DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
Isaiah 42:1-7, Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14, John 12:1-11
Isaiah 42:1-7
My Beloved, here the prophet Isaiah speaks of things he could not know unless revealed to him by God through the Holy Spirit. This is what the Lord our God has to say about You. God has appointed You to bring justice to the world. Sin separated us from God when Adam and Eve fell from grace. Heaven was closed to us for the consequence of sin is death. But God who is our Father and who created us in love longed to bridge the chasm between Creator and creature but justice had to be served – a just God could not overlook the deliberate act of disobedience against a clearly spoken command. Since there was nothing we could ever do undo the fall, God Himself came up with a plan to remedy the bitter effects of sin. He would send His only Son into the world not as God but as Man. In human flesh. Subject to all that we have to endure from the moment of conception to death. And in perfect obedience to Your Father will You came into the world to draw all men back to the Father.
Filled with the Holy Spirit and after a hidden life of 30 years You proclaimed the truth about God and about His Kingdom. You revealed the face of God and the nature of God in all you said and did. Because You became a Man You understood perfectly our weaknesses, our temptations, our inclination to sin and You were always tender, compassionate, kind, loving and merciful towards all and You were especially gentle and loving to those who were humiliated and cast out as public sinners, to women and children. No wonder the women were more constant in their love for You than the men.
It is through You, the Eternal Word of God that rested eternally in the bosom of the Father, through Whom all that is came into being, through the utterance of the Word by the Father that we receive life and breath from the Holy Spirit. To become a Man cost You Your life in exchange for ours. You had to become like us in all things, You had to depend totally on Your Father and the Holy Spirit to be refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated and replenished after You expended all Your strength in ministering to the people who clamored for You night and day to receive what You had to give without thought of the exhausting demands they made on You.
Thank You Father, thank You Holy Spirit for the Gift of Jesus. Thank You Father for making Jesus the Covenant of Love that binds us eternally to God. Thank You Beloved for coming to us as Light to all nations, for setting us free from the bonds of sin, for restoring our sight, for opening our ears and for releasing our tongue and for touching each of our senses and making us truly alive in You.
Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14
My Beloved, my Lord and my God, how wonderfully these verses sum up all that You are to me and to all who believe that God sent You as the only means by which we are saved.
You are my light and my salvation I need fear nothing. You are the foundation on which I build my life I am not afraid of any challenge I may have to face. No plan against me will succeed for You will cause those who set themselves up against me to stumble and fall. Though the whole world stand against me my heart will not stop trusting You.
My hope in You is sure. This is my hope that when this life draws to a close I will rise up to new life in the Kingdom of God where You have prepared a place for me. I believe, I know, I am sure that it is God Himself who wishes that where You are I too may be eternally.
John 12:1-11
My Beloved, these events were etched in the memory of Apostle John for he recalls every detail of that dinner so vividly we can see it. In six days You were to become our Passover sacrifice You went to Bethany to visit Your dear friend Lazarus and his sisters. They were overjoyed in welcoming You into their home and they offered You a meal. There were many others who were there as Lazarus whom You raised to life had become a minor celebrity and everyone wanted to see him.
Martha is in her usual role bustling about busily making sure that her divine Guest had the best food and drink they had to offer. Lazarus sat with You. He knew he was in the Presence of God and he absorbed all that You were saying. But it was Mary, the one with a true disciple’s heart, who not only recognized God but with divinely inspired intuition proceeded to anoint Your feet with a pound of the most expensive perfume. Love is not niggardly nor does love stop to count the cost. Love desires to give all to the Beloved, to spend itself completely, it is not coy about letting the world know that it loves even if the world considers it folly. She anointed Your feet and then she wiped them with her hair and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of her exquisite expression of love.
Every act of loving service made for Your sake fills the heavens with the same fragrance. For You have said whatever we do to the least of My brothers and sisters You consider it as having been done to You.
Judas the cynic, the thief, the betrayer who constantly stole from the common purse entrusted to him despite the fact that You knew all about him, who knew the market value of the costly perfume but had no clue about what he was privileged to witness just then, began to make some pious remarks about how the perfume could have been sold and the money used for the poor. He was fooling no one least of all You and so You spoke up at once in defense of Mary and at the same time it was a reproof to all who should know the different between wasteful extravagance and the generous giving of all to God.
You reminded everyone of Your death that was to come shortly and also that there will always be opportunities to give to the poor and the needy who will always be with them but You they would not have always.
And finally, we read that the chief priests wanted to kill Lazarus as well. You they were already plotting and planning to kill but they added Lazarus to their list because many saw and heard how You raised him from death to life and knew that only God had such power and were coming to believe in You. This is also a warning to us that if the world condemned and killed You we who follow You can expect no less.
Isaiah 42:1-7, Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14, John 12:1-11
Isaiah 42:1-7
My Beloved, here the prophet Isaiah speaks of things he could not know unless revealed to him by God through the Holy Spirit. This is what the Lord our God has to say about You. God has appointed You to bring justice to the world. Sin separated us from God when Adam and Eve fell from grace. Heaven was closed to us for the consequence of sin is death. But God who is our Father and who created us in love longed to bridge the chasm between Creator and creature but justice had to be served – a just God could not overlook the deliberate act of disobedience against a clearly spoken command. Since there was nothing we could ever do undo the fall, God Himself came up with a plan to remedy the bitter effects of sin. He would send His only Son into the world not as God but as Man. In human flesh. Subject to all that we have to endure from the moment of conception to death. And in perfect obedience to Your Father will You came into the world to draw all men back to the Father.
Filled with the Holy Spirit and after a hidden life of 30 years You proclaimed the truth about God and about His Kingdom. You revealed the face of God and the nature of God in all you said and did. Because You became a Man You understood perfectly our weaknesses, our temptations, our inclination to sin and You were always tender, compassionate, kind, loving and merciful towards all and You were especially gentle and loving to those who were humiliated and cast out as public sinners, to women and children. No wonder the women were more constant in their love for You than the men.
It is through You, the Eternal Word of God that rested eternally in the bosom of the Father, through Whom all that is came into being, through the utterance of the Word by the Father that we receive life and breath from the Holy Spirit. To become a Man cost You Your life in exchange for ours. You had to become like us in all things, You had to depend totally on Your Father and the Holy Spirit to be refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated and replenished after You expended all Your strength in ministering to the people who clamored for You night and day to receive what You had to give without thought of the exhausting demands they made on You.
Thank You Father, thank You Holy Spirit for the Gift of Jesus. Thank You Father for making Jesus the Covenant of Love that binds us eternally to God. Thank You Beloved for coming to us as Light to all nations, for setting us free from the bonds of sin, for restoring our sight, for opening our ears and for releasing our tongue and for touching each of our senses and making us truly alive in You.
Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14
My Beloved, my Lord and my God, how wonderfully these verses sum up all that You are to me and to all who believe that God sent You as the only means by which we are saved.
You are my light and my salvation I need fear nothing. You are the foundation on which I build my life I am not afraid of any challenge I may have to face. No plan against me will succeed for You will cause those who set themselves up against me to stumble and fall. Though the whole world stand against me my heart will not stop trusting You.
My hope in You is sure. This is my hope that when this life draws to a close I will rise up to new life in the Kingdom of God where You have prepared a place for me. I believe, I know, I am sure that it is God Himself who wishes that where You are I too may be eternally.
John 12:1-11
My Beloved, these events were etched in the memory of Apostle John for he recalls every detail of that dinner so vividly we can see it. In six days You were to become our Passover sacrifice You went to Bethany to visit Your dear friend Lazarus and his sisters. They were overjoyed in welcoming You into their home and they offered You a meal. There were many others who were there as Lazarus whom You raised to life had become a minor celebrity and everyone wanted to see him.
Martha is in her usual role bustling about busily making sure that her divine Guest had the best food and drink they had to offer. Lazarus sat with You. He knew he was in the Presence of God and he absorbed all that You were saying. But it was Mary, the one with a true disciple’s heart, who not only recognized God but with divinely inspired intuition proceeded to anoint Your feet with a pound of the most expensive perfume. Love is not niggardly nor does love stop to count the cost. Love desires to give all to the Beloved, to spend itself completely, it is not coy about letting the world know that it loves even if the world considers it folly. She anointed Your feet and then she wiped them with her hair and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of her exquisite expression of love.
Every act of loving service made for Your sake fills the heavens with the same fragrance. For You have said whatever we do to the least of My brothers and sisters You consider it as having been done to You.
Judas the cynic, the thief, the betrayer who constantly stole from the common purse entrusted to him despite the fact that You knew all about him, who knew the market value of the costly perfume but had no clue about what he was privileged to witness just then, began to make some pious remarks about how the perfume could have been sold and the money used for the poor. He was fooling no one least of all You and so You spoke up at once in defense of Mary and at the same time it was a reproof to all who should know the different between wasteful extravagance and the generous giving of all to God.
You reminded everyone of Your death that was to come shortly and also that there will always be opportunities to give to the poor and the needy who will always be with them but You they would not have always.
And finally, we read that the chief priests wanted to kill Lazarus as well. You they were already plotting and planning to kill but they added Lazarus to their list because many saw and heard how You raised him from death to life and knew that only God had such power and were coming to believe in You. This is also a warning to us that if the world condemned and killed You we who follow You can expect no less.
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