Renungan Harian Katolik Untuk Para Pekerja / Orang Sibuk

Thursday 10th week in ordinary time

"Mt 5:20-26"

"I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

We can't approach the Altar of Sacrifice in any old way. To be ready to participate in the Sacrifice of the Altar we need first to be 'reconciled'. St Paul was very clear when he explained to the first Christians that "whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord" and so he invited them to "examine" themselves first, because "any one who eats and drinks without discerning the Body eats and drinks judgement upon himself." (1Co 11:27-29)

In April 390 Emperor Theodosius sent his army to Thessalonica to crush a revolt. The Roman soldiers slayed seven thousand people without trial, innocent and guilty alike. According to historian Theodoret, when the emperor, accompanied by his court, tried to enter the Milanese cathedral to attend Mass, the bishop St Ambrose rebuked the emperor and forbade him to attend the Holy Mass until he repented and did penance. Theodoret explains that Theodosius "had been brought up according to divine words and understood well": he could do nothing but return "weeping and sighing" to the palace.

Receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin is a sacrilege that demands reparation. The Angel of Fatima asked the three children to say this prayer in reparation: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And by the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners."

Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, increase my love for Our Lord really present in Holy Communion and teach me to make reparation for sacrileges against the Eucharist.

Wednesday 10th week in ordinary time

"Mt 5:17-19"

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

God, as a good professor, teaches things gradually. It's like a building: The Old Testament is the foundation. On top of a solid base you can build. Jesus didn't demolish what God taught in the Old Testament to start from scratch. No. All that was the foundation necessary to build more on top. As the Scout song says: Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. With silver and gold, we now have the jewel of the Bible. God has left us all we need there. No more. No less. God wanted the inspired authors to record those words and no others for you and for me.

In 1964 the Romanian government released religious and political prisoners. One of them, Richard Wurmbrand, had spent nearly three of his fourteen years in prison in solitary confinement. He described how one day a new prisoner named Avram arrived in the prison. The upper part of his body was in a plaster cast. When the guards left him, he drew out a small tattered book from behind the plaster cast. None of the other prisoners had seen a book for years. It was the Gospel of John. Wurmbrand later wrote that no life-saving drug could have been more precious to him than the 'Life of Our Lord'. From that day the tattered little book went from hand to hand; many learned it by heart and each day they would discuss it among themselves.

"When you open the Holy Gospel, think that what is written there — the words and deeds of Christ — is something that ... has been gathered, detail by detail, for you to make it come alive in the individual circumstances of your life. Take up the Gospel every day, then, and read it and live it as a definite rule. This is what the saints have done" (St Josemaría). Mary, My Mother, help me to be consistent in my daily reading of the Word of God.

St Barnabas, Apostle

"Mt 10:7-13"

Jesus said to his apostles, "preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay. Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the labourer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay with him until you depart. As you enter the house, salute it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you."

This is the commandment for all Christians: "Preach as you go." Wherever you go, whatever you do, whomever you are with, whoever you are... preach as you go! Today we celebrate the feast of St Barnabas, the apostle. He wasn't one of the Twelve but probably was among the 72 disciples who Jesus sent to preach ahead of Him. In today's Gospel we read the instructions that Jesus gave to them, and that we can summarise as: 'preach as you go, and don't worry about anything else; just rely on God.' And that is exactly what St Barnabas did.

We know two important things about Barnabas. 1) He was generous: he "sold a field which belonged to him, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet" to be distributed among the needy. 2) He was a 'good scout' a great ‘talent-spotter'. After the martyrdom of St Stephen many Christians ran away from Jerusalem. Many went to Antioch and spread their faith there. The Apostles heard of it and sent St Barnabas there. In Antioch he found that Christians had multiplied by the thousands. He realised he couldn't cope with all that apostolic work by himself, and so he did something that changed the history of the world: "Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch." He searched for St Paul and set him to work. God called St Paul with the help of St Barnabas. You see? Saul became St Paul because Barnabas went for him! You and I are apostles who have to look for more apostles, find them, bring them to Jesus and, together with them, change the course of history. Holy Mary, Queen of the Apostles, help me to be generous, to be an apostle and to set out to find others whom God wants to make into apostles too.

Monday 10th week in ordinary time

"Mt 5:1-12"

Jesus said to his disciples: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Everything is the other way around: Jesus calls blessed those who are poor, mourning, persecuted... The crowning of the speech is: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account". Blessed means happy, and Jesus is explaining here that happiness doesn't come with wealth, power, fame and disordered pleasures.

Do you get the picture? Jesus looked out over a crowd of people who were poor, mourning and hungry; people who had been bullied, abused and exploited. And he told them: 'God is on your side! You can be happier than anyone else: The kingdom of heaven is for you! And we're about to start turning the world right-side up again!'

For centuries people had venerated the Holy Shroud of Turin as the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. The image wasn't very clear, but the tradition was reliable. In 1898 amateur photographer Secondo Pia was allowed to photograph it. When he was developing the film he was astonished to see the reverse photographic plate. The negative black and white image revealed in detail, and with even greater clarity than the positive image, all the "wounds" that the Shroud preserved. This mystery fits with the way God sees the world. If we look at it with God's glasses we will see everything 'right-side up'. And these apparent contradictions of the Beatitudes will show us that, when things go wrong, we are not losers but winners because God is on our side. Our Lady, my Mother, help me to see reality with a supernatural filter, with God's glasses.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

"Lk 2:41-51"

His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem...After three days they found him in the temple...And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously."

Imagine how Mary must have felt searching for Jesus for those three long days: her anxiety... Her Immaculate Heart was full of love for Jesus and suffered at His absence. But her Heart is also full of love for us and she suffers when we are far away from God. As St Louis de Montfort explains, "If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children." You have a place in her Immaculate Heart and so now, if you are lost, she is in distress until she gets you back.

Mary's Immaculate Heart is the Refuge of Sinners. They say of the whale, that when she sees her young in peril she opens her mouth and receives it into her to protect it. That's what Mary does. She revealed to St. Bridget, "As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do, for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help."

"If the winds of temptations arise, if you run into the rocks of tribulations, look at the star, invoke Mary. If you are tossed about by the waves of pride, look at the star, invoke Mary. If anger or avarice or the seductions of the flesh shake the little boat of your soul, look at Mary. If, troubled by the enormity of your crimes, confounded by the uncleanliness of your conscience, frozen with fright at the thought of judgement, you start to be swallowed up by the gulf of sadness and the abyss of despair, think about Mary. In perils, in anguish, in doubt, think about Mary, invoke Mary. If you follow her, you do not go astray. If you pray to her, you do not despair. If you consult her, you are not wrong. If she supports you, you do not fall. If she protects you, you fear nothing. If she leads you, you do not tire. If she is favourable to you, you reach your aim" (St Bernard).

The Most Sacred Heart

"Jn 19:31-37"

One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water...For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." And again…"They shall look on him whom they have pierced."

The whole month of June is devoted to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus because of today's Solemnity. In the Gospel Jesus asks us to bring our burdens to Him, place them in His Most Sacred Heart and find rest in It. We could say that this feast has two aspects: on the one hand gratefulness for the wonders of God's Love for us, and on the other, reparation, because our response to that Love is often so poor.

Our Lord appeared to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, showing her His Most Sacred Heart and saying: 'See this Heart that has loved men so much and has spared itself nothing until it has exhausted itself and consumed itself in order to show them its love. I receive in return scarcely anything but ingratitude because of their irreverence and sacrileges, and because of the coldness and disdain they show towards Me in this sacrament of love'.

One day in the 8th century A.D. as a Basilian monk was saying Mass, he doubted Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist. Suddenly the Host changed into live Flesh and the Wine changed into live Blood. The miracle has been kept in the town of Lanciano ever since. In 1981 Professor Linoli and his team conducted a scientific investigation. Many astonishing facts came out of those tests. One of the most remarkable ones was that the Flesh, that had been preserved without any human procedure or chemical product for more than 12 centuries, proved to be a part of a human Heart.

In Holy Communion we touch the Sacred Heart and we can comfort Jesus and so, in some way, return His love for us. Today is a day of reparation. Let's turn to Mary for help: Mary, my Mother, today I also want to console Jesus with you; help me to make up, with my love, for the lack of gratitude of men and women and help others to "look on him whom they have pierced" with their sins.