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Today's Readings And Reflections by kennyify88: 5:52am On Mar 08, 2021 |
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Monday, March 8, 2021
Weekday of Lent 3
Today’s Rosary: Joyful Mystery
SAINT JOHN OF GOD, Religious
FIRST READING
“There were many lepers in Israel, but none
was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
A reading from the second Book of Kings (2
kings 5:1-15a)
In those days: Naaman, commander of the
army of the king of Syria, was a great man
with his master and in high favour, because
by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.
He was a mighty man of valour, but he was
a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their
raids had carried off a little maid from the
land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman’s
wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that
my Lord were with the prophet who is in
Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
So Naaman went in and told his Lord, “Thus
and so spoke the maiden from the land of
Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now,
and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
So he went, taking with him ten talents of
silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten
festal garments. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, which read, “When this
letter reaches you, know that I have sent to
you Naaman my servant, that you may cure
him of his leprosy.” And when the king of
Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and
said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that
this man sends word to me to cure a man of
his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he
is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when
Elisha the man of God heard that the king of
Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the
king, saying, “Why have you torn your
clothes? Let him come to me, that he may
know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So
Naaman came with his horses and chariots,
and halted at the door of Elisha’s house. And
Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go
and wash in the Jordan seven times, and
your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be
clean.” But Naaman was angry, and went
away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he
would surely come to me, and stand, and call
on the name of the Lord his God, and wave
his hand over the place, and cure the leper.
Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be
clean?” So he turned and went away in a
rage. But his servants came near and said to
him, “My father, if the prophet had
commanded you to do some great thing,
would you not have done it? How much
rather, then, when he says to you, ’wash and
be clean’?” So he went down and dipped
himself seven times in the Jordan, according
to the word of the man of God; and his flesh
was restored like the flesh of a little child,
and he went clean. Then he returned to the
man of God, he and all his company, and he
came and stood before him; and he said,
“Behold, I know that there is no God in all
the earth but in Israel.”
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 42:2.3; 43: 3.4
(R. 42:3)
R/. My soul is thirsting for God, the living
God.
When can I enter and appear before the
face of God?
Like The deer that yearns
for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God. R/.
My soul is thirsting for God,
The living God;
When can I enter and appear
Before the face of God? R/.
R/. My soul is thirsting for God, the living
God.
When can I enter and appear before the
face of God?
O send forth your light and your truth;
They will guide me on.
They will bring me to your holy mountain,
To the place where you dwell. R/.
And I will come to the altar of God,
To God, my joy and gladness.
To you will I give thanks on the harp,
O God, my God. R/.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL Psalm 130: 5.7
Glory and praise to you, O Christ. I wait for
the Lord, and in his word I hope; with him is
mercy and plenteous redemption. Glory and
praise to you, O Christ.
Gospel
Like Elijah and Elisha Jesus is not sent only to
the Jews.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to
Luke (Luke 4:24-30)
At that time: when Jesus had come to
Nazareth, he said to the people in the
synagogue, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet
is acceptable in his own country. But in
truth, I tell you, there were many widows in
Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months,
when there came a great famine over all the
land; and Elijah was sent to none of them
but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon,
to a woman who was a widow. And there
were many lepers in Israel in the time of the
prophet Elisha; and none of them was
cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian. When
they heard this, all in the synagogue were
filled with wrath. And they rose up and put
him out of the city, and led him to the brow
of the hill on which their city was built, that
they might throw him down headlong. But
passing through the midst of them he went
away.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Today's Meditation
One of the first places Jesus went to begin
His public ministry was His own home town.
After entering the Synagogue and reading
from the Prophet Isaiah, Jesus proclaimed
that the prophecy of Isaiah was now fulfilled
in His very person. This caused His
townspeople to be outraged at Him,
thinking He was blaspheming. So they
shockingly sought to immediately kill Jesus
by driving Him out of their town to the brow
of a hill off which they meant to throw Him.
But then something fascinating happened.
Jesus “passed through the midst of them
and went away.”
The Father eventually permitted the grave
evil of the death of His Son to take place, but
only in His time. It’s unclear from this
passage how Jesus was able to avoid being
killed right then at the beginning of His
ministry, but what’s important to know is
that He was able to avoid this because it
was not His time. The Father had more for
Jesus to do before He would permit Him to
offer His life freely for the salvation of the
world.
This same reality is true for our own lives.
God does permit evil to happen, at times,
because of the irrevocable gift of free will.
When people choose evil, God will allow
them to proceed—but always with a caveat.
The caveat is that God only permits evil to be
inflicted upon others when that evil is able
to be ultimately used for God’s glory and for
some form of good. And it is only permitted
in God’s time. If we do evil ourselves,
choosing sin rather than the will of God,
then the evil that we do will end in our own
loss of grace. But when we are faithful to
God and some external evil is imposed upon
us by another, God permits this only when
that evil can be redeemed and used for His
glory.
The best example of this is, of course, the
passion and death of Jesus. A far greater
good came forth from that event than the
evil itself. But it was only permitted by God
when the time was right, in accord with
God’s will.
Reflect, today, upon the glorious fact that
any evil or any suffering inflicted upon you
unjustly can end in the glory of God and the
greater salvation of souls. No matter what
you may suffer in life, if God permits it, then
it is always possible for that suffering to
share in the redeeming power of the Cross.
Consider any suffering you have endured
and embrace it freely, knowing that if God
permitted it, then He certainly has some
greater purpose in mind. Surrender that
suffering over with the utmost confidence
and trust and allow God to do glorious
things through it.
God of all wisdom, I know that You know all
things and that all things can be used for
Your glory and for the salvation of my soul.
Help me to trust You, especially when I
endure suffering in life. May I never despair
when treated unjustly and may my hope
always be in You and in Your power to
redeem all things. Jesus, I trust in You. |
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