Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles (A)

Acts 12:1-11
Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18
Mt 16:13-19

This Sunday's Gospel reading describes the holy quality of "shepherding" that's required of those who are in Christian leadership. This includes not only our priests, but also lay ministers, parents, teachers, and so forth.

After Peter recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he was called and commissioned to shepherd others into the same realization. Today, every follower of Christ who is in any kind of leadership role still has this responsibility. We are to show those in our care what Jesus is really like. Being in charge of meetings, or directing clubs or choirs or religious education classes, or having positions of authority in parish or diocesan ministries — these are merely vehicles of the mission.

Paul suffered in his shepherd's ministry (as we see in the first reading), like Jesus did and like we do if we're involved enough to really make a difference for the kingdom of God. The good news is that the gates of the netherworld do not prevail against our efforts to help people escape from the destruction of sin. In Christ's Holy Spirit, we have the power and guidance to succeed. Christ goes ahead of us and his Spirit prepares the hearts of those whom we are called to reach.

A Christian leader who does not go into Satan's territory to rescue lost souls and who does nothing to protect his flock from wandering into danger is no follower of Christ, because this was Christ's entire mission.

Questions for Personal Reflection:

List the people who are under your care. Do they always see Jesus in you? Do they learn about Jesus from the way you treat them? What can you do to improve your shepherding this week?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

Describe a time when someone shepherded you and brought you closer to Jesus. When you shepherd others, do they always know it's really Jesus who's leading them? When they fail to recognize Jesus in you despite your best efforts to be like him, how do you handle this?

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Visitors to Rome can see St. Peter's Basilica, the center of the Christian world, and the church of St. Paul Outside the Walls. These two great churches, honoring the saints we celebrate today, are immense structures—it is an overwhelming experience to visit them. The vast open spaces, towering pillars and sculptures, distant ceiling—all take visitors outside of themselves.

That's intentional.These churches are meant to lift us beyond ourselves to God—much like the Scriptures we read in today's liturgy. Although the readings relate episodes from the lives of Peter and Paul, the message isn't focused on the persons of these two apostles, but leads us back to God.

Peter's prison story—our first reading—stresses how God’s power freed him to return to the Church community. Paul's testimony in the second reading points likewise to how God stood by him during his ministry and rescued him from harm. The Gospel account relates Peter's confession of Christ as Messiah and Son of God.

We've no way of knowing how these two apostles would react to the great Roman basilicas dedicated to their memory.But my suspicion is that they would want to shift our focus from themselves to the God who gave them the strength to deliver their message. May we also discover the strength to let our lives reflect God's power.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Ex 19:2-6a
Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5
Rm 5:6-11
Mt 9:36--10:8

In this Sunday's Gospel reading, notice how strongly Jesus was moved by the needs of the people. His heart ached for them, because he knew they felt troubled and abandoned. What's surprising, however, is how he responded. Although he likened them to sheep without a shepherd, and elsewhere he describes himself as the Good Shepherd, instead of taking action as that shepherd, he immediately turned to his disciples and called them to do the work!

Today, there are many who suffer troubles and feel abandoned because not enough is being done to help them. So, when we see a parish lacking a pastor, or a ministry lacking a shepherd, or a need lacking a ministry, we do as Jesus tells us to do: We beg the master of the harvest to send forth more laborers. And Jesus taps us on the shoulder and says, "YOU do it."

We ask God to increase the number of priest vocations, because there are too few men entering the seminary. And Jesus says, "Don't just pray, get up and do some of the work! You have a vocation, too!"

The reason why many people feel that God hasn't answered their prayers (and has therefore abandoned them) is because Jesus responds to their needs through us — and too few of us are giving him a free hand to use. We don't have enough lay people assisting the priests we do have. We don't have enough Christians standing up against injustices and other evils, and so of course, to many who suffer, God seems distant and uncaring.

Jesus was one man serving a whole nation, and he accomplished much in only three years because of the apostles who assisted him. The harvest needs collaborators. There are a few things that only a priest-shepherd can do; everything else can be done by his assistants, under his guidance, so that all needs are met. This is how the Church is made whole and holy and effective in evangelization.

Questions for Personal Reflection:

What has Jesus asked you to do as an extension of himself? Which of his gifts are you using to help in the work of his kingdom? Which gifts has he given you that you're not using? Why not?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

What would our Church be like if everyone became an extension of Jesus using the gifts and talents that God has given them? How would this change the face of your parish?

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Today's Scripture readings make today a kind of "vocation Sunday." The Gospel certainly fits such a theme. There, Jesus calls his 12 disciples, after he has witnessed the crowds, people who are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. He gives the Twelve a call to proclaim the Kingdom.

What did these 12 men hear or see in Jesus that made them follow him? If we knew the answer, we'd have a better clue to our own response, perhaps—and be better able to respond to Christ today.

I see clues for motivation in today's first reading. Like other recent selections from the Hebrew Scriptures, it comes from the story of Israel in the desert. Moses has gathered the people at the foot of Mount Sinai, where God wants to offer them a covenant. God is looking for their response. The motivation God offers is: See how I freed you from the Egyptians? Remember what I did at the Red Sea, and how I got you this far, sustaining you on this desert journey?

In other words, take a good look at what God has done. Can we do the same as we're invited to a "vocational response" in today's liturgy? What has God done for you lately? As you attend Mass this weekend, take time to ponder that question—and then make your response to God's call.

Scripture:

•You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself. (Exodus 19:4)

•The LORD is good: his kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

•Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

•At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

•“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” (Matthew 10:7,8)

Reflection:

•As Jesus instructs the disciples to be evangelizers in Matthew, are we to take the same message to heart?

•Are the unchurched the “troubled and abandoned” of the 21st century? How can this group be reached? Is the soul reached through the body or the body reached through the soul?

•How can anyone claim to spread the work of God without helping the poor in material and the poor in spirit?

•“Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.” In this instance, may Jesus’ command to be taken both literally and figuratively? Explain this command to evangelization?

This is crucial: we must be converted—and we must continue to be converted! We must let the Holy Spirit change our lives! We must respond to Jesus Christ. And we must be open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit who will continue to convert us as we follow Christ. If our faith is alive, it will be aroused again and again as we mature as disciples.

The fruits of evangelization are changed lives and a changed world—holiness and justice, spirituality and peace. The validity of our having accepted the Gospel does not only come from what we feel or what we know; it comes also from the way we serve others, especially the poorest, the most marginal, the most hurting, the most defenseless, and the least loved. An evangelization that stays inside ourselves is not an evangelization into the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Published by Jacob Soo
Credits to Americancatholic.org and Good News Ministries

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Hos 6:3-6
Ps 50:1, 8, 12-13, 14-15
Rm 4:18-25
Mt 9:9-13

In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, consider how we are called to be like Jesus and reach out to those whom others have rejected. Who are the marginalized and neglected in your parish? Who are uninvolved because no one invited them? Which people at work ask for your prayers and show an interest in God but don't go to church because they feel outcast? Which ones never get invited into social groupings at parish events because they are too different or too sinful or too this or too that?

These are the Matthews around us. Matthew followed Jesus after he was invited. Would he have joined the group of disciples who encircled Jesus if no one had reached out to him? Probably not, because as a Jew who collected taxes for the enemy, he was despised as lower than the lowest scum.

Often, the people we know who are not showing up at Mass or other parish functions are absent because they feel like they don't belong and no one has invited them. Even if it takes more than a few tries to convince them that they will be welcomed, we should never judge anyone as unworthy of our repeated attempts.

Evangelization is most effective when we walk with others, forming compassionate relationships with them. This doesn't mean that we have to make these people our close and frequent companions, but remember that Matthew ended up as one of the inner twelve who helped lead the growth of the early Church. Your invitations could have unimaginable impacts on a scale that you cannot foresee!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

Did you ever feel like a Matthew? Who's invited you to experience more of Christ's love? Who are the Matthews in your life? What are you doing about them?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

How has God taught you to reach out to those whom others reject? What difference did you make when you went out of your way to befriend someone or to talk about Jesus to someone who didn't fit the mold of normal church life?

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If you're lucky enough to be near a garden, and to walk there early in the morning, you'll understand today's first reading. The prophet Hosea talks about the dawn of the day, and the sun lighting the morning sky. If there's been a spring rain, the garden will be lush and green. The early morning clouds and the dew dampening the garden in the first part of the day quickly vanish.

These down-to-earth images describe both our God's life-giving presence, and our own human response. Where God brings certainty, truth and life, we so often respond with shallow piety, a religious fervor that's just talk, and superficial gestures, rather than a real sacrificial response of love.

Jesus is just as down-to-earth in the Gospel. In a scene that must have stunned those who witnessed it, he confronts Matthew the tax collector. Here was a man rejected by the so-called religious crowd, outcast because his profession was marked by collaboration with the Romans and easy temptation to greed and selfishness.

Jesus offers Matthew a call to loving service. In his call to Matthew, Jesus brings forgiveness and echoes the prophet Hosea's message from God: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

We hear these words at Sunday Mass—a ritual action which can become superficial for us, if we do not make a loving response to what we've heard.

Scripture:

•…for it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts. (Hosea 6:6)
•…it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification. (Romans 4:24,25)
•The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words,‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Matthew 9:11-13)

Reflection:

•Who does Jesus spend time with? Why?
•Who do you spend time with? Why?
•What does God desire?
•Does God or humankind impose conditions on salvation?

This Christ-centered love takes us out of ourselves and brings our newly found sense of independence into relationships that are not based on dependence, as many relationships tend to be, but that are based on Christ as their center. It enables one to work for others with great liberty of spirit because one is no longer seeking one’s own ego centered goals but responding to reality as it is. Divine love is not an attitude to put on like a cloak. It is rather the right way to respond to reality. It is the right relationship to being, including our own being. And that relationship is primarily one of receiving. No one has any degree of divine love except what one has received. An important part of the response to divine love, once it has been received, is to pass it on to our neighbor in a way that is appropriate in the present moment.¹

Nothing is obtained from God except by Love.

9th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Dt 11:18, 26-28, 32
Ps 31:2-3, 34, 17, 25
1 Rm 3:21-25, 28
Mt 7:21-27

In next Sunday's Gospel reading, Jesus explains how to be a true disciple: DO the will of the Father. ACT upon what you've learned from Jesus. He's constantly speaking to us through the scriptures and the teachings of the Church. We cannot afford to be merely hearers of the Word; our salvation depends on being doers of the Word. If we claim to have faith in Jesus but we do not do what he has taught us to do, then we are merely saying "Lord, Lord" — we are not following our Lord to heaven.

As Jesus points out, if we take action, first by integrating the truths of God's kingdom into our daily lives and then by making a difference in the world, we will be able to withstand any storm, any persecution, and any trial, even when our actions stir up the storm. Why? Because we are living in Christ's death and resurrection, we are living in his power, and we are living in his strength, which overcame the world.

But if we fail to let the teachings of Jesus transform us, when our lives are flooded by troubles, they'll destroy us — they'll destroy our peace, our joy, our awareness that God is loving us, and probably much more. When we try to survive these storms the way our worldly training says we should, things only get worse or — at best — the calming influence of Christ's peace gets delayed.

And if we fail to take the teachings of Jesus into the world around us, the blowing winds of immorality and dysfunction and abuses will destroy others, and we will be contributing to their demise by our inaction. That's not the path to heaven! It's the mortal sin of apathy. This might sound harsh, but in order to be resurrected into heaven after we die, we have to first go to the cross with Jesus. We have to care enough about others to stand up against the evils that we witness.

Storms will rage because of what we do for Christ and with Christ, but we will not collapse. In fact, we will only grow stronger.

Questions for Personal Reflection:

What storm are you living through right now? What is changing within you as a result of this storm? Is it leading you to greater holiness?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

Describe a past storm in your life and explain how it changed you. How has this enhanced your life? How has it enhanced your ministry to others?