant me holy perseverance unto death. You know my weakness and inconstancy; help me, then, and permit not that I should ever again separate myself from You by relapsing into sin. Rather let me die a thousand times than ever again to lose Your grace.
Jesus, Your Son, has promised that You will grant whatsoever we ask in His name. Through the merits, then, of Jesus Christ, I beg, for myself and for all the just, the grace never again to be separated from Your love, but to love You forever, in time and eternity.
Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me. Amen. 🙏💖💐
Food for thought
“Anyone who wishes to follow Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me … Anyone who prefers father and mother to Me is not worthy of Me.”
Many think these words of Jesus to be hard; but it will be far harder if, on the day of judgement, a person hears those terrible words: “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire” (Matt 25:41).
They who gladly accept and follow the word of the Cross now, even should this mean going against the desires, opinions, and laws of family, friends, and the world, will not then dread that sentence of eternal damnation. Do not be afraid to take up your cross, since it is the only way to the kingdom of heaven. In the Cross is salvation and life; in the Cross is defence against our enemies. Through the Cross heavenly sweetness is poured into our souls, our minds are strengthened, and we experience spiritual joy.
In the Cross is the height of virtue and the perfection of all sanctity. Without the Cross there is no salvation for our souls, nor hope of life eternal. Take your Cross, then, and follow Jesus, and you will go into everlasting life.