THE GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - August 05, 2023

 

Saturday - August 05, 2023

If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor,

we should never remind anyone 

of his natural defect.

 -- St Philip Neri

August 5, 2023

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 406

 

Reading I     

                                                                                                                        Lv 25:1, 8-17

 

The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

"Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–

so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.

Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound;

on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo

throughout your land.

This fiftieth year you shall make sacred

by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.

It shall be a jubilee for you,

when every one of you shall return to his own property,

every one to his own family estate.

In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee,

you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth

or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.

Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you,

you may not eat of its produce,

except as taken directly from the field.

 

"In this year of jubilee, then,

every one of you shall return to his own property.

Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor

or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.

On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee

shall you purchase the land from your neighbor;

and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops,

shall he sell it to you.

When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more;

when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less.

For it is really the number of crops that he sells you.

Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God.

I, the LORD, am your God."

 

Responsorial Psalm                                                                                  Ps 67:2-3, 5, 7-8

 

R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!

 

May God have pity on us and bless us;

may he let his face shine upon us.

So may your way be known upon earth;

among all nations, your salvation.

R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

May the nations be glad and exult

because you rule the peoples in equity;

the nations on the earth you guide.

R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

The earth has yielded its fruits;

God, our God, has blessed us.

May God bless us,

and may all the ends of the earth fear him!

R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness

for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                                               Mt 14:1-12

 

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus

and said to his servants, "This man is John the Baptist.

He has been raised from the dead;

that is why mighty powers are at work in him."

 

Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison

on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,

for John had said to him,

"It is not lawful for you to have her."

Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,

for they regarded him as a prophet.

But at a birthday celebration for Herod,

the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests

and delighted Herod so much

that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.

Prompted by her mother, she said,

"Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."

The king was distressed,

but because of his oaths and the guests who were present,

he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison.

His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,

who took it to her mother.

His disciples came and took away the corpse

and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

 

**********************************

How safe do you feel today?

John the Baptizer preached, “Make straight the way of the Lord” (see John 1:23). To anyone living in Israel at the time, this was a message of safety. Today, we tend to see it only as a call to take no detours on our journey of faith.

 

In John’s time, as it was for Isaiah whom he quoted (“make straight in the desert a highway for our God” from Isaiah 40:3), the roads or highways were paths that had been forged by previous generations. They were not straight because travelers had to wend their way around hills and dunes. However, danger lurked behind every mound because they might be hiding a thief or an enemy ready to pounce. So, travelers made wide sweeps through potentially dangerous areas, always keeping in view the far side of the hills, allowing themselves room for evasive action.

 

They took the safest route. Not the shortest route. Heading straight through the area could have been disastrous. So, when Isaiah and John declared that people should make a straight way to the Lord, they were declaring that the Lord was safe.

 

The path to Heaven is the journey of becoming a little child who sleeps without fear in the Father’s arms. How safe do you feel with God the Father? Are you able to climb up onto his lap and into his arms to feel his protective concern for you? He wants you to feel his powerful arms wrapping around you and creating a zone of extreme peace with you at the center.

 

No one is loved fully in any human relationship. This is a normal flaw of the human condition. And it’s the source of much of our anguish. Because we project onto God what we’ve learned from humans, it’s difficult (though not impossible) to fully believe that God loves us completely in every possible way despite our own flaws. It’s especially difficult if we hold within us any misconceptions about how safe God is.

 

To feel closer to the Father’s heart of parental love for you, it’s very healing to see Jesus as not only a Mediator but as your pathway to the Father.

 

Jesus wants to help you go straight to the Father’s parental heart so you will know how very dear you are to him. Jesus knows that this will fill in the gaps of your human parents’ imperfect, insufficient love. He wants you to be able to climb up onto the Father’s lap and feel the safety and security of his concern for you. He wants you to feel his powerful arms wrapping around you and creating a zone of extreme peace with you at the center.

 

Prayer

 

Lord, open my eyes to discover Your works through the people around me. Give me strength, too, to continue proclaiming Your Word, even when I’m not understood by those people who share my everyday life. 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!”