Entries

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

July 21, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

Show favor, O Lord, to your servants
and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace,
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Jer 23:1-6

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the Lord. 2 “Therefore” thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. “So I will attend to you for your evil doings,” says the Lord. 3 “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing,” says the Lord. 5 “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Second Reading Eph 2:13-18

Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both Jews and Gentiles into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So Christ Jesus came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Alleluia Jn 10:27

Gospel Mk 6:30-34

The apostles returned from their mission. 30 They gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Catena Nova

You have failed to strengthen the weak, says the Lord. He is speaking to wicked shepherds, false shepherds, shepherds who seek their own concerns and not those of Christ…. I think there is a difference between one who is weak (that is, not strong) and one who is ill, although we often say that the weak are also suffering from illness....In the case of the weak sheep, it is to be feared that the temptation, when it comes, may break them. The sick person, however, is already ill by reason of some illicit desire or other, and this is keeping them from entering God’s path and submitting to Christ’s yoke....Now it is a part of the Christian’s strength not only to do good works but also to endure evil. Weak people are those who appear to be zealous in doing good works but are unwilling or unable to endure the sufferings that threaten. Lovers of the world, however, who are kept from good works by some evil desire, lie sick and listless, and it is this sickness that deprives them of any strength to accomplish good works (St. Augustine of Hippo).

Jesus tested the crowd’s faith, and having done so he gave it a fitting reward. He sought out a lonely place to see if they would take the trouble to follow him. For their part, they showed how concerned they were for their salvation by the effort they made in going along the deserted road not on donkeys or in carts of various kinds, but on foot. In return Jesus welcomed those weary, ignorant, sick, and hungry people, instructing, healing, and feeding them as a kindly savior and physician, and so letting them know how pleased he is by believers’ devotion to him (St. Bede the Venerable).

Let those who are singularly active, who think they can win the world with their preaching and exterior works, observe here that they would profit the Church and please God much more, not to mention the good example they would give, were they to spend at least half of this time with God in prayer, even though they might not have reached a prayer as sublime as this. They would then certainly accomplish more, and with less labor, by one work than they otherwise would by a thousand. For through their prayer they would merit this result, and themselves be spiritually strengthened. Without prayer they would do a great deal of hammering but accomplish little, and sometimes nothing, and even at times cause harm. God forbid that the salt should begin to lose its savour. However much they may appear to achieve externally, they will in substance be accomplishing nothing; it is beyond doubt that good works can be performed only by the power of God (St. John of the Cross).

Many young people have come here and worked with us, and they tell us after a while that they have learned a lot and are grateful to us, but they disagree with us on various matters – our pacifism, our opposition to the death penalty, our interest in small communities, and our opposition to the coercive power of the state. You people are impractical, they tell us, nice idealists, but not headed anywhere big and important. They are right. We are impractical, as one of us put it, as impractical as Calvary. There is no point in trying to make us into something we are not. We are not another community fund group, anxious to help people with some bread and butter and a cup of coffee or tea. We feed the hungry, yes; we try to shelter the homeless and give them clothes, if we have some, but there is a strong faith at work; we pray. If an outsider who comes to visit doesn’t pay attention to our praying and what that means, then he’ll miss the whole point of things (Dorothy Day).

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects ... is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism ... kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful (Thomas Merton).

Life is lived at high tension today. Nerves get frayed and our pace of life becomes very intense. But whatever it may cost, we have to learn to stop and draw a quiet breath. That means we have to learn to recognize our need. We have to learn that an ordinary vacation isn’t enough. Going to different places and trying to have fun isn’t the same as relaxing. And to learn to relax we must learn how to avoid inner imbalances. The word ‘recreation’ implies that one is doing something that re-creates, creates one over again, and gives a new life and a fresh start. Humanly speaking, to acquire the art of balanced relaxation we need to learn to take advantage of little opportunities that life offers us to again become at heart children. To be relaxed, for instance, doesn’t mean avoiding others but being accessible to others in a positive way. For people of faith this starts with being accessible to Our Lord. He didn’t want his disciples to live in a state of perpetual tension. We have heard the Gospel passage in which Jesus calls upon the disciples to “come away into a quiet place and rest a little”. What we need is to take such opportunities when they are offered. We are offered the best of Jesus and of his message in moments like the present. We often stand in need of rest in the ordinary sense of that word. But we need even more to rest in God. In the bustle of our days we need to discover the little times which give us the opportunity to be with Jesus. (Leon Cardinal Suenens).

At the heart of the Gospel we have just heard (Mk 6:30-37) is the “compassion” of Jesus (cf. v. 34). Compassion is a key word in the Gospel. It is written in Christ’s heart; it is forever written in the heart of God. In the Gospels, we often see Jesus’ compassion for those who are suffering. The more we read, the more we contemplate, the more we come to realize that the Lord’s compassion is not an occasional, sporadic emotion, but is steadfast and indeed seems to be the attitude of his heart, in which God’s mercy is made incarnate....This compassion did not appear suddenly at one moment in the history of salvation. No, it was always there in God, impressed on his paternal heart....We can ask ourselves: Do I feel God’s compassion towards me? Do I sense in me the conviction of being a son or daughter of compassion? Do we have a lively awareness of this compassion that God feels for us? (Pope Francis).

Homily

On July 5 the Vatican announced the excommunication of Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States, for questioning the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the authority of the Second Vatican Council. The archbishop of Burgos in Spain announced the same thing last month for a group of Poor Clare nuns likewise guilty of schism. In this country, the bishop of Arlington, Texas has been embroiled in an unseemly dispute with a group of Carmelite nuns over issues of ecclesiastical authority.

Then there's the priest in Mescalero, New Mexico who last month removed an icon of the "Apache Christ" that hung in the sanctuary of the St. Joseph Apache Mission for 34 years. Outrage ensued from the congregation and the icon has been restored. But the pastor remains — who apparently has not heard, or does not care, about the formal apology made in June by the American bishops to North American Indigenous Catholics "for the failure to nurture, strengthen, honor, recognize, and appreciate those entrusted to our pastoral care," while noting further that "many Indigenous Catholics have felt a sense of abandonment in their relationship with Church leaders due to a lack of understanding of their unique cultural needs" (https://www.usccb.org/resources/Indigenous%20Pastoral%20Framework%20-June%202024-Final%20Text_6.18.24.pdf; June 30, 2024).

Next up is the July 10 article in the New York Times on July 10 by Ruth Graham, "America's New Catholic Priests: Young, Confident, Conservative." Among other things she writes how "they are overwhelmingly conservative in their theology, their liturgical tastes and their politics….Starting in the 1980s, each new wave of priests in the United States is noticeably more conservative than the one before it….More than 80 percent of priests ordained since 2020 describe themselves as theologically 'conservative/orthodox' or 'very conservative/orthodox”…. Politically, the trend is similar, with almost all priests ordained in 2020 or later describing themselves as moderate or conservative."

Some of this is on display at the Eucharistic Congress taking place this week in Indianapolis. While a traditional Latin Mass celebrated according to current norms will be offered at a nearby church within walking distance of the event, the offer made by the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests — mostly from the comparatively liberal Vatican II generation — to have a booth at the event in the hope of broadening understandings of the Eucharist beyond the more devotional approaches evident throughout the bishops' "Eucharistic Revival" was rescinded by organizers.

The Congress will also be hosting a liturgy celebrated in the Syro-Malabar rite — one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches — which has been divided for decades over whether priests should face the congregation or the altar during the liturgy and who has authority to make such decision (cf. Luke Coppen, "The day the Syro-Malabar 'liturgy war' did not end"; The Pillar; July 3, 2024). No wonder the Congress chair, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, noted in a recent interview that, "Aiming for liturgical unity is a tricky thing" (The Pillar; July 13, 2024) Indeed.

Finally, there's St. Paul who writes, In Christ Jesus you who [are] far off [can be] brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. . . who [can make] the two of [you] one and break down the barrier of hostility that [keeps] you apart (II).

At this point, you may be wondering why I haven't included any "secular" examples of those who are "far off" from each other — countries and peoples at war, political opponents, hostility arising from race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion, the divisive attitudes expressed toward the poor, the immigrant, the unhoused, or even just members of your family, your neighborhood, your circle, whom you find "far off" at the moment — well, I could have cited many such examples, but I stuck to the church because it seems those words are no better understood among us today than when Paul first wrote them. So why would they be by anyone else?

Yet so it's been from the start. When some pious Jews who joined the church were scandalized by Paul's words as if it were vulgar language when he said, In his own flesh, [Christ] abolished the law with its commands and precepts, to create in himself one new [person] from [those] who had been two (II). Gentiles converts too had their own issues with such words in a culture very clearly segregated by things such as slavery and economic status.

That’s one reason the Cup we bless today us such a central symbol of Christian faith -- a perpetual sign to a church and world divided; a church and world of polarized, broken relationships; a church and world where too many people are still far off from one another: in short, a sign of reconciliation. For when we drink from the chalice — or in places where the Cup has not been restored due to lingering fears of contagion might instead have the Sign of the Cross made with it over the congregation after Communion to the words the priest recites before drinking from it himself ("May the blood of Christ keep [you] safe for eternal life") — the blessing-cup reminds us we are one with Christ and with each other: brought near through his blood (cf. II). Because in doing so when we announce the good news of peace to all who are far off, and to those who are near: the good news that we all have access in one Spirit to the Father, and to each other, through him who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen. (II)

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we may be witnesses to God’s message, expressions of God’s nurturing love, and instruments of God’s healing care to all who find life’s journey burdensome.

For unity in church and society: that through Christ's victory over death, the divisions in the human family may be dissolved and the wounds of racism and prejudice be healed.

For a spirit of compassion: that God will touch our hearts with care and concern for all whom we find burdensome, needy, or demanding.

For all who exercise leadership: that they may place their gifts unselfishly in the service of others and draw forth the skills of others for the fulfillment of God's work.

For support and renewal: that God will show a shepherd's care to refugees, those displaced by violence, and living under oppressive governments and help them find the resources that they need for life.

For all who have suffered abuse: that God's loving compassion will fill them with hope and courage and heal their bodies, minds, and spirits.

For all who are suffering: that God will strengthen those recovering from natural disasters, give hope to those who have lost their homes, and give peace to those who are mourning.

Compassionate God, from far and near you gather your Church into one. Safeguard the unity of your flock through the teaching of Christ the Shepherd, that all your scattered children may find in him the guidance and nourishment they seek. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Antiphon

Offertory Hymn

Now in Christ Jesus you who were far off

have been brought near in the blood of Christ.

For Christ is our Peace, who has made us one

and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility;

and he came and preached peace to you who

were far off,

so then you are no longer strangers and

sojourners,

but you are fellow-citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God,

built upon the foundation of the apostles and

prophets,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

in whom the whole structure is joined together

and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn (James Montgomery, 1825)

Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless
your chosen pilgrim flock
with manna in the wilderness,
with water from the rock.

We would not live by bread alone,
but by your word of grace,
in strength of which we travel on
to our abiding place.

Be known to us in breaking bread,
but do not then depart;
Savior, abide with us, and spread
your table in our heart.

Archives