05 July. Tuesday, Week 14
Saint Anthony Zaccaria, optional memorial
1st Reading: Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13
For their sins, they shall return to slavery
They made kings, but not through me;
they set up princes, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
For an artisan made it; it is not God.
The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal;
and if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it.
When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin,
they became to him altars for sinning.
Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions,
they are regarded as a strange thing.
Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh,
the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins;
they shall return to Egypt.
Gospel: Matthew 9:32-38
Jesus proclaims the reign of God, for the harvest is ready
After the others had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to Jesus. And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.”
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
Compassion for them
Today’s Gospel offers a striking pen-portrait of Jesus’ pastoral ministry: what a glorious combination of zeal and mercy. While driven by the Spirit’s impulse to reach as many people as possible with his healing touch and inspiring teaching, he always found time to show them compassion. He felt for people in the reality of their lives. He knew the limitations they lived with, in their simple houses and days of poorly-paid, unremitting toil. Not for him the life of a pampered courtier in King Herod’s court.
Matthew’s great summary sentence, “He had compassion for them” should echo in the hearts of all Christians, but especially those called to ministry, right up to the holders of the highest pastoral offices in our Church. (One wonders how far our Vatican officials, or indeed our own bishops, tune in to that profound compassion for which Jesus was so noted. If they did, would they dismiss people from the Lord’s Table because of marital failures, or being born into a different religious tradition? Would they so calmly ignore the injustice and exclusion experienced by many women, who feel denied the exercise of their ministerial gifts?)
Each must be alert to whatever ways God makes it possible for us to show compassion for others. “The harvest” he said “is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” Putting it more positively we can say there is always room for compassionate outreach in our Church. And the forms of that outreach cannot be narrowly confined within the limits imposed by an earlier, patriarchal, monarchical culture. It is in a spirit of hope and of Gospel creativity, therefore, that we should “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
Notice the striking contrast in this morning’s gospel story between the way the ordinary people respond to Our Lord’s healing ministry and the way the religious leaders respond to it. The people were amazed and said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.’ The religious leaders said, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts out devils.’ Both saw Jesus perform the same deeds, and, yet, both interpreted what they saw in very different ways. One group saw the presence of God and the other group saw the presence of evil. One group was open to the truth of who Jesus really was; the other group were blinded by their prejudice. These were two very different ways of seeing. The people’s way of seeing Jesus was like Jesus’ way of seeing people. He saw the goodness in people just as the people saw the presence of God in Jesus. The gospel calls on us to be alert to the signs of goodness in others, to the signs of God’s presence all around us, especially in those who cross our path in life. We need the generous vision of the people, and especially of Jesus, rather than the jaundiced vision of the religious leaders, if we are to see the many ways that the Lord is present and active among us.
Saint Anthony Zaccaria, priest
Anthony Zaccaria (1502-1539) from Cremona, Italy, studied medicine in Padua and practised as a physician for three years. From 1527 he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1528. He mainly worked in hospitals and institutions for the poor, and founded three religious institutes: one for men (the Barnabites); one for women (the Sisters of Saint Paul). While in Vincenza, he popularized for the laity the Forty-hour devotion, solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for the adoration of the faithful.
More than one idea put forth here, very implicitly, is against Church teaching – full Communion without a full communion of faith, and women’s ordination. Homilies should never go against Church teaching.
I read this page regularly and love the reflections. I however was very disappointed today reading the second paragraph of today’s reflection. It is really misleading and disorienting to any good lay faithful who is not well grounded in church teachings. I believe a reflection is supposed to be an exhortation and spiritually edifying. Everyone has personal views and can air them but I believe this is a wrong forum. The second paragraph is contradictory to church teachings. Thanks
Wow… I have generally found this website to be helpful as I initially reflect on the scriptures, but today I’m at a loss! Blatantly heretical. This reflection is explicitly unfaithful to the very Word of God it seeks to explicate and furthermore twists and manipulates the Scriptures to be an agent of the anti-Catholic, anti-objective truth, anti-historical, anti-reality culture that is washing over our people (and even claimed some of our brother priests). For shame! Be assured that I will be alerting brother priests about such an incredible lack of diligence in allowing this piece to go online (or lack of faithfulness should it have been approved for it’s content).
I am quite disappointed today. When I am reading the homily, I am looking for the sound teaching of Jesus and the Catholic Church. I believe the rule of priests is to give to the faithful not their ideas but explanation of the Gospel. If I want to read some heretical homilies I will go to the Church of England or Lutheran webpage.
Hello brethren,
I am sorry if I’ve caused offence to some of my priestly colleagues by raising questions which they think would mislead the faithful. One objects that today’s reflection “twists and manipulates the Scriptures to be an agent of the anti-Catholic, anti-objective truth, anti-historical, anti-reality culture”. Another holds that “more than one idea put forth here, very implicitly, is against Church teaching.”
It is far from my intention to promote heresy in this column. But I understand the homily to be an attempt to link aspects of the day’s Scripture Readings to actual live issues of concern in our world of today. Hence the question, in light what He is shown doing and saying in today’s Gospel, what might be Jesus’ guidance to us today, on issues that are warmly debated in our beloved Church? Just how far is our doctrine set in stone, fixed for eternity, impermeable to revision, in light of what is held by respected thinkers of today? Some in the early Church held that circumcision was always mandatory. Others held that people could in good conscience hold others in slavery. Most thought that the Bible taught that the sun revolves around our world. Galileo was imprisoned for a while, for opining the contrary…
To be quick to scent heresy at any suggestion that we might change our operative policy or (still more) our convictions, on this or that matter of discipline or governance would seem to place us closer to the mindset of the Pharisees than of Jesus himself, who did not hesitate to question the relevance of some revered laws coming from Moses, in the interests of compassion.
Perhaps the famous question asked by pope Francis, “Who am I to judge?” has prompted me to wonder what might Jesus say, in some areas which the more hardline of Church leaders seem to consider untouchable and definitively closed to any further questioning.
Anyway, you may rest assured that this “Homily Resources” section has not taken a hard-left turning. So long as I’m responsible for it, we shall try to remain “middle of the road”!
Your brother in the Ministry of the Word,
Fr. Pat Rogers
By the way, I am glad that the column is being read with such attention. And if I may, I would prefer if you could include your surnames along with your comments. It’s nice to know the full names of one’s correspondents, just as you know mine.
A good defence of an excellent column and long may you continue to inspire and challenge us, Pat Rogers. Personally I find your column very Christlike in tone and do not understand how anyone could take umbrage at anything you publish here. Still, we believe in freedom of speech and we have to accept that there will always be those who disagree. As long as it is done out of charity and we are open to learning there is no harm. Thank you for the efforts you make to produce these as it must take up a considerable amount of your very precious spare time.
Thank you Mary.
I suppose it’s always nice to get some affirmation for one’s efforts. But I also welcome critical comments from any of our readers provided they stay in charitable mode and try to avoid the terms heresy – or “blatant heresy”. I think that readers who share the temple police mentality could do a better job by trying to dialogue with those whom they disapprove, rather than delating them to the CDF in Rome… and usually anonymously, it would seem. That’s why I would prefer that full names be provided when one has a comment to make on one side or the other. Let’s keep the conversations going, within the family of faith. Our church is meant to be a kind of family I would think… after all as didn’t Jesus say that we are his brothers and sisters and mother. That should count for something, in our conversations.
Pat Rogers
Oh, and by the way, I don’t quite share the view that Anglican and Lutheran websites should be dismissed with such contempt, as “heretical”.