Welcome to my blog.
Yesterday we celebrated in the Catholic Church
the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
That is a feast celebrating the boundless love of
God for all human beings. His love had him become a man and live among us. One of
us, he lived the same kind of life as we do. He had no charmed life, but
suffered like us – rejected by the leaders, betrayed by his companion, denied
by his closest friend, abandoned by the people he had served, cruelly tortured
and ignominiously killed on a cross as a public spectacle. This is how God shows
his love. But, he triumphed. He rose again and is with us still. He proclaims: come
to me all who labour and are overburdened. I will give you rest.
Today we remember and honour his Blessed Mother,
the perfect disciple and follower of Jesus, her Son. Others may lose faith in
him, forget his teaching, deny him, and leave him, but not she. She pondered
his Words in her heart, was his true handmaid, and among the jeering leaders
and crowd and inhuman soldiers, she stood publicly by his side as he suffered
and died on the Cross. Her heart was pure and belonged to him. And so, we rightfully honour her and ask her
to pray for us sinners, as she prayed in Cana.
Saturday 20
June 2020
The Memorial
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
My heart will
rejoice in your salvation
Ps 12: 6
My heart will
rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing
to the Lord, who has been bountiful with me.
____________________
Collect
Father in
heaven, you prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit
in the Heart
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
graciously
grant that through her intercession
our hearts
may be a worthy temple of your glory.
We make our
prayer through your Son, Christ our Lord.
First reading (This reading follows the Bible sequence of the Church,
rather than a special one for the memorial of the Blessed Virgin)
2 Chronicles 24:17-25
They murdered Zechariah between the sanctuary and the altar (Matthew
23:35).
After the
death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to King Joash, and
the king then listened to them. They forsook the temple of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and
began to serve the sacred poles and the idols; and because of this crime of
theirs, wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem. Although prophets were sent to
them to convert them to the Lord,
the people would not listen to their warnings. Then the Spirit of God possessed
Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He took his stand above the people and
said to them: “God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the Lord’s commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you
have abandoned the Lord, he has
abandoned you.’” But they conspired against him, and at the king’s order they
stoned him to death in the court of the Lord’s
temple. Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him by Jehoiada,
Zechariah’s father, and slew his son. And as Zechariah was dying, he said,“(May
the Lord see and avenge.”
At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came
up against Joash. They invaded Judah and Jerusalem, did away with all the
princes of the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though
the Aramean force came with few men, the Lord
surrendered a very large force into their power, because Judah had abandoned
the Lord, the God of their
fathers. So punishment was meted out to Joash. After the Arameans had departed
from him, leaving him in grievous suffering, his servants conspired against him
because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest. He was buried in the
City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. THE WORD OF THE LORD
Prayerful reflection
Both the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem and
the northern kingdom with its capital in Samaria were small kingdoms surrounded
by powerful pagan kingdoms. Their security and future depended on their faith in
God. Jehoiada was a priest loyal to Yahweh. He had saved Joash when only a
small child from being killed by Athalia, the mother of the dead Azariah. He
had had him hidden in the temple unknown to the usurper of the throne of Judah,
Athalia. However, when he was old enough, he had managed to have Joash
proclaimed as true king of Judah. Athalia was executed and Joash began his
reign. As long as Jehoiada the priest lived, Joash was faithful to Yahweh, but
after his death at the instigation of the princes of Judah he apostatized.
He began to worship the pagan gods and idols. For all this there were
political considerations. They needed gods who were visible and they were
looking for ways to survive with such deadly and hostile neighbours.
The prophet Zechariah condemns the apostasy, saying as all the
prophets will proclaim, that safety lies with true and faithful worship of God,
Yahweh. For this he is punished. Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada who had put
Joash on the throne. Joash was the one who ordered the death of Jehoiada’s son,
Zechariah.
The teaching of the prophets and the Bible is that fidelity to God is
the way to ultimate security. The kings of Israel and of Judah will abandon their
faith in Yahweh. Both kingdoms will be
destroyed. The northern kingdom will be wiped of the map of history without
trace. Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed but will revive again to make way
for the Messiah.
In your struggles in life, are
you able to listen to the prophets of the Old Testament, that ultimate safety
lies in total fidelity to God, seen in the Lord Jesus. The kings of Israel and
Judah forsook the religion of Abraham and Moses and perished. Can you believe,
in practice, that it is only through true devotion to Jesus that your life will
reach its goal? Or are you tempted to put faith in money, and power? Do you trust
in God or yourself?
Psalm
Psalm 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34
For ever I will
maintain my love for my servant.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
For ever I will
maintain my love for my servant.
“Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
I will make his posterity endure forever
and his throne as the days of heaven.”
For ever I will
maintain my love for my servant.
“If his sons forsake my law
and walk not according to my ordinances,
If they violate my statutes
and keep not my commands.”
For ever I will
maintain my love for my servant.
“I will punish their crime with a rod
and their guilt with stripes.
Yet my mercy I will not take from him,
nor will I belie my faithfulness.”
For ever I will
maintain my love for my servant.
Luke 2:19
Alleluia,
alleluia.
Blessed is
the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God
and pondered
it in her heart.
Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 2:41-51
His mother kept all these things in her heart.
Each year
Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was
twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had
completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in
Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three
days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were
astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they
were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to
us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he
said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in
my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went
down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother
kept all these things in her heart. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD
Prayerful
reflection
All human beings have to grow and develop. Likewise, both Jesus and
Mary. Jesus is a boy of twelve years of age. Like every boy of that age, he may
do his own thing and not realise how much trouble and anxiety he has given to
his parents. As a young boy, like so many others, he must have felt the stirrings
of a vocation to serve God. In his spirituality, he experienced a special
closeness to God, as Father. This is not uncommon. He needed, however, to learn
that doing one’s duty is the first requirement of serving God. So, when his
mother corrects him, he goes down with them to Nazareth and obeys them. In this,
he is a model for us.
Mary, too, is our model. Jesus is her life. She lives for him. Do you?
Do I? She cannot see him anywhere. Neither can we. She is distraught and goes
and searches for him. Do you search for him until you find him? She did. It took
her and Joseph, three days. They found him in the Temple. We will find him in
the Holy Eucharist – both in the celebration of the Eucharist and the Eucharist
preserved in the tabernacle. He may not be visible to our naked eye, but very
visible to our eye of faith. He never goes away.
He spoke to his Mother enigmatic words. She didn’t understand. She pondered
his words in her heart, meditating and praying until she understood. His words
guided her life. We too must ponder his words, spoken to us through the Bible. They
must guide our lives too.
Mary is the Mother of God. That is God’s gift to her. She is the
perfect disciple of Jesus and that is her gift to us.
How is she the perfect disciple? She listened to the Gospel proclaimed
by the Angel. She accepted it wholeheartedly, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done unto me as you have said’. She lives out the Gospel in her life,
pondering it always. She proclaims it to Elizabeth. She refuses nothing asked of
her by God. She lets her Son go to fulfil his ministry and does not cling on to
him as her own. Yet she is faithful to him and his wishes. She stands faithful by
the Cross and stands with the unfaithful disciples in the upper room praying
with them and for them to receive the Spirit of God. She was with his Church at
its birth and she is with his Church today.
Do you love and honour her as Jesus did? Do you ask her to pray for
you as she prayed for the disciples in the upper room? Will you ask her, to
request Jesus to turn your water into wine?
Lk 2: 19
Mary
treasured all these words,
reflecting on
them in her heart.
Prayer
Father, you
have made us sharers in your saving grace
and so we
pray,
that we who
remember the Mother of your Son,
may share
fully in your love
and grow
closer to you.
We make our
prayer through your Son,
Christ our
Lord.
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