TUESDAY OF WEEK 7 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord,
through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. GAL 6:14

ECCLESIASTICUS 2:1-11

My Soul's Beloved,

A life in the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of Divine Love, is filled with seeming contradictions as is clearly mentioned in the Scripture passage of the first reading of the Liturgy of the day.

If you truly desire to serve the Lord then prepare for difficulties. Disaster will come. However, we must continue to cling even more closely to You no matter how harshly we are tested. Life in the Spirit comes with no guarantees except the guarantee that if we accept all trials, all suffering, in a spirit of obedience, and humility, if we are patient under the yoke and never lose faith, if we never swerve from the narrow way leading to life despite all temptation to do so, if we keep our gaze fixed on You and the Cross, and walk firmly on the straight and difficult path if we do not permit criticism and persecution to dampen our hope and weaken our courage and resolve to remain faithful, cleave to You, and keep our eyes fixed firmly on the goal then we are guaranteed to have a share in Your victory.

The one, sure and certain way of knowing that it is the weak who are strong, the poor who are rich, and those who lose all gain everything, we need only to look at the lives of the great heroes of our faith in the Old and New Testaments, and the lives of the holy men, women and even children who shine like stars in the hall of saints to show us that the way of contradiction in the Christian life is true.

My son, if you aspire to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for an ordeal.

Whatever happens to you, accept it,
and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
since gold is tested in the fire,
and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation.
Trust him and he will uphold you,
follow a straight path and hope in him.

Look at the generations of old and see:
who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame?
Or who ever feared him steadfastly and was left forsaken?
Or who ever called out to him, and was ignored?
For the Lord is compassionate and merciful,
he forgives sins, and saves in days of distress.

PSALM 36(37):3-4,18-19,27-28,39-40

Commit your life to the Lord, trust him and he will act.

If you trust in the Lord and do good,
then you will live in the land and be secure.
If you find your delight in the Lord,
he will grant your heart’s desire.

He protects the lives of the upright,

their heritage will last for ever.
They shall not be put to shame in evil days,
in time of famine their food shall not fail.

Then turn away from evil and do good

and you shall have a home for ever;
for the Lord loves justice
and will never forsake his friends.

The salvation of the just comes from the Lord,

their stronghold in time of distress.
The Lord helps them and delivers them
and saves them: for their refuge is in him.

Commit your life to the Lord, trust him and he will act.

MARK 9:30-37

My Soul's Beloved,

In the world, the most powerful are the ones who more often than not are corrupt to the core and seize what does not belong to them with impunity sweeping aside, crushing, and destroying anyone who gets in their way. Corrupt leaders, corrupt governments, and corrupt corporations bend the rules, make their own rules to serve their chicanery, and even ignore the rules and no one dares to say nay to them. The more they are given license to misuse their ill-gotten wealth and power the more their vicious cruelty against the little ones is manifested.

The Gospel of the day walks us through a day in Your life with Your disciples. You are preparing them for what is to come. It is uncomfortable, they would rather bathe in Your reflected glory as You performed great miracles of healing, taught powerfully and with authority, and share in the adulation the crowds had for You. But listening to the suffering, sorrow, persecution, torture, and death that was soon to come, not so much. We are so like them. We too run away from the Cross, from suffering and pain, from sickness and sorrow, from loss and separation, and death. We want to be happy always, to live carefree lives free from sickness, sadness, pain, and death but if we are to be Your disciples then the only Way is the Way of Cross, the Way of Sorrow, this is the only way to the Kingdom of God.  

A veil lies between the spirit of truth and the desires of the flesh and we are prone to get caught up in the discourse of worldly affairs which are alien to authentic discipleship.  We are concerned about getting ahead, being promoted, winning, being first, accumulating, and possessing, and all these are contrary to desiring only one thing and one thing alone - the Hidden Treasure in the Field, the Pearl of Great Price. 

Let us take to heart and heed the advice You gave Your disciples:

They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’