Ezekiel 43:1-7ab, Psalm 85:9-14, Matthew 23:1-12

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

 

You have one Father in heaven;

you have but Master, the Christ. Mt 23:9, 10

 

Ezekiel 43:1-7ab, Psalm 85:9-14, Matthew 23:1-12

 

 Ezekiel 43:1-7ab

 

My soul's beloved, You assure us that You are with us. You will walk among us. Your Spirit will remain with us and fill us with Your glory. St. Paul has said, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and God's Spirit dwells in you?" In today's reading we see how God enters the temple of Jerusalem and fills it with His glory. In the inner court of my heart, where You my God are enthroned, You speak to me. You fill me with Your life. You direct my way, You tell me which way I should go and then You grant me the grace to walk in it. Without You in my life, without Your protection, and Your direction I would walk in ways that take me away from You. And when in my weakness I often choose to walk in the ways of unrighteousness, Your love gently speaks to Me, convicts me of sin, and draws me tenderly back to the narrow way, the only way that will lead me to the Kingdom of God.

 

The voice said to me:
Son of man, this is where my throne shall be,
this is where I will set the soles of my feet;
here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.

 

Psalm 85:9-14

 

My soul's beloved, the Father so loved the world He created that when we sinned the sin of disobedience and turned away from Him, His love, His mercy, and His compassion would not destroy us, annihilate us, as we deserved. Instead, He sent You, His only Son into the world so we may not perish but have eternal life. The Glory of the Lord embodied in You came down earth to walk among us when the power of God came upon the Virgin Mother and the Spirit of God overshadowed her. Heaven stooped low over the earth, and God reached out and lifted us to Himself, our loving Father whose love sought a way to restore to us what we had so wantonly lost forever.

 

My soul's beloved, we now walk in the Way that You illuminate, We walk in the Truth that You embodied, and we receive Your Life in the Holy Eucharist - it is You who now sustain us and will remain with us until the end. 

 

Matthew 23:1-12

 

My soul's beloved, pride is the deadliest of all the grave sins for it seeks to glorify self rather than God and the Commandment of Love demands that we love God our Father, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier above and before all else in heaven and on earth.  Exercising the virtue of humility is not always easy yet You who are God and the only Son of the Father humbled Yourself even unto death by Crucifixion on that instrument of torture and shame, the Cross. You have now raised the Cross making it a sign of victory through which we are all saved. We are called to imitate You in Your humility, in Your redemptive suffering, in the way You came to serve rather than be served. You have left with us the key by which we may all open the door to the Kingdom of God.

 

"The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”