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PAGE 5—The Georgia Bulletin, August 2.1984
18th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)
August 5,1984
Isaiah 55:1-3 Romans 8:35,37-39 Matthew 14:13-21
Father James A. Black
The Word
This Weekend
BACKGROUND:
Next Sunday’s first
reading comes from the
second part of the Old
Testament book of Isaiah.
In the text, the emphasis is
on the joy of the Hebrew
people as they returned to
their homeland after the
Exile. God would provide
all mannor of good things
for them.
The second reading,
from Paul’s letter to
Rome, reminds us that
God refuses to be
separated from us.
Nothing can keep us from
the love that God has for
us through his Son Jesus.
The gospel passage is
eucharistic in intent. The
words that describe the
breaking and blessing of
the bread are the same
words used in he liturgy at
the consecration. The
Lord would stay with his
people throughout all time
in the sacrament of the
Eucharist.
REFLECTION:
There is no life that is
not touched by problems
and difficulties, whatever
they might be. They are a
part of every life; thus,
they are to be expected in
your own.
Unfortunately, far too
many people try to deal
with whatever problems
they have all by
themselves. An old
proverb reminds us that
“whoever counsels himself
has a fool for a guide.”
Yet, we frequently
persist in “going it alone.”
One of the main points
made in next Sunday’s
readings is that we’re NOT
alone. The Lord is with us
in all that we do. Nothing
can separate us from his
love.
I suspect that few things
in life are more difficult to
believe than the fact that
God really loves us, no
matter what.
The second reading, in
particular, reminds us of
the Lord’s closeness to
each of us.
If we could ever just
believe that, it would
radically change the way
we deal with our
problems.
No, it won’t make the
problems go away, not by
a long shot. But at least
we’ll have some help in
confronting them. And in
times such as these, we
should be willing to accept
all the help we can get.
RESOUND
“You Beat Me To It”
To the Editor:
You beat me to it; your letter to Geraldine Ferraro
published in the July 19th Georgia Bulletin! I fully
intended to write her until I read the Bulletin.
I doubt if my letter would even have reached her. These
pro-abortion democratic leaders, including Tippy O’Neil
and Teddy Kennedy, would have intercepted it. Your
letter and the Bulletin may reach her.
How can that Catholic woman be personally against
abortion but condones and' encourages the killing of
unborn babies by others, then make people for Life pay
for the killing?
Congratulations, Monsignor, for the perfect response to
Ferraro’s “I am against abortion, but...”
Until the Democratic Party included the pro-abortion
plank in its 1980 platform, I supported it zealously. I shall
never again vote for a democrat until the party denounces
the killing of unborn, innocent, defenseless babies. ..
George Gunning
Atlanta
Dolores Curran
When Mom's Sick
I’ve been sick. Oh, not sick sick but virus sick that laid
me low for a week or so. Generally, I’m healthy but about
every 18 months I get what we used to call a bad head
cold and now call a virus that moves from a day of a
pounding head to a day of a full nose to a day of
laryngitis to a day of bronchitis and so on - the kind of
person you hate to sit next to in church.
By the time it works its way out through the soles of
my feet I’m ready to live again. I’m not one of those
persevering types who carries on and suffers silently when
I’m sick. My sister once said that when I’m sick I sleep
until I’m well and that’s about it.
But my family — well, God bless them — nobody could
ever be more supportive than they when I’m sick. They
take over the household and tell me not to worry. They
pop in when they come home to see if I need anything, to
ask how I feel, and to tell me of their day.
They take my phone calls and patiently explain why I
can’t talk. In short, they’re everything a sick mother
dreams of.
I thought all families were like this until I began
interviewing families for my book, “Traits of a Healthy
Family,” and I found that many mothers are resented for
being sick. The caregiver in the family is not supposed to
need care. When she gets sick and needs attention, the
family feels disoriented and angry. Who is going to cook?
To drive? To stop fights?
They begrudgingly bring her food, their very bearing
showing her what a chore and imposition it is. As she lies
there wondering if her head will ever stop pounding, they
ask her what they’re supposed to do about dinner and
where their soccer shorts are.
The difference between how a healthy and
not-so-healthy family deals with a parent illness shows up
in their sense of shared responsibility. Responsibility in
these families extends beyond sharing chores to sharing
support, sensitivity, peacemaking, and care. Spouses and
children not only expect to step in and help out when
another is overly-busy or ill but are eager to do so.
In families where this trait is not well-developed, we
usually find parents who overly serve their children. They
don’t ask enough of them when they’re well and when
they aren’t, the family suffers and complains rather than
serves and cares.
One mother in such a family told me that her
adolescents fought so much about who was going to make
dinner that she finally got up and made it, even though
she could barely stand. How foolish of her. Any
adolescent who can’t make a family meal isn’t hungry
enough. Or caring enough.
Parents aren’t doing their children any favor by
eliminating for them the opportunity to serve. If parents
give, give, give, children will take, take, take. Shared
responsibility has to be taught and re-taught.
And children need to feel the rewards of responsible
achievement, especially when they serve without being
asked. Children feel good about themselves when they can
take over. Maybe they won’t fold the laundry as neatly as
we do or cook the hot dogs all the way through but they
have done it and that’s what counts.
I don’t want to give the impression that I have the
perfectly healthy family. I don’t and I don’t know anyone
who has. But I do know this - that when I need caregiving
and solicitous concern and love, I get it. That tells me I’m
more than a servant in this family ... and for that, I
thank God (and my family).
Father John Catoir
The Woman Behind The Image
Aug. 15 is the Feast of
the Assumption of Mary
into heaven. To
understand devotion to
the mother of Jesus,
however, one must go
deeper than the trappings
of popular piety. Forget
about the plaster statue,
the halo and the blue veil.
Forget about the words
‘‘handmaiden,”
“obedient,” “victim,”
“submissive.” If you want
to know the woman
behind the image, you
have to think about her
first as a woman.
Theologian Doris
Donnelly tells about a
time in her own life when
she was grief-stricken. She
rediscovered Mary in that
time of need, but first she
had to yield up the image
of “a docile, domesticated
and vapid girl and find a
tough young woman who
deliberately counted
herself among the
marginalized, who knew
safety was an illusion, who
was alive to the tragic,
who wept, who laughed
and who chose life every
inch of the way.”
She discovered Mary as
a mature, committed
woman. Consider Mary’s
90-mile journey from
Nazareth to Bethlehem
when she was in her ninth
month of pregnancy. She
travelled by foot and
donkey. For a woman
close to labor, undertaking
a strenuous journey like
that without the security
of a place to stay, much
less a hospital, must have
taken great courage.
Consider the flight from
Herod. She knew the fear
of danger and the threat of
corrupt power. She was
the prey of a powerful
ruler. She would easily
understand today’s justice
issues where tryants
engage in mass murder to
protect their power-base.
When the church gives
priority to the poor it is
because the church is
Christ and in Mary, from
the beginning, it has
known oppression.
Consider the primitive
lifestyle of a poor family
in Galilee 2,000 years ago.
Buying food, cooking,
washing clothes - all very
different experiences by
today’s standards. Mary
was a hard-working
mother.
Consider the
crucifixion. Mary once
saved her infant Son in a
flight for life, but 33 years
later she was powerless to
help Him. She could only
stand by Him. Mary didn’t
swoon in weakness or
excuse herself from the
participation in His
suffering and death. The
Gospel records her as
standing by the cross. She
stayed to the end and
helped take Him down.
The Pieta shows her
cradling Him in her arms,
the wounded, bloody
body of her Son.
Mary was a woman of
faith and courage, a model
for women everywhere.
Blessed be the great
Mother of God, Mary Most
Holy.