Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 7-26-03, Memorial, Sts Joachim & Anne, parents BVM

Reading I
Ex 24:3-8

When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the children of Israel
to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
"This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 50:1b-2, 5-6, 14-15

R (14a) Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
R Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
"Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
"Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me."
R Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

Gospel
Mt 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
"The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

St. Anne

SAINT ANNE—Mother of the Blessed Virgin

Feast: July 26

Of St. Anne we have no certain knowledge. She is not mentioned in the New Testament, and we must depend on apocryphal literature, chiefly the Protoevangelium of James, which dates back only to the second century.
In this document we are told that Anne, wife of Joachim, was advanced in years and that her prayers for a child had not been answered. Once as she prayed beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, an angel appeared and said to her, "Anne, the Lord hath heard thy prayer and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world." Anne replied, "As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life " And thus Anne became the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The devotion of St. Anne was known in the East in the fifth century, but it was not diffused in the West until the thirteenth. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centers of the devotion. In 1382 her feast was extended to the whole Western Church, and she became very popular, especially in France. Her two most famous shrines are at St. Anne d'Auray in Brittany and at St. Anne-de Beaupre in the province of Quebec.
She is patroness of housewives, women in labor, cabinet-makers, and miners. Her emblem is a door. St. Anne has been frequently represented in art, and the lovely face depicted by Leonardo da Vinci comes first to mind in this connection. The name Anne derives from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning "grace."

Saint Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin. Scriptural Saint. Celebration of Feast Day is July 26. Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.

Provided Courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network

FEAST OF THE DAY

Sts. Joachim and Anne are revered as the parents of the Blessed
Mother. Devotion to these two saints started around the sixth century
in the East. By the tenth century, this devotion had spread to most
parts of the West.

There is little information known about the lives of Joachim and
Anne. Most of the information is inferred from the life of Mary and
how she acted. The way Mary dealt with crisis and the way she
cared for Elizabeth when she was pregnant show how she was
taught by her parents. There is little direct information about these
two saints in the Bible, but there is information about them stemming
from legends written down more than a century after the Passion of
Christ. St. Anne is the patroness of childless women and of miners.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Let us adore His power, exhausting itself in this act of love. -St. Peter Julian Eymard

TODAY IN HISTORY

1471 Death of Pope Paul II
1926 Our Lady of Victory, in Lackawanna, NY, becomes the first
church in the U.S. to be consecrated a basilica.

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Ethics is a moral philosophy and can be applied to all spheres of
human activity - personal, social, economic, political, etc. It is often
regarded as the application of philosophy or reason to find what is
right or wrong (and everything in between) and the reasons why
such a judgment can be made.

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray, through the intercession of Sts. Joachim and Anne, for
all parents and grandparents.

Question from Ann Hills on 10-18-2002:

We don't hear that much regarding St. Anne (Blessed Mary's mother) and Jesus' grandmother. Is there any scriptural reference to her and who was she married to?

Answer by Matthew Bunson on 10-19-2002:

According to tradition, St. Anne (or Hannah, meaning grace)was the wife of St. Joachim. They lived in Galilee for a time and later moved to Jerusalem. After many years without children, Joachim prayed for forty days for offspring. An angel appeared to both Joachim and Anne informing them hat their prayers had been answered, and Anne bore Mary. Unfortunately, Anne is not mentioned in the Gospels, and the story of her life is taken chiefly from the apocryphal Protoevangelium Jacobi, or the Infancy Gospel.

Long honored as the patroness of women in childbirth, she was revered especially in the first centuries of the Church by the Greeks. In 1584, Pope Gregory XIII extended her veneration through the entire Church.

The Word Among Us

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Meditation
Matthew 13:24-30

Sts. Joachim and Anne

From a Sermon by St. John Damascene

Anne was to be the mother of the Virgin Mother of God, and hence nature did not dare to anticipate the flowering of grace. Thus nature remained sterile, until grace produced its fruit. For she who was to be born had to be a firstborn daughter, since she would be the mother of the firstborn of all creation, in whom all things are held together.

Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.

And so, rejoice, Anne, that you were sterile and have not borne children; break forth into shouts, you who have not given birth. Rejoice, Joachim, because from your daughter a child is born for us, a son is given us, whose name is Messenger of great counsel and universal salvation, mighty God. For this child is God.

Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: By their fruits you will know them. The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a virgin before, during and after giving birth. She alone for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in body.

Joachim and Anne, how chaste a couple! While safeguarding the chastity prescribed by the law of nature, you achieved with God’s help something which transcends nature in giving the world the Virgin Mother of God as your daughter. While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the angels, whose queen she now is. Girl of utter beauty and delight, daughter of Adam and mother of God, blessed the loins and blessed the womb from which you come! Blessed the arms that carried you, and blessed your parents’ lips, which you were allowed to cover with chaste kisses, ever maintaining your virginity. Rejoice in God, all the earth. Sing, exult and sing hymns. Raise your voice, raise it and be not afraid.

One Bread, One Body

<< Saturday, July 26, 2003 >>

Sts. Joachim & Ann

Exodus 24:3-8

Psalm 50

Matthew 13:24-30

View Readings

BLOOD REPLACEMENT

“This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of His.” —Exodus 24:8

We have made a covenant of blood with God. Because life is in the blood (Lv 17:11), we have made a covenant of life with God. Our covenant with God is literally a matter of life and death. Because we have broken the covenant by our sins, we forfeit our lives and are doomed to destruction.

Almost two thousand years ago, shortly before His death on the cross, Jesus celebrated the Passover and the first Mass, at which He said: “This is My blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). Then Jesus shed His blood by dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus substituted His blood and His life for ours. He took on our consequences for our breaking the covenant and freed us from destruction.

Traditionally, the month of July has been marked as a special time for praising the blood of Jesus, although it’s fitting to praise His blood every day. So let us joyfully praise the blood of Jesus by receiving His body and blood in Holy Communion, by applying His blood through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, by reading about His blood in the Scriptures, and by bringing up His blood in our prayer and other conversations. Praise the blood of Jesus!

Prayer: Father, send the Holy Spirit to teach me “the wonder-working power of the blood of the Lamb.”

Promise: “Offer to God praise as your sacrifice and fulfill your vows to the Most High.” —Ps 50:14

Praise: Sts. Joachim and Ann passed on more than the ancient sacrificial rites to their daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary. They gave her the gift of a humble obedience that changed the world.

From: Exodus 24:3-8

A Sacred Meal and Sprinkling with Blood

[3] Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the
ordinances; and all, the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the
words which the Lord has spoken we will do." [4] And Moses wrote all the
words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at
the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes
of Israel. [5] And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered
burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. [6] And
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he
threw against the altar. [7] Then he took the book of the covenant, and read
it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the Lord has
spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." [8] And Moses took the blood
and threw it upon the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant
which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

Commentary:

24:3-8. The ceremony takes place on the slope of the mountain; Moses alone
is the intermediary; but the protagonists are God and his people. The
ceremony has two parts--the reading and accepting of the clauses of the
Covenant (vv. 3-4), that is, the Words (Decalogue) and the laws (the
so-called Code of the Covenant); then comes the offering which seals the pact.

The acceptance of the clauses is done with all due solemnity, using the
ritual formula: "all the words which the Lord, has spoken we will do". The
people, who have already made this commitment (19:8), now repeat it after
listening to Moses' address (v. 3) and just before being sprinkled with the
blood of the offering. The binding force of the pact is thereby assured.

The offering has some very ancient features--the altar specially built for
the occasion (v. 4; cf. 20:25); the twelve pillars, probably set around the
altar; the young men, not priests, making the offerings; and particularly
the sprinkling with blood which is at the very core of the rite.

The dividing of the blood in two (one half for the altar which represents
God, and the other for the people) means that both commit themselves to the
requirements of the Covenant. There is evidence that nomadic peoples used to
seal their pacts with the blood of sacrificed animals. But there are no
traces in the Bible of blood being used in that way. This rite probably has
deeper significance: given that blood, which stands for life (cf. Gen 4),
belongs to God alone, it must only be poured on the altar or used to anoint
people who are consecrated to God, such as priests (cf. Ex 29:19-22). When
Moses sprinkled the blood of the offering on to the entire people, he was
consecrating it, making it divine property and "a kingdom of priests" (cf.
19:3-6). The Covenant therefore is not only a commitment to obey its
precepts but, particularly, the right to belong to the holy nation, which is
God's possession. At the Last Supper, when instituting the Eucharist, Jesus
uses the very same terms, "blood of the Covenant", thereby indicating the
nature of the new people of God who, having been redeemed, is fully "the
holy people of God" (cf. Mt 26:27 and par.; I Cor 11:23-25).

The Second Vatican Council has this to say about the connection between the
New and Old Covenants, pointing out that the Church is the true people of
God: "God chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a
covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people--in its history
manifesting both himself and the decree of his will--and made it holy unto
himself. All these things, however, happened as a preparation and figure of
that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ, and of the
fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God made flesh.
[...] Christ instituted the new covenant, namely the new covenant in his
blood (cf. 1 Cor 11:25); he called a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which
would be one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit, and this race
would be the new People of God" ("Lumen Gentium", 4 and 9).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Matthew 13:24-30

The Parable of the Weeds

[24] Another parable he (Jesus) put before them, saying, "The kingdom
of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field;
[25] but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among
the wheat, and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore
grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the
householder came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in
your field? How then has it weeds?' [28] He said to them, 'An enemy has
done this.' The servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and
gather them?' [29] But he said, 'No; lest in gathering the weeds you
root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until
the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the
weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat
into my barn.'"

Commentary:

24-25. "The situation is clear: the field is fertile and the seed is
good; the Lord of the field has scattered the seed at the right moment
and with great skill. He even has watchmen to make sure that the field
is protected. If, afterwards, there are weeds among the wheat, it is
because men have failed to respond, because they--and Christians in
particular--have fallen asleep and allowed the enemy to approach"
([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 123).

25. This weed--cockle--looks very like wheat and can easily be mistaken
for it until the ears appear. If it gets ground up with wheat it
contaminates the flour and any bread made from that flour causes severe
nausea when eaten. In the East personal vengeance sometimes took the
form of sowing cockle among an enemy's wheat. Roman law prescribed
penalties for this crime.

28. "When the careless servants ask the Lord why weeds have grown in
his field, the explanation is obvious: 'inimicus homo hoc fecit: an
enemy has done this.' We Christians should have been on guard to make
sure that the good things placed in this world by the Creator were
developed in the service of truth and good. But we have fallen
asleep--a sad thing, that sluggishness of our heart while the enemy and
all those who serve him worked incessantly. You can see how the weeds
have grown abundantly everywhere" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By",
123).

29-30. The end of this parable gives a symbolic explanation of why God
allows evil to have its way for a time--and for its ultimate
extirpation. Evil is to run its course on earth until the end of time;
therefore, we should not be scandalized by the presence of evil in the
world. It will be obliterated not in this life, but after death; at the
Judgment (the harvest) the good will go to Heaven and the bad to Hell.

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