Wednesday, July 6, 2016
8 Things Catholics Should Do Every Day
8 Things Catholics Should Do Every Day
1. Start the day with prayer, your Bible, and a talk with your Parents or Guardian –
It sounds so simple, yet I don’t understand why some days I can’t seem to “fit” in prayer. Our days need to be centered around this habit.
Make a date of it. Set your cell phone alarm to a time when you can
pray and don’t leave God stranded. Mornings are best, but if it doesn’t
work for you find a time that does. Pull out your Bible and read a line
or two. The daily Mass readings are a great place to start. A goal for
every Catholic is to say the rosary everyday, but some of us are in a
season of life when this isn’t possible. If you can’t do a rosary,
start with at least a Hail Mary and work up to a decade or a chaplet.
“Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvelous light.” – St. John Vianney
2. Smile, Use your Manners, Be kind, Give out hugs.
Have you heard the old Hymn, “They will
know we are Christians by our love, by our love…”? It’s not
necessarily true today. Christians have become just as rude and
inconsiderate as everyone else, sometimes even more so! Let’s reclaim
our Christian love by smiling, letting others go first in line or
helping old ladies cross the street.
“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” – Blessed Mother Teresa
3. Go on Social Media (i.e., communicate!), call a friend, visit a friend
Yes, I know we have a bunch of posts about how social media is overused, but go ahead, use it! However, use it in a way that glorifies God.
Share a scripture with a friend. Check in on an old classmate. Daily
connect with people to build relationships. (Don’t stop there though,
make it a weekly goal to get together in person with a friend or family
member.)
“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” – St. Thomas Aquinas
4. Tell someone you love them and why
I don’t know anyone who has ever gotten
tired of hearing they are loved. It’s even better when they are given a
list of reasons why! Whether it is your parents, siblings, or your own
children, make it a daily habit to tell at least one person in your life
how much you love them.
“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.” -St. Francis de Sales
5. Talk about God
Make God a part of your whole day, not
just your prayer time. Bring Him into conversations with friends,
family, even co-workers if you can. We talk about things we love –
movies, restaurants, people… but we often fail to talk about God in the
same way.
“But this does not mean that we should postpone the evangelizing mission; rather, each of us should find ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are. All of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love of the Lord, who despite our imperfections offers us his closeness, his word and his strength, and gives meaning to our lives.” – Pope Francis
6. Sacrifice something
It’s so important that we learn to make
daily sacrifices and offer them up to the Lord. It doesn’t have to be
anything crazy. Eat bread with no butter. Turn off the radio and drive
in silence. It’s the little things that cultivate our holiness and help
us to overcome our attachment to things of the world.
“There is no place for selfishness—and no place for fear! Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice.” – Saint Pope John Paul II
7. Serve in some way
Look for a way to serve someone
everyday. Again, this doesn’t have to be something major like heading to
Africa on service trip. It can be doing the dishes for your mom,
paying for a stranger’s coffee, or picking up garbage as you walk down
the street. Don’t let a day go by in which you did not do something for someone else.
“You know that our Lord does not look at the greatness or difficulty of our action, but at the love with which you do it. What, then, have you to fear?” – St. Therese of the Child Jesus
8. Reflect on your day
At the end of every day, take a few minutes to think back over the day. An examination of conscience
is a great way to do this. Is there someone you need to forgive? Is
there someone you need to seek forgiveness from? Think about the ways in
which the Lord provided for you and be thankful for His many blessings.
Thank Him! Ask yourself, did I move closer to or further from God
through my actions today? How can I do better tomorrow?
“You must strive with all possible care to please God in such a manner as neither to do nor behold anything, without first consulting Him, and in everything to seek Him alone and His glory.” – St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
For your weekly and monthly planning:
Every Week:
– go to Mass on Sunday (and more frequently if you can through the week)
– go to Adoration
– meet with a friend in person and/or go on a date with your spouse
– tithe
Every Month:
– go to Confession
– do some type of ministry (help with a youth group, serve in a soup kitchen, etc)
– read a spiritual book
– meet with a spiritual mentor
Every Year:
– Go on a Retreat
from: http://catholic-link.org/2016/02/26/8-things-every-catholic-should-be-doing-every-day/?utm_content=buffer512bb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Feast of Mary Help of Christians
HAPPY FEAST DAY!
MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS!
TULOY SA DON BOSCO
May 22, 2015 (Friday)
MASS - #8:30 AM
Celebrant: Rev. Fr. Rocky Evangelista, SDB
CONFIRMATION - #4:30 PM
Celebrant: HE Most Rev. Bishop Jesse Mercado, D.D.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
UPDATED POST: PROTESTANT TONY PALMER RECEIVES CATHOLIC REQUIEM MASS AND POPE FRANCIS INSISTS 'HE BE BURIED AS A BISHOP'
On February 28 2014, one year to the day of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, Bishop Tony Palmer released on the Ark Community website a video called 'The Miracle of Unity Has Begun – Bishop Tony Palmer & Pope Francis'. We have decided to post the last seven minutes of the original thirty-two minute long monologue. Underneath the video we typed the actual transcript, followed by our reflections and Jesus Christ's prophetic Words given to Maria Divine Mercy.
We ask you to please, pay attention to all that Tony Palmer says in the following clip:
Transcript of Tony Palmer's words on changing the meaning of the Eucharist
"I hope you were blessed with what you've just seen and heard. I want to close the video with a couple of reflections just so we don't miss what Pope Francis just said and also a challenge. Hearing is not enough. We must act. We must keep up with the spirit of God and ride this wave of the tsunami. Firstly, it's both historic and healing to hear a Roman Pontiff refer to as brothers and sisters. Pope Francis is the head of 1.2 billion Christians and he embraced us into his family as brothers and his sisters and calls us to put an end to our separation. He mentions in his video that he is yearning to see an end of our separation. Pope Francis himself is the one who is asking us for full unity and full communion. What is striking is that he awakens us to the fact that the real communion is not the bread, but the brother. When he uses his story about the brothers of Joseph, because of their hunger, starvation in fact, they were then propelled to Egypt to go find bread to eat. But, they found something more than bread, they found their brother. And, this, Pope Francis is saying, this is what we find in the true communion. We find each other. We find our brotherhood. We find our brother and our sister that we thought we'd lost. When we look for bread, which we think we need, we are going to find our brother, which is what we really need. We need to find that we are brothers and sisters again. We, who are not Roman Catholics, are hungry for the bread of communion. But, Pope Francis tells us again that the bread is secondary to brotherhood. The real gift of communion is finding our brother. For those of use who have ears to hear, let us hear, because this is both profound and revolutionary. Pope Francis is calling us into an authentic communion based on the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, not communion through our common traditions. This is a new way forward. And, for many of us, this is the way we have been waiting for. We must seize this moment".
BRIEF ANALYSIS:
These words are shocking in terms of doctrinal changes as they truly represent a clear, decisive and imposing threat to tradition and truth. So extreme is the radical nature of Tony Palmer's speech that a person's subconscious mind is almost instinctively led to suppress it. This social-religious engineering can easily be perceived as appealing to our frail and conditioned minds, especially when charmingly masked by humanism and directed towards unity, equality, brotherhood, human rights, love and peace. We must understand that Satan will always use these righteous words to accomplish the exact opposite results. While he will never present himself as a dark monster of no seductive glare, he certainly knows how to nurture men's ego through great ambitious ideas and in the name of universal freedom, peace and love.
In the meantime, as the infiltrated elite is spreading such falsities, God is on the move through the continuous spread of truth. Indeed, Tony Palmer's shocking monologue comes to no surprise for those who have been following God's Prophecies given to Maria Divine Mercy on the www.thewarningsecondcoming.com website. These are the Words of the Mother of Salvation, the Woman who will crush the serpent's proud cranium:
~It will not suffice that they, the enemies of Christ, take over my Son’s Church from within – they will desecrate Him in many other ways. They will change the hosts for Holy Communion and the meaning of what the Holy Eucharist is. They will say that It, the Holy Eucharist, represents humanity and that it is a sign of a new communion – a gathering of all people as one in the Eyes of God. You, my children, will be told that you are all in communion with each other and that this is a cause for celebration. The Holy Communion is the Body of Christ and is His Real Presence. It cannot be two different things. Yet, they will twist the meaning – all you will be left with, eventually, will be a piece of bread, for when they desecrate the altars and the Most Holy Host, my Son’s Presence will cease ~ Mother of Salvation's message from Thursday, September 5th, 2013 – www.thewarningsecondcoming.com
Her words are of absolute precision. It is all written in THE BOOK OF TRUTH. Nothing can escape the vigilant Eye of the True God.
Here below is yet another quote from one of Jesus Christ's messages given to Maria Divine Mercy in regards to the Eucharist's intrinsic change that will soon take place in the Catholic Church:
~ When they tell you that My Body means something other than My physical Body, know then that the holy communion, which you will receive, will not be of Me. You must never allow them to change the meaning of the Holy Eucharist. It will only be when the Holy Eucharist is abolished completely that the antichrist will enter My Church and take over it ~
Jesus' message from Saturday, March 15th, 2014 – www.thewarningsecondcoming.com
To read all messages and quotes -from THE WARNING SECOND COMING- regarding the HOLY EUCHARIST, click here
7/21/2014 Update:
Tony Palmer Dies on July 20, 2014
On Friday, July 19, 2014 at 7:14 AM (local UK time), the WILD VOICE posted the following clip and article on its Blog and on its Official Facebook Page for the first time. The following day, on July 20, 2014, Tony Palmer lost his life in a tragic motorcycle accident in the UK.
Needless to say, we all have felt the impact of this most strange time connection (which surpassed all coincidence).
It is with shock and grief that we just learned about his tragic death. We pray for him as well as for his wife and two children who are mourning at this time.
8/24/2014 Update:
Tony Palmer funeral: Protestant Tony Palmer Receives Catholic Requiem Mass
Report: Pope Francis insists he be "Buried as a Bishop"
“Father David told us that because Tony [Palmer] was not a Roman Catholic he had to ask his bishop’s permission to celebrate the requiem and though Tony’s wife and children are Roman Catholics, permission still had to be given for the requiem. The bishop agreed but said that Tony could not be buried as a bishop as he was not a Roman Catholic bishop. However, Pope Francis said he should and could be buried as a bishop, and so that put an end to that little bit of ecclesiastical nonsense!”
The above was written on August 6 by Michael Daly, CJ, a member of the “non-denominational Franciscan” group called the Companions of Jesus, based in the UK.
Michael Daly attended the Requiem Mass celebrated at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in the city of Bath by Canon David Ryan. Tony Palmer was an evangelical, Pentecostal Episcopalian “bishop” who was a close friend and collaborator with Pope Francis. Palmer was killed in a head-on motorcycle accident…
(read the whole article here – Catholic Family News)
http://thewildvoice.org/pope-francis-tony-palmer-change-eucharist/
On February 28 2014, one year to the day of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, Bishop Tony Palmer released on the Ark Community website a video called 'The Miracle of Unity Has Begun – Bishop Tony Palmer & Pope Francis'. We have decided to post the last seven minutes of the original thirty-two minute long monologue. Underneath the video we typed the actual transcript, followed by our reflections and Jesus Christ's prophetic Words given to Maria Divine Mercy.
We ask you to please, pay attention to all that Tony Palmer says in the following clip:
Transcript of Tony Palmer's words on changing the meaning of the Eucharist
"I hope you were blessed with what you've just seen and heard. I want to close the video with a couple of reflections just so we don't miss what Pope Francis just said and also a challenge. Hearing is not enough. We must act. We must keep up with the spirit of God and ride this wave of the tsunami. Firstly, it's both historic and healing to hear a Roman Pontiff refer to as brothers and sisters. Pope Francis is the head of 1.2 billion Christians and he embraced us into his family as brothers and his sisters and calls us to put an end to our separation. He mentions in his video that he is yearning to see an end of our separation. Pope Francis himself is the one who is asking us for full unity and full communion. What is striking is that he awakens us to the fact that the real communion is not the bread, but the brother. When he uses his story about the brothers of Joseph, because of their hunger, starvation in fact, they were then propelled to Egypt to go find bread to eat. But, they found something more than bread, they found their brother. And, this, Pope Francis is saying, this is what we find in the true communion. We find each other. We find our brotherhood. We find our brother and our sister that we thought we'd lost. When we look for bread, which we think we need, we are going to find our brother, which is what we really need. We need to find that we are brothers and sisters again. We, who are not Roman Catholics, are hungry for the bread of communion. But, Pope Francis tells us again that the bread is secondary to brotherhood. The real gift of communion is finding our brother. For those of use who have ears to hear, let us hear, because this is both profound and revolutionary. Pope Francis is calling us into an authentic communion based on the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, not communion through our common traditions. This is a new way forward. And, for many of us, this is the way we have been waiting for. We must seize this moment".
BRIEF ANALYSIS:
These words are shocking in terms of doctrinal changes as they truly represent a clear, decisive and imposing threat to tradition and truth. So extreme is the radical nature of Tony Palmer's speech that a person's subconscious mind is almost instinctively led to suppress it. This social-religious engineering can easily be perceived as appealing to our frail and conditioned minds, especially when charmingly masked by humanism and directed towards unity, equality, brotherhood, human rights, love and peace. We must understand that Satan will always use these righteous words to accomplish the exact opposite results. While he will never present himself as a dark monster of no seductive glare, he certainly knows how to nurture men's ego through great ambitious ideas and in the name of universal freedom, peace and love.
In the meantime, as the infiltrated elite is spreading such falsities, God is on the move through the continuous spread of truth. Indeed, Tony Palmer's shocking monologue comes to no surprise for those who have been following God's Prophecies given to Maria Divine Mercy on the www.thewarningsecondcoming.com website. These are the Words of the Mother of Salvation, the Woman who will crush the serpent's proud cranium:
~It will not suffice that they, the enemies of Christ, take over my Son’s Church from within – they will desecrate Him in many other ways. They will change the hosts for Holy Communion and the meaning of what the Holy Eucharist is. They will say that It, the Holy Eucharist, represents humanity and that it is a sign of a new communion – a gathering of all people as one in the Eyes of God. You, my children, will be told that you are all in communion with each other and that this is a cause for celebration. The Holy Communion is the Body of Christ and is His Real Presence. It cannot be two different things. Yet, they will twist the meaning – all you will be left with, eventually, will be a piece of bread, for when they desecrate the altars and the Most Holy Host, my Son’s Presence will cease ~ Mother of Salvation's message from Thursday, September 5th, 2013 – www.thewarningsecondcoming.com
Her words are of absolute precision. It is all written in THE BOOK OF TRUTH. Nothing can escape the vigilant Eye of the True God.
Here below is yet another quote from one of Jesus Christ's messages given to Maria Divine Mercy in regards to the Eucharist's intrinsic change that will soon take place in the Catholic Church:
~ When they tell you that My Body means something other than My physical Body, know then that the holy communion, which you will receive, will not be of Me. You must never allow them to change the meaning of the Holy Eucharist. It will only be when the Holy Eucharist is abolished completely that the antichrist will enter My Church and take over it ~
Jesus' message from Saturday, March 15th, 2014 – www.thewarningsecondcoming.com
To read all messages and quotes -from THE WARNING SECOND COMING- regarding the HOLY EUCHARIST, click here
7/21/2014 Update:
Tony Palmer Dies on July 20, 2014
On Friday, July 19, 2014 at 7:14 AM (local UK time), the WILD VOICE posted the following clip and article on its Blog and on its Official Facebook Page for the first time. The following day, on July 20, 2014, Tony Palmer lost his life in a tragic motorcycle accident in the UK.
Needless to say, we all have felt the impact of this most strange time connection (which surpassed all coincidence).
It is with shock and grief that we just learned about his tragic death. We pray for him as well as for his wife and two children who are mourning at this time.
8/24/2014 Update:
Tony Palmer funeral: Protestant Tony Palmer Receives Catholic Requiem Mass
Report: Pope Francis insists he be "Buried as a Bishop"
“Father David told us that because Tony [Palmer] was not a Roman Catholic he had to ask his bishop’s permission to celebrate the requiem and though Tony’s wife and children are Roman Catholics, permission still had to be given for the requiem. The bishop agreed but said that Tony could not be buried as a bishop as he was not a Roman Catholic bishop. However, Pope Francis said he should and could be buried as a bishop, and so that put an end to that little bit of ecclesiastical nonsense!”
The above was written on August 6 by Michael Daly, CJ, a member of the “non-denominational Franciscan” group called the Companions of Jesus, based in the UK.
Michael Daly attended the Requiem Mass celebrated at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in the city of Bath by Canon David Ryan. Tony Palmer was an evangelical, Pentecostal Episcopalian “bishop” who was a close friend and collaborator with Pope Francis. Palmer was killed in a head-on motorcycle accident…
(read the whole article here – Catholic Family News)
http://thewildvoice.org/pope-francis-tony-palmer-change-eucharist/
The article above is about the changes that the Catholic Church will bring in...
thewildvoice.org
Lectio:
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
help us to seek the values
that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
help us to seek the values
that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 23,23-26
Jesus said: 'Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and
cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law-justice,
mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, those not neglected.
You blind guides, straining out gnats and swallowing camels!
'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and the outside are both clean.
'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and the outside are both clean.
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today presents two other
times that this expression was used: ‘Alas for you...’ when Jesus speaks
against the religious leaders of his time. The two ‘Alas for you...’ of
today denounce the lack of coherence between word and attitude, between
exterior and interior. Today we continue our reflection which we begun
yesterday.
• Matthew 23, 23-24: The fifth ‘Alas for you...’ against those who insist on the observance and forget mercy. You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy and fidelity”. This fifth ‘Alas for you...’ of Jesus is against the religious leaders of that time and can be repeated against many religious of the following century even up to our time. Many times, in the name of Jesus, we insist on details and we forget mercy. For example, Jansenism reduces lived faith to something arid, insisting on the observance and penance which led people away from the way of love. The Carmelite Sister Teresa of Lisieux grew in the Jansenism environment which marked France at the end of the XIX century. Beginning from a personal painful experience, she knew how to recover the gratuity of love of God, a force which should animate the observance of the norms from within; because without love, the observance makes an idol of God.
• Matthew 23, 25-26: The sixth ‘Alas for you...’ against those who clean things on the outside and are dirty inside. “You clean the outside of the cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. In the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus criticises those who observe the letter of the Law and transgress the spirit of the Law. He says: "You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill, and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say to you anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court. Anyone who calls his brother ‘Fool’ will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him ‘Traitor’ will answer for it in hell fire. You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5, 21-22. 27-28). It is not sufficient to observe the letter of the Law. It is not sufficient not to kill, not to rob, not to commit adultery, not to swear in order to be faithful to what God asks of us. The one who observes fully the Law of God is the one who, besides observing the letter, goes deeply to the root and pulls out from within “the desires of extortion and intemperance” which may lead to murder, theft, and adultery. The fullness of the law is realized in the practice of love.
• Matthew 23, 23-24: The fifth ‘Alas for you...’ against those who insist on the observance and forget mercy. You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy and fidelity”. This fifth ‘Alas for you...’ of Jesus is against the religious leaders of that time and can be repeated against many religious of the following century even up to our time. Many times, in the name of Jesus, we insist on details and we forget mercy. For example, Jansenism reduces lived faith to something arid, insisting on the observance and penance which led people away from the way of love. The Carmelite Sister Teresa of Lisieux grew in the Jansenism environment which marked France at the end of the XIX century. Beginning from a personal painful experience, she knew how to recover the gratuity of love of God, a force which should animate the observance of the norms from within; because without love, the observance makes an idol of God.
• Matthew 23, 25-26: The sixth ‘Alas for you...’ against those who clean things on the outside and are dirty inside. “You clean the outside of the cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. In the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus criticises those who observe the letter of the Law and transgress the spirit of the Law. He says: "You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill, and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say to you anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court. Anyone who calls his brother ‘Fool’ will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him ‘Traitor’ will answer for it in hell fire. You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5, 21-22. 27-28). It is not sufficient to observe the letter of the Law. It is not sufficient not to kill, not to rob, not to commit adultery, not to swear in order to be faithful to what God asks of us. The one who observes fully the Law of God is the one who, besides observing the letter, goes deeply to the root and pulls out from within “the desires of extortion and intemperance” which may lead to murder, theft, and adultery. The fullness of the law is realized in the practice of love.
4) Personal questions
• There are two expressions of ‘Alas
for you...’ two reasons to receive the criticism from Jesus. Which of
these two applies to me?
• Observance and gratuity: Which of these applies to me?
• Observance and gratuity: Which of these applies to me?
5) Concluding Prayer
Proclaim God’s salvation day after day,
declare his glory among the nations,
his marvels to every people! (Ps 96,2-3)
declare his glory among the nations,
his marvels to every people! (Ps 96,2-3)
Monday, August 25, 2014
Lectio Divina- August 25, 2014
Lectio:
Monday, August 25, 2014
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
help us to seek the values
that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
help us to seek the values
that will bring us enduring joy in this changing world.
In our desire for what you promise
make us one in mind and heart.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 23,13-22
Jesus Said: 'Alas for
you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of
Heaven in people's faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing
others to go who want to.
'Alas for you, scribes
and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a
single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for
hell as you are.
'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound." Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound." You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred? Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing by that and by everything on it. And someone who swears by the Temple is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it. And someone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.
'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound." Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound." You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred? Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing by that and by everything on it. And someone who swears by the Temple is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it. And someone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.
3) Reflection
• During the next three
days, we will meditate on the discourse pronounced by Jesus in which he
criticizes the doctors of the Law and the Pharisees, calling them
hypocrites. In today’s Gospel (Mt 23, 13-22), Jesus pronounces against
them four times the expression “Alas for you...” (Mt 23, 23-26), and in
the Gospel of day after tomorrow, he uses this same expression two
other times (Mt 23, 27-32). These are expressions against the religious
heads of the times and these are very hard words. In meditating them, I
should not only think of the doctors and the Pharisees of the time of
Jesus, but also, and above all in the hypocrisy found in me, in us, in
our family, in the community, in our Church, in today’s society. Let us
look into the mirror of the text to discover the errors in ourselves.
• Matthew 23, 13: The
first “Alas for you...” against those who close the door of the
Kingdom because in this way you will not enter and, you do not even let
those who want to enter. How do they close the Kingdom? They do
it by presenting God as a severe judge, leaving very little space for
the mercy of God; by imposing, in the name of God, laws and norms which
have nothing to do with the commandments of God, by presenting a false
image of the Kingdom and by killing the desire to serve God and the
Kingdom. A community which organizes itself around this false god “does
not enter into the Kingdom”, and it is not even an expression of the
Kingdom, and prevents its members from entering into the Kingdom.
• Matthew 23, 14: The
second ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who use religion to enrich
themselves. You devour the property of widows, though you make a show
of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence you receive
because of this”. Jesus allows the disciples to live the Gospel,
because he says that the labourer has the right to his salary (Lk 10,7;
cf. 1 Co 9, 13-14), but to use prayer and religion as a means to
enrich themselves, that is hypocrisy and does not reveal the Good News
of God. It transforms religion into a market. Jesus drives out the
merchants from the Temple (Mk 11, 15-19) quoting the prophet Jeremiah: “My house will be called a House of Prayer for all people; but you have turned it into a bandits’ den!” (Mk
11, 17; cf. Is 56, 7; Jr 7, 11). When Simon the magician wanted to buy
the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter curses him (Ac 8, 18-24). Simon
received the “most severe condemnation” of which Jesus speaks about in
the Gospel today.
• Matthew 23, 15: The third expression of ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who do proselytism you
travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who
becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.” There are
persons who become missionaries and proclaim the Gospel not to radiate
the Good News, but to attract persons for their group and their church.
John once prohibited a person to use the name of Jesus because he was
not part of his group. Jesus answered: “Do not prohibit him, because anyone who is not against us is for us (Mk 9, 39). The
document of the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America,
which was held in March 2008 in Aparecida, Brazil, bears the title: “Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that our people may have life in Him”. That is, the
purpose of the mission is not to do in such a way that people become
Catholic, but rather that people may have life, and life in abundance.
• Matthew 23, 16-22: The
fourth ‘Alas for you...’ is against those who swear. “You say, if
anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force, but anyone who swears by
the gold of the Temple is bound”. Jesus makes a long disquisition
to show the incoherence of so many oaths that people made or that the
official religion ordered to take: to swear for the gold of the Temple
or for the offering which was on the altar. The teaching of Jesus given
in the Sermon on the Mountain is the best commentary of today’s
Gospel: “But I tell you do not swear at all, either by heaven since
that is God’s throne, or by earth, since that is his footstool, or for
Jerusalem since that is the city of the great King. Do not swear by
your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or
black. All you need say is Yes if you mean yes, No, if you mean No;
anything more than this comes from the Evil One” (Mt 5, 34-37).
4) Personal questions
• ‘Alas for you...’, is
said four times; four reasons to receive a severe criticism from Jesus.
Which of these four criticisms refers to me?
• Does our Church today deserve these ‘Alas for you...’ from Jesus?
• Does our Church today deserve these ‘Alas for you...’ from Jesus?
5) Concluding Prayer
Sing a new song to Yahweh!
Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!
Sing to Yahweh, bless his name!
Proclaim his salvation day after day. (Ps 96,1-2)
Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!
Sing to Yahweh, bless his name!
Proclaim his salvation day after day. (Ps 96,1-2)
(Thanks to Order of Carmelites for the Lectio Divina- its sustain our spiritual life).
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