ST. BONIFACE, BISHOP & MARTYR - WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 9 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2-24

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die. JN 11:25, 26

2 TIMOTHY 1:1-3,6-12 ©

My Soul’s Beloved, 

St. Paul had no false humility, he knew who he once was and he knows that You chose him to be an Apostle to the Gentiles and Your instrument in preaching the Good News to them. This he did with the wholehearted passion so characteristic of his nature. He gave himself wholly to the mission entrusted to him. Having put his hand to the plow, there was no turning back for him. 

The life of St. Paul and the ardor with which he carried out his mission is an example to all Christians. He knew to whom he had given his life to. He believed in the mission and was prepared to follow the command he received from You without hesitation. He poured himself out in imitation of the Master, and he gloried that he was thought worthy to suffer as You suffered. He was available to You so the Holy Spirit could lead him guide him, and use him fully. He did not tolerate fools lightly. The task at hand was too important and those who collaborated with him in carrying out the mission given to him had to be fully committed to the task. 

The instructions he gives Timothy and the love and concern with which he instructs him reveal a father’s heart. He assures him that he remembers him always in his prayers. He reminds him to fan into a flame the gift that God gave him when he, Paul, laid his hands on him. What he says to Timothy is for us as well: God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. We are never to be ashamed of witnessing to You in public. We ought never to shrink from hardships, or persecution, or gladly suffer any difficulty for the sake of the Gospel. 

Why? 

Because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day. 

PSALM 122(123):1-2 ©

To you have I lifted up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens;
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves
on the hand of their lords. 

Like the eyes of a servant
on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
till he show us his mercy. 

To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes. 

MARK 12:18-27 ©

My Soul’s Beloved, 

What You said to the Sadducees who thought they were being very clever when they put the case before You of a woman who married seven brothers after each of them died leaving no children. Whose wife will she be at the resurrection? They must have sneered a little when they put this question to You, believing they had You. Not believing in the resurrection, their idea about life in the Kingdom of God was carnal. 

You tell them and anyone else with ears to hear that they have got it all wrong just as so many who refuse to embrace the whole of revealed doctrinal truths often do. Non-Catholics have a very one-dimensional view of the mysteries of God whereas the Church has pondered the Sacred Mysteries from Apostolic times and will continue to do so until You return. The Holy Spirit who dwells in fullness in her continues to lead her to a deeper and fuller understanding of revealed doctrine and yet we will never exhaust the marvelous treasures of these truths. 

This is why a life of faith in the bosom of Holy Mother Church never gets stale. The joy of the Lord is with us and the Word continues to delight, amaze, and keep us in awe of the wonder of the Eternal Word, the plan of salvation of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit in carrying it out according to the heart and mind of God. 

Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.’