WEDENESDAY OF WEEK TWO IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom
and cured all kinds of sickness among the people. MT 4:23

HEBREWS 7:1-3,15-17 

My Soul's Beloved,

The Old Testament is full of typology, of symbols, of figures that prefiguring You, and ultimately fulfilled in You. One of these is the mysterious High Priest Melchizedek, king of Salem, king of peace, king of righteousness, of whom nothing is known. He has no beginning and no end. He came from nowhere met Abraham, and blessed him and in turn, Abraham gave him a tenth of all he possessed. 

You are the second Melchizedek - for You are the eternal High Priest appointed by God, You are the Victim for our sins, You are the Altar, for You are the Cornerstone of the Church, offering remission for the sins of the world at every celebration of the Holy Mass from the rising of the sun to its setting until You return.

PSALM 110:1-4

My Soul's Beloved,

To You, the Father has given all authority, all dominion, all power and has seated You at His right hand. You have triumphed over the world in Your abject poverty, You have triumphed over the flesh in the torments You endured in the brutal scourging, and crucifixion and You have triumphed over the Devil by dying on the Cross and setting the children of God free from captivity by the power of Your Blood and the glory of Your resurrection.

The sceptre of power along with the authority to judge is given to You. You alone are our refuge and protection from the wrath of the Enemy.  

The Son of God became the Son of Man when You were conceived by the power of God in the womb of Your Virgin Mother, Mary, for You are begotten by the Father and existed with Him before the dawn of creation.

What Adam and Eve lost through willful disobedience, You were sent to restore as our High Priest and as the Victim of Sacrifice. You made right their wrong through perfect obedience to the will of God. 

MARK 3:1-6

My Soul's Beloved,

In a world where death is seen as a viable option when life is viewed as having value only for some and not for others and is therefore disposable, the question You put to the Pharisees is one that is even more relevant to us today, ‘Is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?’ Abortion on demand is seen as a human right and the blatant paradox of this claim is that those who clamor for this right refuse it to the defenseless baby in the womb. Euthanasia is another evil that is offered as an option to the terminally ill in the cunning deceitful guile of care. A humane death is suggested insidiously, overtly, or covertly disguising with artful deceit that they are burdensome in some way to their family or to the state. 

Today's miraculous healing on the sabbath, of a man suffering for years from a withered hand, teaches us that we are all members of God's family and we each have infinite value in the sight of God. Each of us is unique, each is created according to the thought of God and the plan of God. Each soul is precious and irreplaceable, to each God has entrusted a mission and purpose which is thwarted when they are cheated of a life that is given by God and can be taken away only by Him.

When You angrily questioned the Pharisees they remained stubbornly silent just as so many of us are in the face of this outrageous and evil assault on the innocent. The promoters of death, like the Pharisees and the Herodians, continue to plot against the Law of God which is the Law of Love, they plot the destruction of life rather than saving it at all cost. 

Your Father gave You up to the world in order to save it and every life rightly belongs to You. What a terrible day of reckoning it will be for those who plotted evil and murder in their hearts and carried out the death sentence of those whose lives were snatched from them.