2024

12th Sunday of Year B

June 23, 2024

ᐊHOMILIESCONNECTIONSHOLY SEEᐅ

As the date of Easter fluctuates annually, the liturgical calendar is dynamically arranged, resulting in the absence of the 10-12th Sunday of Ordinary Time in certain years.

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

The text of the first reading mentions some of the parts of the rite of the covenant, common to the Eastern people of the time. First of all, there is the reciprocal nature of the covenant: Yahweh on one side and the people of the other. Then it mentions the stipulations of the pact, which indicate the binding contents to which both God and the people are committed: the sacrifice of communion, which will culminate in a banquet; the rite of the sprinkling of the blood on the parties to the pact, by means of which the pact is ratified. God’s indulgence with man goes to the extreme of a reciprocal pact! This pact speaks to us with great clarity of God’s love and of his eternal fidelity. In spite of the many infidelities to the pact on the part of Israel, in all of its historical vicissitudes this pact was always an unchallenged point of reference and an unequivocal sign of hope and permanent renewal. Little by little, in its long historical experience, Israel learned that God never abandons man, that his fidelity is ever-lasting. In seeing God’s faithfulness, Israel felt the attractive force of faithfulness, of responding to the pact with Yahweh with a sincere and definitive Amen.

Due to Israel’s constant infidelity to Yahweh, God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah the promise of a new covenant, a covenant written on the heart, which will bestow upon all the gift of the knowledge of God and of his merciful forgiveness (Jr 31:31-34). This promise was definitively fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in the paschal supper that he had with his disciples on the night that he was going to be taken away, in the blood of the covenant, shed for all on the summit of the Calvary. The Jews recalled the Old Covenant each year with the feast of Passover; we Christians recall and re-live the New Covenant each day, but in a special way on Sunday, in the Eucharistic celebration. The feast of the covenant is not annual but daily, weekly. Let us not forget the reciprocal covenant of God with the Church and with each one of her children, and consequently, of the Church and each one of her children with God. As Christians, each and every one of us must value the beauty of a covenant with God in the Blood of Jesus Christ, and at once the seriousness and responsibility of a pact to which we have sworn our fidelity.

The Gospel and the second reading present some features of this novelty. 1) In Jesus Christ both the mediator of the covenant (Moses in the Old Covenant) and the sacrificed victim with whose blood the covenant is sealed and ratified coincide (in the Old Covenant, the blood of the bullocks); 2) the covenant in the Blood of Christ is not only with the people of Israel, but with all of humankind. This is why his Blood was shed for all, and we enjoy eternal redemption; 3) the covenant that Christ makes between God and humankind is not only new, but also definitive. Thus, as revelation finds its fullness in Christ, so the covenant finds fullness. He does not seal the penultimate, but the absolutely final covenant; 4) The covenant between God and man in Christ Jesus is present in history, with its definitive mark, and through this mark it is subjected to the different dimensions of space and time. This covenant will culminate and achieve its perfection at the end of all centuries, in eternity with God. This is why Jesus says to the disciples "I shall not drink wine again until the day I drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God".

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

The New Covenant is destined to all men. Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, needs mouths in order for the good news of this covenant reach all. He needs mouths and hands to consecrate the bread and wine of the new covenant and to distribute them to men. Both God and men need priests. It is necessary for the Christian community to be more aware of this need. If there are no priests, who will make present in the world the mediation of Christ between God and men? If Christian families have no children, or have only one child, two at the most, won’t the number of those that have been called by God to priesthood necessarily decrease? If the new couples live together without getting married, or get married only with a civil rite, won’t it be almost impossible for their children, once they have them, to hear God’s call to a priestly vocation? These are serious questions. All of the Christian community must ask itself these questions, and must cooperate, to the extent possible, to look for and offer valid answers.

In the Eucharist Jesus Christ is present, true God and true man. This is why the Catholic Church has worshipped and continues to worship the Eucharist, not only during Mass, but also outside its celebration. Pope John Paul II wrote, "The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never case" (cf CCC 1380). There are those that attribute to the bustle of life the fact that they have no time for Eucharistic adoration, but let us be honest… they do have time to go to the soccer game, to spend most of the night out, to go skiing for the weekend, to sit staring at the television watching a film or a show. All of these things are good in themselves, but why not make some time, between these or other activities, to go to Mass or to go into church for a few minutes and worship the transubstantiated Jesus Christ?

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Pope Francis
Homilies

Jesus Calms the Winds that Beat Against Life

20 June 2021 | Saint Peter’s Square

MULTIMEDIA

Today’s liturgy tells the episode of the storm calmed by Jesus (Mk 4:35-41). The boat in which the disciples are crossing the lake is beaten by the wind and the waves and they fear they will sink. Jesus is with them on the boat, yet he is in the stern asleep on the cushion. Filled with fear, the disciples cry out to him: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” (v. 38).

And quite often we too, beaten by the trials of life, have cried out to the Lord: “Why do you remain silent and do nothing for me?”. Especially when it seems we are sinking, because love or the project in which we had laid great hopes disappears; or when we are at the mercy of unrelenting waves of anxiety; or when we feel we are drowning in problems or lost amid the sea of life, with no course and no harbour. Or even, in moments in which the strength to go forward fails us, because we have no job, or an unexpected diagnosis makes us fear for our health or that of a loved one. There are many moments when we feel we are in a storm; when we feel we are almost done in.

In these situations and in many others, we too feel suffocated by fear and, like the disciples, risk losing sight of the most important thing. In the boat, in fact, even if he is sleeping, Jesus is there, and he shares with his own all that is happening. If on the one hand his slumber surprises us, on the other, it puts us to the test. The Lord is there, present; indeed, he waits — so to speak — for us to engage him, to invoke him, to put him at the centre of what we are experiencing. His slumber causes us to wake up. Because to be disciples of Jesus, it is not enough to believe God is there, that he exists, but we must put ourselves out there with him; we must also raise our voice with him. Hear this: we must cry out to him. Prayer is often a cry: “Lord, save me!”. I was watching, on the programme “In his Image”, today, the Day of Refugees, many who come in large boats and at the moment of drowning cry out: “Save us!”. In our life too the same thing happens: “Lord, save us!”, and prayer becomes a cry.

Today we can ask ourselves: what are the winds that beat against my life? What are the waves that hinder my navigation, and put my spiritual life, my family life, even my psychological life in danger? Let us say all this to Jesus; let us tell him everything. He wants this; he wants us to grab hold of him to find shelter from the unexpected waves in life. The Gospel recounts that the disciples approach Jesus, wake him and speak to him (cf. v. 38). This is the beginning of our faith: to recognize that alone we are unable to stay afloat; that we need Jesus like sailors need the stars to find their course. Faith begins from believing that we are not enough for ourselves, from feeling in need of God. When we overcome the temptation to close ourselves off, when we overcome the false religiosity that does not want to disturb God, when we cry out to him, he can work wonders in us. It is the gentle and extraordinary power of prayer, which works miracles.

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