11th Sunday of the year
June 13th, 2010
"Your sins are forgiven, go in peace."
Luke 7 : 36 - 8 :3
Today’’s Gospel story starts with Jesus going to a dinner at a Pharisee’’s home. The mere fact that He accepts the invitation signals that He is open to encounter someone who differs from His beliefs and approach to God. Jesus understood the weakness of people and He also knew that if they found love and acceptance, they would change.
His meeting with the sinful woman shows that He not only sees a person’’s present state, but also what a person is capable of becoming. He was always gentle and loving in His approach to sinners. This woman in question brought an alabaster jar of ointment, but the gift of her tears was far more precious to Jesus who recognised that they were an expression of her love and sorrow.
Important Gospel events usually took place at tables. In today”’’s story, we meet the man who is master of the table. He is a Pharisee and concerned about the rightness of life. It was written in the law that a rabbi should stay at a safe distance from any woman in public, and the Pharisees always took care not to violate any of its prescriptions. They believe that in doing so they please God and God will save them.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you looked with compassion on Mary Magdalene. Help us to appreciate your merciful love, and the welcome you give to all repentant sinners. As Psalm 62 says : "I will bless you all my life, in your name I will lift up my hands."
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
