Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.

-- Mt 11:20-24

Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).

-- CCC 1431

Repentance (also called contrition) must be inspired by motives that arise from faith. If repentance arises from love of charity for God, it is called "perfect" contrition; if it is founded on other motives, it is called "imperfect."

-- CCC 1492

Art: The oldest known portrait of Kateri Tekakwitha, painted after her death by Father Chauchetière. (Source: Wikipedia.)

Monday, 15th Wk Ord Time: "I have come to bring not peace"

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

-- Mt 10:34-11:1

The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:

He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.

-- CCC 2015

(Photo by author: Christ offers Himself as the Way of perfection through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection in every holy Mass. Visit A Priest Life to view a pictorial guide to offering holy Mass in the hermeneutic of continuity. Special thanks to Father Charles Johnson.)

FIFTEENTH Sunday: "What you have received, give as a gift."

Amos 7, 12-15; Psalm 84; Ephesians 1, 3-14; St. Mark 6, 7-13

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

"What you have received, give as a gift." The Church is the Body of Christ not just in receiving his divine life and love, but in giving it as well. Christ sent the Twelve out "two by two" and he also sends us forth. The Church is perpetually on mission to evangelize all nations.

The sacramental liturgy takes its name of the "Mass" from this reality. The word derives from the Latin "missa" when, at the conclusion of the liturgy, the priest says "Ite, missa est", meaning "Go, it is sent forth." The people have heard the Word, prayed and received the Eucharist and are now prepared to take these gifts out to the world. Our everyday lives should include a continual reaching out, a going forth to proclaim the truth to the world, to call all mankind to Christ. The physical healings recorded in the Gospel are of God's power made manifest through the Apostles sent out to teach and baptize all nations.

Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. (Cf. Matthew 10:38) By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." (CCC 1506)

Healings of the body are signs only of the necessity of faith and the healing of the ravages of sin through the mercy of God. It is not physical blindness that shuts us out of heaven, but spiritual blindness to the evil of sin. For a world that is obsessed with physical appearances and habitually neglects the matters of the spirit, it is hard to hear the truth that God is concerned most with the appearance of the soul. The human soul in a state of grace is the most beautiful of all creatures and radiates with the beauty of divine love. Authentic compassion always requires that we care for and tend the ill and the disabled, but even more that we attend to their salvation. Knowing of heaven and the way to get there is the only sure source of comfort to those weighed down by the sorrows and burdens of this world.

We meet Christ in the liturgy so that we may be sent out healed of the effects of sin, strengthened and made new by God's Word and the Body of Christ. In this way we are equipped to preach and teach the truth by which Christ is made known to the world. We love best when we speak and act with the charity of Christ himself, desiring the salvation of the world.

The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church: Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They are the Church. (Pius XII, Discourse, February 20, 1946: AAS 38 (1946) 149; quoted by John Paul II, Christifideles Laici 9.) (CCC 899)

I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick

(For further reading on today's Gospel see also CCC 765, 1511 and 1673.)

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy (Publish with permission.)

Photo: The Catholic Church Extension Society "strengthens the Church's presence and mission in under-resourced and isolated communities across the United States" doing the work of Christ today who sends disciples to build up the Church here at home and all over the world. For more information about this missionary apostolate visit The Catholic Church Extension Society website.

Saint Benedict: "No disciple is above his teacher"

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.

-- Mt 10:24-33

The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."

-- CCC 1816

Photo by Ghanbari/AP: President and Mrs. Obama meet Pope Benedict XVI yesterday at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.

Friday, 14th Wk Ord Time: "whoever endures to the end will be saved"

"You will be hated by all because of my name"

-- Mt 10:16-23

Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"

-- CCC 161

Celebrate the Year for Priests: find out how to take spiritual advantage of a plenary indulgence connected to the Church's Sacerdotal Year here.

Thursday, 14th Wk Ord Time: "Heal the sick!"

"As you go, make this proclamation:
'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

-- Mt 10:7-15

"Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.

-- CCC 1509

Priests carry out the mission of Christ today to heal the sick through the ministries of Word and Sacrament. Celebrate and welcome our newly ordained priests this year. More info can be found here.

Wednesday, 14th Wk Ord Time: "Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples"

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"

-- Mt 10:1-7

Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles, and guides it still through these same pastors who continue his work today. Thus, it is Christ whose gift it is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues to act through the bishops.

-- CCC 1575

Catholic News Service has introduced a special feature to celebrate the Year for Priests, a blog series on the Year for Priests from the perspective of priests themselves. "We have several priests who have agreed to write for us about their lives and ministry. Watch for their posts in the coming weeks and months." More info can be found here.

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