Hebrews 4:12-16, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Mark 2:13-17

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hebrews 4:12-16, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Mark 2:13-17

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Hebrews 4:12-16

My Beloved, You are the living, breathing, acting, effective, powerful, creative holy Word of the Almighty and ever living, ever loving God.  You made and make all possible.  In You, with You and through You, the Word of God made flesh, the Father and the Holy Spirit are unendingly renewing, reconciling and redeeming all people and all creation to the Triune God.  All is possible because You joyfully, lovingly and willingly submitted in perfect humility to God's plan that You become the unblemished sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world and resolve us to the dignity that was ours before the fall.

Your Word has the power to reveal the true nature of God to us through the working of Your Holy Spirit.  You reveal the truth and much as as we would like to hide from it and deny it, we come face to face with it in Your Word and we have to acknowledge that we have been living a lie and deceiving ourselves. Your Word lays the Truth bare before God and we do not deny it if we are honest. 

My Beloved, we need never be afraid or ashamed to run to You with our sins no matter how scarlet they may be.  You understand because You have been robed in human flesh and You have been tempted in exactly the same way all men are tempted with one difference, You remained without sin.

May I always rush to You when I have sinned confident that if I am truly contrite and repentant, You will forgive, heal and restore.  Thank You.

Psalm 19:8-10, 15

Your law is perfect because it is the law of love.  True love is always  life giving.  on Your Word God has laid for us a firm and unshakable foundation and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

Your Word gives wisdom to those who study it and meditate on it.

To fear You because You are a God of infinite love and we desire never to offend You by sin, is the kind of fear that all who profess to love You should possess. You judge justly in righteousness but also with compassionate mercy and love so we need never be afraid to approach the mercy seat.

May all I say, think and pray find favor in Your sight and grant me peace and joy for You O Lord are my Rock, my Stronghold and my Redeemer.

Mark 2:13-17

My Beloved, You made Yourself available.  You had a mission to accomplish to make the love of Your Father known and to reveal the Holy Spirit.  It was a three year, intensive mission that would in the end find You splayed upon the Cross, nailed to it, open, naked, helpless, drained of every drop of the precious Blood and Water in Your Body and until Your last breath was gasped of out of Your collapsed lungs.  You came to give all and so You did not spare Yourself.

You called those whom the Father appointed to be Your chosen twelve, Levi, a tax collector, was one of them.  You saw him, he saw You and he would have least expected to hear Your jaw-dropping invitation to follow You.  It is no wonder that this poor man who felt the weight of men's rejection as well as his own awareness that he was a sinner, left everything without a backward glance and followed You.

Thank You for convicting me today through this Gospel passage.  You ask us to love not to judge.  A sinner can only be won through love as You demonstrated time and time again in Your public ministry. You ate, drank, touched and healed those whom society decreed were a disgrace and therefore unwelcome in polite circles.  You broke every man made boundary and barrier and embraced everyone.

Thank You for reminding me that it is the sinner who needs our love and compassion most of all.