WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 10 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Teach me your paths, my God,
make me walk in your truth. PS 24:4, 5

1 KINGS 18:20-39

My Soul’s Beloved, 

‘I shall call on the name of my God, the God who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ 

My Lord and my God, You are truly God, the only God in whom all is held together by Your Eternal Word by the power of Your Holy Spirit. All idolaters will see to their disconcertion and their shame that the gods they worship are nothing but man-made foolishness. In their desire to fill the emptiness in their soul they conjure up figments of their imagination, and make up all kinds of rituals and incantations and the emptiness remains. Only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, only the God of the Old Testament who is revealed in the New can fill the hunger in our souls and the emptiness of our lives. 

Today the Church invites us to take a good look at the Baals of the world the true, and ever-living God. The world makes itself ridiculous in making for itself gods that cannot save either from the material world or the evil spirits that roam about the world seeking to devour souls. Those who have given their lives to worshipping the world, the flesh, and the devil will find their worship of evil drawing them deeper and deeper into the infernal pit of Hades where the worms do not die nor does the fire go out. 

As Elijah points it, the God who answers with fire is God indeed. You O Lord answer our prayers with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. 

The complete consummation of Elijah’s sacrifice prefigures the one, holy, and perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who, in offering Yourself in perfect humility, and in perfect accord with Your Father’s will, have taken away the sins of the world. 

My Lord and my God, the world knows that You always answer us. You are Emmanuel, God with us, and You are constantly winning back souls by the power of Your passion, death, and glorious resurrection. Every time we come to Holy Mass, when we pray with the heart and mind of the Church, when we pray alone or with our family members or the community, crying out, ‘Answer me, O Lord, answer me.’ The fire of Your Love falls upon us and we too are consumed with You as we make an offering of ourselves in union with You to the Father. One day, O Lord, the whole world will cry in one voice to the Triune God: ‘The Lord is God, the Lord is God.’ And all who cry out will be saved.

PSALM 15(16):1-2,4-5,8,11

Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.
I say to the Lord: ‘You are my God.’

Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows.
Never will I offer their offerings of blood.
Never will I take their name upon my lips.

O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;
it is you yourself who are my prize.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight:
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.

Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.

MATTHEW 5:17-19

My Soul’s Beloved, 

You are the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. You O Lord are the Word of Truth and the Word of Life. No, You did not come to abolish the Law – the Law is our guidepost without it we would be unable to function as God created us to. The Law and the Commandments are given to us so we may navigate this valley of tears and walk the narrow way without falling by the wayside and being destroyed.   

What You said to Your disciples, You say now to us and to all until Your glorious return: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.’ 

Those of the world reject Your commandments, or they look at them as suggestions that they may or may not keep. This they do to their ultimate and eternal destruction. Your Word is unequivocally clear. 

‘Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’ 

My Lord and My God, hear our prayers, look at our broken hearts filled with sorrow and anxiety for our children, our loved ones who have strayed far from home, and bring them back like You brought back the prodigal son to the loving embrace of our heavenly Father. Thank You.