"Therefore, making a Synod on Synodality does not mean doing it on a theme like so many others,

                                                                                                                                            but on the deeper identity of the Church as communion and mission that becomes concrete,

                                                                                                                                            historically incisive when it is participated by all. the Church is such, in fact,

                                                                                                                                            only when it is carried on its shoulders by all and shared in its heart by all,

                                                                                                                                            at the service of its brothers and sisters, especially beginning with the last,

                                                                                                                                            the discarded, and the existential and spiritual peripheries of our time."

                                                                                                           Msgr. Piero Coda,

                                                                                                            Member of the theological 

                                                                                                              Commission of the Synod 2021-2023

St. Bridget, religious

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

Shepherd your people

With your staff, shepherd the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when you went out of Egypt.

Who is a God like you, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of his inheritance?

 

 

Who is like you whose anger does not last? For you delight in merciful forgiveness. 

Once again you will show us your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

 

Ps 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8 Lord, show us your mercy and love.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊    

Matthew 12:46-50

While Jesus was talking to the people, his mother and his brothers wanted to speak to him, and they waited outside. So someone said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside; they want to speak with you." Jesus answered, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"To do the Father's will."

To do the Father's will is central to Matthew's Gospel (cf. Mt. 6:10; 26:39, 42). We can see this teaching concerning the submission of our will to the will of the heavenly Father at the very center of the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt. 5-7), which is the prayer of the "Our Father." The center of the "Our Father" is found in verse 10 where we can find the phrase "Thy will be done," which the Lukan version of the "Our Father does not have (cf. Lk. 11:2-5).

 

Jesus himself lived what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount when he was praying at Gethsemane and in his succeeding passion (cf. Mt. 26:39ff.). Hence, Jesus' words in today's Gospel are not surprising: "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Mt. 12:49) The words of Jesus were only highlighting what Mary had already done. Mary was the first one to cooperate with the will of God (cf. Lk. 1:38). Mary's fiat made it possible for us to have the chance to become members of God's family. In Matthew, to do the Father's will is to be incorporated into God's family.