Tuesday - August 22, 2017
It is not a good thing to load ourselves with
many spiritual exercises;
it is better to undertake a little, and go on with it:
for if the devil can persuade us to omit an exercise once,
he will easily get us to omit it the second time,
and the third, until at last all our pious practices will melt away.
-- Saint Philip Neri
TODAY'S READINGS
August 22, 2017
Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lectionary: 420
Reading 1JGS 6:11-24A
The angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrahthat belonged to Joash the Abiezrite.
While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press
to save it from the Midianites,
the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said,
"The LORD is with you, O champion!"
Gideon said to him, "My Lord, if the LORD is with us,
why has all this happened to us?
Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers
told us when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?'
For now the LORD has abandoned us
and has delivered us into the power of Midian."
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have
and save Israel from the power of Midian.
It is I who send you."
But Gideon answered him, "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel?
My family is the lowliest in Manasseh,
and I am the most insignificant in my father's house."
"I shall be with you," the LORD said to him,
"and you will cut down Midian to the last man."
Gideon answered him, "If I find favor with you,
give me a sign that you are speaking with me.
Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you
and bring out my offering and set it before you."
He answered, "I will await your return."
So Gideon went off and prepared a kid and a measure of flour
in the form of unleavened cakes.
Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot,
he brought them out to him under the terebinth
and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and unleavened cakes
and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth."
When he had done so,
the angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff he held,
and touched the meat and unleavened cakes.
Thereupon a fire came up from the rock
that consumed the meat and unleavened cakes,
and the angel of the LORD disappeared from sight.
Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD,
said, "Alas, Lord GOD,
that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
The LORD answered him,
"Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die."
So Gideon built there an altar to the LORD
and called it Yahweh-shalom.
Responsorial PsalmPS 85:9, 11-12, 13-14
R. (see 9b) The Lord speaks of peace to his people.I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD–for he proclaims peace
To his people, and to his faithful ones,
and to those who put in him their hope.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
Alleluia2 COR 8:9
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 19:23-30
Jesus said to his disciples:"Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,
"Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible."
Then Peter said to him in reply,
"We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you
that you who have followed me, in the new age,
when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory,
will yourselves sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
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Where's the peace?
In our responsorial Psalm today, God is speaking his peace to you. And when God utters a word, it is so. Of course it is so! He is God! Well, do you see kindness and truth "meeting" in your life? Is justice and peace "kissing" you?
Yes! if your hope is in God, as the psalmist says of God's faithful ones. Even while injustices are being committed against you, God's justice is with you. The problem is that the Lord's peace might be lost in the crowdedness of everything else that's going on.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus mentions two significant ways we lose this peace: by accumulating material goods only for our own sake and by depending upon family relationships (including friends who are like family) to get all that we need emotionally and spiritually. We can't have peace when we expect money and possessions to satisfy us, because it's never enough. We can't have peace when we expect others to make us happy, because they repeatedly disappoint us.
The cure, Jesus says, is to keep our eyes on him. Giving up everything to follow Jesus does not mean kicking our possessions out the door. Rather, it means making them available to Jesus for him to do with as he wants, for his holy purposes. We share what we have because we care, recognizing that God has given us everything we own so that we can benefit from it and we can distribute it to others. Not only is there great peace in having the freedom to do this, but great satisfaction as well.
Giving up relationships to follow Jesus means depending on him, instead of family and friends, to satisfy all of our needs. Although these people are called to be good to us, their imperfect love creates holes in our lives, holes that hurt. God wants to live in these holes so that he can comfort us, but if we stuff the holes with anger or addictions, there's no room for him. By depending on Jesus and recognizing that he suffered for our sake, we can endure the pain while he works on the hearts of the people who should be filling those holes. What if this takes the rest of their lives? Well, there will be an eternity for enjoying their love.
Sometimes God closes a hole so that it no longer exists, enabling us to give up a relationship entirely. Then, we feel no pain or sorrow. Maybe that's how it happens when loved ones go to hell and we have to spend eternity without them. We feel sad for someone who dies rejecting Christ, but it's not a painful kind of sorrow after God heals us.
When praying for an end to a problem, we have to wait, in full trust, for God's often-unusual solutions. And while praying for a change in the hearts of the people who hurt us, we should ask Jesus to give us his patience and his supernatural love for them. True peace is found only when we lean on him and make him the most important person in our lives.
By depending on God and placing our hope in his love, hope becomes trust. And trust becomes peace.
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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