MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts. HEB 4:12

HEBREWS 5:1-10

My Soul's Beloved,

Suffering is anathema to us and we will do our best to avoid it at any cost, but that is not Your Way and that is not what You came to teach us. The price of sin is sorrow, pain, suffering, and death and we are all sinners. A righteous person falls seven times a day, but a sinner falls all the time. 

Every high priest in the Old Testament chosen and appointed by God had to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. Just as Aaron was called You too were called and sent by the Father to be our High Priest eternally. 

In perfect obedience to the will of God, You became the Son of Man and in becoming like us in all things save sin, You offered Yourself as a holocaust for the sins of the world. As today's epistle to the Hebrews says so eloquently, 'Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.'

You suffered greatly making expiation for our sins through Your bitter passion, leading up to Your excruciating crucifixion and horrific death and three days later to Your glorious resurrection. While on earth You offered Yourself up to Your Father with ceaseless prayers and entreaties, groaning aloud and silently, sweating blood in Your anguish and submitting to Him in perfect obedience trusting in sublime humility that He would raise You up.

This is why all who believe in You are saved.  

PSALM 110:1-4

My Soul's Beloved,

How wonderfully blessed we are to have God as our High Priest, our Lord, our King, and our most beloved Spouse.  Enthroned in the highest heavens at the right hand of the Father You are given all glory, all power, and all dominion in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

You offered Yourself as a perfect oblation for the sins of the world, redeeming it at the cost of Your life. You have crushed the head of Satan. All evil is vanquished. The enemy is routed.

Eternal Son, begotten by God before the dawn of creation, true God and true Man from the moment You were conceived in Mary's womb, You offer the Father an eternal sacrifice for the salvation of the world. Words are incapable of expressing the debt of love we owe You all I ask is that You keep us faithful to the end. Amen.

MARK 2:18-22

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

The Old Testament prescription of fasting in preparation for the coming of the Messiah did not apply anymore for You are the New Covenant of Love that God makes with the world. The Old must give way to the New. The anticipation has ended the Messiah is here and salvation is at hand. The wedding banquet is begun and the friends of the Bridegroom rejoice in His Presence. The work of establishing God's Kingdom on earth and in the hearts of every believer is entrusted to the Twelve and to every faithful disciple. 

You are the fulfillment of every prophecy. The world that waited in darkness and great longing now walks in the brilliant Light of the Word of God. Nothing in the Old can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart but the New can. The old wine is sour the new wine is exhilarating. The old garments are worn out, shabby, stained, and tattered, the new garments are festal, rich, and will never wear out. Thank You for being the New Wine and for clothing us in the garments of virtue and righteousness, our Lord, our God, and our hope of eternal salvation.