June 20
Sunday
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Zech 12:10–11; 13:1
I will pour out on the family of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of love and supplication. They will look at the one who was pierced and mourn for him as for an only child, weeping bitterly as for a firstborn. The mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Haddadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
On that day a spring will well up for the family of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse themselves of sin and defilement.
2nd Reading: Gal 3:26–29
Now, in Christ Jesus, all of you are sons and daughters of God through faith. All of you who were given to Christ through baptism, have put on Christ. Here there is no longer any difference between Jew or Greek, or between slave or freed, or between man and woman: but all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Christ, you are of Abraham’s race and you are to inherit God’s promise.
Gospel: Lk 9:18–24
One day when Jesus was praying alone, not far from his disciples, he asked them, “What do people say about me?” And they answered, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say that you are Elijah, and still others that you are one of the former prophets risen from the dead.” Again Jesus asked them, “Who then do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” Then Jesus spoke to them, giving them strict orders not to tell this to anyone.
And he added, “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the Law, and put to death. Then after three days he will be raised to life.”
Jesus also said to all the people, “If you wish to be a follower of mine, deny yourself and take up your cross each day, and follow me. For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it, and if you lose your life for my sake, you will save it.
REFLECTION
“What about you?” Jesus asked them. “Who do you say I am?”
Determining who Jesus is for us is the question and the work of a lifetime. Why? Because the answer to this question determines how we live and who and what we finally become.
June 21
Monday
12th Week in Ordinary Time
St. Aloysius Gonzaga
1st Reading: 2 K 17:5–8, 13–15a, 18
The army of the king of Asshur subjected the whole of Israel, and they came to Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, exiled the Israelites to Asshur and made them settle in Halah, at the banks of Habor, the river of Gozan, as well as in the cities of the Medes.
This happened because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh, their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, where they were subject to Pharaoh, but they had turned back to other gods. They followed the customs of the nations which Yahweh had driven out before them.
Yahweh warned Israel and Judah through the mouth of every prophet and seer, saying: “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and precepts according to the laws which I commanded your fathers and which I have sent to you by my servants, the prophets.”
But they did not listen and refused as did their fathers who did not believe in Yahweh, their God. They despised his statutes and the covenant he had made with their fathers, and the warnings he had given them. They went after worthless idols and they themselves became worthless, following the nations which surrounded them, in spite of what Yahweh had said, “Do not do as they do.”
So Yahweh became indignant with Israel and cast them far away from his presence, leaving only the tribe of Judah.
Gospel: Mt 7:1–5
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not judge and you will not be judged. In the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and the measure you use for others will be used for you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and not see the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother: ‘Come, let me take the speck from your eye,’ as long as that plank is in your own? Hypocrite, take first the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clear enough to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
REFLECTION
“God will judge you in the same way you judge others.”
When I wonder how God will deal with me in judgment, all I need to do is to consider how I deal with others, this scripture says. It is a sobering thought: Do I withhold my love to punish them? Is that what I want for myself?
June 22
Tuesday
12th Week in Ordinary Time
St. Paulinus of Nola
St. John Fisher
Thomas More
1st Reading: 2 K 19:9b–11, 14–21, 31–35a, 36
This was because King Sennacherib had heard that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was going out to fight him.
Again Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah with these words, “Say to Hezekiah, king of Judah that his God in whom he trusts may be deceiving him in saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands they have destroyed! And will you be spared?
Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, and when he had read it he went to the house of Yahweh where he unrolled the letter and prayed saying, “O Yahweh, God of hosts and God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. Give ear, Yahweh, and hear! Open your eyes and see! Listen to all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to insult the living God! It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries of the earth. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not true gods but gods made of wood and stone by human hands. Now, O Yahweh our God, save us from his hand and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you alone, Yahweh, are God.”
Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent word to Hezekiah: “You have called upon Yahweh and he has heard your prayer regarding Sennacherib, king of Assyria. This is what Yahweh has spoken against him:
The Virgin Daughter of Zion Despises and scorns you; The Daughter of Jerusalem Shakes her head behind you.
For a remnant will come from Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this. That is why Yahweh has said this concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city nor shoot his arrows. He shall not raise a shield to oppose it nor build a siege ramp against it. He shall leave by the way he came and he shall not enter the city, word of Yahweh. I will protect this city and so save it for my own sake and for the sake of David, my servant. It happened that the angel of Yahweh went out that night and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people rose early next morning there were all the corpses.
So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, returned home and lived in Nineveh.
Gospel: Mt 7:6, 12–14
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or throw your pearls to the pigs: they might trample on them and even turn on you and tear you to pieces.
So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there you have the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many go that way. How narrow is the gate that leads to life and how rough the road; few there are who find it.”
REFLECTION
“Go in through the narrow gate because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy and there are many who travel it.”
To master the arts and athletics all demand personal discipline and consistent practice. The spiritual life is no different. We must make choices. We must choose the good over the easy, the better over the good. We must come to live the spiritual life consciously.
June 23
Wednesday
12th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 K 22:8–13; 23:1–3
At that moment Hilkiah, the high priest, said to Shaphan, the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of Yahweh.” And he entrusted the Book to Shaphan who read it. Then Shaphan went to the king and said, “We have gathered the money in the House, and this has been turned over to the caretakers of the House to make the repairs.”
And Shaphan added, “The priest Hilkiah has turned over a book to me.” And Shaphan read the book to the king. When the king heard the contents of the book, he tore his clothes and commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, the secretary Shaphan, and Asaiah, his minister, to do the following, “Go and consult Yahweh about the threats in this book which you have found. Consult him for me, for the people and for the whole of Judah, since our fathers did not listen to what this book says nor to its ordinances. This is why the anger of Yahweh is ready to burn against us.”
The king summoned to his side all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then he went up to the House of Yahweh followed by all the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The priests with the prophets and all the people went with him, from the youngest to the oldest. When all were gathered, he read to them the book of the Law found in the House of Yahweh.
The king stood by the pillar; he made a covenant in the presence of Yahweh, promising to follow him, to keep his commandments and laws, and to respect his ordinances. He promised to keep this covenant according to what was written in the book with all his heart and with all his soul. And all the people promised with him.
Gospel: Mt 7:15–20
Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of false prophets: they come to you in sheep’s clothing but inside they are wild wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Do you ever pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
“A good tree always produces good fruit, a rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a rotten tree cannot bear good fruit. Any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. So you will know them by their fruit.”
REFLECTION
“Be on your guard against false prophets…”
Beware those who offer easy solutions to complex issues, who make anything other than the will of God the goal of life. We are meant to become our fullest selves, not our emptiest selves.
June 24
Thursday
Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist
1st Reading: Is 49:1–6
Listen to me, O islands, pay attention, peoples from dis¬tant lands. Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb; he pronounced my name before I was born. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. He hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a polished arrow set apart in his quiver.
He said to me, “You are Israel, my servant, Through you I will be known.” “I have labored in vain,” I thought and spent my strength for nothing.” Yet what is due me was in the hand of Yahweh, and my reward was with my God. I am important in the sight of Yahweh, and my God is my strength.
And now Yahweh has spoken, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, to gather Israel to him. He said: “It is not enough that you be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel. I will make you the light of the nations, that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”
2nd Reading: Acts 13:22–26
In those days, Paul said: “God raised up David as king; of him God testified, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish. From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’
“My brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.”
Gospel: Lk 1:57–66, 80
When the time came for Elizabeth, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the merciful Lord had done a wonderful thing for her and they rejoiced with her.
When on the eighth day they came to attend the circum¬cision of the child, they wanted to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” They said to her, “No one in your family has that name”; and they asked the father by means of signs for the name he wanted to give. Zechariah asked for a writing tablet and wrote on it, “His name is John,” and they were very surprised. Immediately Zechariah could speak again and his first words were in praise of God.
A holy fear came on all in the neighborhood, and throughout the Hills of Judea the people talked about these events. All who heard of it pondered in their minds and wondered, “What will this child be?” For they understood that the hand of the Lord was with him.
As the child grew up, he was seen to be strong in the Spirit; he lived in the desert till the day when he appeared openly in Israel.
REFLECTION
“They were going to name him Zechariah, after his father. But his mother said, ‘No, his name is to be John.’”
We are each called by God in a special way. We are not meant to be carbon-copies of someone else. We are each to be new slivers of the Word of God. Made in the image of God we are meant to spend our lives up to that.
June 25
Friday
12th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 K 25:1–12
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was under siege up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah.
On the ninth day of the fourth month famine became a serious problem in the city, and throughout the land there was no bread for the people. When the city was opened by a breach in the wall, the Judean army fled through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden while the Chaldeans were still around the city and they fled towards the Arabah. The Chaldeans followed in hot pursuit of King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted and scattered.
The Chaldeans seized the king and led him away to Riblah in the territory of Hamath and there the king of Babylon passed sentence on him. There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence. He then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with a double bronze chain and took him to Babylon.
On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard and servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem and set fire to the House of Yahweh and the royal palace as well as to all the houses in Jerusalem. The Chaldean army under the commander of the bodyguard completely demolished all the walls around Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, carried off into exile the last of the Jews left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the remainder of the artisans. But he left those among the very poor who were capable of working in vineyards and cultivating the soil.
Gospel: Mt 8:1–4
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
Then a leper came forward. He knelt before him and said, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to, be clean again.” At that very moment the man was cleansed from his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you do not tell anyone, but go to the priest, have yourself declared clean, and offer the gift that Moses ordered as proof of it.”
REFLECTION
“The man said, ‘Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I do want to,’ he answered.”
To be healed of the demons that trouble us, too, we must ask for whatever help it takes to be cured. God is waiting for us to decide to change in order to give us the grace we need to do it.
June 26
Saturday
12th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Lm 2:2, 10–14, 18–19
Without pity Yahweh has shattered in Jacob every dwelling. He has torn down in his anger the ramparts of Judah’s daughter. He has thrown her rulers and her king to the ground, dishonored.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit in silence upon the ground, their heads sprinkled with dust, their bodies wrapped in sackcloth, while Jerusalem’s young women bow their heads to the ground.
With weeping my eyes are spent; my soul is in torment because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the open spaces of the town.
To their mothers they say, “Where is the bread and wine?” as they faint like wounded men in the streets and public squares, as their lives ebb away in their mothers’ arms.
To what can I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who can save or comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? Deep as the sea is your affliction, and who can possibly heal you?
Your prophets’ visions were worthless and false. Had they warned of your sins, your fate might have been averted. But what they gave you instead were false, misleading signs.
Cry out to the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion! Oh, let your tears flow day and night, like a river. Give yourself no relief; grant your eyes no respite.
Get up, cry out in the night, as the evening watches start; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint with hunger at the corner of every street.
Gospel: Mt 8:5–17
When Jesus entered Capernaum, an army captain approached him to ask his help, “Sir, my servant lies sick at home. He is paralyzed and suffers terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The captain answered, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers. And if I say to one: ‘Go,’ he goes, and if I say to another: ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my servant: ‘Do this,’ he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those who were following him, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness; there they will wail and grind their teeth.” Then Jesus said to the captain, “Go home now. As you believed, so let it be.” And at that moment his servant was healed.
Jesus went to Peter’s house and found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever. He took her by the hand and the fever left her; she got up and began to wait on him. Towards evening they brought to Jesus many possessed by evil spirits, and with a word he drove out the spirits. He also healed all who were sick. In doing this he fulfilled what was said by the prophet Isaiah: He bore our infirmities and took on himself our diseases.
REFLECTION
“When Jesus entered Capernaum, a Roman officer met him and begged for help: ‘Sir, my servant is sick in bed at home, unable to move and suffering terribly.’ And Jesus said, ‘I will go and make him well.’”
Compassion is what makes a divided world humane. In this scripture, the Roman soldier has compassion on a servant. And Jesus has compassion on the Romans–goes out of his way for the very oppressors of the Jews. The question for me, then, is a clear one: On whom have I had compassion today?
