Do you know that the human body is in a constant state of renewal? You have a new liver every five months. Your taste buds are no older than 10 days. You have a completely new skin every four weeks. Even your skeleton replaces itself completely every 10 years. Besides your brain and heart, no part of you is older than a decade. Each morning you wake up, millions of cells have been replaced. You’re not the same person you were yesterday. You’re new!

But what use is a new computer if it has the same old operating system? It remains slow and can’t run updates and new apps. A “new me” won’t matter if I have the same old bad habits. New wine in old wineskins never worked. New year with old habits lead to the same old results as last year. This year, will I be healthier? Will I be happier in my marriage? Will I be promoted at work? Will my business grow?

Change your habits, change your life. What new habits are you starting this year? This will be the key to the new and better you.

Jon Escoto (jonmaris@yahoo.com)

reflect

What old habits do you need to stop? What new habits do you need to start?

Jesus, give me the grace to begin a new journey this year, with a little step toward a new and beautiful habit. Amen.

Saint Fillan, pray for us.

Today’s reading is about the imperative of obedience. Saul places his own judgment before that of God’s when he chooses to keep some of the spoils of war. Whatever we may think of the manner of conducting wars 3,000 years ago, the point here is that God gave Saul instructions and he disobeyed Him. Does Saul think he knows better than God? Is he wiser than God in these matters?

¹⁶ Samuel said to Saul: “Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” Saul replied, “Speak!” ¹⁷ Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem, are you not leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king of Israel ¹⁸ and sent you on a mission saying, ‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’ ¹⁹ Why then have you disobeyed the Lord? You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the Lord.” ²⁰ Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the Lord and fulfill the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban. ²¹ But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the Lord their God in Gilgal.” ²² But Samuel said: “Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. ²³ For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23

R: To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

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)

Gospel | Mark 2:18-22

The world around us is changing. People refer to the concept of generational change as something that took place about twenty to thirty years. But with the advent of social media and instant communication, we now see major changes occur across society within a much shorter period of ten years. Think of the growth of social media over the last ten years. This means that the Church needs to constantly look for new ways to connect with people, particularly with the youth as they become more addicted to their screens.

Gospel Acclamation

The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

¹⁸ The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. ²² Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read LUKE 9 - 12 today.