Amos was a man who, from the age of seven, dreamt of becoming a priest. He lived and breathed parish activities. He volunteered in church, would wipe the altar clean, and do errands for the parish priest.

      By God’s grace, he did become a man of the cloth. But that didn’t make him instantly holy. For many years, he fell into all sorts of temptations. There was a coworker who fell in love with him and pestered him daily. He succumbed to her wiles. Then a friend introduced him to poker — and he soon got into gambling. Neighbors invited him to drink, and he did — till the wee hours of the morning. After an hour of sleep, he would preside at the morning Mass reeking of liquor.

       Many years passed. After a long struggle and a “knock” on his head from God, he came to his senses. He turned his back on the woman, the poker cards and alcohol, and he declared to himself, “I am a Son of God. I am a priest forever.”

       Today he is the official parish priest of a town in Mindanao. Chelle Crisanto (ellehcmaria@gmail.com)

Help me, Jesus, to be strong and firm in my love for You. Your love for me will be my sword and shield against the enemy.

St. Charles of Sezze, pray for us.

We have no idea who Melchizedek is, yet he has a place in the ordination rites and Eucharistic Prayer in the life of the Church. I like to meditate on the literal meaning of his name – my King is righteous – and is a good point for reflection for any aspiring leader in the Church. A true leader leads by example and that example must have holiness at its heart.

1 Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings and blessed him. 2 And Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace. 3 Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. 15 It is even more obvious if another priest is raised up after the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become so, not by a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. 17 For it is testified: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

R: You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.

1 The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.” (R) 2 The scepter of your power the Lord will stretch forth from Zion: “Rule in the midst of your enemies.” (R) 3 “Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor; before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.” (R) 4 The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” (R)

The Pharisees have fallen in a deep hole of hypocrisy. How can they question the healing of a person with a withered hand ? It simply shows the depth of their unfeeling hypocrisy, which we must avoid at all costs. Jesus always puts the needs of the individual first, and so should we.

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people.

1 Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” 4 Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. 5 Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

think: Have you ever felt angry at the Church? Why?

Read the Bible in one year  Mark 5-8

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

GOD HAS A BIGGER SHOVEL

R. G. LeTourneau (1888-1969) was a Christian industrialist who was known as “a businessman for God.” He was hugely successful, designing and developing his own line of earth-moving equipment. LeTourneau was the maker of nearly 300 inventions and had hundreds of patents in his lifetime. As he succeeded financially, he increased his giving to the point where he was giving 90 percent of his income to the Lord’s work. He is known to have said, “I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back — but God has a bigger shovel.”

       In today’s First Reading, we read of Abraham offering to Melchizedek, the High priest, “a tenth of everything” to be given back to God. This is one of the biblical basis of the Christian practice of tithing, i.e., apportioning a tenth of  all of one’s income and giving it to Church in service of God’s purpose.

      The skeptic and the stingy in us may protest, “What does God need 10 percent of my income for?” God does not need 10 percent of our income. In fact, God doesn’t need even an iota of our income. Acts 17:25 says, “And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” God is God from eternity. Without us, He will still be God, He will not be lacking. The Christian practice of tithing is encouraged not because God needs it but because we need it.

       Tithing is, first of all, a spiritual practice of holy detachment, or spiritual freedom from the goods of this world. Detachment does not deny the value of worldly goods but only reminds us that the world is so good, we can treat them as god, and to treat a good as a god is idolatry. Tithing frees us from the real danger of idolatry. Tithing enables us to be spiritually free and conscious that the goods of this world are but foretastes of the greater good that awaits God’s children.

       Secondly, tithing reminds the heart that everything is grace, and so keeps it grateful. We give back to God through the Church, that His purpose may continue and the less privileged may be blessed as well. In the practice of tithing, we pay forward the gift that we have been blessed with. Fr. Joel Jason

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

When you give, you create space to receive. Do you have enough space?

“Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds.” Amen.