obedience Archives - Daily Mass Meditations

June 5, 2018June 5, 2018

Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

Coins play a varied role in the scriptures. We can think of the woman who lost a coin and then found it and had a celebration with her friends. There is the widow who put one small coin into the offering, which was more than anyone else with large sums. There are those who received talents and earned talents with them. The one who buried his talent in the ground and was reprimanded. When asked if Jesus pays the temple tax, He sends Peter to catch a fish in which he finds the coin he needs to pay the tax. Judas keeps the purse with the coins, he betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Coins represented a value decided upon by the local government – in those times they were typically made of some kind of metal and therefore had some kind of intrinsic value. Today, sometimes, the intrinsic value of our coins is greater than the value they represent. It costs more than a cent to mint a penny, and the metal it is made of is also worth more than a cent. read more

May 29, 2018May 29, 2018

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus showed us the dangers of riches and the difficulty involved in not becoming attached to wealth. Today’s Gospel further cautions us against inventing an easy temporal explanation for how things will be. For Peter and the Apostles who “gave up everything to follow Christ,” Christ tells them that they will receive even more back already in this life. How absurdly paradoxical! Giving up everything then receiving one hundredfold back. Jesus doesn’t say, “become poor so that you can remain poor.” It isn’t that simple. Nor does He say, “Give up your material possessions and wealth so that you will have a spiritual one instead.” Here Jesus says, “Whoever gives up possessions in this life will receive one hundredfold in this life and eternal life in the next.” You almost want to call the rich young man back and tell him, “Hey! If you give it all up you will receive it all back one hundredfold!” Since the point is not about whether or not we have wealth (though having it is more difficult than not) it is better for those who have given all to follow Christ to learn how to use wealth well when it returns a hundredfold. This is what stewardship is all about: we must begin to see everything we have, all our resources and relationships, as gifts from God to be used according to His good will and pleasure as opposed to our own selfish desires. read more

May 22, 2018May 22, 2018

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

We know how important humility is, but sometimes the only way we know of to grow in humility is by accepting humiliations. There is actually a much more evangelical way to grow in humility shown by the Virgin Mary and recommended by Jesus Himself: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, “Whoever would be greatest among you must become the servant of all.” Service is the evangelical way of humility.

As with everything in the Christian life however, it is not so much what we do as how we do what we do. The one who truly becomes a servant becomes the friend of Jesus: “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” The one condition of friendship, the how of our service, is the commandment of Christ, “…you are my friends if you do what I command you… this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” How do we serve authentically? By serving with Christlike love. read more

Daily Readings

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
by USCCB on November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am
Reading Rv 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!Blessed be the LORD, my rock,who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!My mercy and my fortress,my stronghold, my deliverer,My shield, in whom I trust,who subdues my people under me.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!O God, I will sing a new song to you;with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,You who give victory to kings,and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 20:27-40 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Readings for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, priest and martyrReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Columban, abbotReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Clement I, pope and martyr - - - Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Tag: obedience

Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

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