June 2024: Points to Ponder

Points to Ponder
June 2024

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
2 June 2024

As a young boy, I vividly recall how my family gathered each night to share dinner. My sister and I often laughed, cried, argued, and were reprimanded by our parents during dinner. In fact, our family life unfolded at the kitchen table, which was the heart and soul of our home. Sunday dinner was the high point of the week, as my parents invited neighbors and friends to join us, all considered family as we sat at the table to share a bowl of pasta.

If there are any hidden graces caused by the pandemic we have endured, perhaps one such grace is our deep desire to share our life with those whom we love in personal ways. If we endured isolation and quarantine, who did not have an aching heart that wanted simply to laugh, cry, or hug our loved ones? The pandemic vividly reminded me of our genuine human desire to share life together as a family.

By receiving Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, our minds are enlightened, our hearts are strengthened, and like the apostles we are renewed in spirit to go out into the world as missionary disciples of the Lord.

There is an invitation for everyone who will listen. And a seat waiting to be filled by the gift of your presence. In this moment of grace, let us take the opportunity to recommit ourselves to active participation in the Body of Christ. For it is at the table of the Lord that our ecclesial family is strengthened and we receive the grace to witness to Christ.

 

Bishop Frank J. Cagginao
www.uscatholic.org

* * *

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
9 June 2024

 

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is the one who knows the truth: That the world is in grave danger. The world is being controlled by sin, and by Satan. And Jesus knows that these forces are more than the world can manage, more than we can handle. He is the only one who can save the world from them. 

But almost nobody believes him. His family thinks he has gone out of his mind. They have come to restrain him. The religious leaders think that he is working with the devil. They think that he has an unclean spirit. But the truth is almost exactly the opposite. It is the world that has gone out of its mind. The world, you might say, has an unclean spirit, and is being ruled by Satan. And Jesus has come to save the world. He has come to free the world from its captivity to sin, death and the devil. And he has come to bring the world to its senses. Before it is too late. 

And, when you think about it, that is still Jesus’ mission today. This same message is still the one that we need to hear: That the world is in grave danger. It has gone out of its mind. And it is being ruled by powers that secretly want to destroy it. And Jesus is the only one who can save it, who can save us. 

So now, we can get to work, being the church in the world. We can fight evil in this world. We can feed the hungry, care for the sick, and proclaim the good news of Jesus to all.

James Laurence
mypastoralponderings.com

 

* * *

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
16 June 2024 • Day for Life

Our care for the most vulnerable among us is a measure of our humanity. We see this very clearly in the healing ministry of Jesus. Down through the ages, the ministry of healing has always been an integral part of the mission of the Church. Doctors and nurses, chaplains and carers, family members and friends form communities of care around those who are sick at home or in hospital. Alongside dialysis, chemotherapy, the scans and the stents, people who are sick need to know, above all, that they are loved and that they will not be abandoned, whatever happens. That becomes especially important when there is nothing more that medical science can do.

It is understandable that people facing chronic or terminal illness sometimes feel that they might be better off if they were dead. But a society which has nothing more to offer to people than to assist them in ending their own lives, has really lost its way. Through the time we spend with the sick, listening to them, providing essential care, sharing memories, and, perhaps, praying with them, that we continue the healing ministry of Jesus. In this way, we bear witness in action to the fact that there is no such thing as a life without value. 

 

Bishop Kevin Doran
Elphin Diocese

 

* * *

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
23 June 2024

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt like you were sinking in a raging sea, and no matter how hard you prayed, and how intently you looked for Jesus, Jesus just didn’t seem to be listening? Did you ever feel like you would hit the bottom of the sea before Jesus ever got around to doing anything about it? Have you ever asked aloud: Why? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?

It can’t be said enough: God never, ever, ever promises that nothing bad will ever happen. God never promises smooth sailing and blue skies every day. If you think that God promises this, you haven’t read your Bible lately. What God does promise is that when the world comes crashing down, God is right there with us. Jesus is there with us, in the sinking boat. This is an important part of the story: Jesus isn’t elsewhere. He isn’t in some comfortable palace somewhere eating olives and hummus. He is in the boat with the disciples. Sinking. And then he calms the storm.

So, maybe the world is crashing in on you today. Maybe it was yesterday. And then again, maybe it will be tomorrow. But, whenever it does – and it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ – whatever you think, and whatever your prayer, know that you haven’t been abandoned. God isn’t on a lunch break. God isn’t out for you.

God is with you. And all you need is enough faith to get you through to the moment when Jesus speaks, ‘Peace. Be still.’

www.rickmorley.com
 

* * *

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
30 June 2024

To have access to His heart, to Jesus’ heart, there is only one requirement: to feel in need of healing and to entrust yourself to Him. I ask you: do each of you feel that you need to be healed? Of something, of some sin, of some problem? And, if you feel this, do you have faith in Jesus? These are the two requirements in order to be healed, in order to have access to his heart: to feel in need of healing and to entrust yourself to Him.

In this Gospel passage the themes of faith and of new life, which Jesus came to offer to all, are intertwined. When he enters the house where the dead girl lies, he sends outside those who are weeping and making tumult (cf. v. 40), and he says: ‘The child is not dead but sleeping’ (v. 39). Jesus is Lord, and before him physical death is like a dream: there is no reason to despair. Another death is the one to fear: that of the heart hardened by evil! When we feel we have a hardened heart, a heart that is hardened, allow me to say, a mummified heart, we should be afraid of this. But sin too, the mummified heart too, is never the last word with Jesus, because he has brought us the infinite mercy of the Father. It is beautiful to hear that word of Jesus addressed to each one of us: ‘I say to you, arise! Go. Stand up. Take courage, arise!’. Jesus restores life to the little girl and restores life to the healed woman: life and faith to both.

Pope Francis
Angelus, Saint Peter’s Square, July 2018

* * *