DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS: 2 Chronicles 24:17-25,
Psalm 89:4-5, 29-30,31-34,
Matthew 6:24-35
2 Chronicles 24:17-25
My Beloved how easy it is to turn away from You and return back to the cravings of the senses if we are not always watchful and alert!. As long as the priest Jehoida was alive, king Joash and the people that the king ruled over lived lives that were holy and pleasing to God, but when Jehoida died the king turned to sinners for advice and then began his ruin and that of the people.
We have the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to whom we turn to instinctively for help and advice. She can be trusted never to teach error for this is the promise of the Bridegroom to His Bride. Just as the leader of the Jews, the priests, scribes and pharisees plotted evil against You, so did they hate the prophet Zechariah. He was a constant irritant to their conscience and the voice of truth and so they wished to silence and him and eventually, they killed him.
So too were You an irritant to the people of the law and those who were supposed to guard it, teach it and live it. They failed on every count and You did not let them forget it so they hated You with the passion with which evil hates good. Though You were innocent they laid traps for You and eventually when Your hour had come, You permitted them to snare You in their evil. They treated You with a cruelty and brutality that was truly horrific in every detail and eventually they crucified You like a common criminal.
They thought that once they were rid of Zechariah they would be free to give free reign to their evil desires without having anyone trouble their conscience. How wrong they were in their thinking as they would soon find out. Before dying Zechariah cried out, "Let Yahweh see and do justice." Your cry to the Father was radically different, You cried out passionately saying, "Father forgive them they do not know what they do." And so You sought to exonerate us for the heinous and evil crime we committed in crucifying You. Thank You my Beloved.
Psalm 89:4-5, 29-30,31-34
My Beloved, God made a new covenant of love with us when He sent You to become one like us to save us. You are the pledge that God made with man. A pledge that fulfilled and established us forever as His children. In obeying the Father, He has established You forever as the Way, the Truth and the Life that leads us to Him.
Verses 31-34 are most poignant. These verses are what those who turn away from God and sin deserve and rightly so. He promises a punishment of the rod and the scourge to sinners. But You my Beloved took the place of all who have sinned and You yielded to the Father's demand to let the rod and the scourge fall on Your sinless Body instead of mine and You absorbed my iniquity and shame. You made me acceptable and pleasing in God's sight once You made satisfication to God for our inquity for the righteousness of God demands that justice is served, punishment is meted to the guilty and restitution is made.
Matthew 6:24-35
My Beloved, if I am obsessed with what I will eat and wear - in short if I am constantly taken up with pleasing the flesh then I will have to choose money over You for my obsession for material things which I use to indulge my creature comforts will take precedence over You. They will so possess me that there will be no room in my life for You. This is why You warn me that I cannot love both God and money at the same time. I can choose to be either Your servant or I can serve my love for money and material gain.
Beloved, sparrows and pigeons abound where I live here in Kuwait. People are always feeding the pigeons but it is the sparrows that fascinate me. I love to watch them, I love to listen to them singing their little hearts out which seem to burst with songs of praise to God who provides them with all that they need. They fly joyfully and lightly. They are content. They are not even aware that it is You who is their Provider. In winter here we have little yellow wild flowers that grow with abandon in this desert, arid, sandy land. They are everywhere even in the cracks on the sidewalks. You can see them blooming in places where one could never imagine that something as lovely as this could take root and bloom if only for a while. Yet it is so - they are here today and they will wither tomorrow and yet God lavishes such beauty on them.
What about those who trust Him? How does God clothe them? Are those who love, serve and trust God with their whole mind, heart soul, body and spirit dressed in furs, jewels and expensive garments? Do they dine fastidiously on fine and exotic food and wine every day? Of course not! So how does the Father clothe them and feed these loving, trusting little ones? He does so by illuminating their smiles with the light and warmth of sunshine, their lilting and joyous laughter that evokes an answering response, the radiance that shines through their eyes comes from a soul and heart filled with God's love. They have a sure knowledge that they can trust God in every circumstance of their life so they do not worry and are not anxious about anything. They rest confidently in that special place that is reserved on the breast of my Beloved - the place reserved for the beloved disciple whom He loves.
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