DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS:
My Beloved, from these verses it is most clear that St. Paul is asking us to be saints, to be holy as You are holy. He would not have asked of us the impossible. True, without the Holy Spirit and without the grace that He makes available to us freely it would most certainly be impossible but for Catholics this is not so. We can live godly lives because we have the Sacraments through which grace is poured into our souls and we have the example of a multitude of saints whose lives bear testimony to this truth.
If I call God Father, if I call You my Brother and Spouse and if I believe that the Holy Spirit resides in me, then I will reflect You in all things. There should not be even a hint of any kind of deliberate sin to taint my soul. I must always stay within the sheltering wings of the Church and I must learn from her because I have the sure knowledge that she is preserved from ever teaching error. Truly I have no excuse not to be a saint.
Beloved, the world is full of scoffers and it can be terribly hard not to feel intimated when pseudo intellectuals snobbishly crush all opinion making the claim that only what they say is legitimate. It takes courage to stand on the side of Truth. If however one walks in the Way of Truth, if one is trained and formed in the Truth and if one is nourished by the Truth, then no evil, no matter how forceful can tempt us to deviate from the Way of Truth.
When I stand on the side of Truth I can stand boldly, fearlessly, courageously, staunchly, and unflinchingly just as You who are Truth did my Lord.
My Beloved, sin has the devastating ability to cripple us. It happens over time. We open ourselves to evil influences as this poor woman in today's Gospel passage had done and in the end she became so tightly enmeshed she was trapped and unable to rid herself of its evil. The burden she carried was so great that it bent her double under its weight. You were teaching on the Sabbath in the Synagogue and this crippled woman was there. Your heart was overwhelmed with pity as You looked at her, You called out to her and You told her that she was set free from her infirmity. Scripture does not say whether she had come there seeking to be healed all it says was that You saw her, You called out to her, You commanded the evil spirit to leave her and You touched her.
You touched her. Touch often played an important part in Your healing. I think You touched those people who had never before felt the warmth of a loving, gentle, kindly, compassionate, tender, human touch. The leper, the blind beggar and now this poor crippled woman. At Your touch her back became straight and she was healed.
This is what You do for us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You call us, we approach You, we confess our sins, we ask for pardon and You absolve us, restore us to new life and You fill us with Your grace and peace. This awesome Sacrament has the power to set us free and make our twisted spirit whole again. Thank You Beloved for this most precious of gifts.
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