FRIDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me. JN10:27

EXODUS 11:10-12:14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

In the middle of the month of July dedicated by the Church to Your most Holy and Precious Blood,  it is right that this particular reading from Exodus on the Passover has been chosen for our reflection today.

We are told that despite the many wonders done in the presence of Pharoah he remained unmoved like so many of us. We experience Your tender love and compassion every moment of our lives but we fail to recognize that Your loving hand is over us protecting us and keeping us safe from evil. We are deaf and blind to the countless miracles that occur daily reminding us that Your loving Presence enfolds us. Forgive us Lord for our stubbornness of heart and our cold spirit that refuses to be moved to sorrow, contrition, and repentance for our many sins.

The Lord, our God gave Moses a detailed description of how to prepare the Lamb of Sacrifice for the first Passover. 'It must be an animal without blemish, a male one-year-old.' The Son of Man was sinless, without blemish, thirty-three years old in the prime of Your Manhood and ready to be offered to the Father as the perfect, atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. 

Once the lamb/goat was chosen he was to be kept till the fourteenth day representing the thirty hidden years of Your life and the three years of Your public ministry, before Your very public, humiliating, and barbaric execution. The whole assembly of the people of Israel was to slaughter their lambs, take some of the blood, and sprinkle it on the lintels and doorposts of their homes. The blood would provide powerful protection against the angel of death who would pass through every house and destroy the firstborn of any that were not marked with the blood of the lamb. 

The lamb was to be roasted whole indicating the fiery furnace of suffering into which You would be plunged as the Lamb of God and be consumed by it and the sweet-smelling fragrance of this holocaust filling the highest heavens as You redeemed the world. 

PSALM 116:12-13,15-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The psalmist asks the question and answers it not only for himself but for Christians in every generation.

 
How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s name.

There is no higher form of praise and worship more pleasing to God our Father, to You His most beloved Son, and to the Holy Spirit than offering to God 'the cup of salvation,' the price paid in Your all-consuming sacrifice for the redemption of the world.

Your sacrifice has loosened the bonds of our slavery to sin and set us free. We are now Your servants, humbly grateful to You for willingly dying for us and giving us Your life so we may live forever.

May our attitude at every Holy Mass be one of exultant praise and thanksgiving at all You have done for us and as we receive You in Holy Communion may the graces You heap on us help us to remain faithful to the end of our days.

MATTHEW 12:1-8 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

One of the many reasons You became like us was to remind us that we ought to be mindful of the weaknesses, the frailties, of others and be compassionate and understanding. You do not tolerate Pharaisacal self-righteousness but in all circumstances You desire us to be loving, kind, and merciful to those who are weak, hurting, and suffering.

We must never insist on putting the law, the rules, the status quo above our common humanity. We are never to become insensitive and blind to the needs of the least and the last. You came to reveal to us the Face of a God of Love, the Father who created us and knows us more intimately than we can ever know ourselves or another. You know it all and You alone are the supreme judge of us all. 

Too often we usurp Your authority and use our blinkered vision, our narrow-mindedness to sit in judgment of others oblivious of the fact that we deserve far greater punishment than we have received because You are merciful. May we never fail to show the mercy that we have received underserving of it though we are, and show the same mercy to others. Let us rid ourselves of the burden of being judgmental of others and leave all judgment to You for You are Lord.