Monday - January 22, 2018
I will attempt day by day to break my will into pieces.
I want to do God's Holy Will,
not my own!
--Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful
TODAY'S READINGS
January 22, 2018
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Lectionary: 317
Reading 12 SM 5:1-7, 10
All the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said:
"Here we are, your bone and your flesh.
In days past, when Saul was our king,
it was you who led the children of Israel out and brought them back.
And the LORD said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel
and shall be commander of Israel.'"
When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron,
King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD,
and they anointed him king of Israel.
David was thirty years old when he became king,
and he reigned for forty years:
seven years and six months in Hebron over Judah,
and thirty-three years in Jerusalem
over all Israel and Judah.
Then the king and his men set out for Jerusalem
against the Jebusites who inhabited the region.
David was told, "You cannot enter here:
the blind and the lame will drive you away!"
which was their way of saying, "David cannot enter here."
But David did take the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David.
David grew steadily more powerful,
for the LORD of hosts was with him.
"Here we are, your bone and your flesh.
In days past, when Saul was our king,
it was you who led the children of Israel out and brought them back.
And the LORD said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel
and shall be commander of Israel.'"
When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron,
King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD,
and they anointed him king of Israel.
David was thirty years old when he became king,
and he reigned for forty years:
seven years and six months in Hebron over Judah,
and thirty-three years in Jerusalem
over all Israel and Judah.
Then the king and his men set out for Jerusalem
against the Jebusites who inhabited the region.
David was told, "You cannot enter here:
the blind and the lame will drive you away!"
which was their way of saying, "David cannot enter here."
But David did take the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David.
David grew steadily more powerful,
for the LORD of hosts was with him.
Responsorial PsalmPS 89:20, 21-22, 25-26
R. (25a) My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
Once you spoke in a vision,
and to your faithful ones you said:
“On a champion I have placed a crown;
over the people I have set a youth.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him,
and through my name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand upon the sea,
his right hand upon the rivers.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
Once you spoke in a vision,
and to your faithful ones you said:
“On a champion I have placed a crown;
over the people I have set a youth.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him,
and through my name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand upon the sea,
his right hand upon the rivers.”
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.
AlleluiaSEE 2 TM 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
"He is possessed by Beelzebul," and
"By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder his house.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies
that people utter will be forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 3:22-30
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus,"He is possessed by Beelzebul," and
"By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder his house.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies
that people utter will be forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
******************************
HAVE YOU BEEN FALSELY ACCUSED?
Jesus warns in today's Gospel passage that " ... whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness. He remains guilty forever." Is he talking about a sin that you or I could commit? Are we in danger of going to hell because of an unforgivable sin?
Breathe a deep sigh of relief; the answer is no. No, because (a) you care enough about your spiritual health to read this, and (b) this scripture is about the sin of demons. Here's why:
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and to blaspheme the Holy Spirit means to fully know the truth yet deliberately, consciously, freely choose to sin against it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1864) says that anyone who deliberately refuses to repent of sin rejects the forgiveness of sin and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. "Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss."
We sin out of ignorance, i.e., we don't fully understand the truth we're rejecting. What human has sufficient understanding and brain power to fully comprehend the truth? What human would refuse to repent after becoming truly aware of the truth about God's love and the evil of sin?
Ignorance is no excuse for staying in sin, however, because we are given daily opportunities to gain new understanding, and slowness to repent after learning the truth is very damaging. We can choose to be purged of our sinful tendencies now and enter more fully into the kingdom of God on earth, or we will belatedly but gladly choose purgatory at the moment of death when, as Saint Paul said, we shall finally know the truth fully (see 1 Cor. 13:12).
I don't mean to imply that no one goes to hell, because there are people who freely choose to prefer evil, but think about the Church's definition of sin: "To choose deliberately -- that is, both knowing it and willing it -- something gravely contrary to the divine law is to commit a mortal sin" (Catechism paragraph 1874).
Angels were created with a full understanding of the truth. Some of them made the permanent decision to live apart from God, fully aware of what they were giving up, in order to become their own gods. These are the fallen angels. Because they chose deliberately, knowingly and willingly, they will never convert into good angels.
Jesus mentions their everlasting sin in response to the accusation that he was "possessed" by an unclean spirit (Beelzebul). The accusation was absurd, not just because Jesus was God, but because he was -- as a man -- fully confident in the truth of God, unlike the rest of us humans whose understanding of the truth has been skewed by low self-esteem, inaccurate teachings, insufficient training as a child, and other handicaps in our knowledge.
I suspect that when people accused Jesus of working for Satan, he found its absurdity humorous. When we're falsely accused, we should handle it with the same good humor. Can you see the ridiculousness of the false accusations made against you? If it's not ridiculous, it's time to go to the Sacrament of Confession. But if it is ridiculous, laugh and get on with life.
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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