« Sunday, June 21, 2020 »
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lectionary: 94)
Reading 1
JEREMIAH 20:10-13
Jeremiah said: “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every
side! Denounce! let us denounce him!’ All those who were my friends are on the
watch for any misstep of mine. ‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can
prevail, and take our vengeance on him.’ But the LORD is with me, like a mighty
champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure
they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion. O LORD of
hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, let me witness the
vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the
LORD, praise the LORD, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power
of the wicked!”
Qari I
mill-Ktieb tal-Profeta Ġeremija 20, 10-13
F’dak iż-żmien, Ġeremija qal: Ma nismax ħlief taqsis il-kotra; biża’
madwari kollu! “Ixluh! Ħa nixluh!”. Jgħajtu saħansitra ħbiebi kollha, ifittxu l-qerda tiegħi: “Għandu
mnejn jitqarraq u negħlbuh; ta’ kollox
nitħallsu minnu!”. Il-Mulej miegħi bħal raġel qalbieni, għalhekk dawk li
jagħmlu għalija jogħtru, ma jagħmlu xejn, jitħawdu bis-sħiħ, għax ħsiebhom ma
jseħħx; għajb għalihom li ma jintesa qatt. Int, Mulej tal-eżerċti, li ġġarrab
il-ġust, li tara l-ġewwieni u l-qalb, ħallini nara l-vendetta tiegħek
kontrihom, għax f’idejk ħallejt il-kawża tiegħi. Għannu lill-Mulej, faħħru
lill-Mulej, għaliex ħajjet l-imsejken ħelisha minn id il-ħżiena. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Responsorial Psalm PSALM 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
For your sake I bear insult, and shame covers my face. I have become an outcast to my brothers, a stranger to my children, Because zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me. R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O LORD, for the time of your favor, O God! In your great kindness answer me with your constant help. Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness; in your great mercy turn toward me.R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not. Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the seas and whatever moves in them!’‘R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Salm Responsorjali Salm 68 (69), 8-10.14.17.33-35
R/. (14ċ): Fil-kobor ta’ tjubitek weġibni, O Alla
Minħabba fik qiegħed nilqa’ t-tmaqdir, u l-mistħija tiksili wiċċi. Sirt barrani għal ħuti, ulied ommi ma jagħrfunix. Għax il-ħeġġa għal darek fnietni,it-tagħjir ta’ min jgħajjar lilek waqa’ fuqi. R/.
Imma jien lilek nitlob, Mulej; meta jogħ , o Alla, weġibni, fil-kobor ta’ tjubitek u skond il-wegħda tas-salvazzjoni tiegħek. Weġibni, Mulej, għax mill-aħjar tjubitek; dur lejja fil-kobor tal-ħniena tiegħek. R/.
Hekk jaraw l-imsejkna u jifirħu; u tagħmlu l-qalb, intom li tfittxu lil Alla. Għax jisma’ l-fqajrin il-Mulej, ma jistmellx l-imjassrin tiegħu. Ifaħħruh is-sema u l-art, l-ibħra u kull ma jitħarrek fihom. R/.
Reading 2 ROMANS 5:12-15
Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned— for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.
Qari II mill-ittra lir-Rumani 5, 12-15
Ħuti, kien permezz ta’ bniedem wieħed li fid-dinja daħal id-dnub, u permezz tad-dnub il-mewt, u hekk il-mewt laħqet il-bnedmin kollha, għax kollha dinbu. Kienet għadha ma waslitx il-Liġi, id-dnub kien ġa fid-dinja: imma d-dnub ma kienx magħdud, ladarba Liġi ma kienx hemm. Madankollu l-mewt saltnet ukoll minn Adam sa Mosè, mqar fuq dawk li ma waqgħux fid-dnub li fih kien waqa’ Adam, li kien xbieha ta’ dak li kellu jiġi. Imma d-don mhuwiex bħall-ħtija. Għax jekk permezz ta’ ħtija waħda mietet il-kotra, aktar u aktar issa l-grazzja ta’ Alla u d-don mogħti bil-grazzja ta’ bniedem wieħed li hu Ġesù Kristu, xterdu bil-bosta fuq il-kotra. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Gospel
MATTHEW 10:26-33
Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Evanġelju Qari skond San Mattew 10, 26-33
F’dak iż-żmien, Ġesù qal lill-Appostli tiegħu: “La tibżgħux mil-bnedmin. Għax xejn ma hu mgħotti li ma jinkixifx, u xejn ma hu moħbi li ma jsirx magħruf. Dak li jien ngħidilkom fid-dlam għiduh fid-dawl, u dak li ngħidilkom f’widnejkom xandruh minn fuq il-bjut. U tibżgħux minn dawk li joqtlu l-ġisem bla ma jistgħu joqtlu r-ruħ; imma aktar ibżgħu minn dak li jista’ jeqred kemm ir-ruħ u kemm il-ġisem flinfern. Żewġ għasafar tal-bejt mhux b’ħabba jinbiegħu? U b’danakollu anqas wieħed minnhom ma jaqa’ fl-art mingħajr ir-rieda ta’ missierkom. Intom imbagħad sax-xagħar ta’ raskom kollu hu magħdud. Mela xejn la tibżgħu; intom aqwa minn ħafna għasafar tal-bejt. Kull min jistqarr quddiem il-bnedmin li hu miegħi, jien ukoll nistqarr li jiena miegħu quddiem Missieri li hu fis-smewwiet. Iżda min jiċħad lili quddiem il-bnedmin, jien ukoll niċħad lilu quddiem Missieri li hu fis-smewwiet”. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
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Have Fear But Do Not Be Afraid
Gospel Commentary
by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Pontifical Household Preacher
This Sunday's Gospel contains a number of ideas but they all can be summarized in this apparently contradictory phrase: "Have fear but do not be afraid." Jesus says: "Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear rather him who has the power to make both the soul and the body perish in Gehenna." We must not be afraid of, nor fear human beings; we must fear God but not be afraid of him.
There is a difference between being afraid and fearing and I would like to take this occasion to try to understand why this is so and in what this difference consists. Being afraid is a manifestation of our fundamental instinct for preservation. It is a reaction to a threat to our life, the response to a real or perceived danger, whether this be the greatest danger of all, death, or particular dangers that threaten our tranquility, our physical safety, or our affective world.
With respect to whether the dangers are real or imagined, we say that someone is "justifiably" or "unjustifiably" or "pathologically" afraid. Like sicknesses, this worry can be acute or chronic. If it is acute, it has to do with states determined by situations of extraordinary danger. If I am about to be hit by a car or I begin to feel the earth quake under my feet, this is being acutely afraid. These "scares" arise suddenly and without warning and cease when the danger has passed, leaving, if anything, just a bad memory. Being chronically afraid is to be constantly in a state of preoccupation, this state grows up with us from birth or childhood and becomes part of our being, and we end up developing an attachment to it. We call such a state a complex or phobia: claustrophobia, agoraphobia, and so on.
The Gospel helps to free us from all of these worries and reveals their relative, non-absolute, nature. There is something of ours that nothing and no one in the world can truly take away from us or damage: For believers it is the immortal soul; for everyone it is the testimony of their own conscience.
The fear of God is quite different from being afraid. The fear of God must be learned: "Come, my children, listen to me," a Psalm says, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (33:12); being afraid, on the other hand, does not need to be learned at school; it overtakes us suddenly in the face of danger; the things themselves bring about our being afraid.
But the meaning itself of fearing God is different from being afraid. It is a component of faith: It is born from knowledge of who God is. It is the same sentiment that we feel before some great spectacle of nature. It is feeling small before something that is immense; it is stupor, marvel mixed with admiration. Beholding the miracle of the paralytic who gets up on his feet and walks, the Gospel says, "Everyone was in awe and praised God; filled with fear they said: ‘Today we have seen wondrous things'" (Luke 5:26). Fear is here simply another name for stupor and praise.
This sort of fear is a companion of and allied to love: It is the
fear of offending the beloved that we see in everyone who is truly in love,
even in the merely human realm. This fear is often called "the beginning
of wisdom" because it leads to making the right choices in life. Indeed it
is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit! (cf. Isaiah 11:2).
The cause of this anxiety is the diminishing -- if not the complete disappearance -- in our society of the holy fear of God. "No one fears God anymore!" We say this sometimes jokingly but it contains a tragic truth. The more that the fear of God diminishes, the more we become afraid of our fellow men!
It is easy to understand why this is the case. Forgetting God, we place all our confidence in the things of this world, that is, in the things that Christ says "thieves can steal and moths consume" -- uncertain things that can disappear from one moment to the next, that time (and moths!) inexorably consume, things that everyone is after and which therefore cause competition and rivalry (the famous "mimetic desire" of which René Girard speaks), things that need to be defended with clenched teeth and, sometimes, with a gun in hand.
The decline in fear of God, rather than liberating us from worry, gets us more entangled in worry. Look at what happens in the relationship between children and parents in our society. Fathers no longer fear God and children no longer fear fathers! The fear of God is reflected in and analogous to the reverential fear of children for parents. The Bible continually associates the two things. But does the lack of this reverential fear for their parents make the children and young people of today more free and self-confident? We know well that the exact opposite is true.
The way out of the crisis is to rediscover the necessity and the beauty of the holy fear of God. Jesus explains to us in the Gospel that we will hear on Sunday that the constant companion of the fear of God is confidence in God. "Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!"
God does not want us to be afraid of him but to have confidence in
him. It is the contrary of that emperor who said: "Oderint dum
metuant" -- "Let them hate me so long as they are afraid of
me!" Our earthly fathers must imitate God; they must not make us afraid of
them but have confidence in them. It is in this way that respect is nourished:
admiration, confidence, everything that falls under the name of "holy
fear." [Translation
by Joseph G. Trabbic]
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