LOOKING AHEAD...
There will be no St. Edward's video Mass next Sunday, June 20.
Livestreamed Mass from St. Joseph Cathedral will be available at 10:30 a.m. on the
diocesan website.
Also, this Thursday only (June 17), Daily Mass will be celebrated at St. Edward's at 9:00 a.m.
HOMILY FOR 6/13/2021: 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
DCN. JOHN BARBOUR
Well, good day, my friends, or morning or evening or whenever you decide to tune into this taped Mass. Our producer/director Paul has advised that we are probably sixty tapings in on this long-running series of Holy Mass recordings in Granville, Ohio, so welcome.
Good morning, good evening, good day, my brothers and sisters in Christ. And wow, what a month of celebration it's been for us, the Church. What a month to review what we believe as Catholic Christians.
Four weeks ago, we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit, the birth of our Church as we know it. Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle in us the fire of your love. Replace our Babel with your Pentecost...and thank you for your giftsm too. We'll certainly need those to fulfill Jesus's call for each of us to become missionary disciples. He needs all of us to proclaim him to the nations and to our neighbors. And to that, we say "Amen."
Up next, a week later, we celebrated Holy Trinity Sunday. God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Each of those we acknowledge every time we bless ourselves, and each of those we are called to go forth and bless in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit--and baptize in their name as well.
And then we follow that up last Sunday with Corpus Christi Sunday: the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ, really present to us in the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, the Sacrament Most Holy. And again, to that, we say "Amen."
And then we celebrated the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, June 11 and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Saturday, June 12. Again, "Amen" and "amen."
And now, we catch our liturgical breath so to speak on this 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time to read about trees, fruit, shade, thankfulness, courage, and last but not least, mustard seeds. So with all due respect to this 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, let me add this descriptor in honor of today's Gospel: today, Mustard Seed Sunday.
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus asks, "[To] what shall we compare the kingdom of God to...What parable can we use?" It's like a mustard seed, he tells us, the smallest of all seeds, and it becomes the largest of all plants with large branches "so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."
God's kingdom, the place that we all strive to one day be a part of, the kingdom of God lies ahead of us. We, as followers, are currently living in the world, but not of this world. This kingdom of God is brought near to us in the Word incarnate--that's Jesus Christ. It is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come to us in Christ's death and resurrection.
The kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper, and in the Holy Eucharist, and is in our very midst at every Holy Mass that is celebrated. So welcome, my friends, to the taste of the kingdom of God every time you receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Thy kingdom come, we pray, as one of our petitions of the Our Father prayer. Jesus, the ultimate promise keeper, will come again in glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. And as St. Paul advised the Corinthians--and us--as well in this second letter to them, "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that we may receive recompense according to what [we[ did in the body, whether good or evil." So be courageous, he tells us, and walk by faith and not by sight.
The kingdom of God awaits. It awaits for all of us: for those who would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord and spending eternal life. There's a nice shady branch awaiting all who repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
And so, happy Mustard Seed [Sunday], my brothers and sisters, on this 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time. And God bless you.