DAILY- HOMILY

July 23, 2018 – MONDAY, 16TH Week in Ordinary Time

St. Bridget of Sweden, Widow and Religious Founder

Cycle B. Green.

Mi 6: 1 - 4, 6- 8 / Mt 12: 38- 42

St. Bridget of Sweden (1303 -1373), a mother of seven children, one of whom was canonized as St. Catherine of Sweden (c. 1330 - 1381), became a Franciscan tertiary and founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior. With Sts. Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380) and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891 - 1942), she was declared co-Patroness of Europe by Pope St. John Paul II in 1999.

FROM THE 1ST READING:             Mi 6: 6- 8

What shall I bring when I come to Yahweh and bow down before God the most high? Shall I come with burnt offerings, with sacrifices of yearling calves? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with an overabundance of oil libations? Should I offer my firstborn for my sins, the fruit of my body for my wrongdoing?

You have been told, 0 man, what is good and what Yahweh requires of you: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.

GOSPEL READING:           Mt 12: 38- 42

Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you." Jesus answered them, "An evil and unfaithful people want a sign, but no sign will be given them except the sign of the prophet Jonah. In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the monster fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.

"At the judgment, the people of Nineveh will rise with this generation and condemn it, because they reformed their lives at the preaching of Jonah and here there is greater than Jonah. At the judgment, the Queen of the South will stand up and condemn you. She came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here there is greater than Solomon."

REFLECTION

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah reminds all that, while sacrifices and burnt offerings were valuable before God, what God truly requires is "to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God."

It is good to pray and offer first fruits and burnt offerings to God. But without good works, such are indeed meaningless before God.

In the Gospel reading the Pharisees ask Jesus for a "sign": he gives as sign the story of Jonah who was three days inside the sea animal. Jonah in the whale prefigured his burial and resurrection.

Jesus reprimands the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who refuse to believe in him despite his teaching and great works: "here there is greater than Jonah..... and here there is greater than Solomon."

Let us pray for faith in Jesus, his teachings and his works. Let us pray we be not deaf and blind and hypocritical about Jesus, unlike the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in his time.

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER INTENTIONS:

BIRTHDAY 

     Fr. Sigmund B. de Guzman S.J.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most. 

Have a good day!

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