Tuesday July 26, 2022

Tuesday of 17th Week in Ordinary Time

STS. JOACHIM AND ANNE, Parents of Mary

We know nothing more about the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary than that the Protevangelium of James, (an apocryphal infancy gospel from the third century), gives them the names Joachim and Anne. Their feast comes from Oriental rites, in which parents are often honored with their children when these become famous.

In any case, the liturgy reminds us that people are often instrumental in bringing us God’s salvation.

 

First Reading: Jeremiah 14:7-22 

We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives—
but do something, God. Do it for your sake!
Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.
No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.
Hope of Israel! Our only hope!
Israel’s last chance in this trouble!
Why are you acting like a tourist,
taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?
Why do you just stand there and stare,
like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?
But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!
You know who we are—you named us!
Don’t leave us in the lurch.

 Then God said of these people:

“Since they loved to wander this way and that,
never giving a thought to where they were going,
I will now have nothing more to do with them—
except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”

The Killing Fields

God said to me, “Don’t pray that everything will turn out all right for this people. When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won’t listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I’ll not accept them. I’m finishing them off with war and famine and disease.”

 I said, “But Master, God! Their preachers have been telling them that everything is going to be all right—no war and no famine—that there’s nothing to worry about.”

 Then God said, “These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don’t talk with them. The sermons they’ve been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.

“So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, ‘War and famine will never come here’—these preachers will die in war and by starvation. And the people to whom they’ve been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I’ll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

“And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them:

“‘My eyes pour out tears.
Day and night, the tears never quit.
My dear, dear people are battered and bruised,
hopelessly and cruelly wounded.
I walk out into the fields,
shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses.
I walk into the city,
shocked by the sight of starving bodies.
And I watch the preachers and priests
going about their business as if nothing’s happened!’”

God, have you said your final No to Judah?
Can you simply not stand Zion any longer?
If not, why have you treated us like this,
beaten us nearly to death?
We hoped for peace—
nothing good came from it;
We looked for healing—
and got kicked in the stomach.
We admit, O God, how badly we’ve lived,
and our ancestors, how bad they were.
We’ve sinned, they’ve sinned,
we’ve all sinned against you!
Your reputation is at stake! Don’t quit on us!
Don’t walk out and abandon your glorious Temple!
Remember your covenant.
Don’t break faith with us!
Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain?
Can the sky water the earth by itself?
You’re the one, O God, who does this.
So you’re the one for whom we wait.
You made it all,
you do it all.

 

Gospel: Matthew 13:36-43 

Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
there were many deeply believing
and simple, poor people
waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
We thank your for these believers
and we ask you today
at this celebration of the parents of Mary
that we may be longing for a deeper coming
of your Son Jesus Christ among us
May many more accept him
as their Savior and their Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

26 July 2022 Sts. Joachim & Anne

Matthew 13: 36-43

The Fire of God – His Holy Spirit

Today, July 26th, the Church remembers St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary. According to Christian apocryphal writings from the early centuries (the Proto-Evangelium of Saint James), Joachim was a priest in the Temple and his wife Anne was barren. In their despair, he went out into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days. God heard their prayers and Anne conceived and bore a daughter whom they called Mary. According to tradition, when the child was three years old, Her parents brought Her to the Temple and She stayed there until She was 12.

This is the “feast of grandparents.” It reminds the young people that older people’s greater perspective, depth of experience, and appreciation of life’s profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.

The evangelist gives an explanation to the parable of seeds and wheat. Jesus is back home with his disciples and he explains the meaning of the parables not to the crowd but to his small group of disciples.

When the scene moves from the original parable of the seeds and weeds to its explanation, there is a difference on the focus. When Jesus said the parable, the focus was on the seed – the Word of God, and the weeds, the evil forces. But in the explanation, the seeds and the weeds are presented as good and bad people. At the end of the ages, says Matthew – the bad people will be thrown into the fiery furnace and explain the horrors that await the evildoers – there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

This explanation was a catechesis addressed to the community of Matthew at the end of the first century. Probably, after the first few decades of following the teachings of Jesus, the Christians did not take their faith seriously. The evangelist attempts to shake them up, using the language of the Jewish rabbis, with images such as the fiery furnaces, weeping, gnashing of teeth, the harvest, angels and devils.

While reading this passage, care should be taken not to misunderstand God as a punishing judge. St. Paul teaches that  God is the Father “who wants all to be saved” (1Tim 2:4). Gospel according to John makes an absolute statement: “He did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but through him, the world is to be saved” (Jn 3:17).

Then, what about the blazing fire? The only fire that God has,  is his Spirit, that descended on the disciples during the Pentecost (Acts 2:3). Jesus says: “I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled” (Lk 12:49). It is the unstoppable flame that will burn all traces of weeds in the heart of every person, leaving only the good grain in each person. The fire of God, The Holy Spirit will one day wipe out all forms of evil.

Video available on Youtube: The Fire of God – His Holy Spirit