Do We Ever Stop to Thank God for...

Do we ever stop to thank God for
having been born in a Catholic
home and for having persevered
when so many have dropped out?



July 10 - XV Sunday in Ordinary Time

A special Sunday for Pauline? Can we say this? Well, why not? It's all about the Word of God which is the aspect of the Catholic Apostolate to which Paulines devote their time and energies!


We don't usually pay much attention to the Opening Prayer,preferring to wait for the message of the Reading(s) and Gospel But this Sunday "the light of truth" mentioned cannot be misread and this light comes most frequently from hearing, The concept of "Word" is found from the very first pages of Genesis where God "says" or "speaks" Creation into existence.


So we are not surprised when the WORD of God, the Divine Word appears on earth to inaugurate the second Creation or the new Creation. The First Reading points out that just as there is no waste in Nature when the law of God is respected, so also his Word will never go forth without accomplishing what He wishes.


The Responsorial Psalm expresses the same theme: the seed - the word of God - is never wasted when it falls on good ground. That, of course, is the problem. Where can we find this ground? And the answer has to be: let's continue sowing, sowing, sowing as long as we have breath in our body and leave the final result to the Lord of the Harvest.


In the Second Reading St. Paul somewhat poetically sees Creation as suffering the effects of the Fall of our First Parents (which seems to have affected it and thrown it out of order), but "yearning" to be remade when the New Creation has finally reached its goal and all the saved are gathered into Paradise at the end of time. Meanwhile, says St. Paul, we human beings also yearn to be "remade" and become sons and daughters of God. As usual, St. Paul does not match exactly the thought in the First Reading and Gospel, but he does underline the fact that God is presiding over His Creation.


The Gospel needs no commentary - the Lord does that for us as regards the meaning of the parable. More interesting is the paragraph where Jesus quite plainly says "knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you but to them it has not been granted." This is a sobering thought: do we ever stop to thank God for having been born in a Catholic or possibly a Christian home? For having been raised by good parents? For having accepted the faith and maintained our fervor up to this day? And, finally, for having had the grace to accept the message of the Institute which has by now been heard by hundreds of thousands ... but only we were called.


We must repeat again and again the Church's prayer: " I give you thanks, 0 Almighty God for all your benefits, you who live and reign forever and ever."