FEBRUARY 20, 2016 : SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT

Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Lectionary: 229

Reading 1DT 26:16-19

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice.
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised.”

Responsorial PsalmPS 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8

R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Verse Before The Gospel2 COR 6:2B

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.

GospelMT 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

www.usccb.org

Meditation: Love and pray for your enemies

Do you know the love that conquers every fear, sin, and selfish desire? God renews his love for us each and every day. His love has the power to free us from every form of evil - selfishness, greed, anger, hatred, jealously and envy. In Jesus' teaching on the law he does something quite remarkable and unheard of. He transforms the old law of justice and mercy with grace (favor) and loving-kindness.

Grace and loving-kindness
God is good to the unjust as well as the just. His love embraces saint and sinner alike. God seeks our highest good and teaches us to seek the greatest good of others, even those who hate or cause ill-will. Our love for others, including those who are ungrateful or selfish towards us, must be marked by the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us. It is easier to show kindness and mercy when we can expect to benefit from doing so. How much harder when we can expect nothing in return. Our prayer for those who do us ill both breaks the power of revenge and releases the power of love to do good in the face of evil.

How can we possibly love as God loves and overcome evil with good? With God all things are possible. He gives power and grace to those who believe and accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. His love conquers all, even our hurts, fears, prejudices and griefs. Only the cross of Jesus Christ can free us from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment and gives us the courage to return evil with good. Such love and grace has power to heal and to save from destruction. Do you know the power of Christ's redeeming love and mercy?

Perfect - made whole
Was Jesus exaggerating when he said we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48)? Jesus' command seems to parallel two passages from the Old Testament Scriptures. The first is where God instructed Abraham to "be perfect" or "blameless" before God (Genesis 17:1). The original meaning of "perfect" in Hebrew and the Aramaic dialect is "completeness" or "wholeness" - "not lacking in what is essential."

The second passage that seems to parallel Jesus' expression, "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" is the command that God gave to Moses and the people of Israel to "be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2). God made each of us in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26,27). That is why he calls us to grow in maturity and wholeness so we can truly be like him - a people who love as he loves and who choose to do what is good and to reject what is evil and contrary to his will (Ephesians 4:13-16).

God knows our sinfulness and weaknesses better than we do - and he assures us of his love, mercy, and help. That is why he freely gives us his power, strength, and gifts so that we may not lack anything we need to do his will and to live as his sons and daughters (2 Peter 1:3). Do you want to grow in your love for God and for your neighbor? Ask the Holy Spirit to purify and transform you in the image of the Father that you may walk in the joy and freedom of the Gospel.

"Lord Jesus, your love brings freedom and pardon. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart ablaze with your love that nothing may make me lose my temper, ruffle my peace, take away my joy, nor make me bitter towards anyone."

A Daily Quote for Lent: The gift to love all people - even enemies, by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Beg God for the gift to love one another. Love all people, even your enemies, not because they are your brothers and sisters but that they may become such. Love them in order that you may be at all times on fire with love, whether toward those who have become your brothers and sisters or toward your enemies, so that by being beloved they may become your brothers and sisters." (excerpt from Sermon on 1 John 10,7) 

www.dailyscripture.net

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20; MATTHEW 5:43-48
Lenten Weekday
(Deuteronomy 26:16-19; Psalm 119)

KEY VERSE: "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (v 44).
TO KNOW: Israel believed that their enemies were also the enemies of God (Ps 139:21), but God did not command Israel to hate their enemies (Lev 19:17-18). Neither were they allowed to mistreat a resident alien, that is, someone who dwelled in the land but was not a member of the nation or religion of the Jews (v 34). They ought to remember that they too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. But Jesus took the law further. He said that it was no virtue to love only those who loved them; nonbelievers could do as much. His disciples should imitate their loving God who gave gifts of sun and rain to the just and unjust alike. Christians must never seek retaliation for any insult no matter how hostile. They must strive to love even those who persecuted them (Mt 5:11). Jesus showed us the supreme example of enemy love when he asked God to forgive those who were putting him to death (Lk 23:34).
TO LOVE: Do we as individuals or as a nation measure up to Jesus' command to forgive and pray for our enemies?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to forgive those who have injured me and to pray for their welfare.

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Saturday 20 February 2016

Sat 20th. Deuteronomy 26:16-19. Happy are those who follow the law of the Lord!—Ps 118(119):1-2, 4-5, 7-8. Matthew 5:43-48.


Readings

Lent is a time of constant reminders.

It is a time when we are reminded to turn to God, who is infinite love and faithfulness. In any relationship we commit to in love, we seek to express our love and gratitude in many ways. Jesus is trying to help the disciples to think in a new and bigger way about their relationship with God. Living the Law is the very basic way of expressing this commitment. Allowing its tenets to become so deeply embedded in our souls that it constantly generates new and bigger responses is what Jesus is calling disciples to. If you love someone, you don’t just tick the boxes on what you need to do, you try to make every moment a way of expressing your complete commitment to that relationship.

www.pray.com.au

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Encounters with Grace

God works through sacraments, most assuredly. But sacraments are given as sure encounters with grace, not as reducing valves designed to make sure the unbaptized are excluded from God.

— from The Work of Mercy 

February 20
Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto
(1910-1920; 1908-1919)

Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three children, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after.

At the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. She also asked them to learn to read and write and to pray the rosary “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” They were to pray for sinners and for the conversion of Russia, which had recently overthrown Czar Nicholas II and was soon to fall under communism. Up to 90,000 people gathered for Mary’s final apparition on October 13, 1917.

Less than two years later, Francisco died of influenza in his family home. He was buried in the parish cemetery and then re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1952. Jacinta died of influenza in Lisbon, offering her suffering for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and the Holy Father. She was re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1951. Their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and was still living when Jacinta and Francisco were beatified in 2000. Sister Lucia died five years later. The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is visited by up to 20 million people a year.

Comment:

The Church is always very cautious about endorsing alleged apparitions, but it has seen benefits from people changing their lives because of the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Prayer for sinners, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and praying the rosary—all these reinforce the Good News Jesus came to preach.

Quote:

In his homily at their beatification, Pope John Paul II recalled that shortly before Francisco died, Jacinta said to him, “Give my greetings to Our Lord and to Our Lady and tell them that I am enduring everything they want for the conversion of sinners.”

www.americancatholic.org

LECTIO DIVINA: MATTHEW 5,43-48

Lectio Divina: 

 Saturday, February 20, 2016

Lent Time

1) OPENING PRAYER

Lord God, from you comes the initiative of love.
You seek us out and you tell us:
“I am your God; you are my people.”
You love us in Jesus Christ, your Son.
God, may our response of love
go far beyond the demands of any law.
May we seek you and commune with you
in the deepest of our being
and may we express our gratitude to you
by going to our neighbour
with a love that is spontaneous like yours.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

2) GOSPEL READING - MATTHEW 5, 43-48

'You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional?

Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'

3) REFLECTION

• In today’s Gospel we see how Jesus has interpreted the commandment: “You shall not kill” in such a way that its observance may lead to the practice of love. Besides saying “You shall not kill” (Mt 5, 21), Jesus quoted four other commandments of the ancient law: you shall not commit adultery (Mt 5, 27), You shall not bear false witness (Mt 5, 33), eye for eye, and tooth for tooth (Mt 5, 38) and, in today’s Gospel: “You shall love your neighbour and will hate your enemy” (Mt 5, 43), five times, Jesus criticizes and completes the ancient way of observing these commandments and indicates the new way to attain the objective of the law, which is the practice of love (Mt 5, 22-26; 5, 28-32; 5, 34-37; 5, 39-42; 5, 44-48).

• Love your enemies. In today’s Gospel Jesus quotes the ancient law which says: “You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy”. This text is not found like this in the Old Testament. It is rather a question of the mentality of the time, according to which there was no problem in the fact that a person hated his enemy. Jesus was not in agreement and says: “But I tell you : For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must, therefore, set no bounds to your love, just as your heavenly Father sets none to his”. And Jesus gives us the proof. At the hour of his death he observed that which he preached.

• Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing. A soldier takes the wrist of Jesus and places it on the arm of the cross, places a nail and begins to hammer it in. Several times. The blood was flowing down. The body of Jesus contorted with pain. The soldier, a mercenary, ignorant, far from knowing what he was doing, and of what was happening around him, continued to hammer as if it were a piece of the wall of his house and had to put up a picture. At that moment Jesus prays for the soldier who tortures him and addresses his prayer to the Father: “Father, forgive them! They know not what they are doing!” He loved the soldier who killed him. Even wanting it with all their strength, the lack of humanity did not succeed to kill in Jesus, humanity and love! He will be imprisoned, they will spit on him, will laugh and make fun of him, they will make of him a false king crowning him with a crown of thorns, will torture him, will oblige him to go through the streets like a criminal, hearing the insults of the religious authority, on Calvary they will leave him completely naked in the sight of all. But the poison of the lack of humanity did not succeed to attain the source of love and of humanity which sprang from within Jesus. The water of the love which sprang from within was stronger than the poison of hatred which was coming from without. Looking at that soldier, Jesus felt sorrow and prayed for him and for all: “Father, forgive them! They know not what they are doing!” Jesus, in solidarity, almost excuses those who were ill treating and torturing him. He was like a brother who goes with his murder brothers before the Judge and, he the victim of his own brothers, says to the judge: “They are my brothers, you know they are ignorant. Forgive them! They will become better!” He loved the enemy!

• Be perfect as perfect is your Father who is in Heaven. Jesus does not simply want to frighten, because this would be useless. He wants to change the system of human living together. The Novelty which he wants to construct comes from the new experience which he has from God, the Father, full of tenderness who accepts all! The words of threat against the rich cannot be an occasion of revenge on the part of the poor. Jesus orders that we have the contrary attitude: “Love your enemies!” True love cannot depend on what one receives from others. Love should want the good of others independently of what they does for me. Because this is the way God’s love is for us.

4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS

• To love the enemies. Am I capable to love my enemies?

• Contemplate Jesus, in silence who at the hour of his death, he loved the enemy who killed him.

5) CONCLUDING PRAYER

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the Law of Yahweh!
Blessed are those who observe his instructions,
who seek him with all their hearts (Ps 119,1-2)

www.ocarm.org