ST. DOMINIC, PRIEST - THURSDAY OF WEEK 18 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

You are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my Church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. MT 16:18

JEREMIAH 31:31-34

My Soul's Beloved,

You are the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Yours is the law of love and You are the fulfillment of all God's promises. If we have You O Lord in our hearts we have everything. 

Jeremiah spoke of a time when God would make a new covenant with His people, not just the House of Israel but the whole world. You O Lord are that New Covenant that the Father has made with us. The Son of God and the Son of Man are the bridge to heaven. You are the Gate by which we enter paradise. Adam and Eve destroyed our relationship with God and condemned their progeny to eternal death. The Father, in His infinite love for His worthless, wayward children found a Way to restore friendship with us. You, my are the Way. If we embrace the Truth O Lord, that the Father sent You into the world to save and redeem it so we will not perish but have eternal life then our faith and our belief in You will give us Your Life. We live in You, we have our being in You, and in You and with You, we are no longer slaves but sons and daughters of the God You call Abba and invite us to call Him Abba as well.

It is the Lord who speaks. No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive – it is the Lord who speaks. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbour to try to teach neighbour, or brother to say to brother, ‘Learn to know the Lord!’ No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest – it is the Lord who speaks – since I will forgive their iniquity and never call their sin to mind.

PSALM 50(51):12-15,18-19

A pure heart create for me, O God.

A pure heart create for me, O God,

  put a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

  nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

Give me again the joy of your help;

  with a spirit of fervour sustain me,

that I may teach transgressors your ways

  and sinners may return to you.

For in sacrifice you take no delight,

  burnt offering from me you would refuse,

my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.

  A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

MATTHEW 16:13-23

My Soul's Beloved,

You put the same question to me that You put to Your disciples, first You ask, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' We know, that those in the world who do not know You, speak of You according to their limited and flawed knowledge of You. Our mission is to make You known to them as You have made Yourself known to the Church and to us who are in the Church. Next, You ask us, You ask me, 'But you, who do you say I am? We echo Peter's response for it is our belief too, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, just as it was revealed to Peter by the Father, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’

My Lord and my God, it is not enough to have head knowledge of You, we need to have heart knowledge as well. Just knowing who You are is not enough for if we do not allow this Truth to shape our lives - every word, thought, and deed, then we will allow the cares of this world, its troubles, its decadence, to taint our beliefs and our lives. You will rightly rebuke us as You rebuked Peter who found the idea of Your suffering and death distasteful and wanted You to avoid it at all costs. Unless we recognize that deliverance came to us through the Cross of Suffering, shame, and death, we will not embrace the cross of suffering in our lives as allow it to purify and perfect us. To all who are being saved, there is no other Way but the Way of the Cross. In the Cross is our life, in the Cross is our hope, in the Cross is our redemption. Grant us the grace not to run from suffering but to receive it, embrace it, endure it with Your help and emerge from it more and more like You.

From that time Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’