MONDAY OF WEEK TWENTY-TWO IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives LK 4:18

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

For one who believes in You, hopes in You, trusts Your Word, and knows that You are a God of love we do not grieve as though we are eternally separated from those we loved so much when they were alive. Your glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven is the reason for our hope for You assure that where You are some day we too will be. In heaven united with You, we will also be united with those who have gone from this life to share with You Your inheritance. You have revealed to us that we are co-heirs with You to the Kingdom of God. 

Thank You, Lord, for the graces You may available to us in superabundance in each of the Sacraments instituted by You and administered to us through You Church and her ministers.

Thank You for this consoling hope we have in You that we belong to You - we are Yours.

LUKE 4:16-30 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Luke tells us that when You entered the synagogue in Your hometown Nazareth on the sabbath You unrolled the scroll and after reading aloud this passage from Isaiah You spoke:  

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

You then sat down and the eyes of all present were fixed on You as You began to speak to them on the text they had just heard. They were captivated by Your Words and the way You spoke. They had not heard anything like it and they were bewildered because they thought they knew You. Yes, they knew Your parents Mary and Joseph, You grew up with their children but they looked at this Young Man before them and they simply could not wrap their minds around what they saw and heard and the person who had lived a quiet, ordinary life in their midst working alongside as a carpenter like St. Joseph Your foster father for 30 years. 

Their astonishment and admiration flared briefly but just as quickly died down because they thought they knew You since You and Your parents lived quietly, unassumingly in simplicity and humility in their midst for 30 years. But their admiration was short-lived.

They expected that the homeboy who had made good outside the narrow confines of Nazareth would perform great signs and wonders that they had heard You had done elsewhere but on seeing their lack of faith You said: ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country. There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’ They were enraged, they grabbed You and hustled You out of the town and were ready to throw You down the cliff and murder You. But Your hour had not arrived. No one had the power to take Your life from You. You slipped through the crowd and walked away.