GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Friday - June 09, 2023

  

Friday - June 09, 2023

"I place my trust in You, O adorable Blood, our Redemption, our regeneration. Fall, drop by drop, into the hearts that have wandered from You and soften their hardness." 

--St. Albert the Great 

June 9, 2023

Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 357

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    Tb 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 Psalm                                  Ps 146:1b-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

 

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

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!

 

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!

 

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!

 

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!

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Whoever loves me will keep my word,

and my Father will love him

and we will come to him.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                       Mk 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

The scribes in today’s Gospel reading (like many other Jews) pictured the Messiah in strictly human terms. He would be a man, they believed, who would deliver them from the alien government that ruled them.

 

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!

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Father: Give me wisdom to see Your Word in the light of the Holy Spirit. May Your message of love and its richness not be hidden because of mere human vision. Amen.

 

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!”