23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 10 September
10th September 2023
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 10 September
“Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.” - Pope St Felix III
A reflection on today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Naturally the Church is not His [Christ’s] physical body, for that is already in Heaven with the Father. Nor is it a moral body like a nation, or an organisation, or a club, because the unity which binds members together in these is merely their corporate will to achieve a common ideal. The unity which binds together the members of the Body of Christ, which is made up of all born into it by baptism, is not their wills, but a superior principle of unity, namely the third Person of God or the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Charity and Love. In order to express that transcendent unearthly unity by which we are all one in Christ, tradition has applied the term mystical, so that the Church is in the proper sense of the term the ‘Mystical Body of Christ.’ As the human body is made up of millions of cells and hundreds of organs; as one cell is not another cell, and yet all constitute one body, because governed by one head and unified by one soul; so in the Mystical Body of Christ there are millions and millions of members, and hundreds of officers; and in it the layman is not the priest, as the foot is not the hand, and the Cardinal is not the missionary, as one organ is not another; yet they all coalesce into one living body, because governed by the invisible head, Christ, and vivified by the one soul which is the Holy Spirit of God.
"The Church then is the Body of Christ. But what does He do with this new body? Our Lord in heaven does the same three things with it that He did with His individual human nature taken from Mary; namely, through its instrumentality, He teaches because He is its Teacher, He governs because He is its King, He sanctifies because He is its Priest. He was teacher, but He gave the power to His new Body: ‘As the Father hath sent me, I also send you,’ ‘Going therefore teach ye all nations,’ and ‘He that hears you, hears me; and he that despises you, despises me.’ Certainly, if these words mean anything, they mean that just as He once taught through His visible form as man, so now He continues to teach through His new body, the Church, the truth forever being not the Church’s but His, and therefore infallible.
"He was King with power in heaven and earth. This office He gave to His new Body: ‘All power is given to me in heaven and in earth’. My Power I give unto you: ‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.’
"These words mean that He, as He was formerly King in His individual, physical manhood, so now He is King through His new manhood the Church, the Power being not the Church’s but His, and therefore divine.
"He was priest, Who came to give His life for the redemption of many. This office He gave to His new body: ‘Baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ ‘Do this for a commemoration of Me.’ ‘Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ Again, the meaning is unmistakable — as He had sanctified souls and offered His own Body and Blood to His Heavenly Father, so now He was communicating that power to His Mystical Body, the sanctification forever being not the Church’s but His, and therefore divine."
(The Fullness of Christ)
Prayer to Obtain the Grace of all the World’s Masses
Eternal Father,
we humbly offer Thee our poor presence
and that of the whole of humanity
from the beginning to the end of the world
at all the Masses that ever have or ever will be prayed.
We offer Thee all the pains, suffering,
prayers, sacrifices, joys and relaxations of our lives,
in union with those of our dear Lord Jesus here on earth.
May the Most Precious Blood of Christ,
all His blood and wounds and agony save us,
through the sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Amen. 💖💐🙏
Food for thought
If once or twice you have warned someone and that person does not comply, do not contend further with them, but leave all in the hands of God, that His will be done and that He be glorified in all His servants, for He knows well how to turn evil into good.
Learn how to be patient in enduring the faults of others, remembering that you yourself have many with which others have to put up. If you cannot make yourself be what you would like, how can you expect another to be as you would like?
We wish to see perfection in others, but do not correct our own faults. We want to have others strictly reprimanded for their offences, but we will not be reprimanded ourselves. It is seldom that we consider our neighbour equally with ourselves.
If everyone was perfect, what would we have to endure for the love of God?
God wills us to learn to bear one another’s burdens. No one is without faults, no one without a cross, no one self-sufficient and no one wise enough alone. Therefore, we must support, comfort and assist one another, instructing and admonishing one another in all charity.