June 15, 2021 Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time (Lectionary: 366)
Reading I 2 Cor 8:1-9
We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God
that has been given to the churches of Macedonia,
for in a severe test of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
For according to their means, I can testify,
and beyond their means, spontaneously,
they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part
in the service to the holy ones,
and this, not as we expected,
but they gave themselves first to the Lord
and to us through the will of God,
so that we urged Titus that, as he had already begun,
he should also complete for you this gracious act also.
Now as you excel in every respect,
in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness,
and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.
I say this not by way of command,
but to test the genuineness of your love
by your concern for others.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that for your sake he became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Responsorial Psalm 146:2, 5-6ab, 6c- 7, 8-9a
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Jn 13:34
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 5:43-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
By Claudia Rodriguez
For me to share about how the Gospel for today spoke to my heart I must reveal one thing. I am an external processor. What this means is that for me to come to a decision or work through different situations I need to speak about it aloud. This is how I can gain clarity, possibly find a solution, and come closer to taking action and making a decision. For those who are internal processors, an external processors’ process might often be frustrating. I share this because I think the Lord wants to purify my external processing process.
For the past year one phrase that continues to come into my heart is the phrase “The Hidden Life”. I even designed the lettering of this phrase and posted on my Instagram a while ago. When the phrase first started to pop up, I kept asking the Lord to show me what this meant, what He wanted me to do with this phrase. Was I supposed to step away from all forms of sharing about what He was revealing to my heart? Did this mean going off social media and not posting at all?
What was this hidden life I was supposed to step into?
There were so many questions, but no answers came, at least no answers that I could see. In hindsight, I think the Lord was opening and preparing my heart to receive the answers.
Because, months later that phrase was used in a homily to refer to Mary’s life and I later saw it in the writings of some of the saints. But it was the image of Mary that captivated me. That image of her pondering all she had heard in her heart. Her heart - her inner room, hidden and secret. And those three words in the Gospel are the words that speak to me today.
Secret. That what I give to the Lord be given in secret.
And what I do for the Lord be done in secret. That what I give and do may also be hidden. My prayers are included in this hidden life. All of this - almsgiving, praying, and fasting - is meant to be done in and from my inner room.
My inner room had always appeared to me to be a physical space - like choosing a quiet place in my home where I could go and pray so that no one would see.
But what the Lord reveals to me is this.
My inner room is my interior life. It is where the Father is hidden. It is from inside of me that the Father sees what is secret and hidden because it is from within that my disposition to give, pray, and fast starts to be formed. It is in my inner room that my intentions are revealed. This is the space where my Hidden Life is meant to be cultivated and developed.
What Abba has shown me today does not mean I am called to hide and not share my heart, but rather He is asking that I first share it with Him. He wants me to ask Him who He desires for me to share my heart with. I am not meant to beg for my heart to be received, no one is. If I ask, He will show me who can receive what I am called to share.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claudia Rodriguez loves her family and friends. She is known for loving to bring people together so they can connect with one another. Having one on one's is one of her favorite ways of spending her time. She loves coffee shops, books, reading her poetry and being a volunteer editor for Chastity Project. It is good to know that if you give her a good cup of blended dirty chai lavender latte she will love you forever. She loves volunteering for her parish and going out with friends after. In the past, she has worked as an English teacher and in ministry and is currently rediscovering her passions and learning to dream again. The Lord is her Shepherd.