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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Gen 44:18-21.3-29; 45:1-5): Judah approached Joseph and said: «I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh. My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’. So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one's full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him’. Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him. Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again’. When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

»Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family. So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us’. Then your servant our father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since. If you now take this one away from me, too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief’».

Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, «Have everyone withdraw from me!». Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers. But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh's palace.

«I am Joseph», he said to his brothers. «Is my father still in good health?». But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him. «Come closer to me», he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: «I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you».
Responsorial Psalm: 104
R/. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
When the Lord called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave.

They had weighed him down with fetters, and he was bound with chains, till his prediction came to pass and the word of the Lord proved him true.

The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions.
Versicle before the Gospel (Mk 1:15): Alleluia. The Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Mt 10:7-15): Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words-- go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

“As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand”

Fr. Antonio BORDAS i Belmonte (L’Ametlla de Mar, Tarragona, Spain)

Today, the Gospel invites us to evangelize, it says: “Preach” (Mt 10:7). The announcement is Jesus’ good news, trying to tell us about the kingdom of God, that He is our savior, sent by the Father to the world and for this reason, the only one who can renew us from within and change the society in which we live.

Jesus proclaimed that "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 10:7). He was the herald of the Kingdom of God that was present among men and women to the extent that good would advance and evil would retreat.

Jesus wants the whole man’s salvation, in body and in spirit; more so, by the enigma that concerns humanity, which is death, Jesus proposes the resurrection. When someone is living dead with sin and recovers the grace, he will experience a new life. This is a great mystery that we begin to experience from our baptism; Christians are called to the resurrection!

Here’s a sample of how Pope Francis seeks the good of man: “This culture of waste has also made us insensitive to wasting and throwing out excess foodstuffs. There was a time when our grandparents were very careful not to throw away any leftover food. Whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor, from the hungry!”

Jesus tells us to always be bearers of peace. When the priests brings the Communion to a sick person he says, 'Lord’s Peace to this house! ". And the peace of Christ remains there, if there are people worthy of it. To receive the gifts of God's kingdom one needs a good inner will. On the other hand, we also see many people making excuses for not receiving the Gospel.

We have a great task among men, and we cannot fail to preach the Gospel after having believed, because we live it and we want others to live it also.

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “The visible miracles only come to the eyes of those who see them to draw them to faith in the invisible realities, still more admirable” (Saint Gregory the Great)

  • “The saints can best help us to understand the profound meaning of the Beatitudes.” (Francis)

  • “... It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 2121)

Other comments

“Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey...”

Fr. David COMPTE i Verdaguer (Manlleu, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, we want to foresee even the unforeseeable. Today is the age of home servicing and deliveries. And, if today we talk so much about peace, perhaps it is because we need it so badly. Today's Gospel fully deals with these three other “todays”. Let us go step by step.

We want to foresee even the unforeseeable: soon, we shall buy insurance to foresee the possibility our insurer may fail us. Or, perhaps, to foresee our buying a pair of trousers, and the sales clerk giving us a stained or discolored pair! Today's Gospel, with its invitation to travel without any luggage (“Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey”), is inciting us to confidence, to availability. But, look out! this does not mean carelessness! Not even improvisation. Living this reality is only possible through a life deeply rooted in what is truly fundamental: in the person of Christ. Saint John Paul II said: “We must respect an essential principle of the Christian vision of our life: the supremacy of Grace. We should not forget that without Christ, ‘we can do nothing’ (cf. Jn 15:5).”

It is also true that home servicing is proliferating: no more catering! now you can have your Spanish omelet made for you in your own home. This should be the icon of a society where we people have a tendency to do things our own way, to organize our own life by doing without others. Today, Jesus tells us “go”; go out. In other words, do bear in mind, those you have beside you. Let us, therefore, keep them in our mind, open to their needs.

Holidays, a peaceful countryside... are they synonymous of peace? It seems we may have some strong motives to doubt it. Maybe many holidays are nothing but the lethargy of some intimate concern or worry, that, later on, is about to arise again. We Christians do know we are the bearers of peace; even more, we know this peace soaks up all our being —also when we find nothing but an hostile surrounding around us— as far as we closely follow Jesus.

Let, therefore, the force of Christ's Today soak us up! And... “who has truly found Christ cannot keep Him only for himself, he has to announce Him” (Saint John Paul II).

July 7th
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Gospel and commentary video

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The calendar of Saints and Solemnities for July