Catholic Patriots

Audio:  https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-june-9-2023 Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 357 Reading 1  Tb 11:5-17 Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come. When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father, "Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!" Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father: "I am certain that his eyes will be opened. Smear the fish gall on them. This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes; then your father will again be able to see the light of day." Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him, and said to him,  "Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!" And she sobbed aloud. Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate. Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand, and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes. "Courage, father," he said. Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart. Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit's eyes, Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts. When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept. He exclaimed, "I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!" Then he said:  "Blessed be God, and praised be his great name, and blessed be all his holy angels. May his holy name be praised throughout all the ages, Because it was he who scourged me, and it is he who has had mercy on me. Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!" Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice  for everything that had happened. Tobiah told his father that  the Lord God had granted him a successful journey; that he had brought back the money; and that he had married Raguel's daughter Sarah, who would arrive shortly, for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh. Tobit and Anna rejoiced  and went out to the gate of Nineveh to meet their daughter-in-law. When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly, with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed. Before them all Tobit proclaimed how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes. When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah, he greeted her: "Welcome, my daughter! Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter! Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah,  and blessed are you, daughter! Welcome to your home with blessing and joy. Come in, daughter!" That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh. Responsorial Psalm  Ps 146:1b-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10 R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul! or: R. Alleluia. Praise the LORD, O my soul; I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live.  R. Praise the Lord, my soul! or: R. Alleluia. The LORD keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets captives free. R. Praise the Lord, my soul! or: R. Alleluia. The LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the just. The LORD protects strangers. R. Praise the Lord, my soul! or: R. Alleluia. The fatherless and the widow he sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts The LORD shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, through all generations! Alleluia. R. Praise the Lord, my soul! or: R. Alleluia. Alleluia  Jn 14:23 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel  Mk 12:35-37 As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, "How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.' David himself calls him 'lord'; so how is he his son?" The great crowd heard this with delight. /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus quotes a Psalm where David calls him Lord. It calls to mind a question: Do you also recognize Jesus as Lord?  Is Christ commanding your life in every detail? Is he the Lord of your family life? Of your recreational life? Of your professional life? Is he the Lord of every room in your house, including the bedroom? Does your sexuality belong to him? Do your friendships serve his purpose? Are you totally given over to him, under his lordship? When we surrender to the path of love that he has laid out for us, our lives become infinitely lighter, easier, and more joyful, for we are moving with the divine purpose. We will have moved out of what Paul calls the way of “the flesh” and into the way of “the Spirit.” Flesh refers here not to the body as such but to sin. When you are caught up in patterns of self-regard and self-protection, life becomes a burden, and you find yourself taking up the weapons of war all the time. But when you recognize Jesus as Lord, you can let all of that go.    

Audio: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-june-2-2023   Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 351 Reading 1  Sir 44:1, 9-13 Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time. But of others there is no memory, for when they ceased, they ceased. And they are as though they had not lived, they and their children after them. Yet these also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten; Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants; Through God’s covenant with them their family endures, their posterity, for their sake. And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out. Responsorial Psalm  PS 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b R. (see 4a) The Lord takes delight in his people. or: R. Alleluia.  Sing to the LORD a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in their maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. R. The Lord takes delight in his people. or: R. Alleluia. Let them praise his name in the festive dance, let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD loves his people, and he adorns the lowly with victory. R. The Lord takes delight in his people. or: R. Alleluia.  Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy upon their couches; Let the high praises of God be in their throats. This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.  R. The Lord takes delight in his people. or: R. Alleluia. Alleluia  See Jn 15:16 R. Alleluia, alleluia. I chose you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel  Mk 11:11-26 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, at the heart of today’s Gospel is the cleansing of the temple. Jesus entered the great temple in Jerusalem—which for a Jew of that time was everything—and began to “drive out those selling and buying there.” Precisely because the temple was supposed to be so holy, Jesus was flabbergasted at what had happened to it and how the trading of merchants had come to dominate. From the earliest days, Christian writers and spiritual teachers saw the temple as symbolic of the human person. In fact, didn’t St. Paul himself refer to the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit? Your very self is meant to be a temple where God’s Spirit dwells and where prayer, communion with God, is central. But what happens to us sinners? The money changers and the merchants enter in. What is supposed to be a place of prayer becomes a den of thieves. And so the Lord must do in us now what he did in the temple then: a little housecleaning. What shape is the temple of your soul in? Suppose that Jesus has made a whip of cords, knotted with the Ten Commandments. What would he clear out of you?    

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church Lectionary: 572 Reading I Gn 3:9-15, 20 After Adam had eaten of the tree,             the LORD God called to him and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden;             but I was afraid, because I was naked,             so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then,             from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—             she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” The LORD God then asked the woman,             “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the serpent:             “Because you have done this, you shall be banned                         from all the animals                         and from all the wild creatures;             On your belly shall you crawl,                         and dirt shall you eat                         all the days of your life.             I will put enmity between you and the woman,                         and between your offspring and hers;             He will strike at your head,                         while you strike at his heel.” The man called his wife Eve,             because she became the mother of all the living. OR: Acts 1:12-14 After Jesus had been taken up to heaven,             the Apostles returned to Jerusalem             from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,             a sabbath day’s journey away. When they entered the city             they went to the upper room where they were staying,             Peter and John and James and Andrew,             Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,             James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,             and Judas son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,             together with some women,             and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.   Responsorial Psalm 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7 R. (3) Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! His foundation upon the holy mountains             the LORD loves: The gates of Zion,             more than any dwelling of Jacob. R. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! Glorious things are said of you,             O city of God! And of Zion they shall say:             “One and all were born in her; And he who has established her             is the Most High LORD.” R. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! They shall note, when the peoples are enrolled:             “This man was born there.” And all shall sing, in their festive dance:             “My home is within you.” R. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! Alleluia R. Alleluia, alleluia. O joyful Virgin, who gave birth to the Lord; O blessed Mother of the Church, who nurture in us the Spirit of your Son Jesus Christ! R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Jn 19:25-34 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother             and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,             and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved,             he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple,             “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished,             in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,             Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop             and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,             “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day,             in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,             for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,             the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken             and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first             and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,             they did not break his legs,             but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,             and immediately Blood and water flowed out.   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, today we celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. We hear in today’s Gospel that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus looked to his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and he said to Mary, “Woman, behold, your son,” and then to John, “Behold, your mother.” We are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” If Mary is the one through whom Christ was born, and if the Church is indeed Christ’s Mystical Body, then she must be, in a very real sense, the Mother of the Church. She is the one through whom Jesus continues to be born in the hearts of those who believe. This is not to confuse her with the Savior, but it is to insist on her mission as mediator and intercessor. At the close of the great “Hail Mary” prayer, we Catholics ask Mary to pray for us “now and at the hour of our death,” signaling that throughout one’s life Mary is the privileged channel through which the grace of Christ flows into the Mystical Body. God delights in drawing secondary causes into the dense complexity of his providential plan, granting to them the honor of cooperating with him and his designs. The handmaid of the Lord, who is the Mother of the Church, is the humblest of these humble instruments—and therefore the most effective.  

Audio:  https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-28-2023-day /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, in today’s Gospel, on the evening after his Resurrection, the Lord appears to his disciples and greets them, saying, "Peace be with you." According to the Gospel accounts, the risen Jesus typically did two things: he showed his wounds and he pronounced a word of peace. The wounds of Jesus are a continual and salutary reminder of our sin. The author of life appeared in our midst and we killed him, and this gives the lie to any attempt at self-justification or exculpation.  But the risen Lord never leaves us in guilt; instead, he speaks the word "Shalom," peace. This is the peace that the world cannot give, for it is the Shalom that comes from the heart of God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul said, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." How does Paul know this? He knows it because we killed God, and God returned in forgiving love. He knows it because the enemies of Israel have been defeated.    

Audio: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-27-2023   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:    Friends, in today’s Gospel, when Peter asks about the destiny of the beloved disciple, Jesus says: “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” Here at the close of John’s Gospel, we can take this command to heart. What does following Jesus involve? True conversion—the metanoia that Jesus talks about—is so much more than moral reform, though it includes that. It has to do with a complete shift in consciousness, a whole new way of looking at one’s life. Jesus offered a teaching that must have been gut-wrenching to his first-century audience: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” His listeners knew what the cross meant: a death in utter agony, nakedness, and humiliation. They didn’t think of the cross automatically in religious terms, as we do. They knew it in all of its awful power. Unless you crucify your ego, you cannot be my follower, Jesus says. This move—this terrible move—has to be the foundation of the spiritual life.  

Audio: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-26-2023   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the great engagement between the risen Jesus and Peter. Peter knows his sin—he betrayed Jesus three times. But Jesus brings him through the process of repentance and gives him the key to transformation. Three times Peter denied the Lord, and so three times Jesus asks him to reaffirm his faith: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Notice that Christianity is not a set of ideas or convictions or principles. It is a relationship with a person. Do you love Jesus? Has he become your friend? When Simon says yes, Jesus tests him: “Feed my lambs; tend my sheep; feed my sheep.” The test of love is action. Are we willing to do what Jesus did? Are we willing to go on mission on his behalf? Then we hear that wonderful closing section: “When you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” The ultimate test of discipleship is our willingness to abandon our egos and be carried by a power greater than ourselves.  

Audio: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-25-2023   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus prays for our unity with him and with each other. The Church is one because its founder is one. Jesus compels a choice precisely because he claims to speak and act in the very person of God. Jesus simply cannot be one teacher among many, and therefore those who walk in his way must be exclusively with him. Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) commented that the opening line of the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one God,” is a subversive statement, because it automatically rules out any rival claimant to ultimate concern. To say that one accepts only the God of Israel and Jesus Christ is to say that one rejects as ultimate any human being, any culture, any political party, any artistic form, or any set of ideas. A Christian, I would argue, is someone who, at the most fundamental level of his or her being, is centered on the one God of Jesus Christ. This helps to explain why, on the last night of his life on earth, while sitting at supper with his disciples, the core of the Church, Jesus prayed, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one.”  

Audio: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-24-2023   /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, today’s Gospel is the high-priestly prayer of Jesus the night of the Last Supper. Here are the first words of the Lord: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.” God is, in his innermost nature, a community of love, and God’s purpose vis-à-vis the world is to draw it into his unity. God is a great gathering force. Jesus continues: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.” Precisely because the world is so opposed to the way of Jesus, it is always tempting for Christians more or less to flee, to seek to live in private enclaves where we can cultivate the life of discipleship. It is true that, at times, the Church must hunker down in order to preserve its life against a hostile culture. But the ultimate purpose of the Church is never hunkering down or escaping. It is the transformation of the culture. The Church always exists for the world. If God simply took us out of the world, he would be removing the leaven necessary for the rising of the dough.  

Audio:  https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-23-2023 /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel sums up his wonderful work as he is about to return to his Father. Jesus was, in his very person, the meeting of heaven and earth. God and humanity came together in him, and his entire ministry was the outward expression of that inward identity. By calling a scattered Israel to unity, inviting the poor to table fellowship, healing the sick in body and heart, and embodying the path of forgiveness and love, Jesus was bringing God’s will and purpose to earth.  Now, in his Passion and death, Jesus brought heaven all the way down into the world. He carried the divine light into the darkest places of the human condition—hatred, cruelty, violence, corruption, stupidity, suffering, and death itself—and thereby transformed them. And the proof that heaven is able to transform earth is, of course, the Resurrection.  Now we know that cruelty, hatred, violence, fear, suffering, and death are not the most powerful forces in the world. Now we know that the divine love is more powerful. God’s kingdom has, in principle, broken the kingdoms of the world, which thrive upon, and in turn produce, those very negativities.

Audio https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-may-22-2023 /// Commentary by Bishop Robert Barron:  Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus candidly tells his disciples that they will abandon him but that he will not be alone because the Father is with him. Then he encourages them: “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” In Jesus of Nazareth, the divine and the human have come together in a salvific way, and this reconciliation is the long-awaited kingdom of God. Though there are many themes that run through the Hebrew Scriptures, there is one motif that is consistent and persistent: the passionate and aching desire for deliverance, the cry of the heart toward the God from whom the people feel alienated. If only the power of rebellion and sin were ended and the friendship of God and human beings re-established, then peace, shalom, all-pervasive well-being would reign.  What Jesus announced in his first sermon in the hills of Galilee and what he demonstrates throughout his life and ministry is that this wild desire of his ancestors, this hope against hope, this intimate union of God and humanity, is an accomplished fact, something which can be seen and heard and touched.