READINGS for 2006-07-24
LETHAL LEGALISM ?...there is something greater than Solomon here.? ? Matthew 12:42 I have a tendency to be legalistic. REFLECTION: Lord, forgive me for placing You, and my brothers and sisters in a box. |
1st READING Micah 6:1-4.6-8 Micah invites the People of Israel to be realistic and consider everything that the Lord has done for them in the past. On the weight of the evidence of His faithfulness, decide how they will live their lives. This is very good advice and I cannot think of any way to improve it. God is always faithful. It is we who stray from the covenant. Let us seek to rectify our waywardness and return to the path of life, namely, obedience to God?s will. 1 Hear, then, what the LORD says: Arise, present your plea before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice! 2 Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a plea against his people, and he enters into trial with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow before God most high? Shall I come before him with holocausts, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. P S A L M Psalm 50:5-6, 8-9, 16-17, 21, 23 R: To the upright I will show the saving power of God. 5 ?Gather my faithful ones before me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.? 6 And the heavens proclaim his justice; for God himself is the judge. (R) 8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you, for your burnt offerings are before me always. 9 I take from your house no bullock, no goats out of your fold. (R) 16 ?Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, 17 though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you? (R) 21 When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it? Or do you think that I am like yourself? I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes. 23 He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me; and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.? (R) G O S P E L Matthew 12:38-42 We have absolutely no right to demand a miracle from the Lord. God owes us nothing in this regard. Even if we think that He owes us such things by virtue of His covenant with us, we are mistaken. A covenant is a two-way agreement and once one side breaks it (and we are the first to break the covenant through our sins) it nullifies any obligation on the other side. What is truly amazing is that even though we have broken the covenant many times, God continues to remain faithful. my reflections ________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ God?s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________ Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Isaiah 34-36 |
SEEKING FOR SIGNS It is a common thing today to find someone obsessed with a mission of seeking signs for this or that purpose in order to receive guidance from God as to the decisions that they need to make in their lives. I am sorry to say that much of this is probably a waste of time precisely because of what Jesus tells us in today?s Gospel. Whether the person realizes it or not, and more often than not they don?t, all they are really doing is procrastinating. Or worse still, delaying their obedience to God in the matter under consideration. In my experience, God does not often use spectacular signs to indicate His will to a person. He tends to work through the natural means available to Him to point someone in one direction or another, the most important being the desire of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). REFLECTION QUESTION: Help me to overcome any reluctance or hesitation to put God?s will into practice. Only help me to grow in prudential judgment so that I do not do anything silly! St. Francis Solano, confessor, pray for us. |
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