DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Psalm 77:12-16, 21, Matthew 16:24-28
Deuteronomy 4:32-40
My Beloved, in these verses Moses is reminding the people that it was God who chose them from all the nations to be His own. Never in their experience or knowledge has God intervened so powerfully on behalf of the people of any nation either in times past or in the present to rescue His people with such extraordinary signs and wonders. He made Himself known to them. They heard His voice. Never, says Moses, has God gone out to look for a people, claim them for His Own and exercise His power and strength as He rescued them from slavery and bondage in Egypt and lead them to freedom.
This He did in order that they might know that there is only one God whose voice they were privileged to hear because He loved them. All that is required of them in return is to obey God’s commands and they will be assured that all will be well with them and their children.
All that happened in salvation history, magnificent as it was, is just a prelude of what God was preparing to do for all mankind ever since the fall of our first parents. If what God did for the people of Israel was unheard of then, it was but a shadow of what God was going to for us when He sent You into the world to reveal Himself and His love for us. He sent His only begotten Son, His Beloved, His Eternal Word into the world, incarnate of the Virgin Mary to become the Lamb of Sacrifice that would win for Himself all people from every nation, every culture, every language and every race. From the very jaws of death You saved us from eternal death by entering into it and delivering us so we now have the promise of eternal life and joy with God our Father in heaven. There is no god like our God.
Psalm 77:12-16, 21
Awesome and marvelous as it was my Beloved how God led His people out of slavery to freedom it is not as marvelous, awesome and great as our deliverance from the bondage of sin. There is no slavery as degrading and dehumanizing as sin which paralyses the soul and the spirit and there was no way that we could save ourselves. We needed divine intervention. It was always in the plan of God to reveal His love for us which is unmerited and undeserved simply because He loves.
When we look at our past and all the ways in which God came to our help. His mighty intervention on our behalf even to asking You to become the Lamb of Sacrifice as it is the only Sacrifice that could negate the effects of sin that created a chasm between God and us that only You could bridge.
You are the Way the Truth and the Life and You lead us to the Kingdom just as Moses and Aaron led the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the promised land.
Matthew 16:24-28
My Beloved, the value of sacrifice and self denial is priceless it won for us our salvation. We could not save ourselves. We had to be redeemed and the price of that redemption was the life of One who was sinless in order to save the sinful. The Blood of the Lamb of God had to be spilled in atonement for our sins in a bloody, cruel and shameful death for sin is anathema to God.
We flee from suffering, denial of the flesh, self discipline and sacrifice. We would rather wallow in the flesh and attempt to sate its insatiable desires than deny ourselves, take up our daily cross and follow You. The Kingdom of God is full of paradox. We have to lose our life in order to save it. It is only in giving that we receive and if we lose our life we can do nothing to recover it we are doomed eternally, we need a Savior. This is why You came into the world in accordance with the will of the Father and You will come again in His glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead each according to how well we loved.
Deuteronomy 4:32-40
My Beloved, in these verses Moses is reminding the people that it was God who chose them from all the nations to be His own. Never in their experience or knowledge has God intervened so powerfully on behalf of the people of any nation either in times past or in the present to rescue His people with such extraordinary signs and wonders. He made Himself known to them. They heard His voice. Never, says Moses, has God gone out to look for a people, claim them for His Own and exercise His power and strength as He rescued them from slavery and bondage in Egypt and lead them to freedom.
This He did in order that they might know that there is only one God whose voice they were privileged to hear because He loved them. All that is required of them in return is to obey God’s commands and they will be assured that all will be well with them and their children.
All that happened in salvation history, magnificent as it was, is just a prelude of what God was preparing to do for all mankind ever since the fall of our first parents. If what God did for the people of Israel was unheard of then, it was but a shadow of what God was going to for us when He sent You into the world to reveal Himself and His love for us. He sent His only begotten Son, His Beloved, His Eternal Word into the world, incarnate of the Virgin Mary to become the Lamb of Sacrifice that would win for Himself all people from every nation, every culture, every language and every race. From the very jaws of death You saved us from eternal death by entering into it and delivering us so we now have the promise of eternal life and joy with God our Father in heaven. There is no god like our God.
Psalm 77:12-16, 21
Awesome and marvelous as it was my Beloved how God led His people out of slavery to freedom it is not as marvelous, awesome and great as our deliverance from the bondage of sin. There is no slavery as degrading and dehumanizing as sin which paralyses the soul and the spirit and there was no way that we could save ourselves. We needed divine intervention. It was always in the plan of God to reveal His love for us which is unmerited and undeserved simply because He loves.
When we look at our past and all the ways in which God came to our help. His mighty intervention on our behalf even to asking You to become the Lamb of Sacrifice as it is the only Sacrifice that could negate the effects of sin that created a chasm between God and us that only You could bridge.
You are the Way the Truth and the Life and You lead us to the Kingdom just as Moses and Aaron led the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the promised land.
Matthew 16:24-28
My Beloved, the value of sacrifice and self denial is priceless it won for us our salvation. We could not save ourselves. We had to be redeemed and the price of that redemption was the life of One who was sinless in order to save the sinful. The Blood of the Lamb of God had to be spilled in atonement for our sins in a bloody, cruel and shameful death for sin is anathema to God.
We flee from suffering, denial of the flesh, self discipline and sacrifice. We would rather wallow in the flesh and attempt to sate its insatiable desires than deny ourselves, take up our daily cross and follow You. The Kingdom of God is full of paradox. We have to lose our life in order to save it. It is only in giving that we receive and if we lose our life we can do nothing to recover it we are doomed eternally, we need a Savior. This is why You came into the world in accordance with the will of the Father and You will come again in His glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead each according to how well we loved.
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