MASS READINGS & SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY - Thursday - December 02, 2021

Thursday - December 02, 2021

We should love God because he is God, and the measure of our love should be to love him without measure.

-- St Bernard

December 2, 2021

Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Lectionary: 178

 

Reading 1                                                     Is 26:1-6

On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah:

 

    “A strong city have we;

        he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.

    Open up the gates

        to let in a nation that is just,

        one that keeps faith.

    A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace;

        in peace, for its trust in you.”

 

    Trust in the LORD forever!

        For the LORD is an eternal Rock.

    He humbles those in high places,

        and the lofty city he brings down;

    He tumbles it to the ground,

        levels it with the dust.

    It is trampled underfoot by the needy,

        by the footsteps of the poor.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              118:1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a

 

R.    (26a) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

 

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

    for his mercy endures forever.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD

    than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD

    than to trust in princes.

R.    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Open to me the gates of justice;

    I will enter them and give thanks to the LORD.

This gate is the LORD’s;

    the just shall enter it.

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me

    and have been my savior.

R.    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

O LORD, grant salvation!

    O LORD, grant prosperity!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;

    we bless you from the house of the LORD.

    The LORD is God, and he has given us light.

R.    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

 

Alleluia                                                                      Is 55:6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call him while he is near.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 7:21, 24-27

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’

will enter the Kingdom of heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

 

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them

will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

The rain fell, the floods came,

and the winds blew and buffeted the house.

But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.

And everyone who listens to these words of mine

but does not act on them

will be like a fool who built his house on sand.

The rain fell, the floods came,

and the winds blew and buffeted the house.

And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

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WILL OBEDIENCE GET US TO HEAVEN?

Today's Gospel reading answers the question: "Can people lose their salvation?" Many Protestants believe in the theology of "once saved always saved" and that heaven is forever guaranteed on the day of conversion when a person says yes to the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

Catholic teaching, however, acknowledges that a conversion might not be sincere or complete, and that deliberate, terrible sins will turn an unrepentant sinner away from Christ forever (we call such sins "mortal", because they kill the soul).

 

Knowing this can happen, many good Catholics fear that someday they might choose to turn away from Christ.

 

Salvation is more than knowing who Jesus is. Many know who he is without knowing him. He is more than a who. Demons know who he is and even obey his commands. Obedience alone does not get anyone into heaven.

 

Jesus is more than an authority we must obey. To know Jesus is to know what he's all about (his purpose, his love, and his life). When we honestly choose to trust in the "what" about Jesus, we naturally want to be just like him. We want to follow him, doing what he does, all the way to heaven.

 

People can believe in Jesus and yet remain in the darkness of sin and eternal death. To live in the light of Christ and remain there, we must not only believe that he is God. We must not only believe that he is Savior. We must also believe in everything -- oh yes, everything! -- that he taught by word and by deed.

 

We birth Jesus into the world (guiding others toward heaven) and we ensure our own place in heaven by listening to his words and acting upon them. Salvation is more than our words of belief. It's our actions, which we do because we believe. We act the way Jesus acted and we do what Jesus did, and this is how Jesus is born again and again from us -- through our behavior.

 

Today's Gospel reading ends the Sermon on the Mount, which started with Matthew's fifth chapter. Read this entire sermon to find out how well you are sharing Christ with the people around you. We birth Christ into the world, for example, when we love our enemies, or when we forgive, or (as he said earlier in this sermon) when we do more than what is asked of us by going the extra mile.

 

Obedience is merely the minimum. To carry Christ into the world, we have to embrace the way he carried the cross, caring so much for others that we gladly make sacrifices. And although the cross looks like the antithesis of Christmas, it is the reason that Christmas exists. Isn't this why Christmas is the biggest gift-giving holiday of the year?

 

Love is what motivates us to do more than the minimum. If we love, we cannot help but want to do more, because unconditional, sacrificial love is the nature of Jesus. When we love others, he is loving them through us, and thus we are united to him and will most certainly go to heaven with him.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Lord, I ask for Your forgiveness, because my actions have not always been a reflection of what You have sown in me. 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!”