MONDAY OF THE ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Your word is a lamp for my steps
and a light for my path. PS 118:105

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Today St. Paul gives us a snapshot of what a true disciple is like. Too often we forget that we are to be recognized by our love for one another, fellow Christians as well as strangers. The Holy Spirit has given us all we need to be effective witnesses in the world. The most potent weapon in our arsenal of weapons of love - self-sacrificial, agape love. Love that is willing to be impaled on the Cross in order to give witness to Love.

As disciples who are often persecuted by the world, who are laughed at, scorned, belittled, imprisoned on trumped-up charges, denied our rights because we are Your disciples we are urged to bear all the wrongs that are heaped on us with fortitude. We continue to love as You love. We continue to show forbearance. We are to continue to be kind, gentle and return good for evil. There is only one Way, Your Way, the Way of the Beatitudes.

The Day of the Lord is closer now than it ever was and hence we must heed the timely reminder that this is the day of salvation. As fellow workers in Your vineyard, we ought to stop whining and complaining and shine the light of Your love powerfully wherever You have placed us. 

We are called to be faithful witnesses to the Truth in all that we do. Loving-kindness shown generously and without distinction to everyone we encounter is the surest way to shout out the Good News from the rooftops. Love will draw all to the knowledge of Truth that is embodied and personified in You - the God of Love who saves.

PSALM 98:1-4 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Every day the liturgy reminds us to sing a new song of praise to the Lord for we are a people of the resurrection. Every new dawn reminds us of all that God has done for us, how He saved us, how He routed the Enemy and restored all that was lost to us.

This is the Good News, that Love became incarnate. In obedience to Your Father's will, You took upon Yourself the debt we owed and in exchange, we received Your life. This Good News of our salvation must be made known to all the world so all may come to the knowledge of truth and be saved.

Grant O Lord, that in these last days, Your faithful remnant may never cease to make You known and loved to the ends of the earth by the sacrifice of our lives offered in praise and worship to You in order that the whole world may ring out with joy at Your coming again in glory.

MATTHEW 5:38-42 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You gave us an example of how we ought to live in a world that was hostile to You and continues to be hostile to all who follow You.

The world teaches its disciples to put themselves and their needs and wants over that of others. It teaches selfishness, self-absorption, self-gratification, self-worship. It teaches violence and revenge. It teaches its disciples to grasp greedily without a thought for the other. The world teaches its followers to put themselves at the center of everything and to pander to all their desires even if it causes injury to others.

But You teach Your followers a different way - it is the way of gentleness, kindness, understanding, self-control, compassion, tenderness, and forgiveness. It is a way that the world ridicules but it is the way of peace. If I retaliate for the blow that is struck on one cheek by turning the other the violence ends. You were struck repeatedly and You suffered each blow silently absorbing each one until the end when You commended Your Spirit into the hands of Your Father. 

To this day the world laughs to scorn those who retaliate to its injustice, wickedness, and cruelty by practicing the principles that You lived by. As peacemakers, Your disciples are to offer no resistance no matter what manner of torture or persecution is meted out to them. What is demanded of us is to love and forgive to the end.