DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. PS 95:8
EZEKIEL 36:23-28
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
After the fall of our first parents and their wilful separation from the God of love, He sought a way to breach the chasm caused by their sin of disobedience. Separated from God, we were unable on our own strength to overcome the inherited, inherent weakness caused by original sin. God, Himself had to intervene and He did. God, sent His only Son to stand in the breach and become the bridge across the infinite chasm that separated us from Him.
You are the fulfillment of every promise made by God through the mouths of the prophets in the Old Testament. Today we read of one such prophecy from Ezekiel in which God declares that He will gather all His people from all the nations and bring them home to Himself.
Washed in the waters of Baptism, we are cleansed of original sin and grafted into Your Body. The Holy Spirit is given to us and He makes His home in us. As God's children, we now address Your Father as our Father as well. Because of what You have accomplished for us through Your life, passion, death, and resurrection, we are co-heirs and partakers of Your life in the Kingdom of God. Our hearts of stone hardened by sin now become hearts of flesh and we are God's own people, His inheritance.
PSALM 51:12-15, 18-19
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
Unless we are washed in the waters of Baptism unless we receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit unless we are born again with water and the Holy Spirit we have no life. Scripture tells us that nothing unclean can enter the presence of God. Original sin renders us unfit for God's Presence. Baptism is the only means by which we can rid our souls of this inherited taint from our first parents.
Thank You, Beloved, for Your incarnation. Thank You for entering into our death and taking upon Yourself the punishment due to us. Your bitter passion was rightfully ours, as was Your ignominious death by crucifixion on that wretched instrument of torture and shame. You made a poor exchange Beloved when You took upon Yourself our sin, our shame, our debt, and our death for there was absolutely nothing we could have done to save ourselves from eternal death and separation from God. This exchange, however, rebounded to our advantage, our glory, our salvation, and the restoration of God's relationship with us. In entering our death You gave us a share in Your life with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
May I never forget or cease to be grateful for the awesome price You paid for my salvation. Keep me always humble and contrite of heart so I may never ever be parted from You by sin.
MATTHEW 22:1-14
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
The chosen people of God were given innumerable opportunities to accept You as their Messiah, the One sent by God to redeem His people. But the chief priests and the elders were so obsessed with their own preconceived ideas of the Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah they failed to recognize Him when He was in their midst. They rejected You utterly and completely, their hearts were cold and stubborn, their minds were closed and the only thing alive in their hearts was their all-consuming, murderous hatred of You which made them blind to the Truth that stood before them.
They loved their lives just as they were. They loved their place of authority, power, and influence over the people. They enjoyed their life of entitlement. They gloried in their self-righteousness in obeying the letter of the law with scrupulosity but their hearts were far from God. You were a threat to their comfortable lifestyle, to their authority and influence over the people. You showed them up as hypocrites over and over again. You were unafraid to challenge them on their lack of understanding both of God and of the Law given by God. In every confrontation with You, they lost miserably.
In today's parable, You address the chief priests and elders. The citizens in the parable are the chosen people of God and it is to them that the king extends an invitation to his son's wedding banquet. The servants are the prophets God sent time and time again to His people urging them to reject evil and to honor the Covenant He made with them. But they were indifferent and rejected the prophets even killing some of them. God, in turn, rejected them and instead extended an invitation to the whole world to accept salvation through You, His Son.
The wedding tunic represents our baptismal garment. It is one that we can soil and deliberately cast aside but when we do there will be consequences. Without it, we cannot expect to be seated at the Banquet hosted by the Bridegroom at the eternal wedding feast. Without it, we will be bound hand and foot and thrown out into the dark where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.’
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. PS 95:8
EZEKIEL 36:23-28
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
After the fall of our first parents and their wilful separation from the God of love, He sought a way to breach the chasm caused by their sin of disobedience. Separated from God, we were unable on our own strength to overcome the inherited, inherent weakness caused by original sin. God, Himself had to intervene and He did. God, sent His only Son to stand in the breach and become the bridge across the infinite chasm that separated us from Him.
You are the fulfillment of every promise made by God through the mouths of the prophets in the Old Testament. Today we read of one such prophecy from Ezekiel in which God declares that He will gather all His people from all the nations and bring them home to Himself.
Washed in the waters of Baptism, we are cleansed of original sin and grafted into Your Body. The Holy Spirit is given to us and He makes His home in us. As God's children, we now address Your Father as our Father as well. Because of what You have accomplished for us through Your life, passion, death, and resurrection, we are co-heirs and partakers of Your life in the Kingdom of God. Our hearts of stone hardened by sin now become hearts of flesh and we are God's own people, His inheritance.
PSALM 51:12-15, 18-19
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
Unless we are washed in the waters of Baptism unless we receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit unless we are born again with water and the Holy Spirit we have no life. Scripture tells us that nothing unclean can enter the presence of God. Original sin renders us unfit for God's Presence. Baptism is the only means by which we can rid our souls of this inherited taint from our first parents.
Thank You, Beloved, for Your incarnation. Thank You for entering into our death and taking upon Yourself the punishment due to us. Your bitter passion was rightfully ours, as was Your ignominious death by crucifixion on that wretched instrument of torture and shame. You made a poor exchange Beloved when You took upon Yourself our sin, our shame, our debt, and our death for there was absolutely nothing we could have done to save ourselves from eternal death and separation from God. This exchange, however, rebounded to our advantage, our glory, our salvation, and the restoration of God's relationship with us. In entering our death You gave us a share in Your life with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
May I never forget or cease to be grateful for the awesome price You paid for my salvation. Keep me always humble and contrite of heart so I may never ever be parted from You by sin.
MATTHEW 22:1-14
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
The chosen people of God were given innumerable opportunities to accept You as their Messiah, the One sent by God to redeem His people. But the chief priests and the elders were so obsessed with their own preconceived ideas of the Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah they failed to recognize Him when He was in their midst. They rejected You utterly and completely, their hearts were cold and stubborn, their minds were closed and the only thing alive in their hearts was their all-consuming, murderous hatred of You which made them blind to the Truth that stood before them.
They loved their lives just as they were. They loved their place of authority, power, and influence over the people. They enjoyed their life of entitlement. They gloried in their self-righteousness in obeying the letter of the law with scrupulosity but their hearts were far from God. You were a threat to their comfortable lifestyle, to their authority and influence over the people. You showed them up as hypocrites over and over again. You were unafraid to challenge them on their lack of understanding both of God and of the Law given by God. In every confrontation with You, they lost miserably.
In today's parable, You address the chief priests and elders. The citizens in the parable are the chosen people of God and it is to them that the king extends an invitation to his son's wedding banquet. The servants are the prophets God sent time and time again to His people urging them to reject evil and to honor the Covenant He made with them. But they were indifferent and rejected the prophets even killing some of them. God, in turn, rejected them and instead extended an invitation to the whole world to accept salvation through You, His Son.
The wedding tunic represents our baptismal garment. It is one that we can soil and deliberately cast aside but when we do there will be consequences. Without it, we cannot expect to be seated at the Banquet hosted by the Bridegroom at the eternal wedding feast. Without it, we will be bound hand and foot and thrown out into the dark where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.’
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