Friday 14th Week in Ordinary Time July 14, 2023

Fr. Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Friday 14th Week in Ordinary Time
July 14, 2023, Matthew 10:16-23
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071423.cfm

Not everyone will welcome the Good News of Jesus.

Yesterday we saw how Jesus sent his disciples on a mission. They soon learned that they could depend on God for everything. They experienced that dependence in the generous hospitality of their hosts.

So today, Jesus prepares those first missionaries of the Church for the possibility that not all people will be as welcoming. “No servant is greater than their master.” Just as people rejected Jesus, so they too may experience rejection.

He said that even their families and friends would persecute them as they did Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth. Remember they wanted to lead him to the brow of the hill and throw him over the cliff?

And like their Lord, they might experience trials before judges and even be put to death because they refused to participate in pagan sacrifices. Today these persecutions continue in families, businesses, and schools. Families divide over religion.

We’ve heard of parents who divorce because one spouse hates the Catholic Church and will not allow the children to receive the Sacraments or attend Church on Sunday. Private businesses have gone to the Supreme Court because their consciences would not allow them to offer birth control to their employees through the Affordable Health Care Act. The list goes on and on.

Gospel Challenge:
The bottom line is – to do right before God. Do nothing to lose his honor even if we lose our business, family, or sometimes our life. Let us pray for thousands of refugees who have lost everything through the persecution of Isis. May the grace of so many martyrs be ours.

Father Rick Pilger, IC
www.pastor@bscchurch.com

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