Friday - June 09, 2017
My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.
--Saint John Vianney
TODAY'S READINGS
June 9, 2017
Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 357
Reading 1TB 11:5-17
Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,
"Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!"
Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:
"I am certain that his eyes will be opened.
Smear the fish gall on them.
This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;
then your father will again be able to see the light of day."
Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him,
and said to him,
"Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!"
And she sobbed aloud.
Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate.
Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand,
and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes.
"Courage, father," he said.
Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart.
Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit's eyes,
Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts.
When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept.
He exclaimed, "I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!"
Then he said:
"Blessed be God,
and praised be his great name,
and blessed be all his holy angels.
May his holy name be praised
throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
and it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!"
Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice
for everything that had happened.
Tobiah told his father that
the Lord God had granted him a successful journey;
that he had brought back the money;
and that he had married Raguel's daughter Sarah,
who would arrive shortly,
for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh.
Tobit and Anna rejoiced
and went out to the gate of Nineveh
to meet their daughter-in-law.
When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly,
with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed.
Before them all Tobit proclaimed
how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes.
When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah,
he greeted her: "Welcome, my daughter!
Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter!
Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah,
and blessed are you, daughter!
Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.
Come in, daughter!"
That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh.
Responsorial PsalmPS 146:1B-2, 6C-7, 8-9A, 9BC-10
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts
The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, O Zion, through all generations! Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
AlleluiaJN 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 12:35-37
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,"How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
'Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.'
David himself calls him 'lord';
so how is he his son?"
The great crowd heard this with delight.
******************************
A Love Beyond Imagination
Jesus invited the people to stretch their thinking beyond the limits of their own perceptions and interpretations of scripture. He wanted them to understand that, although the Messiah was from King David's lineage as expected, he was much more, oh so much more than that!
To prove his point, Jesus quoted from David's words in Psalm 110: "The Lord said to my Lord" -- in which the title "my Lord" was a term of respect for a superior. David had implied that the Messiah would be his superior. If the Messiah were merely a descendent (a "son") of David, the father would be the greater. But his psalm was a prophecy about God speaking to a Messiah who would be greater than Israel's most beloved king.
For Yahweh to ask the Messiah to "sit at my right hand", he was giving the Messiah the most important place of honor in his kingdom. The remainder of Psalm 110 indicates that the Messiah would be a king appointed by God (which the Jews expected). But wait! There's more! He would also be a royal priest (priests were never kings). And he would be victorious over his enemies (the Romans?). And he would be a "priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Jewish priests only came from the order of Levites).
In other words, Psalm 110 points out that the Messiah would be much more than a man, much more than a king, much more than a priest, and much more than a deliverer rescuing the Jews from Roman rule. Most of those who heard Jesus quote from Psalm 110 were delighted. The only ones dismayed by it were those who were certain of their own perceptions and interpretations.
All of our perceptions and interpretations are extremely limited. Only God sees the whole picture. We need to remember that there's a huge, big, giant universe outside our comprehension, and that God and his love for us and his plans for us are beyond our imagination and comprehension, even beyond our guesswork!
What are you worried about? What are you frustrated about? What are you discouraged about? What are you afraid might happen? What are you disillusioned about?
Hey, you're only seeing the view inside your 3-pound (1400-gram) brain! God's concern for you is bigger than the whole huge size of the universe. His plans for you are much better than you can ask for or imagine!
------------------------------
God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
No comments:
Post a Comment