Hope and Forgiveness
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. God lets go fill our hearts of goodness and mercy and compassion and forgiveness.
The text of the readings of this eleventh Sunday of ordinary time, invite us to reflect: a big sin, and to have great mercy. Luke 7: 36-8: 3 “their sins have been forgiven, because she has shown great love.” Pope Francis speaks of the Church not as the institution that demands its mission but the hospital that caters to those in need. It seems to presume, as Jesus does, we are all sinners, so denying the warning to sinners of the medicine the Church, is to be counterproductive. The kiss of the sinner is received by Jesus, as a cold hypocritical hospitality.
There were some interesting conceptions of sin prevalent in the time of the Hebrew scriptures. There was the belief that God punished sin immediately. Those who suffered disease or misfortune were, therefore, sinners getting their due from the Almighty. Today’s first reading hints at another kind of God. When David admits his sin, Nathan declares, “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13b). Here was not a vengeful God but a merciful God. What good news that must have been to David and those who, like him, could be honest enough to admit their sinfulness! Jesus is the good news of God’s mercy and forgiveness incarnate. Without Jesus, perhaps the good news would have been too good to believe, too difficult to imagine. But there he is in today’s Gospel, the God-man, forgiving a sinner and declaring that she is forgiven because of her great love. There is hope, then, for the rest of us sinners, if only we love enough!
On the 16 of this month at 6:30 PM, we will have the Eucharistic celebration in gratitude to God for the 26th anniversary of priestly ordination of Father William Ruther everyone is cordially invited. Thanking God for the gift of sending us two good priests in the persons of William Fr. and Fr. Enrique to comprise a new mission in their priestly life in other communities of our archdiocese; God bless them.
United in the Lord’s Prayer your diocesan priest brothers,
F. Walter Paredes, F. William Ruther and F. Enrique Hernández
Readings for the Week
Monday: 1 Kgs 21:1-16; Ps 5:2-3ab, 4b-7;Mt 5:38-42
Tuesday: 1 Kgs 21:17-29; Ps 51:3-6ab, 11, 16; Mt 5:43-48
Wednesday: 2 Kgs 2:1, 6-14; Ps 31:20, 21, 24; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
Thursday: Sir 48:1-14; Ps 97:1-7; Mt 6:7-15
Friday: 2 Kgs 11:1-4, 9-18, 20; Ps 132:11-14, 17-18; Mt 6:19-23
Saturday: 2 Chr 24:17-25; Ps 89:4-5, 29-34; Mt 6:24-34
Sunday: Zec 12:10-11; 13:1; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Gal 3:26-29; Lk 9:18-24