{"id":814,"date":"2019-07-17T08:57:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T08:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=814"},"modified":"2019-07-17T08:57:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T08:57:02","slug":"reflection-21-july-2019-c-sixteenth-sunday-of-year-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=814","title":{"rendered":"Reflection 21 July 2019 (C) Sixteenth Sunday of Year (c)."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Reflection &amp; Dialogue: Listening to and\nliving the mystery of Christ and the Church<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s readings\ninvite us to reflect on the dignity that is ours in living in the age of the\nfulfilment of the promises and the joy that this should bring, joy even in the\nsufferings that go with Christian living. Paul is happy, joyful, in his mission\nto preach the word of the Gospel the good news that the mystery has been revealed.\nJesus rejoiced that the secrets, the mystery, hidden for past ages had been\nrevealed by the Father through him, to the \u201clittle ones\u201d rather than to the\nwise and understanding (Matthew 11:25-30). For this, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy\nSpirit (Luke 10:21-22), just as Paul later would. The mystery was God\u2019s saving\nplan through Christ, which could be variously expressed. For the epistle to the\nEphesians it was God\u2019s plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in\nChrist, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:9-10). For Paul to\nthe Colossians it was: \u201cChrist is with you, the hope of glory\u201d. With Christ in\nthe Church there is the glory of God\u2019s presence, and the hope that it brings\nfor here and eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Church continues to use this term\n\u201cmystery\u201d and its riches of meaning to express her belief in her own nature and\nin the sacraments. The first chapter\nof the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church is headed: \u201cThe mystery of the Church\u201d.\nAs Pope Paul VI explained in his opening address at the second session of the\nVatican Council (1961); \u201cThe Church is a mystery. It is a reality imbued with\nthe hidden presence of God. It lies, therefore, within the very nature of the\nChurch to be open to new and greater exploration.\u201d The sacraments can be called\nmysteries, since the power of God is present in them, continuing the initial\nmystery of Christ and the foundation of the Church. St Ambrose composed\ndiscourses on sacraments which he described as \u201cOn the Mysteries.\u201d The\nEucharist is the mystery <em>par excellence<\/em>\nand in the Roman Missal (visible in particular in the revised English\ntranslation) mention is made of \u201cthese mysteries\u201d in relation to it. The\nmystery of Christ is thus being continually proclaimed by word and sacrament.&nbsp; In the words of Christ addressed to Martha,\n\u201conly one thing is needful\u201d, attention to the word of God brought to us by\nJesus, attention to this whether we are reflective like Mary, Martha\u2019s sister,\nor busy like Martha herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflection &amp; Dialogue: Listening to and living the mystery of Christ and the Church Today\u2019s readings invite us to reflect on the dignity that is ours in living in the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}