SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Friday - June 05, 2020

 

Friday - June 05, 2020

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, 

be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

-- St. Francis of Assis

 

June 5, 2020

 

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Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
Lectionary: 357

Reading 12 TM 3:10-17

You have followed my teaching, way of life,
purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions,
and sufferings, such as happened to me
in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra,
persecutions that I endured.
Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me.
In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse,
deceivers and deceived.
But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching,
for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.

Responsorial Psalm119:157, 160, 161, 165, 166, 168

R.    (165a)  O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Though my persecutors and my foes are many,
I turn not away from your decrees.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Permanence is your word’s chief trait;
each of your just ordinances is everlasting.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Princes persecute me without cause
but my heart stands in awe of your word.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I wait for your salvation, O LORD,
and your commands I fulfill.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
R.    O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.

AlleluiaJOHN 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.

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The Sin of Being Too Nice

Today's first reading warns that all who live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Is anyone damaging your reputation, rejecting you, or abandoning you because you're standing up for biblical truth and Christian virtue? If you have not yet been persecuted, you've not followed Christ very far.

Following Jesus religiously means going all the way to the cross. Along the way we meet disbelieving Pharisees and others who don't want to hear the truth.

It is possible to have an easy life as a Christian. We can successfully work hard at being so nice that we're liked by everyone all the time. We can avoid controversial issues. We can love others by only affirming them, never challenging them to new growth or a better understanding of healthy, holy living. We can go so far as to pray that God will lead the sinners we know to repentance, hoping that he'll do all the work. But none of this is true Christian living.

Scripture calls this type of Christian a "charlatan". It's a fake Christianity. It's certainly not a description of Jesus! Such people are deceived -- they deceive themselves into thinking that they are okay simply because Jesus loves them and that he will take them to heaven when their time of being nice on earth is finished; for them, that's all that matters.

The problem with this is that it's very selfish. It shows a lack of concern for the condition of the souls of others. It's self-protective, guarding the comfort of an easy life, keeping it non-confrontational, avoiding persecution, sustaining the illusion that there is no real need to do otherwise -- very likely at the cost of justice, love, and even the salvation of others.

If being Christian means being only nice, why do we need the Bible? St. Paul says, "All scripture is inspired by God for teaching, refutation and correction, and for training in righteousness." Oh-oh! It's not nice to refute lies and misconceptions. Nor is it easy to successfully give correction.

Sometimes, we are called to quietly smile and show love by our niceness; when we're with someone who is not ready to hear the truth, we can do more harm than good by forcing it upon them. At other times, we are called to show our love by speaking up about the truth, even if it stirs up trouble.

How do we know when to be quiet and when to speak up? Only by listening to the Holy Spirit and paying attention to the nudges and inspirations that come from the Lord.
What's the value of being a Christian if we don't care enough about others to tell them the difficult truths that will bring them closer to Christ? What's the value of following Christ if we don't stand up for the truth and go all the way to the cross with him for the sake of their eternal happiness?

Today's Prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the trials I must go through on the road that leads me to You. Give me the strength I need so I will not quit but remain faithful to the end. Amen.

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God Bless You.....

Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”