August 23, 2021 Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

2021년 8월 23일 연중 제21주간 월요일  

오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp 

제1독서

<여러분은 우상들을 버리고 하느님께 돌아섰습니다. 다시 일으키신 하느님의 아드님을 여러분이 기다리게 되었습니다.>

테살로니카 1서 1,1-5.8ㄴ-10

1 바오로와 실바누스와 티모테오가
하느님 아버지와 주 예수 그리스도 안에서 살아가는
테살로니카 사람들의 교회에 인사합니다.
은총과 평화가 여러분에게 내리기를 빕니다.
2 우리는 기도할 때에 여러분을 모두 기억하며 늘 하느님께 감사를 드립니다.
우리는 끊임없이 3 하느님 우리 아버지 앞에서
여러분의 믿음의 행위와 사랑의 노고와
우리 주 예수 그리스도에 대한 희망의 인내를 기억합니다.
4 하느님께 사랑받는 형제 여러분, 우리는 여러분이 선택되었음을 압니다.
5 그것은 우리 복음이 말로만이 아니라
힘과 성령과 큰 확신으로 여러분에게 전해졌기 때문입니다.
우리가 여러분을 위하여 여러분 가운데에서
어떻게 처신하였는지 여러분은 알고 있습니다.
8 하느님에 대한 여러분의 믿음이 곳곳에 알려졌습니다.
그러니 우리는 더 말할 필요가 없습니다.
9 사실 그곳 사람들이 우리에 관한 이야기를 전하고 있습니다.
우리가 여러분을 찾아갔을 때에 여러분이 우리를 어떻게 받아들였는지,
여러분이 어떻게 우상들을 버리고
하느님께 돌아서서 살아 계신 참하느님을 섬기게 되었는지,
10 그리고 여러분이 어떻게
하느님께서 죽은 이들 가운데에서 일으키신 그분의 아드님,
곧 닥쳐오는 진노에서 우리를 구해 주실 예수님께서
하늘로부터 오실 것을 기다리게 되었는지 말하고 있습니다.

복음

<불행하여라, 너희 눈먼 인도자들아!>

마태오 23,13-22 

그때에 예수님께서 말씀하셨다.
13 “불행하여라, 너희 위선자 율법 학자들과 바리사이들아!
너희가 사람들 앞에서 하늘 나라의 문을 잠가 버리기 때문이다.
그러고는 자기들도 들어가지 않을 뿐만 아니라,
들어가려는 이들마저 들어가게 놓아두지 않는다.
(14)·15 불행하여라, 너희 위선자 율법 학자들과 바리사이들아!
너희가 개종자 한 사람을 얻으려고
바다와 뭍을 돌아다니다가 한 사람이 생기면,
너희보다 갑절이나 못된 지옥의 자식으로 만들어 버리기 때문이다.
16 불행하여라, 너희 눈먼 인도자들아!
‘성전을 두고 한 맹세는 아무것도 아니지만,
성전의 금을 두고 한 맹세는 지켜야 한다.’고 너희는 말한다.
17 어리석고 눈먼 자들아! 무엇이 더 중요하냐?
금이냐, 아니면 금을 거룩하게 하는 성전이냐?
18 너희는 또 ‘제단을 두고 한 맹세는 아무것도 아니지만,
제단 위에 놓인 예물을 두고 한 맹세는 지켜야 한다.’고 말한다.
19 눈먼 자들아! 무엇이 더 중요하냐?
예물이냐, 아니면 예물을 거룩하게 하는 제단이냐?
20 사실 제단을 두고 맹세하는 이는
제단과 그 위에 있는 모든 것을 두고 맹세하는 것이고,
21 성전을 두고 맹세하는 이는 성전과 그 안에 사시는 분을 두고 맹세하는 것이며,
22 하늘을 두고 맹세하는 이는
하느님의 옥좌와 그 위에 앉아 계신 분을 두고 맹세하는 것이다.”

August 23, 2021 

Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Daily Readings — Audio

Daily Reflections — Video

http://www.usccb.org/bible/ 

Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass 

Reading 1
1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father,
knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.
For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. 
In every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead, Jesus,
who delivers us from the coming wrath.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
R. (see 4a) The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.

R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia!
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia

Gospel
Mt 23:13-22
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to make one convert,
and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,
or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift,
or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God

and by him who is seated on it."

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

 

 http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp

 

CASUISTRY

“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! You shut the doors of the kingdom of God in men’s faces, neither entering yourselves nor admitting those who are trying to enter.” —Matthew 23:13

Religious people can shut the doors of God’s Kingdom in the faces of other people. Furthermore, we can demonize some who do enter God’s Kingdom (Mt 23:15). One of the main ways we do this is by an attitude of casuistry — splitting hairs, looking for loopholes, and making rationalizations.

Casuistry is a begrudging, selfish attitude in which we refuse to give God everything. For example, the religious people in Jesus’ day speculated about which oaths they could get away with (Mt 23:16-19). Today, young people ask how far they can go sexually before they commit mortal sin. Catholics call the rectory and ask if a certain Mass “counts.” Many Catholics come to church at the last minute and leave immediately after Communion. They rationalize this and many other things. These are all expressions of casuistry.

Jesus did not begrudge us anything. He did not ask if just being scourged would “count” for our redemption. He did not try to shorten His time on the cross. He held nothing back. He emptied Himself (Phil 2:7) and gave us His all. If we give anything less than everything to the Lord, we turn others away from God, and worse than that, we refuse to love Jesus.

Prayer:  Jesus, I surrender all.

Promise:  “Our preaching of the gospel proved not a mere matter of words for you but one of power; it was carried on in the Holy Spirit.” —1 Thes 1:5

Praise:  St. Rose of Lima practiced severe penances and laid down her life in reparation for the sinfulness of society.

 http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/

 When the Lord Jesus knocks on the door of your heart are you ready to answer and receive him (Revelations 3:20)? The Lord offers each one of us an open door to the kingdom of God, but we can shut ourselves out if we ignore or reject his offer. What is the door to the kingdom of heaven? When Jacob fled from his brother Essau, who wanted to kill him for stealing his birthright (Genesis 27:41), Jacob sought refuge in the wilderness. There God pursued him and gave him a vision that both changed his life and the life of his people. As Jacob slept on a star-lit hillside God showed him a great ladder or stairway that extended from earth to heaven. This stairway was filled with a multitude of angels ascending and descending before the throne of God.

An open door to the throne of God
God opened heaven to Jacob, not only to give him a place of refuge and peace, but to offer him the blessing of dwelling in intimate friendship with the living God. God spoke to Jacob and renewed the promises which he had made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, and now to Jacob and his descendants. God promised not only to bless and protect Jacob, but to make him and his descendants a blessing to all the nations as well. When Jacob awoke he exclaimed: "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:17). God opened a door for Jacob that brought him and his people into a new relationship with the living God.

Jesus is the door to God's kingdom
Jesus proclaimed to his disciples that he came to fulfill the prophetic dream of Jacob in his very own person: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Jesus proclaimed that he is the door (John 10:8-9) and the way (John 14:6) that makes it possible for us to access heaven and God's very throne. But Jesus woefully warned the religious leaders and successors of Jacob that they were shutting the door of God's kingdom not only on themselves but on others as well. The word woe expresses sorrowful pity as well as grief and sadness.Why did Jesus lament and issue such a stern rebuke?

Don't be misled by wrong-headed teachers
Jesus was angry with the religious leaders because they failed to listen to God's word and they misled the people they were supposed to teach and lead in the ways of God. They were blindly leading people to "pharisaism"- to their own ideas, rules, and practices which God did not intend or require - rather than to God's intention and way of life for his people. Jesus also chastised them for their hyprocisy - a hypocrite is an actor or imposter who says one thing but does the opposite. Jesus gave some examples to show how misguided they were in their thinking and practices.

In their zeal to win converts, the religious leaders required unnecessary and burdensome rules and practices which obscured the more important matters of religion, such as love of God and love of neighbor. And at the same time they made exceptions for themselves by devising clever ways to evade binding oaths and solemn promises which they had made to God. The Jews treated an oath made to God as a binding obligation that must not be broken under any circumstance, but the Pharisees found clever ways to evade their obligations when inconvenience got in the way. They forgot that God hears every word we utter (especially our oaths and promises) and he sees the intentions of our heart even before we speak or act.

God's ways and thoughts are different from ours
The scribes and Pharisees preferred their idea of religion to God's idea. They failed to lead others to God because they listened to their own ideas of what is true religion and they failed to understand the true meaning and intention of God's word. Through their own pride and prejudice they blindlyshut the door of their own hearts and minds to the truth of God's kingdom.
The prophets of the Old Testament had repeatedly warned God's people to seek the Lord and to put aside their own thoughts and ideas of religion in order to hear and understand God's mind and intentions for his people. The prophet Isaiah wrote,

"Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts...For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:6-9).

Seek God's kingdom first
How can we shut the door of God's kingdom in our own personal lives? We close it through stubborn pride, disobedience, and ignorance. Do you submit your mind to God's word or do you cling to your own thoughts and ideas of what is right, true, and good for you? Do you allow the world's way of thinking to form the way you think, act, and speak - or do you allow God's word of truth to form the way you think, act, and speak? Do you ignore God's word through indifference or lack of reflection on his word?

The Lord Jesus wants to speak to us each and every day - to help us grow in our knowledge and understanding of his love and truth. The Lord is knocking at the door of your heart - are you receptive and ready to listen to his voice as he speaks through his life-giving Word? God's kingdom is always present to those who seek him with a humble mind and a willing heart. The Lord invites us to pray daily, "May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

Lord Jesus, your word is life for me. May I never shut the door to your heavenly kingdom through my stubborn pride or disbelief. Help me to listen to your voice attentively and to conform my life more fully to your word.

Psalm 149:1-6,9

1 Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful!
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker, let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King!
3 Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with timbrel and lyre!
4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats
9b This is glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the LORD!

Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Shutting the Kingdom of Heaven, by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD)

"There are those who dare to say that God is not good because of the curses in his law that he places against their sin. And yet the one who is truly the Son of God who gave that same law is also the same one who put blessings into the law. The same God who provides blessings for those who are saved in a similar way applies curses which he placed in the law against sinners. 'Woe,' he says. Woe to you and to those hearing these things who plead the God of the law and yet do not understand that these words were spoken by God in a kindly way. So we understand why Jesus said, 'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.' They believe that it is in fact a good thing to pronounce these curses against sinners. They consider the arrangement of the law's curses to be a part of God's design. The chiding father frequently urges his advice on his son for his improvement - advice that may seem to be a curse. He does not wish the curses to be actualized, however, but rather he desires to avert him from even more such curses."(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13)

 

 

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