March 8, 2022 Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

2022년 3월 8일 사순 제1주간 화요일  

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

제1독서

 이사야서. 55,10-11
주님께서 이렇게 말씀하신다.
10 “비와 눈은 하늘에서 내려와 그리로 돌아가지 않고
오히려 땅을 적시어 기름지게 하고 싹이 돋아나게 하여
씨 뿌리는 사람에게 씨앗을 주고 먹는 이에게 양식을 준다.
11 이처럼 내 입에서 나가는 나의 말도 나에게 헛되이 돌아오지 않고
반드시 내가 뜻하는 바를 이루며 내가 내린 사명을 완수하고야 만다.” 

복음

 마태오. 6,7-15
그때에 예수님께서 제자들에게 말씀하셨다.
7 “너희는 기도할 때에 다른 민족 사람들처럼 빈말을 되풀이하지 마라.
그들은 말을 많이 해야 들어 주시는 줄로 생각한다.
8 그러니 그들을 닮지 마라.
너희 아버지께서는 너희가 청하기도 전에 무엇이 필요한지 알고 계신다.
9 그러므로 너희는 이렇게 기도하여라.
‘하늘에 계신 저희 아버지, 아버지의 이름을 거룩히 드러내시며
10 아버지의 나라가 오게 하시며
아버지의 뜻이 하늘에서와 같이 땅에서도 이루어지게 하소서.
11 오늘 저희에게 일용할 양식을 주시고
12 저희에게 잘못한 이를 저희도 용서하였듯이 저희 잘못을 용서하시고
13 저희를 유혹에 빠지지 않게 하시고 저희를 악에서 구하소서.’
14 너희가 다른 사람들의 허물을 용서하면,
하늘의 너희 아버지께서도 너희를 용서하실 것이다.
15 그러나 너희가 다른 사람들을 용서하지 않으면,
아버지께서도 너희의 허물을 용서하지 않으실 것이다.” 

 

March 8, 2022 

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent 

Daily Readings — Audio

Daily Reflections — Video

http://www.usccb.org/bible/ 

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

Reading 1 

Is 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

Responsorial Psalm 

Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19

R. (18b) From all their distress God rescues the just.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears. 
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.

 

Gospel 

Mt 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:
"In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
"If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

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

 

 A friend of mine related a story about his niece’s two-year old daughter who was enjoying a little tantrum while facing away from her mother. The little darling was asked by her mother if she would like to go out to play. She stopped crying, turned and said, “No! not yet! I’m not done crying!” There’s a good Daily Reflection there.

We are in the First Week of this “joyful season” of Lent. Today’s Gospel relates Jesus’ prayer instructions within His Sermon on the Mount.  Babbling is a reference to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 in which there is a confusion of languages as a kind of punishment for trying to build a tower to find God.

Prayer can be similar to the mother’s invitation to her daughter. “Do you want to go out to pray?” We often can give the same response to God, No! I’m not done crying, complaining, fussing yet!” We tend to want to avoid such thoughts as “Your will be done” or “give us today our daily bread.” We would rather convince, persuade or dazzle God with words designed for personal best effect. How wonderfully human and interpersonal these communicational skills are often ending in such good results.

I have often caught myself imagining that God’s Will, will be exactly in accord with my many good actions, words and desires. Why not, the Spiritual Life is a business after all, isn’t it?

This is exactly what forms the context for Jesus’ talk to the religious leaders of His times. While transactions are so natural, helpful and universal, God is not the banker, president or score-keeper. So what kind of relationship is Jesus inviting us into with His Father and ourselves?

We might reflect upon what “daily bread” and “Your will” might mean in the mouth of Jesus and in our ears and heart. Our “wills” depend on what we know, which depends on what our senses have communicated to us. Our “wills” move us to say, “yes” or “no.” God’s “Will” is a divine “Yes!” but to what? God’s “Will” is to be God and so God’s “will” is to love which is not a decision, but an eternal creational display. What does all that mean? Here’s an attempt to explain God, more for your reflection than for expert clarity.

Is God changed by our requests and maybe even more by the sincerity or intensity and love of our words and feelings? I pray for many things and many persons of course. Then I come to the awareness that maybe I am praying with a good spirit and heart to receive the “daily bread” of absolute dependence. Just maybe, I am, in a way, praying to myself, or with myself and so am invited to eat the “daily Bread” of God’s being God and I am the God-Loved me. I pray, usually, because that’s all I can do, not with babbling, but with the tears of concern, but not always with assurance that I will get what I will to get.

God’s “Will” is to be the God, who does not love, but is Love and can only be Who God is. Yes, I pray for Lisa to recover from cancer, but more truthfully, I pray that she receives her “daily bread” of God’s being God each day. We pray that the Kingdom of God’s Love come all over the world as God’s “will” is in God eternally. For the most times, because we are loving, relational, caring persons we want to pray when our “crying” does not work. That “crying” is a wordless prayer from our hurting hearts and is also a prayer blessed by the Holy Water flowing from our eyes and spirits.

This Reflection ends with my still crying/praying, because I am not God. Crying is not babbling, but the wordless admission of our dignity as belonging to the family of God whose on-going Creator, Jesus called Father.   

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

FORGIVE FOR YOUR ETERNITY

“If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you.” —Matthew 6:14-15

The above Scripture passage from today’s Gospel reading is blunt and clear. “The measure with which you measure will be used to measure you” (Mt 7:2). Our eternal forgiveness and salvation depend upon whether or not we have forgiven those who have wronged us. Yet we are only human, and our sinful nature inherited from original sin makes forgiveness impossible from a human standpoint. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, particularly when choosing to forgive (Jn 15:5).  Therefore, we must constantly beg the Lord for the grace to forgive “seventy times seven times” those who have harmed us  (Mt 18:22).

So let us:

1)gaze on the crucified Jesus, Who says: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34),

2) pray the Our Father daily, asking the Father to “forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us” (Mt 6:12),

3) attend Mass as often as possible, even daily, for there we hear that Jesus forgave even on the night He was betrayed,

4) immerse ourselves in the Word of God, which speaks constantly of forgiveness and always achieves God’s will (see Is 55:10-11), and

5) make a Lenten Confession and be immersed in forgiveness.

Prayer:  Father, this Lent give me the grace to forgive from the heart all who have hurt me.

Promise:  “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit He saves.” —Ps 34:19

Praise:  When St. John’s hospital burned, he carried out all the patients through the flames, but no one was burned (see Is 43:2).

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

 

 Do you believe that God's word has power to change and transform your life today? Isaiah says that God's word is like the rain and melting snow which makes the barren ground spring to life and become abundantly fertile (Isaiah 55:10-11). God's word has power to penetrate our dry barren hearts and make them springs of new life. If we let God's word take root in our heart it will transform us into the likeness of God himself and empower us to walk in his way of love and holiness.

Let God's word guide and shape the way you judge and act
God wants his word to guide and shape the way we think, act, and pray. Ambrose (339-397 AD), an early church father and bishop of Milan, wrote that the reason we should devote time for reading Scripture is to hear Christ speak to us. "Are you not occupied with Christ? Why do you not talk with him? By reading the Scriptures, we listen to Christ."

We can approach God our Father with confidence
We can approach God confidently because he is waiting with arms wide open to receive his prodigal sons and daughters. That is why Jesus gave his disciples the perfect prayer that dares to call God, Our Father. This prayer teaches us how to ask God for the things we really need, the things that matter not only for the present but for eternity as well. We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because the Lord Jesus has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection.

When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, God responds with grace, mercy, and loving-kindness. He is good and forgiving towards us, and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same. God has poured his love into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). And that love is like a refining fire - it purifies and burns away all prejudice, hatred, resentment, vengeance, and bitterness until there is nothing left but goodness and forgiveness towards those who cause us grief or harm.

The Lord's Pray teaches us how to pray
Consider what John Cassian (360-435 AD), an early church father who lived for several years with the monks in Bethlehem and Egypt before founding a monastery in southern Gaul, wrote about the Lord's Prayer and the necessity of forgiving one another from the heart:

"The mercy of God is beyond description. While he is offering us a model prayer he is teaching us a way of life whereby we can be pleasing in his sight. But that is not all. In this same prayer he gives us an easy method for attracting an indulgent and merciful judgment on our lives. He gives us the possibility of ourselves mitigating the sentence hanging over us and of compelling him to pardon us. What else could he do in the face of our generosity when we ask him to forgive us as we have forgiven our neighbor? If we are faithful in this prayer, each of us will ask forgiveness for our own failings after we have forgiven the sins of those who have sinned against us, not only those who have sinned against our Master. There is, in fact, in some of us a very bad habit. We treat our sins against God, however appalling, with gentle indulgence - but when by contrast it is a matter of sins against us ourselves, albeit very tiny ones, we exact reparation with ruthless severity. Anyone who has not forgiven from the bottom of the heart the brother or sister who has done him wrong will only obtain from this prayer his own condemnation, rather than any mercy."

Do you treat others as you think they deserve to be treated, or do you treat them as the Lord has treated you - with mercy, steadfast love, and kindness?

Father in heaven, you have given me a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Give me today the grace and strength to embrace your holy will and fill my heart and mind with your truth and love that all my intentions and actions may be pleasing to you. Help me to be kind and forgiving towards my neighbor as you have been towards me.

Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Pardon your brother and sister, by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Pardon, that you may be pardoned. In doing this, nothing is required of the body. It is the will that acts. You will experience no physical pain - you will have nothing less in your home. Now in truth, my brothers and sisters, you see what an evil it is that those who have been commanded to love even their enemy do not pardon a penitent brother or sister." (quote from Sermon 210,10)

  

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