Daily Reflections

JUNE IS THE MONTH THE CHURCH HONOURS THE SACRED OF JESUS. HONOUR THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS EVERY DAY IN JUNE

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 10

We are afflicted in every way but never overwhelmed;
we are bewildered but never lose Hope;
– we suffer persecution,
but have not been abandoned.

At every moment we carry in our bodies the Death of Jesus
so that in our bodies the Life of Jesus may also be manifested.
– We suffer persecution,
but have not been abandoned.

Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday in Pentecost Week (Traditional)

Saint Justin, Martyr

Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest (in England and Wales)

“In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure.”We think that we can atone for our sins in a formal way, by ­sacrificing this or that. And yet what greater oblation can there be than turning our whole lives towards God? “I have come to do your will.” Abraham’s Faith is tested to the limit when the impossible seems to be required of him: the sacrifice of the son he had longed for all his life. And yet the patriarch’s hand is stayed, and the LORD honours Abraham’s obedience by providing the sacrificial offering Himself, in the body of his own Son. It is Christ who shows us what true sacrifice sounds like: “My Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

FEAST OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE ETERNAL HIGH PRIEST

The Feast of Our LORD Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. In Him the Father has been well pleased from before all time. As Mediator between God and human beings, fulfilling His Father’s Will, He sacrificed Himself once on the Altar of the Cross as a saving Victim for the whole world. Thus, instituting the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice, with a brother’s kindness He chose, from among the children of Adam, men to augment the Priesthood, so that, from the sacrifice continually renewed in the Church, streams of Divine Power might flow, whereby a New Heaven and a New Earth might be made, and throughout the whole universe there would be perfected what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the human heart.

SAINT JUSTIN, MARTYR

Justin was born of heathen parents at Neapolis in Samaria, about the year 103. He was well educated, and gave himself to the study of philosophy, but always with one object, that he might learn the knowledge of God. He sought this knowledge among the contending schools of philosophy, but always in vain, till at last God Himself appeased the thirst which He had created. One day, while Justin was walking by the seashore, meditating on the thought of God, an old man met him and questioned him on the subject of his doubts; and when he had made Justin confess that the philosophers taught nothing certain about God, he told him of the writings of the inspired prophets and of Jesus Christ Whom they announced, and bade him seek light and understanding through prayer. The Scriptures and the constancy of the Christian martyrs led Justin from the darkness of human reason to the light of Faith. In his zeal for the Faith he travelled to Greece, Egypt, and Italy, gaining many to Christ. At Rome he sealed his testimony with his blood, surrounded by his disciples in 165 A.D. “Do you think,” the prefect said to Justin, “that by dying you will enter Heaven, and be rewarded by God?” “I do not think,” was the Saint’s answer; “I know.”

From the Moral Reflections on Job by Saint Gregory the Great, Pope
(Lib 10, 7-8. 10: PL 75, 922. 925-926)

The Law of the LORD is manifold

How must we interpret this Law of God? How, if not by love? The love that stamps the precepts of right-living on the mind and bids us put them into practice. Listen to Truth speaking of this law: This is my Commandment, that you love one another. Listen to Paul: The whole law, he declares, is summed up in love; and again: Help one another in your troubles, and you will fulfill the Law of Christ. The law of Christ—does anything other than Love more fittingly describe it? Truly we are keeping this law when, out of love, we go to the help of a brother in trouble.

But we are told that this law is manifold. Why? Because love’s lively concern for others is reflected in all the Virtues. It begins with two commands, but it soon embraces many more. Paul gives a good summary of its various aspects. Love is patient, he says, and kind; it is never jealous or conceited; its conduct is blameless; it is not ambitious, not selfish, not quick to take offense; it harbours no evil thoughts, does not gloat over other people’s sins, but is gladdened by an upright life.

The man ruled by this love shows his patience by bearing wrongs with equanimity; his kindness by generously repaying good for evil. Jealousy is foreign to him. It is impossible to envy worldly success when he has no worldly desires. He is not conceited. The prizes he covets lie within; outward blessings do not elate him. His conduct is blameless, for he cannot do wrong in devoting himself entirely to love of God and his neighbour. He is not ambitious. The welfare of his own soul is what he cares about. Apart from that he seeks nothing. He is not selfish. Unable to keep anything he has in this world, he is as indifferent to it as if it were another’s. Indeed, in his eyes nothing is his own but what will be so always. He is not quick to take offense. Even under provocation, thought of revenge never crosses his mind. The reward he seeks hereafter will be greater in proportion to his endurance. He harbours no evil thoughts. Hatred is utterly rooted out of a heart whose only love is goodness. Thoughts that defile a man can find no entry. He does not gloat over other people’s sins. No; an enemy’s fall affords him no delight, for loving all men, he longs for their salvation.

On the other hand, he is gladdened by an upright life. Since he loves others as himself, he takes as much pleasure in whatever good he sees in them as if the progress were his own. That is why this Law of God is manifold.

Faith in the Son of David and Son of God

Lest anyone should object and ask, “What prevents us from supposing that He whom we call Christ was a man born of men, and has worked what we term miracles through the art of magic, and thus [merely] appears to be the Son of God”, we now present proof that such was not the case. We shall do so not by trusting in mere statements without proof, but by necessarily believing those who predicted these things before they happened, for we are actual eye-witnesses of events that have happened and are happening in the very manner in which they were foretold….

In the books of the prophets, indeed, we found Jesus our Christ foretold as coming to us born of a virgin, reaching manhood, curing every disease and ailment, raising the dead to life, being hated, unrecognised, and crucified, Dying, Rising from the dead, Ascending into Heaven, and being called—and actually being—the Son of God. And we found predicted also that He would send certain persons to every nation to make known these things…. Twelve illiterate men, unskilled in the art of speaking, went out from Jerusalem into the world, and by the power of God they announced to men of every nation that they were sent by Christ to teach everyone the Word of God; and we, who once killed one another, now not only do not wage war against our enemies, but in order to avoid lying or deceiving our examiners, we even meet death cheerfully, confessing Christ. It would be ridiculous if we who long for immortality should not bear all things patiently, in order to attain what we Hope for from Him who has the power to grant it…. Our Jesus Christ, after His Crucifixion and Death, Arose from the dead, and after Ascending into Heaven, ruled there; through the tidings announced by the Apostles in His name to the people of every nation, joy is given to those who look forward to the Immortality promised by Him…. Concerning the prophecy that our Christ should cure all diseases and raise the dead to life, hear what was spoken. Here are the exact words of the prophecy: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy (Is 35:5-6).

Saint Justin the Martyr

Saint Justin the Martyr († 165) was a great second-century Church writer. This text comes from a defence of the Christian faith against the worship of the Roman gods. [From Saint Justin Martyr, The Fathers of the Church, a new translation, Volume 6. © 1948.

Romans 13:8, 10; Galatians 5:14

Owe no one anything
except to love one another,
for whoever loves his neighbor fulfills the law.
– Love is the fulfillment of the Law.

All God’s commands are summed up in one:
Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
– Love is the fulfillment of the Law.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

– Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen