FEAST OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW, APOSTLE - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Rabbi, you are the Son of God,
you are the King of Israel. JN 1:49

REVELATION 21:9-14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We were created for heaven. We are called to be members of Your Body, the Church, Your Bride. After the fall we were lost and the gates of heaven were shut. We had no hope of possessing the life that God our Father intended us to enjoy eternally. It was impossible for us to attain the heights of holiness required without first breaching the separation between God and His creatures. Since we severed the relationship with God only we could restore it, however, there was no possible way for a sinner to repair the damage we had done. The only way of healing the breach was for someone like us but sinless who could do it. But among humans, there was no one and we were doomed to eternal death until God decided to take matters in hand and He did. He sent You into the world, His only Son of God as Man, in order to intervene, restore, repair, and heal the chasm created by our sins.

You, as the perfect Man, showed us that it is possible to strive daily, to the best of our ability, to be holy and perfect. Only God is all holy and all perfect, but we must make it our life's work to strive to be like our Father in heaven. Nothing is more pleasing to Him and You show us the way back to our Father's house.

In order to be saved, we must be baptized into Your Body, we must become members of the Church You established, for outside the Church there is no salvation. It is through the Church You founded on the 12 Apostles with Peter holding the Keys to the Kingdom of God that we are granted a share in Your glory. 

‘Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married.’ In the spirit, he took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

PSALM 145:10-13a,17-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You said that all who do the will of Your Father are Your family - and if we are Your family then we are under a divine mandate to evangelize the world. Our lives must be a hymn of praise and thanksgiving and we are to open our mouths and speak of the blessings that You shower on those who are called by Your Name.

What are these immense blessings - You speak of them in the Beatitudes. When our lives conform to the blueprint that You gave us, one that is anathema to the world, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be established on earth.

We will be called to a private and a public judgment and only those whose lives were conformed to You and those who endeavored to image You will receive the joy of living in God's presence eternally. 

We cannot become like You without help, without grace, without the Sacraments. And You remain with us and help us every step of the way.

JOHN 1:45-51 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Our Father in heaven did not intend for us to stumble blindly and helplessly in our search for the Truth but from the very beginning, when He laid the foundations of the earth, He planned for us to have a close and personal relationship with us as our Father, our Dad, our Abba.

God created us and gave us the most wonderful gift of free will. In freely choosing to yield our will to Yours in all things and embracing Your will for our lives we are able to enter the Kingdom of God and take the place prepared for us from all eternity.

When Philip tells Nathanael that He has found the One mentioned by all the prophets in Scripture, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior, he is skeptical and his prejudices are clearly evident from his response to his friend when he tells him that You are the son of Joseph from Nazareth. ‘From Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?’ And Philip's response must be the response of every member of Your Body, ‘Come and see’ And once we have encountered You, Beloved, we must also respond as Nathanael did, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.’ 

We believe that You are God who willingly became one like us in all things save sin, entered into our death in order that we may be raised to life in Your glorious Resurrection. And one day, just as You have promised, we will see heaven laid open and above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.