13th Sunday of the Year, Year C
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Lectionary Readings for the 13th Sunday of the Year, Year C
“…the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
This passage from the gospel of Luke has much to teach
us about: the simple lifestyle of Jesus; the urgency of
the mission His Father had entrusted to Him; how He dealt
with those who rejected His mission; how resolute He was
to face His destiny in Jerusalem; and how His charisma
has attracted people to follow Him and the mission He
stands for. The mission of Jesus was so urgent that
He had no time to “build a nest” - to found a human
family. In his travels, He had to encounter rejections
from others but He always stood for peace and nonviolence.
Because He knew that in obedience to the Father’s will,
the world will be saved, despite all the hardships He
foresees, He still sets His face to Jerusalem where
He will surely be crucified. And as regards those who
were attracted to His mission and call, He always tells
them to place the mission of the Kingdom as top priority
- no “buts”, no “let me”, no “looking back”. That was
how urgent and important the mission of building the
Kingdom was. And indeed it was urgent and important
because it cost even the life of God’s Son!
Let us examine ourselves in how we respond to the call
of Jesus to follow Him. His call is a radical call
- one that sets us apart from all our attachments to
the world and to significant people in our lives.
Very few people are able to follow this call to its
fullest. Usually, we opt for something that would
balance what we need to do for God and the Church and
what we need to do for our families and our jobs.
However, what is important is that we cultivate within
us an inner freedom - an inner disposition of readiness
to respond to the mission when the need really arises.
That will be our moment of truth: whether we really
opt for God or choose something that is less of Him.
Our Christian journey and our nurturance of our spiritual
life helps us to strengthen the resolve of our inner
dispositions - purifying it through the fire of God’s
grace and His Holy Spirit and “steeling” it with the
courage that comes from on High so that whenever we
are “called” beyond our normal duties and responsibilities
to respond to something greater than ourselves, something
greater than life itself, and something that is really
of God, we may respond wholeheartedly and with our
entire being in generous service to the Lord our King.
Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, Year C
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Lectionary Readings for Birth of John the Baptist, Year C
“Was not the hand of the Lord upon him?”
In the Sunday liturgy, official liturgists teach the norm
that when a solemnity falls on a Sunday, this solemnity
supersedes the regular Mass slated for that Sunday. So,
for this Sunday, which is supposed to be the 12th Sunday
of the Year, since the solemnity of the Birth of John
the Baptist - celebrated annually every 24th of June -
falls upon a Sunday, this solemnity takes the place of
the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
It is very rare for persons, other than the person of
Jesus, to occupy the Lord’s Day on Sunday. This is one
occasion. But the person of John the Baptist is one
that really deserves special mention. And this is his
day. Even the Lord Jesus spoke in the gospels and told
people that “there is no man born of woman greater than
John the Baptist”. What makes John the Baptist very
important? Bible scholars tell us that he is the last
of prophets of Israel who was called to point to the
coming of the Messiah. His person is even alluded to
in Old Testament references. One of these Old Testament
references is seen in the second reading for this feast:
from the book of the prophet Isaiah - “…The Lord
called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me
my name”.
The person of John the Baptist teaches us a very important
lesson: that of pointing to the Lord Jesus as the Savior
and the Messiah. In one of the Baptist’s words, he even
stated that “He must increase, while I must decrease”.
Such humility is to be commended from a man who has
so great a courage as to speak bravely against Herod’s
sin of taking his brother’s wife Herodias. But John
the Baptist had a humility that was genuine - one that
knew he is only a herald and not the One expected by
the people Israel. When we apply this example of John in
our life, we see how we fall short of his humility many
times. In our desire to help others, and to care and
minister to others, or to solve other people’s problems,
we often forget that what we have - our strengths, our
intelligence, and our capacity to serve - genuinely come
from God’s gift of life to us. When we do forget, pride
usually sets in and we do not acknowledge God who is really
the One who makes everything work and leads everything
to its proper direction. But we can guard against this
danger of pride by always looking to the person of John
the Baptist who knows that “he must decrease, while the
Lord Jesus must increase”. One safeguard for this
humility in terms of spirituality is a regular life
of prayer, times for recollection, and space for
solitude.
11th Sunday of the Year, Year C
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Lectionary Readings for the 11th Sunday of the Year, Year C
“Your faith has been your salvation. Go now in peace.”
If the gospel for this Sunday were to be dramatized, it
would elicit and evoke deep and strong emotions. The
gospel scene tells of a sinful woman who enters the house
where Jesus was invited by Simon the Pharisee. Because
she was very sorry for her sins, she wept at Jesus’ feet
and wiped the tears off Jesus’ feet w/ her hair–perfuming
it then with oil. We may presume that the social context
of the sinful woman moved her to do this because she had
been outcasted by her religious Jewish society - together
with tax collectors like Zacchaeus. The Pharisee Simon, and
those of his level of authority judged only as their social
positions asks of them to judge: because of their accountability
to the Law and their people. However, Jesus looked at this
situation differently. With the compassion and mercy
of God in Him, he forgave the woman of her sins and helped
in a way, establish her back to a life in tune with the
people of her place. And Jesus, knowing that His mission
is to help people to repentance, and return to the Father
in peace, encouraged her all the more with these words:
“Your faith has been your salvation. Go now in peace.”
What Jesus teaches us in this situation is the value of
God’s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness above the moral
laws of His Jewish society. We can go back to other gospel
passages and see that a woman caught in adultery is to be
sentenced with stoning. But Jesus tells us that He has
come to fulfill the Law of His time. And one of the
expressions of this fulfillment, is the forgiveness of
this woman’s sinful life. By the way the sinful woman
approached Jesus, expressed sorrow for her sins, and
showed signs of sincere repentance, the scene helps us
to see the importance of repentance even when a person’s
sinful life has offended God and society - such as in
this woman’s case.
Though our lives may have not have turned in the way
that this sinful woman in the gospel has directed hers,
we still are called to examine our selves and see where
we have offended the Lord and caused much offense to those
who we come into relationship with every day. It is for
certain that even when we do not mean to do as we did,
we may have caused serious wounds to others that may take
a lot time to heal. When we do see these situations
and feel the need to redress them, let us remember that
it is not by our own efforts or strengths alone that we
can do so; it needs primarily the graces and gifts we
obtain from sacramental Confession, the strengths we
receive from the Eucharist, and the help of supportive,
understanding, and broad-minded people in our social
network who can help to “rebuild broken bridges” and
make relationships whole once more. In the context of
the family, this is even more heightened when the wounds
are healed only by a return to the love of God and each
other. It has been a traditional Catholic practice to
consecrate the family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
When a family does so, and renews its consecration as
a family, then whatever offenses each one has caused to
each other may be resolved with the help of the love
of the Sacred Heart indwelling in each member of the
family.
Corpus Christi, Year C
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Lectionary Readings for Corpus Christi, Year C
“What they had left, over and above, filled twelve
baskets.”
The gospel for Corpus Christi, Year C, is taken from the
gospel of Luke, chapter 9. The passage narrates the
miraculous feeding of five thousand men [according to
bible scholars, Jewish culture at the time does not
include women and children in the counting]. When Jesus
took the only five loaves and two fishes that were
available, He pronounced a blessing over them, broke them,
and gave them to His disciples for distributing to the
crowd. When all the people have eaten, surprisingly,
there were leftovers that filled 12 baskets - more food
than what the people really need to have their fill. This
miraculous feeding story is often used by bible teachers
and scholars to allude to the sacrament of the Eucharist.
When we attend the Eucharist on Sunday and celebrate the
feast of Corpus Christi, we often take for granted what
happens during the consecration - as this is what we
always see every Sunday. This Sunday though is quite
special, for we are called to place our focus on the
Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Jesus Himself - who
gave His life that we may be saved from our sins. We
do not know it, but every time the priest consecrates
the bread and wine, the matter of that bread and wine
is transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is
a miracle we often don’t see - as we are so used to it.
Though the form remains as bread and wine, the matter or
substance in which it is composed of, is transformed into
the very Body and Blood of Jesus - that which can really
miraculously feed our souls and save us from moral
degeneration.
The very substance of the Body and Blood of Jesus that
we receive in the Eucharist helps us to be formed into
the likeness of Jesus Himself: bringing His blessings
and graces into our communities, our families and the work
environment in which we earn a living. When we have
received the Body of Jesus in communion, we receive His
spirit of service and self-giving - making it come alive
in whatever we do during the week. The more we are rooted,
the more we are grounded in the Eucharist, the more we
shall have Jesus in our minds and our entire being. It
is Jesus in His very Body and Blood which nourishes our
faith and makes it grow and become strong for the mission
of making Him known in both word and deed.
Trinity Sunday, Year C
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Lectionary Readings for Trinity Sunday, Year C
“…He will guide you to all truth.”
There is one version of an anecdote on St. Augustine of
Hippo. One goes like this:
St. Augustine was pondering and pondering and trying to
understand the Christian mysteries as he was walking by
the seashore. As he continued on in his thinking, he saw a
little boy digging a small whole in the sand and then going
to the sea to get water in a spoon. He asked the boy:
“What are you doing?” And the boy answered, “I am getting
the water from the sea and transferring it over to this
hole that I made.” At that moment, St. Augustine obtained
the understanding he needed about his questions. He
finally understood what he was trying to do. His search
for the truth on the Christian mysteries was like the boy
getting water from the sea and filling up the hole that
he had dug. Then, when St. Augustine looked back to speak
to the boy, the boy suddenly could not be found.
This Sunday is in honor of the Blessed Trinity, a Christian
mystery which is unfathomable like the sea. Many doctors
of the church have written about it very beautifully and
have explained spiritually what the mystery is about.
But, if we really try to understand it with logic, it will
be truly impossible. The understanding of the Christian
mysteries is a gift from the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the
gospel this Sunday tells us about the Holy Spirit who is
the Spirit of truth. He says, “when He comes…being the
Spirit of truth He will guide you to all truth”. It is
by virtue of the Holy Spirit that we are given the gifts
of faith, understanding, knowledge, and wisdom. And
the gift of wisdom tells us that our human capacity to
know the divine is limited.
Those who seek to understand the Blessed Trinity through
theological knowledge will still be swamped by so many
intricate details and truths, that eventually will leave
them still faced with a mystery unfathomable. But if
all of us live the presence of the Blessed Trinity in
our lives, then we can fully understand how God
truly cares for us, provides for us and secures us with
His protection. What better way for us to honor and
glorify the presence of the Blessed Trinity in
our lives than by simply making the sign of the
cross whenever we begin our prayers and when we end
our prayers. If our prayer will be always “in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit”, then the Trinity will bless us with what we
need and protect us from all harm.
