LARRY BRODING

The Right Choice

Video  | 1st Reading | Psalm  | 2nd Reading | Gospel

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

How do you know you’re making the right choice?

Do we seek God or do we give into the allures of the world? At times, the choice can be clear-cut; at times, the choice can be murky. If we seek God’s will, the advice of the wise and the peace of conscience over the passions of desire, we can be assured that we made the best choice we possibly could. And, in most cases, we made the right choice.

How do you seek God’s will over your own? How do you seek the wise in your life? How successful have you been in saying “No” to your desires?

Children’s Reading | Catechism Link | Family Activity

SOURCE: WORD-SUNDAY © Larry Broding

VINCE CONTRERAS

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) 

1. In the 1st Reading, we can see that God expected even the people of the Old Testament to do their utmost to keep the moral law. Along with a higher standard, what does Jesus also give us to enable us obey his commandments (Romans 6:9-14)?
2. In the 2nd Reading, in verse 9, St. Paul pulls verses from Isaiah 64:4 and Sirach 1:10 to express his wonderment at the mystery of God’s plan for the world. What is this plan? (see Ephesians 2)
3. In the Gospel, what attitude to you think Jesus wants you to take regarding the observance of his law (Mt 5:17-20)? How can your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees?
4. How much do you struggle with anger and unforgiveness (verses 21-26)? How does this affect the quality of the service and worship you offer to God? How can you offer a more pure worship to God?
5. If you are married, how well does your marriage mirror Jesus’ high standard for the state of holy matrimony (verses 27-32)? How can you sharpen that image? If you are not married, how can you help and encourage those near you who are married to have holier, more godly, marriages?
6. Oaths and vows are an important part of any civil society. In your private life, however, do you feel it necessary to bolster your word with a private oath? What is the standard of personal integrity that Jesus wants his disciples to have (verses 33-37)? How can you maintain that standard?

OVERVIEW OF THE GOSPEL (PDF)

DON SCHWAGER

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

SOURCE: Sunday Scripture Study for Catholics

MICHAEL MARCHAL

Jesus: The New Moses

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

BACKGROUND: Here, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is portrayed clearly as the new Moses, bringing a new Torah, a new Law. Yet it is not a new list of do’s and don’t’s but a call to a “holiness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees” because the old Law is fulfilled in our lives of love—lives lived in the power of the Spirit.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How often have you felt proud of yourself because you had been a good little boy/girl and lived up to all the rules?
2. When has your self-righteousness made you blind to the needs of others?
3. When have you felt the power of the Spirit calling you to go further and to love in a deeper way?
4. In what concrete ways could you help not only your home or your workplace but our larger society a better place through your life of love in action?

Practice: Each day this week take a paragraph from this Sunday’s gospel, read it, ponder it, pray over it, and ask yourself how Jesus is calling you right now to change that part of your life.

SOURCE: TEAM RCIA

ANNE OSDIECK

Christian Realism

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

1. Jesus is critical of the Pharisees’ type of righteousness, which focuses on externals. They make sure everyone sees them when they fast, pray on street corners, wash hands, etc. How do these things relate to the inner Spirit of the law? How do they relate to loving God and neighbor?

2. In his homily, Pope Francis warns against an excessive rigidity. How does “going beyond the law” in order to love God and neighbor surpass the “righteousness” of the scribes and Pharisees?

Taking his cue from Jesus’ warning to his disciples that unless their righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees they will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Pope Francis stressed the importance of Christian realism. Jesus, he said, asks us to go beyond the laws and love God and neighbor, stressing that whoever is angry with their brother will be liable to judgement.

Pope Francis urged his listeners to recall how Jesus’s request for generosity and holiness is all about going forward and always looking out beyond ourselves. This, he explained, frees us from the rigidity of the laws and from an idealism that harms us.

Mass at Santa Marta
June 9, 2016

MORE QUESTIONS

SOURCE: Sunday Web Site – Saint Louis University

MONIKA KORZEC

The grace of understanding God’s desires for our lives

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets

EXCERPT: Take a look at some of today’s trends: the value of life (and its contradiction: abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide); the value of the family (and its contradiction: the gender ideology); and other “hot button topics.” If Jesus were to speak against all of the contractions today, would you blame him for his coming to abolish the law? How would you react? What would you support? Would you listen to the law of the world? or to the law of love that Jesus talks about?

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SOURCE: CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT | Recent Retreats