Tuesday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Sermon attributed to Saint Maximus of Turin (?-v. 420), Bishop
Sermon attributed to St. Maximus of Turin (? - c.420), Bishop

"You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world"

The Lord said to his apostles: "You are the light of the world." How accurate they are, those analogies our Lord uses in referring to our fathers in the faith! He calls "salt" those who teach us God's wisdom and "light" those who dispel from our hearts the blindness and obscurity of our doubt. So it is very right that the apostles should receive this name of light. In the darkness of this world they proclaim the brightness of heaven, the splendor of eternity. Didn't Peter become a light for the whole world and for all the faithful when he said to the Lord: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"? (Mt 16:16) What greater enlightenment could the human race have received than to learn through Peter that the Son of the living God was the creator of its own light?

And Saint Paul was no less a great light for the world. While all the earth was blinded by the darkness of its misdeeds, he was raised even to heaven (2Cor 12:2) and, on his return, made known the mysteries of the everlasting glory. That is why he could neither hide himself, as in the case of the city set on a hilltop, nor let himself be put under a bushel measure, since Christ, by the light of his majesty, had set him alight like a chosen lamp filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit. Hence, my friends, if, renouncing the illusory things of this world, we have at heart to seek out the savor of God's wisdom, let us taste the salt of the apostles.

'The sadness that "works repentance unto a lasting salvation," likewise, is obedient, courteous, humble, mild, gracious, and patient, inasmuch as it comes from the love of God. It stretches itself out tirelessly, in its desire for perfection, to every bodily pain and to contrition of spirit. With a kind of joy, and quickened by the hope of its own progress, it retains all its gracious courtesy and forbearance, having in itself all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which the same Apostle enumerates: "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, goodness, kindness, faith, mildness, continence". [Galatians 5:22-23] But the other is very harsh, impatient, rough, full of rancor and barren grief and punishing despair, crushing the one whom it has embraced and drawing him away from any effort and from salutary sorrow, since it is irrational. Too, it not only removes the efficacy of prayer but also eliminates all the spiritual fruits that we have spoken of and that the first is capable of bestowing.'

St. John Cassian

The Angelus

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28)

"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Lk 1:42).

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Holy Spirit Interactive Kids: A Saint a Day

St. John of Sahagun

Feast Day: June 12
Born: 1419 :: Died: 1479

John Gonzales de Castrillo was born at Sahagun, L�on in Spain. He was the first of seven children born to wealthy parents who did not have any children for the first sixteen years of their marriage. His parents John and Sancia brought their children up well and taught them how to love God.

He studied at the Fagondez abbey run by Benedictine monks of his town Sahagun. When he grew up John became a priest. He could have lived a very comfortable life in the cathedral parish or in other wealthy parishes. But John preferred the poverty and simple lifestyle that Jesus had lived. Father John chose to keep charge only of a small chapel. There he celebrated Mass, preached and taught catechism.

Father John realized that he needed to know theology (religious studies) better. He started attending classes at the great Catholic University of Salamanca. After four years of hard study, he became a famous preacher.

Nine years later after he got seriously ill, John joined a community of Augustinian friars. They were very impressed by the way he practiced the Christian virtues. He was obedient to his superiors and humble, too. He also continued his preaching.

His beautiful homilies or sermons changed the hearts of the people of Salamanca who had been quarreling violently among themselves. Often young noblemen fought each other in revenge. St. John was able to end many of these bitter fights and convinced people to forgive one another.

He was not afraid to correct evils, even when the evildoers were powerful people who could take revenge. Once he corrected a duke at Alba de Tormes for the way he was making the poor people suffer. In anger, the duke sent two of his men to kill St. John. The two men approached Father John and found him so calm and kind. Both men were sorry they had come to harm this holy priest and asked him to forgive them.

Then the duke became sick and was healed through the prayers of St. John. He repented of his sins and recovered fully. St. John could read hearts of people at confession. People traveled great distances to seek his advice and ask for spiritual guidance.

It was the graces he received from prayer and from the Mass that gave St. John his special power as a preacher. He celebrated the Mass with great devotion and often saw the Host surrounded by light. He sometimes saw Jesus in body at the moment of consecration.

St. John was known to work many miracles. Once in Salamanca a small child fell into a well. The people did all they could but could not save the child and they quickly sent for Father John. When he got to the well, he laid his waistband on the stone wall of the well, and prayed that the waters return the child. The well water rose to ground level, floating the child to safety.

St. John of Sahagun died on June 11, 1479

Reflection: Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us become more like Jesus. May everything we say and do bring others to Christ.

Ordinary Time: June 12th

Tuesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time

MASS READINGS

June 12, 2018 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need, may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. for ever and ever.

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Old Calendar: St. John of San Facundo, confessor; Saints Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius, martyrs

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John of San Facondo born in 1430 in Spain. He was a canon of the cathedral of Burgos and then entered the Hermits of St. Augustine. He was distinguished for his great devotion to the sacrifice of the Mass and for his forceful preaching. He died in 1479.

Today is also the commemoration of Sts. Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius. These four martyrs have been venerated together at Rome from very early in the Church's history.

St. John of San Facundo
John came from a wealthy family. During a serious sickness he vowed to embrace an ascetic way of life upon recovery. In fulfillment of his resolve, he gave the better of his two garments to a beggar who went about almost naked, and joined the hermits of St. Augustine at Salamanca (1463); at the time that monastery was universally respected because of its strict rule and discipline. He was often granted the privilege of seeing Christ the Lord at holy Mass and learning the deepest secrets directly from God Himself, the secrets of men's hearts and the secret events of the future. Through his prayers the seven-year-old daughter of his brother was raised to life. His death was probably due to poisoning.

John's special charism was to calm passions and to restore peace. How quickly disputes and quarrels arise! Yet we must practice the beatitude: "Blessed are the peacemakers." Remember that the prayers for peace and the kiss of peace in the Mass should not be empty ceremonies.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Patron: Salamanca, Spain.

Symbols: A hermit of St. Augustine, walking upon the sea; holding a chalice and host surrounded by rays of light.

Sts. Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius
Basilides was a soldier in Rome, Nabor and Nazarius soldiers in Milan. Their bodies were found on the present day by St. Ambrose. All three died as martyrs under Diocletian. Cyrinus or Quirinus was a famous bishop of Siscia. In the church of the Apostles in Milan, St. Ambrose inscribed a number of edifying verses over the tomb of St. Nazarius. The final lines are: "Whom the Cross leads to victory, for him the Cross is the pledge of peace."

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Matthew 5:13-16

10th Week in Ordinary Time

Your light must shine before others. (Matthew 5:16)

Everyone loves to see a rainbow etched in the sky right after a rainstorm. The prism effect of colors splashed across a line of clouds never ceases to amaze us. Science tells us that it is actually white light from the sun that separates into a spectrum of colors as it passes through water in the atmosphere.

Today’s Gospel speaks of Jesus’ light as one that “must shine before others” in a way that glorifies his heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16). Imagine the light of Christ as that white light. When his light touches us, each of us displays a slightly different color, and together we, the Church, become like a beautiful rainbow painted across the sky.

It’s such a beautiful image, but many of us tend to think that we have nothing to offer—no light to shine. If that’s how you feel, let’s look at a possible remedy.

Nothing can help overturn discouraging thoughts like remembering who you are in Christ. No matter how you are doing—whether you are feeling healthy or ill, energetic or exhausted, close to God or far from him—Jesus is still in you and with you. In the same way that a father loves his child, God loves you simply for who you are. He is committed to you, and he will never leave you.

What does this mean? That you really are part of his beautiful rainbow—by virtue of his presence in you. So you can reject any thought that tries to tell you that other people may possess great gifts—but not you. You can reject any thought that tries to convince you that God’s light won’t shine through you until you are perfect. Nobody’s perfect!

Spiritual writer Caryll Houselander once put it this way: “Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose to our lives, that going day after day for years to this office or that school or factory is nothing else but waste and weariness. But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile.”

You are part of God’s beautiful rainbow. This is the truth. So go out and let that rainbow shine!

“Lord, help me shine my ‘Christ light’ today.”

1 Kings 17:7-16
Psalm 4:2-5, 7-8

Regnum Christi

June 12, 2018 – True Leadership

Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Shawn Aaron, LC

Matthew 5:13-16g

Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Introductory Prayer: Father of love, source of all blessings, you have led me throughout my life, and you lead me still. Thank you for your paternal care. Jesus, Son of God, you died for me on the cross to pay for my sins and manifest your unconditional love for me. Thank you for showing me the way home to the Father. Holy Spirit, sweet guest of the soul, you heal me and strengthen me and set me on fire from the most intimate depths of my soul. Thank you for your loving presence within me.

Petition: Lord, show me where I can make a difference.

1. The New Flavor of the Gospel: By calling us “the salt of the earth” Jesus meant that all his disciples, all those who would be called ‘Christians’ down through the centuries, would have the responsibility to work to give the new ‘taste’ of the Gospel to the earth and enlighten the entire world with Jesus’ teaching. Salt enhances the food we eat by accenting the natural flavor already present in the food. In like manner, we are called by God to enhance the world around us with the “saltiness” of our Christian lives. God created the world good, but sin has marred it. Through baptism God gives us the “salt” of his divine life – grace – so that, in turn, this grace of baptism will develop into a life of virtue and Christian charity by which we are called to “season” our environment. Do I have this awareness and desire which springs from my baptism?

2. Enlightening Minds and Hearts: Without light we are blind. The human eye is rendered useless where light is unable to penetrate. Analogously, all people have the power to know God who is truth, goodness and love. But without the particular light that is Jesus Christ, those faculties are clouded at best. Jesus wants you and me to be his light in contemporary society. By the way we live our life other people must see: They must see Christ. They must see the dignity of the human person and the noble calling each one of us has to live forever with God. They must see that love and mercy triumph over evil, suffering and death. The world needs our light because the world needs Christ.

3. The Shining Example of the Saints: What about humility? What about not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing? Jesus reminds us that our lives and actions are meant to direct people’s gaze to God and not towards ourselves: “So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The world has needed to see Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta in action. It has needed to see the youthful vigor and the aged frailty of Pope Saint John Paul II. Their light has illumined our path towards God. This side of heaven, we will always need the example of the saints, and that is precisely what you and I are called to be.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, you have given me everything I need to be faithful. Grant me also the courage and the zeal to live what I believe and to testify to your faithful love in my thoughts, words and actions. Mother Most Pure, make my heart only for Jesus.

Resolution: Today I will speak to someone about Jesus, backing up my words with the sincerity with which I live my Christian commitments.

Homily of the Day

June 12, 2018

In the first reading we read about how, during a severe drought, God fed the prophet Elijah, a widow of Zarephath and her son: “The jar of flour was not emptied nor did the jug of oil fail, in accordance with what Yahweh had said through Elijah.” (1 Kgs 17: 16)

In the Gospel reading Jesus reminds his followers of their lofty calling, to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world.” Jesus challenges us to give flavor to an otherwise dull or bland life and to act as a preservative for love and harmony in our relationships, much like what salt does to food. As light of the world, Jesus tells us to share our light with others, to reduce gloom and darkness. Indeed, much like the song, “One Little Candle,” it requires only a tiny spark of light in a room to break its darkness.

To be salt and light requires a strong and resilient faith, one that can stand firm amidst life’s difficult and cruel challenges. To be salt and light is to be a missionary on God’s errand and mission, which is never easy. With God’s grace, we can be salt and light for the world.

Lord, grant us the grace to be salt and light for our world. Give us generous hearts to work for the spread of your Good News.

One Bread, One Body

Language: English | Espa�ol

All Issues > Volume 34, Issue 4

<< Tuesday, June 12, 2018 >>

1 Kings 17:7-16
View Readings

Psalm 4:2-5, 7-8

Matthew 5:13-16
Similar Reflections

FOR GOD'S SAKE!

"Know that the Lord does wonders for His faithful one." �Psalm 4:4

Do you want to see the wonders of God? Then forget about them! The more we concentrate on being faithful servants of God � serving Him purely out of obedient love with no interest in being rewarded � the more He does wonders for His faithful ones (Ps 4:4). If our service to God is motivated by an interest in receiving His wonders, He may still move wonderfully on our behalf, because He cannot be unfaithful (2 Tm 2:13). However, we are the ultimate losers. We limit what we will receive from God, because the limited measure we give to God will in turn be given back to us (see Mt 7:2).

Rather than focusing on the wonders of God, focus only on the God of the wonders. Focus on His faithfulness, on His heart, and on the ways He is calling you to live your specific vocation in building up His kingdom. That's why Jesus taught us to pray to desire God's kingdom to come before we begin to focus on our own needs (Mt 6:10). This is what the widow of Zarephath did. Though impoverished, she put a higher priority on God's kingdom than on her own needs (1 Kgs 17:15). Then God blessed her self-forgetful faithfulness with far more wonders than she could have ever imagined (Eph 3:20): a year of miraculous food (1 Kgs 17:16) and the raising of her son from the dead by Elijah (1 Kgs 17:22; Sir 48:5). "Go and do the same" (Lk 10:37).

Prayer: Father, I will serve You with gladness (Ps 100:2). "You put gladness into my heart, more than when grain and wine abound" (Ps 4:8).

Promise: "Your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father." —Mt 5:16

Praise: Reading the Bible as a personal love letter from God changed how Philip saw God and himself. He now relies fully on the providential love of the Lord.

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