SATURDAY OF WEEK 17 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY ASS READINGS

Happy those who are persecuted
in the cause of right,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. MT 5:10

LEVITICUS 25:1,8-17

My Soul's Beloved,

We are Yours just as creation is Yours - we are only here for a while, and during the time granted to us, we are to love one another as You have loved us. We are in a jubilee year - it is a time of celebration for the Church. A time when all the members of Your Body rejoice that we belong to You alone. All we have is given to us by a gracious and generous God, and we can trust You to care for all our needs always. What is required of us is to remain faithful, to follow God's law of love. Our lives must be a reflection of Yours, for anyone who wishes to be saved must be grafted to Your Body and receive the life of the Holy Spirit that flows from You to us.

You are the vine and we are the branches, as long as we remain in You, Beloved, we have no cause to be afraid. May we not allow selfishness to mar our relationships with one another. All we have is Your gift to us. It is a gift to be shared. Love alone has the power to make us one with You and one in the Father through You. 

‘In this year of jubilee each of you is to return to his ancestral home. If you buy or sell with your neighbour, let no one wrong his brother. If you buy from your neighbour, this must take into account the number of years since the jubilee: according to the number of productive years he will fix the price. The greater the number of years, the higher shall be the price demanded; the less the number of years, the greater the reduction; for what he is selling you is a certain number of harvests. Let none of you wrong his neighbour, but fear your God; I am the Lord your God.’

PSALM 66(67):2-3,5,7-8

Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.

O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.

Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.

The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.

Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.

MATTHEW 14:1-12

My Soul's Beloved,

All too often, either we or people we know and love keep company with people who draw us away from our faith for different reasons. Some do so to be popular or because they are lonely, or their faith is weak, or because they have never really believed in anything very strongly. Some do so out of ignorance of the truth. What we see here, though, is that a wicked and licentious Herod, who is captivated by an equally licentious girl, Salome, who was raised by a mother who was an adultress.

When we are called out for our sins, instead of responding with contrition and humility, we react as Herodias did. Seizing the opportunity to avenge herself on St. John the Baptist, who fearlessly called her and Herod out for adultery and giving scandal, she instigated her daughter to do the unthinkable - as a reward for pleasing Herod, the head of the John. And he, having sworn foolish oaths before his peers, saw no way out except to keep them to save face. 

Have mercy on us, O Lord, and preserve us from any foolish decisions we may make that will lead to our eternal destruction.

Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus, and said to his court, ‘This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’

Now it was Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John had told him, ‘It is against the Law for you to have her.’ He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the people, who regarded John as a prophet. Then, during the celebrations for Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and so delighted Herod that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked. Prompted by her mother she said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head, here, on a dish.’ The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he ordered it to be given her, and sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went off to tell Jesus.