SATURDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

It is a blessing for you

when they insult you for bearing the name of Christ,

for the Spirit of God rests on you. 1 PET 4:14

GENESIS 49:29-33,50:15-26 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Who can fathom why God who certainly does not need us create us and then so very carefully and meticulously laid out His plan for our salvation even though our first parents rebelled against Him and turned their backs to Him? Every great and noble figure in salvation history prefigures You as in the case of Joseph.

We see clearly how he is a prototype of You in the way he responds to his brothers' pleas for forgiveness despite their evil plot to destroy him. His brothers had sinned grievously against him piling one wrong over the other and they did so with utter callousness and disregard for the sorrow they would cause their father, Jacob because of their overwhelming jealousy and envy of him.

When we look at every step of Joseph's journey - the brothers' mistreatment of him, their plot to kill him, selling him to the Ishmaelites, and they in turn selling him to Pharoah. His subsequent imprisonment on trumped-up charges, his languishing in prison until the time for his release arrived, Pharaoh's affection and trust in him in raising him to the highest office of the land after him. The great power he had after Pharoah and the power to distribute food to the starving famine-stricken world, is a foreshadowing of all that You would suffer at the hands of the wicked and the envious. But in the end, God would raise You up and give You a Name that is above every other name and You would become the Bread of Life for a hungry, starving world.

The greatest evil that we have done You turned around to our good. Thank You!!!!!

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. PS 36:7-9

 

PSALM 105:1-4,6-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

If we are to be truly content in this life we need to be poor in spirit just as You were and all truly great men and women are. To be poor in spirit grants us the freedom to be used in the way that You want to use us. Nothing shackles us, no person, place, or possession enslaves us making us truly free to be used solely for Your honor and glory.

The late Fr. Stan Swamy, a martyr for our times is a great example of one who embraced spiritual poverty so thoroughly that he was able to identify and embrace as his own flesh and blood the last, the least, the forgotten, the oppressed, the marginalized, and the downtrodden whom the powerful purposefully, deliberately, and heartlessly and diabolically trampled and ground under-foot.

The psalmist says to us today: Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive.

Fr. Stan saw Your Face reflected in the poor and gladly embraced them as his brothers and sisters in Your Name. Walking in Your blood-stained footsteps all the way to Calvary, he was crucified because he dared to become the voice for the voiceless and the establishment found him such an irritant and such an uncomfortable thorn in their flesh that they got rid of him using chicanery, treachery, deceit, and deception. 

The marvelous and miraculous outcome of Fr. Stan's martyrdom is one that the agents of evil never intended. His light shines brightly and as the truth about his whole life of sacrifice for the poorest of the poor is revealed it will shine ever brighter with the passage of time.  

He now beholds You, the Lord whom he served so well and faithfully all his life, face to face. In the final analysis, Your judgments prevail in all the earth.

O children of Abraham, his servant,

O sons of the Jacob he chose.
He, the Lord, is our God:
his judgments prevail in all the earth.

MATTHEW 10:24-33 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Your instructions to the Twelve are addressed to every baptized Christian as well. As we read the Gospel passage chosen for our reflection in the Liturgy today, the most recent events that have taken place with regard to the life of Fr. Stan Swamy resonates so powerfully. The Church is made newly aware of what it means to be Your disciple. 

We can choose to be nominal, indifferent, cafeteria Christians or we can be Christians like Fr. Stan ready to risk all for love of You.

‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’