Catholic TV Mass Online August 13, 2023: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Presider: Fr. Justin Lopina
Parish: Sacred Heart and Saint Matthew
TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, o Lord.
After he had fed the people Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened and began to sink and he cried out "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, "Truly you are the son of God."
The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. Well
That gospel has the potential to offend a lot of regular church goers. Because briefly the disciples compared Jesus to a ghost and there are a lot of solid Christians out there who don't even want to hear about that sort of thing. But it's in the bible so we do have to dabble with this issue just a little bit from time to time. There is something that our faith is very solidly shaped around and our fellow monotheists including Jews and Muslims will largely agree with us on this matter but the rest of the world, the secular world very strongly disagrees with us. When your time on this earth has come to an end do you believe that you will become something more or less than what you are now? By and large a person who lacks a relationship with God would answer less. What awaits us beyond the grave, who knows but it's probably not good. It's certainly not going to be better than what we have now so live it up because it's never going to get any better than this. A person of faith has a very different answer. We answer, there is something more. And we are a part of something more. We know through divine revelation God is not one small part of life. Life is one small part of what God has prepared. In the gospel the disciples, just for a second think Jesus is a ghost. They think he is something less than himself, a full person. And although this story takes place before the resurrection of the dead excuse me, Jesus' death and resurrection even though it takes place before that, I invite you today to consider the difference between a ghost and the resurrected Christ. As Christians we don't really believe in ghosts. We believe in the opposite of ghosts. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. What the disciples never really understood until after the resurrection, is that Jesus Christ is never less than a person. He is never less than what he truly is, the son of God. And our Lord and savior. So this Sunday remember that you are a person like anyone else and that's great! But at the exact same time you are more than a person. Because this life as we know it, is not the apex of existence. It's the annex of existence. It is a waiting room and the greater part, the far greater part of reality will dawn before us on that great day when we see God face to face.
Entrance: Joyful Joyful We Adore You
Text: Henry van Dyke, 1852-1933, alt.
Tune: HYMN TO JOY, 8 7 8 7 D; arr. from Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827, by Edward Hodges, 1796-1867
Psalm 85: Lord Let Us See Your Kindness
English translation of the Refrain from the Lectionary for Mass, copyright © 1969,
International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
Music copyright © 1983 by GIA Publications, Inc. • All Rights Reserved
Preparation: How Can I Keep From Singing
Copyright © 1991 Choristers Guild. All rights reserved. Tr. American. Arr. Jeffrey Honore
Communion: The Cloud’s Veil
Text: Liam Lawton, b.1959
Tune: Liam Lawton, b.1959; arr. by John McCann, b.1961
© 1997, GIA Publications, Inc.
Sending Forth: 10,000 Reasons
(c) 2011 SHOUT! Publishing, SAID AND DONE MUSIC (ASCAP) Admin EMI CMG Pub.
Mass Setting: Mass for Sr. Thea Bowman
Words © 2010 ICEL. Published with the approval of the CDW, USCCB. Setting © 2021 GIA.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
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