Greetings on this the Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
Readings: IS 1:10-17; PS 50:8-9, 16BC-17, 21 AND 23; MT 10:34-11:1
Notes: This is not a medical homily!
But, we can learn from the medical community about resetting broken bones as a metaphor for the broken family dynamics that exist today in so many homes.
Will you allow me?
Let us image a bone is broken but never set properly by a doctor.
If a break isn’t medically treated quickly (Adult, within 14 days) there are consequences.
Bones will heal as best they can without medical intervention.
Crooked, bulky, twisted, fused, and the list goes on. (8 AM Mass -not much more of this!)
Tissue also has less than ideal healing without medical assistance (skipping descriptions).
This is the metaphor of broken families.
Jesus has come to reset the bones.
And cut away the the healing gristle like tissue called callous, to reset the bones even if it means breaking them again to reset them.
Because he wants healthy families.
Because he wants the dividing line of evil to be taken out of the equation.
Broken bones need the Great Physician.
And as our first reading indicates, false worship is a part of the brokenness.
Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-benedict
Reflection
The Church has been blessed through Benedictine devotion to the liturgy, not only in its actual celebration with rich and proper ceremony in the great abbeys, but also through the scholarly studies of many of its members. Liturgy is sometimes confused with guitars or choirs, Latin or Bach. We should be grateful to those who both preserve and adapt the genuine tradition of worship in the Church (Franciscans)
Photos are from Sunday at the Steubenville Youth Conference
First reading
When you come in to visit me,
who asks these things of you?
Trample my courts no more!
When you spread out your hands,
I close my eyes to you;
Though you pray the more,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood!
Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Responsorial Psalm
To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia Verse
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Gospel Portion
Jesus: A Cause of Division.
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Deacon Gerry Palermo 