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.
GospelMT 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."
"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 22, 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.
Wednesday 22 March
2017
Wed 22nd. St Nicholas Owen
In this special Lenten series –
Darkness to light: An intimate journey with Jesus – our guest writer looks to
the Gospel stories for answers to the questions that many of us ask when faced
with difficult times.
‘Do not
imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to
abolish but to complete them.’ Matthew 5:17
Lent is a time for facing the deep
temptations I meet on the pilgrimage of life. What do I hold onto? What do I
abandon? Jesus provides a surprising answer to these questions, because he both
holds to the Law and transcends the Law. Jesus’ pilgrimage is grounded in his
union with the Father. This is the same love that is articulated in the ancient
Law, the same love that fires up the great Prophets. Both point to the fullness
of divine love that is revealed in Jesus and offered to us. This fullness of
love gives Jesus the freedom to go beyond the Law and the Prophets. In my
pilgrimage of life I am learning to respect the tradition and teaching and
wisdom of my elders, but I am also learning that I am called into a freedom of
divine love that transcends all law and custom. The test of truth here is the
gentle presence of the Holy Spirit, where there is neither jealousy nor
division. Lord, give me courage. Open my heart to your Holy Spirit.
ST. LEA
March 22 is the liturgical memorial of Saint Lea
of Rome, a fourth-century widow who left her wealth behind, entered consecrated
life, and attained great holiness through asceticism and prayer.
Though not well-known as a figure of devotion in modern times, she was acknowledged as a saint on the testimony of her contemporary Saint Jerome, who wrote a brief description of Lea's life after she had died.
Jerome, a scholarly monk best known for his Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate), is the Church's only source of information on St. Lea, whose biographical details are unknown. St. Jerome eulogized her in a letter written during the year 384 to his student and spiritual directee Marcella, another Roman consecrated woman who had left her aristocratic life behind after being widowed.
It is clear from his letter that Lea was a mutual friend to both Jerome and Marcella. Jerome states that his account is written to “hail with joy the release of a soul which has trampled Satan under foot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of tranquility.” Jerome also contrasts the life of “our most saintly friend” with that of the late pagan public official Praetextatus, held up by Jerome as a cautionary example.
“Who,” Jerome begins, “can sufficiently eulogize our dear Lea's mode of living? So complete was her conversion to the Lord that, becoming the head of a monastery, she showed herself a true mother to the virgins in it, wore coarse sackcloth instead of soft raiment, passed sleepless nights in prayer, and instructed her companions even more by example than by precept.”
Jerome describes how Lea, in her great humility, “was accounted the servant of all … She was careless of her dress, neglected her hair, and ate only the coarsest food. Still, in all that she did, she avoided ostentation that she might not have her reward in this world.”
Jerome's letter goes on to compare her fate to that of Praetextus – who died in the same year as Lea, after spending his life promoting a return to Rome's ancient polytheistic pagan religion. The monk retells Jesus' parable of Lazarus and Dives, with Lea in the place of the poor and suffering man.
Lea, Jerome says, is “welcomed into the choirs of the angels; she is comforted in Abraham's bosom. And, as once the beggar Lazarus saw the rich man, for all his purple, lying in torment, so does Lea see the consul, not now in his triumphal robe but clothed in mourning, and asking for a drop of water from her little finger.”
Thus Lea, “who seemed poor and of little worth, and whose life was accounted madness,” triumphs in salvation. But the punishment of infidelity falls on the consul-elect – who had led a triumphant procession just before his death, and been widely mourned afterward.
Jerome ends his letter by urging Marcella to remember the lesson of St. Lea's life: “We must not allow … money to weigh us down, or lean upon the staff of worldly power. We must not seek to possess both Christ and the world. No; things eternal must take the place of things transitory; and since, physically speaking, we daily anticipate death, if we wish for immortality we must realize that we are but mortal.”
Though not well-known as a figure of devotion in modern times, she was acknowledged as a saint on the testimony of her contemporary Saint Jerome, who wrote a brief description of Lea's life after she had died.
Jerome, a scholarly monk best known for his Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate), is the Church's only source of information on St. Lea, whose biographical details are unknown. St. Jerome eulogized her in a letter written during the year 384 to his student and spiritual directee Marcella, another Roman consecrated woman who had left her aristocratic life behind after being widowed.
It is clear from his letter that Lea was a mutual friend to both Jerome and Marcella. Jerome states that his account is written to “hail with joy the release of a soul which has trampled Satan under foot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of tranquility.” Jerome also contrasts the life of “our most saintly friend” with that of the late pagan public official Praetextatus, held up by Jerome as a cautionary example.
“Who,” Jerome begins, “can sufficiently eulogize our dear Lea's mode of living? So complete was her conversion to the Lord that, becoming the head of a monastery, she showed herself a true mother to the virgins in it, wore coarse sackcloth instead of soft raiment, passed sleepless nights in prayer, and instructed her companions even more by example than by precept.”
Jerome describes how Lea, in her great humility, “was accounted the servant of all … She was careless of her dress, neglected her hair, and ate only the coarsest food. Still, in all that she did, she avoided ostentation that she might not have her reward in this world.”
Jerome's letter goes on to compare her fate to that of Praetextus – who died in the same year as Lea, after spending his life promoting a return to Rome's ancient polytheistic pagan religion. The monk retells Jesus' parable of Lazarus and Dives, with Lea in the place of the poor and suffering man.
Lea, Jerome says, is “welcomed into the choirs of the angels; she is comforted in Abraham's bosom. And, as once the beggar Lazarus saw the rich man, for all his purple, lying in torment, so does Lea see the consul, not now in his triumphal robe but clothed in mourning, and asking for a drop of water from her little finger.”
Thus Lea, “who seemed poor and of little worth, and whose life was accounted madness,” triumphs in salvation. But the punishment of infidelity falls on the consul-elect – who had led a triumphant procession just before his death, and been widely mourned afterward.
Jerome ends his letter by urging Marcella to remember the lesson of St. Lea's life: “We must not allow … money to weigh us down, or lean upon the staff of worldly power. We must not seek to possess both Christ and the world. No; things eternal must take the place of things transitory; and since, physically speaking, we daily anticipate death, if we wish for immortality we must realize that we are but mortal.”
LECTIO DIVINA: MATTHEW 5,17-19
Lectio Divina:
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Lent Time
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
'Do not imagine that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete
them. In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not
one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose is
achieved.
Therefore, anyone who infringes 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.
3) REFLECTION
• Today’s Gospel (Mt 5, 17-19) teaches
how to observe the law of God in such a way that its practice indicates in what
its complete fulfilment consists (Mt 5, 17-19). Matthew writes in order to help
the communities of the converted Jews to 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 the clarifying response of Jesus concerning his accusers. Thus, he gives
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 two or three 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 communities of the first Christians. 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 presence 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 and they even went so far as to say: ”Anathema Jesus!” (1 Co 12, 3).
Observing these tensions, Matthew tries to find some balance between both
extremes. The community should be a space, where the balance can be attained
and lived. The answer given by Jesus to those who criticized him continued to
be actual 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 up themselves in the observance of the law. Like Jesus, they should
advance, and show, in practice, which was the objective which the law wanted to
attain in the life of persons, 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
all the law that Matthew recalls the other parable of Jesus: “Anyone who
infringes 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 project 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 the law of God:
as a growing horizon of light or as an imposition which limits my freedom?
• What can we do today for our brothers
and sisters who consider all this type of discussion as obsolete and not
actual? What can we learn from them?
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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