Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Today's Readings
Jer 20:10-13; Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33
Read today's readings at USCCBReflection
For your sake I bear insult and shame covers my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers. Because zeal for your house consumes me the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me. The psalm is the prayer of Jeremiah, of Jesus, of everyone whose faithfulness to God has produced estrangement from the people who were supposed to be close.
The Lord hears the poor and his own who are in bonds he spurns not. The ones in bonds - those whose faithfulness has cost them their freedom in some form - are not abandoned. The hearing is real.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body. The fear Jesus names is real. The killing of the body is possible. The soul's immortality is the ground of the do-not-fear - not because the threat is not real but because the threat is not final. In the evening of life, the long counting of the hairs of the head, the sparrow-knowledge, has been the ground under everything. The Father who counted every hair knows every diminishment.
Prayer of the Faithful
- For those in the evening of life who have borne insult for the sake of faithfulness, that the Lord who hears the poor and does not spurn his own in bonds would honor the long bearing, we pray to the Lord.
- For those whose friends have become adversaries, who hear the terror-on-every-side whisperings, that the but-the-Lord-is-with-me would be more present than the conspiracy, we pray to the Lord.
- In this Sacred Heart month, for the heart that bears insult with zeal for the Father's house and trusts the outcome to him, we pray to the Lord.
Something to Do
Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked. Before the week ends, name one act of rescue that the Lord has done for you from the power of what was threatening you - small or large. Sing to the Lord for it. The praise at the end of Jeremiah's prayer follows the entrusting of the cause.
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