The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate how our relationships with family are the source of our journey to extend Jesus' love, mercy and compassion to all people.
The reading from the Prophet Micah celebrates God’s compassion and steadfast Love.
* [7:8–20] The book concludes with a collection of confident prayers for deliverance, affirmations of faith, and announcements of salvation. Most of these verses bear the marks of use in worship, and probably arose in the exilic or postexilic periods. (Micah, CHAPTER 7, n.d.)
Psalm 85 is a prayer for the restoration of God’s Favour.
* [Psalm 85] A national lament reminding God of past favors and forgiveness (Ps 85:2–4) and begging for forgiveness and grace now (Ps 85:5–8). A speaker represents the people who wait humbly with open hearts (Ps 85:9–10): God will be active on their behalf (Ps 85:11–13). The situation suggests the conditions of Judea during the early postexilic period, the fifth century B.C.; the thoughts are similar to those of postexilic prophets (Hg 1:5–11; 2:6–9). (Psalms, PSALM 85, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Matthew, we learn of the true kindred of Jesus.
* [12:46–50] See Mk 3:31–35. Matthew has omitted Mk 3:20–21 which is taken up in Mk 3:31 (see note on Mt 12:22–32), yet the point of the story is the same in both gospels: natural kinship with Jesus counts for nothing; only one who does the will of his heavenly Father belongs to his true family. (Matthew, CHAPTER 12, n.d.)
Ann Mausbach comments that we know from our own lived experiences that being in a family can be messy. As much as we can love our siblings and parents, they can be nosey, frustrating, unsympathetic. This complexity comes from deep love and intimacy.
These people have known you for your entire life and have been witness to all the good and not so good phases of your life. And therein lies the beauty of family. In today’s gospel we are being called to delve into this same love and intimacy with God. We are being reminded that we are a part of a larger family that has unconditional love flowing from the center. And even though life is messy, and complicated, and difficult to grasp at times there is a place you can go and be seen and loved in all your imperfections.
The challenge for us is to accept this membership and our other family members for their warts and flaws. Let us pray today to embrace the love and grace that comes with being a member of God’s family. Let’s practice acceptance and understanding as we work to love ourselves and others. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “My mother through faith,” by by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD)
"If someone can become the brother of the Lord by coming to faith, we must ask how one can become also his mother. We must realize that the one who is Christ's brother and sister by believing becomes his mother by preaching. It is as though one brings forth the Lord and infuses him in the hearts of one's listeners. And that person becomes his mother if through one's voice the love of the Lord is generated in the mind of his neighbor. (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 3.2) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 12:46-50 comments that Jesus' entire life was centered around doing the will of his Father. He taught his disciples to pray that the will of his heavenly Father be done (Matthew 6:10). Jesus had come to do the will of his Father, and he urged us to do the same.
So how do you become Jesus’ “brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:50)? You follow in Jesus’ footsteps. You center your life on doing the will of the Father by listening to him each day in prayer and then acting on whatever he tells you. You carve out extra time to spend with him when you are facing a big decision. And like Jesus, you obey God even when it means that you might not be understood by the people closest to you.
This is by no means easy, but the reward is great. When you do your Father’s will, you are as close to Jesus as any of his blood relations ever were. These are family bonds that will endure into eternity. God is truly your Father and Jesus is truly your brother, now and forever.
“Jesus, I want to do the will of your Father today.” (Meditation on Matthew 12:46-50, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments that Micah found that the kings and priests were not shepherding the people as he sought the action of God to bring them to conversion. The qualities of God expressed in the Hebrew “Emet and Chesed” are connected to Micah and Psalm 85. Friar Jude reminds us that Mary, especially in Luke, shows how to live the will of God.
Rabbi Shefa Gold discusses the Hebrew names of God “Emet and Chesed”.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Sister Thea Bowman (1937–1990), a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. When she addressed the United States Catholic bishops in 1989, she sang several lines of the African-American spiritual “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child / A long way from home” Embracing her Black, Catholic, female identity, she said: What does it mean to be Black and Catholic?
A spirituality that in the middle of your Mass or in the middle of your sermon just might have to shout out and say, “Amen, hallelujah, thank you Jesus.” A faith that attempts to be Spirit-filled. The old ladies say if you love the Lord your God with your whole heart, [with] your whole soul and your whole mind and all your strength, then you praise the Lord with your whole heart and soul and mind and strength and you don’t bring [God] any feeble service. . . .
Today we’re called to walk together in a new way toward that land of promise and to celebrate who we are and whose we are. If we as church walk together, don’t let nobody separate you. That’s one thing Black folk can teach you. Don’t let folk divide you or put the lay folk over here and the clergy over here, [or] put the bishops in one room and the clergy in the other room, put the women over here and the men over here.
The church teaches us that the church is a family. It’s a family of families and the family got to stay together. We know that if we do stay together, if we walk and talk and work and play and stand together in Jesus’ name, we’ll be who we say we are, truly Catholic; and we shall overcome—overcome the poverty, overcome the loneliness, overcome the alienation, and build together a holy city, a new Jerusalem, a city set apart where they’ll know we are his because we love one another. (Rohr, 2022)
We experience the diversity and messiness of the human family and call on the Spirit to guide our mission as Jesus' disciples in this family.
References
Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/071922.html
Matthew, CHAPTER 12. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12?46
Meditation on Matthew 12:46-50. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/07/19/444870/
Micah, CHAPTER 7. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/micah/7?14
Psalms, PSALM 85. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/85?2
Rohr, R. (2022, July 19). I Bring Myself — Center for Action and Contemplation. Daily Meditations Archive: 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/i-bring-myself-2022-07-19/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=jul19
No comments:
Post a Comment