Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 241
Lectionary: 241
Thus says the LORD:
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;
you have collapsed through your guilt.
Take with you words,
and return to the LORD;
Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity,
and receive what is good, that we may render
as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.
Assyria will not save us,
nor shall we have horses to mount;
We shall say no more, 'Our god,'
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion."
I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
"I am like a verdant cypress tree"–
Because of me you bear fruit!
Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;
you have collapsed through your guilt.
Take with you words,
and return to the LORD;
Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity,
and receive what is good, that we may render
as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.
Assyria will not save us,
nor shall we have horses to mount;
We shall say no more, 'Our god,'
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion."
I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
"I am like a verdant cypress tree"–
Because of me you bear fruit!
Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.
Responsorial
PsalmPS 81:6C-8A, 8BC-9,
10-11AB, 14 AND 17
R. (see 11 and 9a) I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
An unfamiliar speech I hear:
"I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"Unseen, I answered you in thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, will you not hear me?"
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
An unfamiliar speech I hear:
"I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"Unseen, I answered you in thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, will you not hear me?"
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
"If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them."
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
Verse Before
The GospelMT 4:17
Repent, says the Lord;
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
GospelMK 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Meditation: "You are not far from the kingdom of
God"
What is the best and sure way to peace, happiness, and
abundant life? The prophet Hosea addressed this question with his religious
community - the people of Israel. Hosea's people lived in a time of economic
anxiety and fear among the nations. They were tempted to put their security in
their own possessions and in their political alliances with other nations
rather than in God. Hosea called his people to return to God to receive pardon,
healing, and restoration. He reminded them that God would "heal their faithlessness
and love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). God's ways are right and his wisdom
brings strength and blessing to those who obey him.
The grace and power of love and obedience
How does love and obedience to God's law go together? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the 613 precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose.
How does love and obedience to God's law go together? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the 613 precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose.
What does God require of us? Simply that we love as he
loves! God is love and everything he does flows from his love for us. God loved
us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness
towards us. The love of God comes first and the love of neighbor is firmly
grounded in the love of God. The more we know of God's love and truth the more
we love what he loves and reject what is hateful and contrary to his will.
The love which conquers all
What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthen us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves (Galatians 5:13). Do you allow anything to keep you from the love of God and the joy of serving others with a generous heart? Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Do you know the love which conquers all?
What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthen us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves (Galatians 5:13). Do you allow anything to keep you from the love of God and the joy of serving others with a generous heart? Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Do you know the love which conquers all?
"We love you, O our God; and we desire to love
you more and more. Grant to us that we may love you as much as we desire, and as
much as we ought. O dearest friend, who has so loved and saved us, the thought
of whom is so sweet and always growing sweeter, come with Christ and dwell in
our hearts; that you keep a watch over our lips, our steps, our deeds, and we
shall not need to be anxious either for our souls or our bodies. Give us love,
sweetest of all gifts, which knows no enemy. Give us in our hearts pure love,
born of your love to us, that we may love others as you love us. O most loving
Father of Jesus Christ, from whom flows all love, let our hearts, frozen in
sin, cold to you and cold to others, be warmed by this divine fire. So help and
bless us in your Son." (Prayer
of Anselm, 12th century)
A Daily Quote for Lent: The fire of God's love, by Augustine of
Hippo,354-430 A.D.
"Gravity keeps everything in its own place. Fire
climbs up, while a stone goes down. Elements that are not in their own place
are restless until they find it. This applies also to us. My weight is my love;
wherever I go, I am driven by it. By the love of God we catch fire ourselves
and, by moving up, find our place and our rest." (excerpt from Confessions 13,9)
FRIDAY, MARCH
24, MARK 12:28-34
Lenten Weekday
(Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81)
Lenten Weekday
(Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 81)
KEY VERSE: "There is no other commandment greater than these" (v 31).
TO KNOW: The scribes were the learned interpreters of the Law of Moses. They expanded the Law into 613 greater and lesser rules and regulations. One scribe recognized Jesus' skill as a teacher, and asked him which one of the Mosaic Laws was the greatest. Jesus recognized the scribe's sincere search for truth, and summed up the entire Law with two basic decrees that he saw as inseparable. They were the Laws upon which all the other commandments were based: to love God with one's entire being, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. The scribe declared that the love of God and love of neighbor was worth more than any religious acts that one could perform. Because the scribe understood this principle, he moved a step closer to God's reign.
TO LOVE: Is my love of God demonstrated by the way I love my neighbor? Do I have a healthy self-love?
TO SERVE: Lord God, help me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.
Blessed Óscar
Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador
Before he became Archbishop, Oscar Romero was a shy, traditional priest, averse to politics. Just one month after Romero’s inauguration, one of those priests, Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit who headed a rural parish, and who was one of Romero’s closest friends, was killed by state agents. Beginning in March, 1978, Romero sat in front of a microphone almost every night and recorded a diary, offering his reflections on the political turmoil and violence that were engulfing El Salvador. This diary, along with the transcripts of his homilies, his pastoral letters, and his correspondence with the Catholic Church hierarchy in Rome, constitute the main body of work studied by the Congregation for the Cause of the Saints, which is in charge of the process of canonization. Romero spent the day of 24 March 1980, the last day of his life, in a monthly gathering of priest friends. That evening, Romero was fatally shot while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon in which he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights. Less than a year after his death, three religious sisters—Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel—along with laywoman and missionary Jean Donovan were raped and murdered in December. At the end of the decade in 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter suffered a similar fate on the San Salvador campus of the University of Central America. By the war’s end in 1992, some 75,000 Salvadorans shared their fate. Shortly after Pope Francis’ election was the announcement of the canonization cause of Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador. In his sermon on March 24, 1980, just minutes before his death, Romero concluded with these words on the parable of the grain of wheat. “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies. … We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us." Archbishop Oscar Romero 1917 -1980.
Friday 24 March 2017
Fri 24th. St Irenaeus. Ho 14:2-10;
Mk 12:28-34.
‘To love
your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or
sacrifice.’ Mark 12:33
Love your neighbour as yourself.
This is another Copernican revolution, but it is a very uncomplicated message
and very simple to put into practice. This shouldn’t be hard. All we need to
understand is that, for God, unity is just as important as individuality. Love
unifies individuals and makes them whole. Jesus wants me to transcend my fears
and self-centredness, to understand that I am more connected with creation than
I am separate from it, and to see life through the eyes of my nieghbour. Jesus
sets us an example. We follow. Simple? Not quite: I am losing my beloved in a
few weeks. Why must I lose the one I love, and then be asked to love the one I
do not know? And Jesus says back to me: ‘Give, and you will be given full
measure in return.’ Lord, teach me to be generous.
ST. CATHERINE OF
SWEDEN
St. Catherine was born near the beginning of the fourteenth
century to parents Ulfo and St. Bridget of Sweden. At the age of seven,
Catherine was sent to the Abbey at Risburgh by her parents and placed under the
care of the abbess to receive an education and to build a foundation for her
spiritual life.
At
the age of 13, Catherine was taken from the abbey and given in marriage to Egard,
a German nobleman. Upon meeting Egard, Catherine persuaded him to make a mutual
vow of perpetual chastity with her. Catherine and Egard dedicated themselves to
the service of God and encouraged each other in works of mortification, prayer
and charity.
Around
the year 1349, after the death of her father, Catherine accompanied her mother
on a pilgrimage to Rome to visit the relics of the Roman Martyrs. The two spent
several years living in Rome. In 1373 St. Bridget died and Catherine returned
to Sweden with her mother's body. Two years later, Catherine returned to Rome
to promote the cause for her mother's canonization and to gain approval for a
Rule she had written for a group of religious women.
After
gaining approval for her rule, Catherine returned to Sweden and became abbess
of Vadzstena. Catherine served as abbess of Vadzstena until her death in 1381.
During the final 25 years of her life, Catherine was known for her austere
lifestyle and her practice of making daily use of the Sacrament of Confession.
St.
Catherine was canonized in 1484 by Pope Pius II.
LECTIO DIVINA: MARK 12,28B-34
Lectio Divina:
Friday, March 24, 2017
Lent Time
1) OPENING PRAYER
God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain to be lived,
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to you,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain to be lived,
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to you,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.
2) GOSPEL READING - MARK 12,
28-34
One of the scribes who had listened to
them debating appreciated that Jesus had given a good answer and put a further
question to him, 'Which is the first of all the commandments?'
Jesus replied, 'This is the first:
Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one, only Lord, and you must love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and
with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
There is no commandment greater than these.'
The scribe said to him, 'Well spoken,
Master; what you have said is true, that he is one and there is no other. To
love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to
love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt
offering or sacrifice.'
Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken,
said, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' And after that no one dared to
question him any more.
3) REFLECTION
• In today’s Gospel (Mk 12, 28b-34), the
Scribes and the Doctors of the Law want to know from Jesus which is the
greatest commandment of all. Even today, many people want to know what is more
important in religion. Some say that it is to be baptized. Others say that it
is to go to Mass and to participate in the Sunday Mass. Others still say: to
love our neighbour and to struggle for a more just world! Others are concerned
only of the appearances and of the tasks in the Church.
• Mark 12, 28: The question of the Doctor
of the Law. Some time before the question of the Scribe, the discussion was
with the Sadducees concerning faith in the resurrection (Mk 12, 23-27). The
doctor who had participated in the debate, was pleased with Jesus’ answer, he
perceived in it his great intelligence and wishes to profit of this occasion to
ask a question to clarify something: “Which is the greatest commandment of
all?” At that time; the Jews had an enormous amount of norms to regulate the
observance of the Ten Commandments of the Law of God. Some said: “All these
norms have the same value, because they all come from God. It is not up to us
to introduce any distinction in the things of God”. Others said: “Some laws are
more important than others, and for this reason, they oblige more!” The Doctor
wants to know what Jesus thinks.
• Mark 12, 29-31: The response of Jesus.
Jesus responds quoting a passage from the Bible to say that the greatest among
the commandments is “to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind and with all our strength!” (Dt 6, 4-5). At the time of Jesus,
the pious Jews recited this phrase three times a day: in the morning, at noon
and in the evening. It was so well known among them just as the Our Father is
among us. And Jesus adds, quoting the Bible again: “The second one is: You
shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lec 19, 18). There is no other greater
commandment than these two”. A brief but very profound response! It is the
summary of everything that Jesus teaches on God and his life (Mt 7, 12).
• Mark 12, 32-33: The response of the
Doctor of the Law. The doctor agrees with Jesus and concludes: “Well said, to
love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt
offering or sacrifice”. That is, the commandment of love is more important than
the commandments which concern the worship and sacrifices of the Temple. The
Prophets of the Old Testament already had affirmed this (Ho 6, 6; Ps 40, 6-8;
Ps 51, 16-17). Today we would say that the practice of love is more important
than novenas, promises, sermons and processions.
• Mark 12, 34: The summary of the
Kingdom. Jesus confirms the conclusion of the Doctor and says: “You are not far
from the Kingdom of God!”. In fact, the Kingdom of God consists in the union of
two loves: love toward God and love toward neighbour. Because if God is
Father/Mother, we are all brothers and sisters, and we should show this in
practice, living in community. “On these two commandments, depend all the law
and the prophets!” (Mt 22, 40). We, disciples, should keep this law in our
mind, in our intelligence, in our heart, in our hands and feet, which is the
first one, because one cannot reach God without giving oneself totally to one’s
neighbour!.
• Jesus had said to the Doctor of the
law: “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”(Mk 12, 34). The Doctor was
already close, but in order to be able to enter into the Kingdom he had to
still go a step forward. In the Old Testament the criterion of the love toward
neighbour was: “Love the neighbour as yourself”. In the New Testament Jesus
extends the sense of love: “This is my commandment: love one another as I have
loved you! (Jn 15, 12-23). Then the criterion will be “Love the neighbour as
Jesus has loved us”. This is the sure path to be able to live together in a
more just and fraternal way.
4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS
• Which is the most important thing in
religion for you?
• Today, are we closer or farther away
from the Kingdom of God than the Doctor who was praised by Jesus? What do you
think?
5) CONCLUDING PRAYER
Among the gods there is none to compare
with you,
for you are great and do marvellous deeds,
you, God, and none other. (Ps 86,8.10)
for you are great and do marvellous deeds,
you, God, and none other. (Ps 86,8.10)
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