TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH IN ORDINARY TIME - 2020

 DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Happy are those
who hear the word of God
and keep it. LK 11:28

PROVERBS 21:1-6, 10-13

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

The proverbs in Scripture are the lived experience of human beings and those who have thought long about human nature and have seen the effects of the wise, the haughty, the prudent, the humble, the fool, and the imprudent, the wicked, the generous, and the niggardly, have left the fruit of their contemplation for our own wise reflection.

Grace is the living water flowing from the heart of King, He directs its flow wherever and on whomever He pleases. There is only one, who through God's good pleasure, was filled with this grace from the moment of her conception, Mary. 

Our lives, our actions, our thoughts, and our words reflect who we are, whether upright, just, dishonest, foolish, prideful, arrogant, wicked and everything else good or bad that we humans are capable of being. Each of us, according to our own decisive will determines whether we will follow the Way of Truth and abide by the Word of God and live uprightly or unrighteously. It is a choice we make either for You or against You but in the end, we will be judged by the choices we have made freely and without coercion.  

We were created for joy - it is a joy that is not determined by our circumstances nor can anyone it take away. It is a gift that comes from knowing You, loving You, serving You, and following You closely on the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Keep us safe, O Lord, in Your love now and to the end.

PSALM 119:1, 27, 30, 34-35, 44

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

The pages of history are strewn with the testimony of men and women who lived lives of heroic virtue just as the verses in today's psalm describes. They testify to the truth that all who choose to live righteous and just lives, enjoy God's favor even as they walk through the valley of tears.

But unless we know You, Beloved, how can we love You as You ought to be loved? So many of us are ignorant of You. We have never been told of You by those who were entrusted with the task of catechizing us, more often than not because they themselves were so poorly catechized. But even this is no excuse, Beloved. It is our duty to cooperate with the grace and the gift of faith we have received at our Baptism and to pray with humility to the Holy Spirit to help us, direct us, and do our part to open our heart and our minds as we prayerfully read the Scriptures so we can encounter You through the living, breathing Word of the sacred texts. 'Your word O Lord is truth, consecrate us in the truth.'

LUKE 8:19-21

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Many willfully refuse to see and have lead millions through the ages to do the same and these short verses in the Gospel of Luke are yet another opportunity for them to take a 'text out of context which is a pretext' and to misconstrue its meaning. Some have done so deliberately, or maliciously, or through ignorance. Satan attempted to do just that when he tempted You by using Scripture texts selectively. But Your counterpoint and counter thrust also using Scripture texts, left a defeated Satan no option but to slink away and depart from You.  

No living human creature ever was or ever will hear the word of God and put it into practice as obediently, willingly, humbly, and with such complete surrender as Mary did. Hence, to those who infer that You were denigrating Your Mother by Your response to those who told You that Your mother and brothers were standing outside to see You, one can only say that they unlike Your Mother, Mary, have not conceived the Word of God as she did first in her heart and then in fact and truth in her womb. She gave You, the Word of God, a Body which You then gave up for the life of the world. 

Also, would God who Himself commanded that we honor our father and our mother, Himself dishonor His own?  This is why the Church born from Your side and entrusted to Mary at the foot of the Cross, truly comprehends the high place of honor given to Your Mother at Your right hand in the Kingdom of God.