Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • June 26, 2020 5 9274 Hwy 49/Airport Gulfport, MS 39503 228-863-5525 1-800-880-2446 FAX: 228-863-9612 www.butchoustalet.com 1260 Ocean Springs Road, Ocean Springs, MS 39564 Ph: 228-818-0650 For more information, contact Jody Ellis Stoddard, Executive Director or email her at gardensED@BlueHarborSL.com Web Address: www.gardensseniorliving.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheGardensSeniorLivingOceanSprings Thank you to our Blessed Mother, to St. Anthony, to St. Joseph, and mostly to our Lord and Savior for prayers answered. Many thanks. MDR Thank you, St. Jude, for prayers answered. RGS Thank you, Mary, Mother of Knots, for prayers answered. JP Hospitality is a virtue worthy of divine reward. “It is more than entertainment. It is about meeting the stranger and welcoming that stranger to become a friend -- and then knowing that friend well enough that, by God’s power, they join you as part of the family of God. Hospitality is about opening your heart and home, just as you are, and being willing to invite Jesus into the conversation, not to stop the conversation but to deepen it” -- Rosaria Butterfield -- The Gospel Comes with a House Key . Today’s first reading confirms God expanding the limits on who, where, and how the gift of hospitality is to be exercised. He chooses a woman from Shunem (a pagan) to offer hospitality to Elisha the prophet. She not only served him dinner but set-up a furnished room in her house so the man of God would have a place to stay when he was traveling through the area. In gratitude, Elisha speaks the divine reward to the woman, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” We cannot all be prophets, or preach or proclaim the word of God, but the one who gives God’s messenger the simple gift of hospitality receives no less of a reward than would the prophet himself. Pope Francis addressing the Pontifical Council on the Laity said, “The Church is called to be ever more aware of being the house of the father where the doors are always wide open to each person, with his or her weary life, and of being a permanently outbound Church, an evangelizing community that knows how to take the initiative without fear, to reach out to others, to seek out those who are distant and to reach out to crossroads, to invite the excluded into the family of God.” The Psalmist expresses gratitude to God for his promises and faithfulness. The Lord will never reject us, treat us as orphans or turn His back on us for His kindness is established forever. The Psalm continues, “Blessed the people who know the joyful shout; in the light of your countenance, O Lord they walk.” As we walk (live) in the glow of God’s radiance (countenance), we find favor with God. This is doing the will of God in all circumstances and causes the joyful expression (shout), of our praise to burst forth -- at times spontaneously. Singing songs and shouts of praise, thankfulness, honor, glory, and victory for the many undeserved blessings God showers on us. This sacrifice of praise, flows from the inner being of every disciple of the Lord, not holding back but freely giving to the Lord all that we are for the glory due His name. If your only communication with God is a litany of complaints, wants, and whines, you will never experience what the Psalmist refers to as the, ‘light of (God’s) countenance,’ where intimate and invitational communion with God is not only desired but granted. In our second reading Paul teaches about dying and rising. “We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. So that just as Christ was raised from the dead we too might live in newness of life. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” Notice how Paul’s words offer a sacred communion of the sinner with our merciful God. God not only desires our oneness with Him but craves it. Not because He is needy, but because we need close fellowship with the Lord. Dying to sin frees us to live more fully for God. To give of self generously and graciously for God’s glory and the good of the other. In today’s Gospel, Jesus poses a challenge to those who would react to it without thought of its deeper meaning. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Jesus throws down the ultimate challenge that every person faces whether they want to or not. Surely, He wants us to love father, mother, children etc. but not so much more than we love Him that we would turn our back on Him and sacrifice our eternal salvation. Losing our life for Jesus does not mean loss but gain. Only when we love the Lord more than any human person will we truly love the persons that are closest to us as we never could have before. Loving Jesus more is sacrificial love and giving that same sacrificial love to others makes our love more genuine. Jesus set the example of sacrificial love by His passion and crucifixion. But even prior to that when at 12 years old he went missing from the company of his parents while on journey to Jerusalem and they found him in the temple speaking to the elders. His parents were upset that He left them, but He replied, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? This can also be read as, “I must be about my Father’s work.” Jesus refers to God as his Father. Therefore, his obedience to his Father’s will, takes precedence over family ties (Luke 2:41-52). Jesus was not rejecting his parents and in fact in obedience went home with them but was demonstrating that doing God’s will must come first for anyone who wishes to be His disciple. Those of us who are consistently self-absorbed, or who act above all for our own satisfaction, are endangering our eternal salvation. Only a person who denies self and puts God and others (in that order) in a higher place can be happy in this life and prepare for the eternal joy of heaven. The Christian life is based on self-denial - there is no gain without the cross. Reflect: By serving the prophet of God, the Shunammite woman served the God she loved. Pope Francis challenges us to welcome the stranger. The Psalmist declares our joyful countenance can touch and transform someone’s sagging spirit. By dying to self, says Paul, we live for God. The Gospel proclaims that by ministering to a disciple of the Lord we are serving Jesus. Our challenge is to consciously take on the role of an “angel” of kindness because of our love of God and gratitude for His grace. In what ways will you show holy hospitality to the people God brings into your life? Deacon Ralph Torrelli lives in Hattiesburg and is assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. Visit his web- site: www.homilypearls.com. 1st Reading: Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19 2nd Reading: Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 Gospel: Matthew 10:37-42 13th Sunday of Ordnary Time Hospitality Deacon Torrell i Sunday Scripture Commentaries