Monday, June 22, 2020

MONDAY OF WEEK TWELVE IN ORDINARY TIME - 2020


DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS


Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth. JN 17:17





2 KINGS 17:5-8, 13-15, 18

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Sin separates us from God, blocks our ability to receive God's help and grace and makes us vulnerable to attacks from the Enemy. This is what happened to the people of God over and over again. Every time they turned away from the Lord and worshiped other gods they were taken as prisoners and exiled.

All that the word of God says in this passage taken from the Book of Kings can be applied to us today. Despite every warning that without You and without the Law and Rule of Love as the guiding principles of our life we are doomed, we simply will not listen. 

".... they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in the Lord their God. They despised his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued emptiness, and themselves became empty through copying the nations round them although the Lord had ordered them not to act as they did. For this, the Lord was enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

But there is still a faithful remnant, there is always is, even in the worst of times and through their prayers, sacrifices, and incessant cries for compassion and forgiveness for those who stray, Your tender and compassionate heart will hear and answer their prayers.

PSALM 60:3-5, 12-13

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Hear us, O Lord, and help us.

This cry of lamentation of the psalmist is our own. In Your great mercy hear and answer us O Lord. We are afflicted and  helpless. We need Your intervention for the help of humans is in vain. Do not reject our cry, do not turn away from us or we will perish. Our churches are closed and they will remain closed until You destroy this invisible enemy.

Our spiritual health is at risk. We are unable to receive You in Holy Communion which is the primary source of our spiritual nourishment and growth. We need this heavenly Manna, Beloved, have pity on us and restore the Sacraments to us lest we perish.

MATHEW 7:1-5

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

This is one of those passages in the the Gospel when You speak to Your disciples bluntly, forcefully  and with absolute clarity. What You said to them applies to us as well, for we too are Your disciples.

We are all guilty of being too eager to judge quickly and often maliciously. It is a deep, underlying fault within us. We do so because we hope to take the glaring spotlight away from our own deep-seated faults. 

Let us pay close attention to what You say to us today and refrain from being so quick to criticize in future. ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.’

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