Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
SATURDAY, June 26th Mt. 8: 5-17 “The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.’”
- What a man of faith and humility this centurion! There may be times when our faith is not that strong, when we need more assurance, when we petition heaven!
- Saturday is Mary’s Day! There is a touching scene in a movie where Our Blessed Mother’s time on earth is nearly over. She wants to see the apostles before she dies.
- The last one she is waiting to see is Peter. When he finally arrives, Peter has a special request for Mary. “When you see Jesus, please tell Him that I love Him!”
- Mary says kindly, “Peter, you can tell Him that now.” He responds, “I know, but it sounds so much better coming from your lips.”
- That is so true! And Mary, our Mother is always ready to speak on our behalf. She is the daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and the Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit. But she is also and always our tender, loving Mother!
- In today’s tumultuous and chaotic world, where the forces of darkness are gathering, more than ever we need to seek safe refuge in the Heart of Mary.
ARK OF NOAH AND MARY, OUR ARK OF REFUGE by Fr Ed Broom, OMV
(Gen. 6:14-22 & Gen. 7)
In the first Book of the Bible, Genesis, God presents a man whose name is Noah. This man Noah and his family are God-fearing, good people. They truly love God and try to serve God. However, almost all the other people living back then have forgotten about God and are living sinful lifestyles.
GOD’S DECISION: DESTROY THE WORLD AND ITS SIN. Therefore, God decides to destroy these people with their many sins. He will carry this out by means of sending an enormous downpour of rain, a deluge for forty days and forty nights.
GOOD NEWS: SALVATION OF NOAH AND NOAH’S FAMILY. The Good News of this story is that God decides to save Noah and his family. God looked with great love upon this good, holy and righteous man, Noah.
THE BUILDING OF AN ARK. God’s plan is this: Noah has to build an ark. The ark will be enormously large and it will demand much time, work, sweat and effort to finish such a huge task. Just the same, Noah follows God’s plan, despite all the difficulties that arise.
PEOPLE RIDICULE NOAH. As Noah starts to saw, hammer, construct and build the ark, the people are curious and ask him what he is doing. Noah tells the truth, he is obeying God and building an ark so as to save himself and his family from a deluge. At this, the people scoff at Noah, ridicule and make fun of him.
THE DAY OF THE STORM ARRIVES. The day the deluge or big storm is going to descend from the skies, God tells Noah to take a pair of each of the animals into the ark, and then for Noah and his family to enter the ark. The people laugh and ridicule Noah all the more, because they see no signs of a storm approaching. Finally, the door of the ark is closed. The skies get very dark and then the rain begins to pour down. And it pours and pours for forty days and forty nights.
DESTRUCTION, BUT ALSO SALVATION. Where are the scoffers now? All the people and animals outside the ark are drowned and perish—almost all of humanity. Only Noah and his family, and the animals inside the ark are saved.
THE RAIN STOPS AND THE SUN SHINES. Finally, after forty days, the rain ceases to pour down upon the earth. Noah eventually finds some dry part on the earth where he can disembark with his family and the animals. God promises He will never chastise the world again in this way.
NOAH AND THE ARK. The simple reason why Noah and his family, as well as the animals, are saved is because they sought refuge in the ark.
MARY – OUR ARK OF REFUGE. Today we are living in tumultuous times; times even more sinful. Because of the modern media, errant philosophies and lifestyles diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ are being spread far and wide around the globe!
For this reason, God in His loving care gave us MARY – OUR ARK OF REFUGE! We can imagine Noah’s Ark got pretty smelly and stinky with the people and animals stuck there for more than 40 days. Yet the Ark was still their safe haven! The same with the Church. The Church has a Divine Head, Jesus Christ, with Mary Immaculate as Mother of the Church. But the Church also has feet of clay—made up of mere mortals prone to sin. The message is don’t abandon Mary – Our Ark of Refuge. She will keep us close to her Son, Jesus, in the Church and the Sacraments! We may get ridiculed and scoffed at by non-believers, like Noah did, maybe even persecuted, but in the end we will be saved, and we can only pray that our prayers and sacrifices can help save them as well.
MARY, OUR ARK OF REFUGE AND MARY’S MANTLE. Amidst the trials, temptations, perils, and dangers of life we must run to Our Ark of Refuge, the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a beautiful painting of Our Lady, Queen of angels and saints in heaven. In this painting Our Lady is very beautiful as Queen, and she has an enormous mantle which is lifted up. Underneath this mantle can be seen many men and women, young and old, from different times, places and cultures. They are all underneath the mantle of Mary, safe and at home. We must seek our safety, refuge and protection in Mary, our Arc of Refuge, under her Mantle and in her Immaculate Heart.
