MONDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on his word,
because with the Lord there is mercy

and fullness of redemption. PS 129:5, 7

2 KINGS 5:1-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Naaman was a gentile but God's favor rested on him just as it rests on all His children those that know Him as well as those that don't. We must never make false presumptions on whether or not someone or anyone is worthy or not of God's goodness, mercy, compassion, and tender love. 

We have only to look at the Cross my Lord and You nailed to it to realize that God's mercy extends to the whole world, priest, prophet, beggar, pagan, believer, and king. But for us O Lord, who know You, the one, true, God as the little girl carried off into exile and was the servant of Naaman's wife, we must always be ready to proclaim the power of God and the goodness of God. In every age, at all times and seasons, God is at work in all His creatures to bring them into His Kingdom. We need to be aware and receptive to the working of God in our lives no matter where we are given a glimpse of You as we encounter You in the people and circumstances of our ordinary lives.

Thank You for all the ways in which You make Yourself and Your will known to us and grant us the grace and the wisdom to hear and submit to Your will in humility and perfect surrender. Naaman balked at first. His pride was ruffled and he was indignant, But Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, ‘Here was I thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the leprous part. Surely Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and become clean?’ And he turned round and went off in a rage.

It was his servants' advice that opened his eyes and heart to the simplicity of what God asked of him, But his servants approached him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, when he says to you, “Bathe, and you will become clean.”

All too often we think that we have to twist ourselves like pretzels to please You but all You ask of us is to love as You love. You made a total gift of Yourself to us, pouring out Your life in sacrificial love for us. We in turn are required to return that love in total self-donation first to God and then to our neighbor. Your word reminds us that if we do not love our neighbor whom we can see we lie when we say we love You whom we cannot see.  

We have been bathed and made clean in the waters of Baptism, we have been incorporated into Your Body, we are sons and daughter of God, we belong to the family of God. Thank You, Lord. May we never take what You have done for us for granted but may our praise and thanksgiving be manifest with every breath we breathe until the end of our life on earth. 

PSALM 41(42):2-3,42:3-4 ©

Like the deer that yearns

for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God,

the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?

O send forth your light and your truth;

let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.

And I will come to the altar of God,

the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life: when can I enter and see the face of God?

LUKE 4:24-30 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Oftentimes the truth is bitter, painful, and hard to swallow. Speaking to the people You knew and grew up among in Your childhood and youth, they thought they knew You. Despite having heard of the things that You had done they dismissed You because they judged You by what they knew of You in the past before You began Your public ministry.

You spoke candidly to the people in the synagogue saying: ‘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.’

You never held back from speaking the truth. You did not water down the message to suit the sensibilities of your audience as we often do. The Truth is the Truth is the Truth and we ought not to back down from speaking it in love and with gentleness. We ought never to let fear however keep us from speaking up. 

You enraged Your hearers so greatly there was murder in their hearts. 

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.

In many countries, Lord, the power of Your Word is so palpable and so effective that it stirs hearts to faith in You or to such hatred that they are willing to let the blood of Christians run through the streets. Thank You, Lord, for the steadfast faith of many who would rather die than deny You. I am a coward, Lord, if I am ever required to stand up for my faith may I now put You to shame. Grant me the grace to be counted as one of Your own who would rather die than apostatize.