JULY 14, 2013 l 15th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
NOTES FOR TODAY'S HOMILY
> AS WE GET TO KNOW JESUS WE GET TO KNOW OURSELVES
No. 1: "Love of neighbor is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. … Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave."
No. 2: "Christ the Lord ... by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself"
— Gaudium et Spes, no. 22
No. 3: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine. ... Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you"
— Isaiah 43:1, 4
No. 4: "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want."
— Romans 7:15-19
No. 5: "With ever more accurate darts of love the Holy Spirit opens our consciences before God so that deeper and more effective healing can occur; at times his coming is so pure that it causes us to have pain and recoil at the level of intimacy God wishes his Son to achieve in our being. We recoil at our own needed medicine because it will bring about a change, and sin wishes no change to occur."
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., The Eucharist and Healing of Affection for Sin
> HEALING IS AN ESSENTIAL DIMENSION OF CHRIST
No. 6: "Healing is an essential dimension of the apostolic mission and of Christianity. When understood at a sufficiently deep level, this expresses the entire content of redemption."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, pg. 176
No. 7: "Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils."
— Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, no.14
> THE LIGHT OF CHRIST WILL SHED LIGHT ON OUR DARKNESS
No. 8: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."
— 1st John 1:5
> AS WE GET TO KNOW JESUS WE GET TO KNOW OURSELVES
No. 1: "Love of neighbor is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. … Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave."
— Deus Caritas Est, no. 18
No. 2: "Christ the Lord ... by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself"
— Gaudium et Spes, no. 22
No. 3: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine. ... Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you"
— Isaiah 43:1, 4
No. 4: "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want."
— Romans 7:15-19
> SOMETIMES JESUS GETS "TOO CLOSE"
No. 5: "With ever more accurate darts of love the Holy Spirit opens our consciences before God so that deeper and more effective healing can occur; at times his coming is so pure that it causes us to have pain and recoil at the level of intimacy God wishes his Son to achieve in our being. We recoil at our own needed medicine because it will bring about a change, and sin wishes no change to occur."
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., The Eucharist and Healing of Affection for Sin
> HEALING IS AN ESSENTIAL DIMENSION OF CHRIST
No. 6: "Healing is an essential dimension of the apostolic mission and of Christianity. When understood at a sufficiently deep level, this expresses the entire content of redemption."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, pg. 176
No. 7: "Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils."
— Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, no.14
> THE LIGHT OF CHRIST WILL SHED LIGHT ON OUR DARKNESS
No. 8: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."
— 1st John 1:5
> THE "ROOTS" OF RESISTANCE IS DEEPER THAN THE ACTION OF SIN
No. 9: "The root of sin is in the heart of man"
— Catechism of the Catholic, no. 1853
> THE GOOD SAMARITAN IS AN IMAGE OF JESUS
> AREAS OF OUR HEART THAT RESIST GOD'S COMING CLOSE
Image A: Our hearts are wounded
Image B: Wounds are filled with pain
Image C: Pain is surrounded by fear
Image D: Fear is surrounded by lies
Image E: Lies are surrounded by vows
> PAIN, LIES, AND VOWS ISOLATE US. AND, WHERE WE ARE ISOLATED WE NEED HEALING,
No. 11: "the refusal of communion imprisons [us] in isolation and division."
— Blessed John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, no.10
> LETTING GOD IN VERSUS GIVING IT TO GOD
No. 12: "God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2567
No. 13: "It is this divine self-giving and the positive human response to accept such love that healing is known. Trust, vulnerability, rapt listening, integrity all precede the fullness of healing; otherwise God could incorrectly be seen as entering a magic relationship and not one of human freedom and fullness. We must present ourselves in such a way that Christ can enter our hearts with truth. And such a way of presenting ourselves is encapsulated in the virtue of humility."
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., The Eucharist and Healing of Affection for Sin
> WHERE WE ARE IN COMMUNION WE EXPERIENCE HEALING
No. 14: "Whoever truly wishes to heal man must see him in his wholeness and must know that his ultimate healing can only be God’s love."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, pg. 17
No. 15: "The healing occurs as the wound is acknowledged, the lies are unveiled, and the light of Jesus’ love reveals the Truth. This Divine love has to be received into a man’s wounds so that it can alter the external behavior from within."
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., Surrendering to the Healing Power of Christ’s Own Chastity
The Good Samaritan, Johann Karl Loth, c. 1676
No. 9: "The root of sin is in the heart of man"
— Catechism of the Catholic, no. 1853
> THE GOOD SAMARITAN IS AN IMAGE OF JESUS
No. 10: "The road from Jerusalem to Jericho thus turns out to be an image of human history; the half-dead man lying by the side of it is an image of humanity. Priest and Levite pass by; from earthly history alone, from its cultures and religions alone, no healing comes. If the assault victim is the image of everyman, the Samaritan can only be the image of Jesus Christ. God himself, who for us is foreign and distant, has set out to take care of his wounded creature. God, though so remote from us, has made himself our neighbor in Jesus Christ. He pours oil and wine into our wounds, a gesture seen as an image of the healing gift of the sacraments, and he brings us to the inn, the Church, in which he arranges our care and also pays a deposit for the cost of that care."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, pgs. 200-201
> AREAS OF OUR HEART THAT RESIST GOD'S COMING CLOSE
Image A: Our hearts are wounded
Image B: Wounds are filled with pain
Image C: Pain is surrounded by fear
Image D: Fear is surrounded by lies
Image E: Lies are surrounded by vows
> PAIN, LIES, AND VOWS ISOLATE US. AND, WHERE WE ARE ISOLATED WE NEED HEALING,
No. 11: "the refusal of communion imprisons [us] in isolation and division."
— Blessed John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, no.10
> LETTING GOD IN VERSUS GIVING IT TO GOD
No. 12: "God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2567
No. 13: "It is this divine self-giving and the positive human response to accept such love that healing is known. Trust, vulnerability, rapt listening, integrity all precede the fullness of healing; otherwise God could incorrectly be seen as entering a magic relationship and not one of human freedom and fullness. We must present ourselves in such a way that Christ can enter our hearts with truth. And such a way of presenting ourselves is encapsulated in the virtue of humility."
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., The Eucharist and Healing of Affection for Sin
> WHERE WE ARE IN COMMUNION WE EXPERIENCE HEALING
No. 14: "Whoever truly wishes to heal man must see him in his wholeness and must know that his ultimate healing can only be God’s love."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, pg. 17
— Deacon Jim Keating, Ph.D., Surrendering to the Healing Power of Christ’s Own Chastity
The Good Samaritan, Johann Karl Loth, c. 1676
© Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
