Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 239
Lectionary: 239
Moses spoke to the people and said:
"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees
as the LORD, my God, has commanded me,
that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?
"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children's children."
"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees
as the LORD, my God, has commanded me,
that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?
"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children's children."
Responsorial
PsalmPS 147:12-13, 15-16,
19-20
R. (12a) Praise
the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He spreads snow like wool;
frost he strews like ashes.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He spreads snow like wool;
frost he strews like ashes.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Verse Before
The GospelSEE JN 6:63C, 68C
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
You have the words of everlasting life.
You have the words of everlasting life.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Meditation: "Whoever relaxes one of
the commandments "
Do you view God's law negatively or positively? Jesus'
attitude towards the law of God can be summed up in the great prayer of Psalm
119: "Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." For
the people of Israel the "law" could refer to the ten commandments or
to the five Books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, which explain the
commandments and ordinances of God for his people. The "law" also
referred to the whole teaching or way of life which God gave to his people. The
Jews in Jesus' time also used it as a description of the oral or scribal law.
Needless to say, the scribes added many more things to the law than God
intended. That is why Jesus often condemned the scribal law. It placed burdens
on people which God had not intended. Jesus, however, made it very clear that
the essence of God's law - his commandments and way of life, must be fulfilled.
Jesus taught reverence for God's law - reverence for
God himself, for the Lord's Day, reverence or respect for parents, respect for
life, for property, for another person's good name, respect for oneself and for
one's neighbor lest wrong or hurtful desires master us. Reverence and respect
for God's commandments teach us the way of love - love of God and love of
neighbor.
The transforming work of the Holy Spirit
What is impossible to men and women is possible to God and those who put their faith and trust in God. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the Lord transforms us and makes us like himself. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) because "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). God gives us the grace to love as he loves, to forgive as he forgives, to think as he thinks, and to act as he acts.
What is impossible to men and women is possible to God and those who put their faith and trust in God. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the Lord transforms us and makes us like himself. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) because "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). God gives us the grace to love as he loves, to forgive as he forgives, to think as he thinks, and to act as he acts.
The Lord loves justice and goodness and he hates every
form of wickedness and sin. He wants to set us free from our unruly desires and
sinful habits, so that we can choose to live each day in the peace, joy, and
righteousness of his Holy Spirit (Romans 14: 17). To renounce sin is to turn
away from what is harmful and destructive for our minds and hearts, and our
very lives. As his followers we must love and respect his commandments and hate
every form of sin. Do you love and revere the commands of the Lord?
"Lord Jesus, grant this day, to direct and
sanctify, to rule and govern our hearts and bodies, so that all our thoughts,
words and deeds may be according to your Father's law and thus may we be saved
and protected through your mighty help."
A Daily Quote for Lent: Making daily progress towards God, by
Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"As Christians, our task is to make daily
progress toward God. Our pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the
only teacher, and it demands good students, not ones who play truant. In this
school we learn something every day. We learn something from the commandments,
something from examples, and something from Sacraments. These things are
remedies for our wounds and materials for our studies." (excerpt from Sermon 16A,1)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, MATTHEW 5:17-19
Lenten Weekday
(Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9; Psalm 147)
Lenten Weekday
(Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9; Psalm 147)
KEY VERSE: "But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (v. 19b).
TO KNOW: Like Moses, Jesus taught his followers that the law of God had lasting validity and must be obeyed. Jesus emphasized the permanency of God's law by saying that not even smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet (yod; in Greek iota) or the tiniest flourish of the pen would pass from the law until its fulfillment in the final age. Jesus' dispute with the religious leaders was not with the Mosaic Law itself, but with their legalistic interpretation. Jesus deepened the meaning of the law through his words and works. He said that those who taught others that justice and charity was the true purpose of God's law, and practiced it by loving God and one another, would inherit a place in God's kingdom. Those who willfully disregarded God's law would be excluded from God's reign.
TO LOVE: Do I give good example by my respect for God's law?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to be guided by your law in all I do.
Optional Memorial of Saints
Perpetua and Felicitas, martyrs
Vibia Perpetua was born to a noble pagan family. She was a convert, wife and mother. She was martyred March 7, 203 at Carthage with her maid, friend, and fellow convert Felicity. Perpetua, the aristocrat, and Felicitas, the slave-girl, met martyrdom hand in hand. A significant account of their last days was recorded:
The day of the martyrs' victory dawned. They marched from their cells into the amphitheater, as if into heaven, with cheerful looks and graceful bearing. If they trembled it was for joy and not for fear. Perpetua was the first to be thrown down, and she fell prostrate. She got up and, seeing that Felicity was prostrate, went over and reached out her hand to her and lifted her up. Both stood up together. Rousing herself as if from sleep (so deeply had she been in spiritual ecstasy), she began to look around. To everyone's amazement she said, "When are we going to be led to the beasts?" When she heard that it had already happened she did not at first believe it until she saw the marks of violence on her body and her clothing. The people, however, had demanded that the martyrs be led to the middle of the amphitheater. They wanted to see the sword thrust into the bodies of the victims, so that their eyes might share in the slaughter. Without being asked they went where the people wanted them to go; but first they kissed one another, to complete their witness with the customary kiss of peace.
Wednesday 7
March 2018
SS Perpetua and Felicity
Deuteronomy
4:1, 5-9. Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20. Matthew 5:17-19.
Praise the
Lord, Jerusalem—Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20.
Those who
keep the commandments will be counted great in the kingdom of heaven.
The readings today encourage us to
live life according to God’s will. Sr Thea Bowman, an African-American
Franciscan, died of cancer aged 53 in 1990. Her initial prayer was for ‘God’s
perfect will’. As the disease progressed, her prayer evolved into ‘Lord, let me
live until I die.’ She said, ‘I don’t make sense of suffering. I try to make
sense of life … I try each day to see God’s will’.
When asked what it meant to be
black and Catholic, she replied, ‘It means that I come to my church fully
functioning. I bring myself—all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to
become.’ During this Lenten season, may we pray for God’s perfect will, that we
come fully functioning, ready to live until we die.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity
Saint of the Day for March 7
(d. 203)
Saints Perpetua and Felicity’s Story
“When my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me
from my purpose by arguments and thus weaken my faith, I said to him, ‘Do you
see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be? Can it be called by any other
name than what it is?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘So also I cannot call myself by any
other name than what I am—a Christian.’”
So writes Perpetua: young, beautiful, well-educated, a
noblewoman of Carthage in North Africa, mother of an infant son and chronicler
of the persecution of the Christians by Emperor Septimius Severus.
Perpetua’s mother was a Christian and her father a pagan. He
continually pleaded with her to deny her faith. She refused and was imprisoned
at 22.
In her diary, Perpetua describes her period of captivity: “What
a day of horror! Terrible heat, owing to the crowds! Rough treatment by the
soldiers! To crown all, I was tormented with anxiety for my baby…. Such
anxieties I suffered for many days, but I obtained leave for my baby to remain
in the prison with me, and being relieved of my trouble and anxiety for him, I
at once recovered my health, and my prison became a palace to me and I would
rather have been there than anywhere else.”
Despite threats of persecution and death, Perpetua, Felicity–a
slavewoman and expectant mother–and three companions, Revocatus, Secundulus and
Saturninus, refused to renounce their Christian faith. For their unwillingness,
all were sent to the public games in the amphitheater. There Perpetua and
Felicity were beheaded, and the others killed by beasts.
Felicity gave birth to a girl a few days before the games
commenced.
Perpetua’s record of her trial and imprisonment ends the day
before the games. “Of what was done in the games themselves, let him write who
will.” The diary was finished by an eyewitness.
Reflection
Persecution for religious beliefs is not confined to Christians
in ancient times. Consider Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who with her family, was
forced into hiding and later died in Bergen-Belsen, one of Hitler’s death camps
during World War II. Anne, like Perpetua and Felicity, endured hardship and
suffering and finally death because she committed herself to God. In her diary,
Anne writes, “It’s twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground, and
maintain our opinions, in a time when all ideals are being shattered and
destroyed, when people are showing their worst side, and do not know whether to
believe in truth and right and God.”
Saint Felicity is the Patron Saint of:
Widows
Mothers of Deceased Sons
Mothers of Deceased Sons
LECTIO DIVINA: MATTHEW 5,17-19
Lectio Divina:
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Season of Lent
1) OPENING PRAYER
Lord our God,
Your prophets remind us
in season and out of season
of our responsibilities toward You
and toward the world of people.
When they disturb and upset us,
let it be a holy disturbance
that makes us restless, eager to do Your will
and to bring justice and love around us.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
Your prophets remind us
in season and out of season
of our responsibilities toward You
and toward the world of people.
When they disturb and upset us,
let it be a holy disturbance
that makes us restless, eager to do Your will
and to bring justice and love around us.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) GOSPEL READING - MATTHEW
5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to
abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the
law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in
the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be
called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
3) REFLECTION
• Today’s Gospel (Mt 5:17-19) teaches
how to observe the law of God in its complete fulfillment (Mt 5:17-19). Matthew
writes in order to help the communities of converted Jews overcome the
criticism of the brothers of their own race who accused them, saying, “You are
unfaithful to the Law of Moses.” Jesus Himself had been accused of infidelity
to the Law of God. Matthew has Jesus’ clarifying response to His accusers.
Thus, Matthew sheds some light to help the communities solve their problems.
• Using images of daily life, with
simple and direct words, Jesus had said that the mission of the community, its
reason for being, is that of being salt and light! He had given some advice
regarding each one of the two images. Then follow the brief verses of today’s
Gospel.
• Matthew 5:17-18: Not one dot, nor one
stroke is to disappear from the Law. There were several different tendencies in
the first Christian communities. Some thought that it was not necessary to
observe the laws of the Old Testament, because we are saved by faith in Jesus
and not by the observance of the Law (Rm 3:21-26). Others accepted Jesus, the Messiah,
but they did not accept the liberty of spirit with which some of the
communities lived the message of Jesus. They thought that, being Jews, they had
to continue to observe the laws of the Old Testament (Acts 15:1,5). But there
were Christians who lived so fully in the freedom of the Spirit, who no longer
looked at the life of Jesus of Nazareth, nor to the Old Testament that they
even went so far as to say, “Anathema Jesus!” (1 Cor 12:3). Observing these
tensions, Matthew tries to find some balance between both extremes. The
community should be a place where the balance can be attained and lived. Jesus’
answer to those who criticized Him continued to be relevant for the
communities: “I have not come to abolish the law, but to complete it!” The
communities could not be against the Law, nor could they close themselves
off in the observance of the Law. Like Jesus, they should advance and show in
practice, the objective thst the Law wanted to attain in people’s lives, that
is, in the perfect practice of love.
• Matthew 5:17-18: Not one dot or stroke
will disappear from the Law. It is for those who wanted to get rid of the law
altogether that Matthew recalls the other parable of Jesus: “Anyone who breaks
even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be considered the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps
them and teaches them will be considered great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” The
great concern in Matthew’s Gospel is to show that the Old Testament, Jesus of
Nazareth, and the life in the Spirit cannot be separated. The three of them
form part of the same and unique plan of God and communicate to us the
certainty of faith: The God of Abraham and of Sarah is present in the midst of
the community by faith in Jesus of Nazareth who sends us His Spirit.
4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS
• How do I see and live God’s law: as a
freedom to do anything I please, as an imposition which restricts me, or as a
guide to grow in love?
• What can we do today for our brothers
and sisters who consider all of this type of discussion as obsolete and not
relevant?
• How does this view of the Law and the
Commandments affect me? As a line which defines sin, as rules to avoid vice, or
as a guide in attaining virtue?
5) CONCLUDING PRAYER
Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem,
Zion, praise your God.
For He gives strength to the bars of your gates,
He blesses your children within you. (Ps 145:12-13)
Zion, praise your God.
For He gives strength to the bars of your gates,
He blesses your children within you. (Ps 145:12-13)
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