Quoting Father Frank: Shattered and in shackles, a mother is detained. No provision is made for the children who are coming to a house that is no longer home. There is a place for you among the neighbors giving shelter to her little ones. Counter the cruelty of separation by joining #gather4good. With you, we can take the children home to mom.
Quoting USCCB Special Message: As pastors, we the bishops of the United States are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.
Greetings on this the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary Readings: JER 3:14-17; JER 31:10, 11-12ABCD, 13; MT 13:18-23
Yield
Has two meanings.
The first is to produce an outcome.
The second is to give way to another argument, demand or pressure.
Summary
In our readings today, in particular the prophet Jeremiah, we discover the yield-yield paradox.
Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings: The grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen.
All the striving we can muster, all the effort, all the planning and coniving yields nothing in comparison to the yielding of our person to The Way.
Reflection
In our gospel portion today, Jesus describes the parable of The Explanation of the Parable of the Sower. For the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Personal Reflection
We pause to reflect.
What do I hear?
What do I understand?
and, #3, how does it change my yielding?
Dissatisfaction in life has many roots. A blog I follow that describes the situation well. I put a blog button below to test blog buttons. It’s the blob post that is perfect for today.
Intelligence without love makes you perverse The justice without love, makes you implacable Diplomacy without love, makes you a hypocrite Success without love, makes you arrogant Wealth without love, makes you greedy The docility without love makes you servile Poverty without love Or makes proud Beauty without love, makes you ridiculous The truth without love, makes you hurtful Authority without love, makes you tyrant Work without love, makes you a slave Simplicity without love makes you indifferent The law without love makes you a dictator Politics without love makes you egomaniac Faith without love, makes you fanatic Coexistence without love becomes torture And life without love has no meaning." Credits to its author, taken from the web.
They will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.
Responsorial
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, and young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
Gospel Acclamation
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples: “Hear the parable of the sower.
But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
