SATURDAY OF WEEK 25 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News. 2TIM 1:10

ECCLESIASTES 11:9-12:8

My Soul's Beloved,

One thing is certain, one this we can count on, is that our days here on earth are numbered. From the moment we are conceived in our mother's womb the number of our days is already written by You. We cannot add a moment or take away a moment from the days, months, or years allotted to us by divine authority. This is why it is wise to keep eternity always before our eyes then we will keep our steps from folly.

My Lord, the folly of youth is that we live recklessly thinking death is far from us and will not touch us but the days fly and before we know it, we are old, weak, feeble, sick, and the things that we once did confidently we are no longer able to do anymore. Our steps falter. Our back is bent. Our body is frail. And if we have not lived holy, spirit-filled lives we begin to look back on the many ways in which we have strayed from the path of holiness and wisdom. We see how straying from the path of righteousness contributed to our present miserable state but it is too late to do anything except be filled with remorse and regret for the terrible consequences of our wrong choices. 

All we can do now Beloved, is to throw ourselves on Your mercy and cry out to You ceaselessly to have pity on us and forgive us and assist those who have been affected by our carelessness and lack of wisdom. 

But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement.

Yet youth, the age of dark hair, is vanity. And remember your creator in the days of your youth, before evil days come and the years approach when you say, ‘These give me no pleasure’, 

.....while man goes to his everlasting home. And the mourners are already walking to and fro in the street
before the silver cord has snapped,
or the golden lamp been broken,
or the pitcher shattered at the spring,
or the pulley cracked at the well,
or before the dust returns to the earth as it once came from it, and the breath to God who gave it.

Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. All is vanity.

PSALM 89(90):3-6,12-14,17

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

You turn men back to dust

  and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’

To your eyes a thousand years

  are like yesterday, come and gone,

  no more than a watch in the night.

You sweep men away like a dream,

  like the grass which springs up in the morning.

In the morning it springs up and flowers:

  by evening it withers and fades.

Make us know the shortness of our life

  that we may gain wisdom of heart.

Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?

  Show pity to your servants.

In the morning, fill us with your love;

  we shall exult and rejoice all our days.

Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:

  give success to the work of our hands.

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

LUKE 9:43-45

My Soul's Beloved,

Except for the great saints, Lord, who took all that You said to heart, paid heed, and made Your Word the rule of their lives, the rest of us, frail, broken, sinful humanity, prefer to live with blinkers on. We hide from reality that it is necessary to choose the narrow way, to carry our daily crosses with fidelity, and to walk humbly in the fear of the Lord. 

The disciples were no different. They basked in reflected glory. They enjoyed being the ones who lived with the miracle worker, the divine healer, the One whom the winds, the waves, the seas, demons, sickness, and death trembled before and obeyed. They wanted the name and the fame that came from being associated with You and being part of Your entourage.  

But You knew that Your public ministry would last only three short years and You wished to prepare them for the ultimate reality, the whole purpose for which God the Father sent You into the world. The redemption of mankind. Time and time again You spoke of what would happen to You but they did not want to hear it. Their minds were veiled and they were afraid to ask what You meant because the truth was hard to bear.

It is so for us as well, Lord. We can hide from the truth but only when we face it, accept it, and allow Truth to form and inform our thoughts, words, and deeds, only then can the Truth set us free. Fear enslaves and the longer we allow fear to rule our lives the longer will we remain in chains. Grant us the grace O Lord not to shy away from the Truth but to embrace it and live in the freedom that belongs to the children of God.

At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: “The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men.”’ But they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.