Leviticus 25:1, 8-17, Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8, Matthew 14:1-12

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Leviticus 25:1, 8-17, Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8, Matthew 14:1-12

Leviticus 25:1, 8-17

My Beloved, there is no joy or peace unless there is perfect harmony between people and with God. The year of the jubilee was a time when people could experience a blessed time of fellowship between each other. It was an experience that would perhaps carry forward, and if in the course of time it faded, then in the next jubilee year, the new generation could experience it again. It is a foretaste of heaven when brothers live in love and friendship with God and with each other.

Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8

My Beloved, if we lived according to Your Word, faithful to its command in all things, then we could live always in joy, peace and harmony. But because of sin, there can never be perfect peace in this life for the devil and his minions sow seeds of dissension. However, there is hope for all who believe and who strive constantly to be faithful to the mission that has been conferred to us to live the Gospel as we take it with us wherever we are thus gaining many souls for Your Kingdom.

Matthew 14:1-12

My Beloved, those who live in sin and desire to continue doing so are resentful and angry when their wrongdoing is pointed out to them. They would rather pretend or ignore their sinfulness. Herod preferred to ignore his sin, not so Herodias this is why she hated John the Baptist for he dared to call Herod’s sin to his face and in public so they could not make a pretense of respectability. They were both adulterers and John the Baptist let them and the world know it.

Often we are scared to let public figures, those with power and prestige to tell them that they are wrong and perhaps gravely so. We pussyfoot, gingerly tiptoeing around their sins afraid to cause offense and perhaps lost their favor.

Speaking the truth boldly cost St. John the Baptist imprisonment and eventually his life.

Matthew refers to Herodias’ daughter as girl not as woman which means she was young and so was easily manipulated by her mother. The greater sin lay with the mother and not the foolish, young girl who willfully flaunted herself to entice Herod and thus shame herself. The adults were the more serious offender. Hep us Lord to guard our young faithfully and not mislead them in evil ways.