The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for July 2024 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. Catholic doctrines are the essentially unchangeable clarifications of Revelation and Faith that only the pope and bishops (together, the Magisterium) have the God-given authority to make and that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic.

Let’s learn always-true doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we can take away from this July’s Sunday Readings.[1]

The Catechism applies what the Lord said St. Paul in the Second Reading – that power is made perfect in weakness – to all followers of Christ in that since “even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses” and so endured sufferings can participate in Christ’s sufferings for the sake of the Church (CCC 1508[2]). Our suffering can also be redemptive for others (CCC 618), especially when we offer it at Mass (CCC 1368).

The Catechism refers to the episode of Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth in today’s Gospel (CCC 2610) to teach that true prayer consists “in disposing to do the will of the Father” (CCC 2611). The will of the Father is best found in Catholic Doctrine.

Also in today’s Gospel, Jesus lays hands on sick people to heal them. The Catechism cites this example to teach:

In [Jesus’] name the Apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles’ imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. . . . The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in [administering the Sacraments] (CCC 699).

I covered the issue of Jesus’ family in my commentary on the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time since it was also in that Sunday’s Gospel.

• From the Second Reading[3] (2 Corinthians 12:7-10): 2 Cor 12:9 is cited in CCC 268, 273, and 1508.
• From the Alleluia (Luke 4:18): Lk 4:18 is cited in CCC 544 and 2443.
• From the Gospel (Mark 6:1-6): Mk 6:3 is cited in CCC 500; Mk 6:5 in CCC 699; and Mk 6:6 in CCC 2610.

The Catechism uses the episode of Jesus sending out the Twelve from today’s Gospel to teach that Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of Peter as their head. . . . By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church” (CCC 765).

Christ governs [the Church] through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops” (CCC 869).

So rich in meaning is today’s Second Reading that verses from it are cited in twenty-nine paragraphs of the Catechism.

The entire Second Reading is cited to teach the meaning of blessing when it is one of the normative forms of personal and liturgical prayer along with petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise (CCC 2623-2649). “Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer” (CCC 2626).

Two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father – we bless him for having blessed us; it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father – he blesses us (CCC 2627).

It is important to realize the difference between God blessing us and our blessing God. God blessing us is “a divine and life-giving action” whereas our blessing God “means adoration and surrender to [our] Creator in thanksgiving” (CCC 1078). God does not need us. “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make [man] share in [God’s] own blessed life” (CCC 1).

In light of the confusion caused by Fiducia supplicans, it might help to see what the Catechism teaches about sacramental blessing – which is the blessing of persons, meals, objects, and places (CCC 1671) – since Fiducia supplicans never cites the Catechism and since the Catechism cites (in 1671) a verse from today’s Second Reading in its treatment of sacramental blessings. Sacramentals are “sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. . . . By them [persons] are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments” (CCC 1667). The chief effect of the Sacraments is participation in the life of the Holy Trinity (CCC 52, 257, 1127-1129). This effect cannot be obtained unless a Sacrament is “celebrated worthily” (CCC 1128) with the right disposition (CCC 1131).

The Second Reading also says that those who have heard the gospel and believed have been “sealed with the promised holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13). To seal in the ancient world was to stamp with a mark or signet. The Catechism explains:

This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service forever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological [end-of-time] trial (CCC 1296).

The Catechism cites a verse from today’s Alleluia (Eph 1:18) in a paragraph that serves as a rationale for this series of columns:

[I]t is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will, in turn, call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens “the eyes of your hearts” to a lively understanding of the contents of revelation: that is, of the totality of God’s plan and the mysteries of the faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. (CCC 158)

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14): Ps 85:11 is cited in CCC 214; and Ps 85:12 in CCC 2795.
• From the Second Reading (Ephesians 1:3-14 OR Eph 1:3-10): Eph 1:3-14 is cited in CCC 2627 and 2641; Eph 1:3-6 in CCC 381 and 1077; Eph 1:3-4 in CCC 492; Eph 1:3 in CCC 1671; Eph 1:4-5 in CCC 52 and 257; Eph 1:4 in CCC 492, 796, 865, 1426, and 2807; Eph 1:5-6 in CCC 294; 1:6 in CCC 1083; Eph 1:7 in CCC 517 and 2839; Eph 1:9-11 in CCC 2823; Eph 1:9 in CCC 257, 1066, 2603, and 2807; Eph 1:10 in CCC 668, 772, 1043, and 2748; Eph 1:13-14 in CCC 706 and 1274; Eph 1:13 in CCC 693, 698, and 1296; and Eph 1:14 in CCC 1107.
• From the Alleluia (Ephesians 1:17-18): Eph 1:18 is cited in CCC 158.
• From the Gospel (Mark 6:7-13): Mk 6:7 is cited in CCC 765 and 1673; Mk 6:12-13 in CCC 1506; and Mk 6:13 in CCC 1511 and 1673.

Only verses from the Responsorial Psalm and the Second Reading are cited by the Catechism.

In the Responsorial Psalm’s “You anoint my head with oil,” oil is “a sign of abundance and joy” (CCC 1293). Oil has a similar meaning in Confirmation:

Those who are anointed share more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1294). There are other Biblical meanings of oil, and they have similar meanings in other Sacraments. “[A]nointing with the oil of catechumens signifies cleansing and strengthening; anointing of the sick signifies healing and comfort; . . . anointing in Confirmation and ordination is the sign of consecration (CCC 1294).

The Catechism uses the verses from the Second Reading that Christ is our peace and that His cross put to death the enmity between Jews and Gentiles to teach that “Christ “reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race” (CCC 2305). Reconciliation with God requires conversion (CCC 1489-1496). The unity of the human race, according to God’s plan, is to be accomplished through the Catholic Church (CCC 774-776).

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6): Ps 23:5 is cited in CCC 1293.
• From the Second Reading (Ephesians 2:13-18): Eph 2:14 is cited in CCC 2305; and Eph 2:16 in CCC 2305.

The Catechism theme cites and summarizes today’s Second Reading:

The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope, at whose fulfillment all divisions will be overcome” (CCC 866). The Church will be fulfilled “at the time of Christ’s glorious return . . . the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will be united in glory with her king (CCC 769).

Yes,

[f]rom the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from . . . a multiplicity of peoples and cultures . . . [and] different gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life . . . [and] particular Churches that retain their own traditions [such as those in the Byzantine Rite].” “Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift of unity. And so the Apostle [Paul] has to exhort Christians to ‘maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ [which is a verse in today’s Second Reading] (CCC 814)

What are these bonds of unity? . . . charity . . . [and] profession of one faith received from the Apostles; common celebration of divine worship, especially the sacraments; apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders (CCC 815).

Indeed,

this one faith [is] received from one Lord” (CCC 172). “The Church’s message is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole world (CCC 174).

This true and solid message is Catholic Doctrine. Doctrine is not policy. Governments and businesses, for example, have policies, which they can change and even totally reverse. Catholic Doctrine remains true and solid since it does not substantially change.

When Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men, as reported in today’s Gospel, He “performed [one of His] messianic signs” (CCC 549). All of His miracles were signs that showed that He is the Messiah who brings the Kingdom of God, the new Heaven and the new earth of perfect human happiness because it is perfect human relationship with God (CCC 1042-1050). Jesus has begun establishing the Kingdom on earth by founding the Catholic Church (CCC 551-553, 668-670). He will finish establishing the Kingdom when He returns to earth in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead (CCC 671-679, 988-1001, 1038-1041).

• From the Second Reading (Ephesians 4:1-6): Eph 4:2 is cited in CCC 2219; Eph 4:3-5 in CCC 866; Eph 4:3 in CCC 814; and Eph 4:4-6 in CCC 172, 249, and 2790.
• From the Alleluia (Luke 7:16): Lk 7:16 is cited in CCC 1503.
• From the Gospel (John 6:1-15): Jn 6:5-15 is cited in CCC 549; Jn 6:15 in CCC 439 and 559.

[1] There are too many citations, or references, in the Catechism to the verses in a month of Sunday Mass readings to identify all the pertinent doctrines, so I will use my best judgment to select which verses and doctrines to cover in a column that may not exceed 2,000 words. The bullet points allow you to explore further the Biblical basis of Catholic Doctrine.

[2] CCC abbreviates Catechism of the Catholic Church. Any number after it is the number of a paragraph in the Catechism. For example, “CCC 1508” means paragraph 1508 of the Catechism.

[3] If a Reading is not listed, then none of its verses is cited by the CCC.