Sunday - September 06, 2020
What you do with those who beg from you is what God will do with His beggar, you! You are filled and you are empty. Fill your empty neighbor from your fullness, so that your emptiness may be filled from God's fullness.
-- St. Augustine
What you do with those who beg from you is what God will do with His beggar, you! You are filled and you are empty. Fill your empty neighbor from your fullness, so that your emptiness may be filled from God's fullness.
-- St. Augustine
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
| First reading | Ezekiel 33:7-9 |
|---|
If you do not speak to the wicked man, I will hold you responsible for his death
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: ‘Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them in my name. If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin, but you yourself will have saved your life.’
| Responsorial Psalm |
|---|
| Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 |
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
| Second reading | Romans 13:8-10 |
|---|
Your only debt should be the debt of mutual love
Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.
| Gospel Acclamation | Jn17:17 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
| Or: | 2Co5:19 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself,
and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
Alleluia!
| Gospel |
|---|
| Matthew 18:15-20 |
If your brother listens to you, you have won back your brother
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.
‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.
‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
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3 Steps for Calling Others to Repentance
If we do take a stand against sin but without compassion and mercy and unconditional love, that too is a sin (the second reading).
Jesus shows us in the Gospel reading that in our efforts to stop a fellow Christian from sinning, it's important to rely on our Christian community for advocacy and prayer support. How?
First, we speak to the sinner. When we know that someone is harming himself and others (all sins are harmful even when we can't see the harm), if we don't try to impart this knowledge to him or her at least once, our silence is unloving and uncaring.
Once we've shared the truth, even if the sinner does not change, we're free of any guilt. But we must not stop trying, and so we take one or two others with us in a stronger effort to help the sinner understand and repent.
And if that fails, we try again with still more backing.
When every attempt to help someone has failed, only then do we quit. In reality, it's not us who's walking away. The sinner is the one who has chosen the path of separation. However, remember how Jesus treated the Gentiles and tax collectors (i.e., the outsiders, the separated ones): He never stopped loving them. He still chose to die for them.
Today's Prayer
Lord Jesus: May your Word produce plentiful fruits of salvation in me and through me. Make me an instrument of your Spirit of Love to serve the plans of God the Father. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
The Rosary Family
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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