My reflections for Feb. 26, 2006 - Sunday

February 26, 2006

Reading I
Hosea 2:16, 17, 21-22

Thus says the LORD:
I will lead her into the desert
and speak to her heart.
She shall respond there as in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.
I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.

(The language of love - does it not thrill your heart just to hear it? - "I will lure her into the desert... I will betroth you to myself forever." The Lord says that He is going to seduce Israel by leading her into a place where there is nothing left for her but to totally entrust herself to His love. This is a perfect description of the sinner eventually realizing that he or she is trapped in bondage to sin and that the only way out is to throw one's self at the mercy of God. This is what repentance and conversion as all about.)

Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Reading II
2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Brothers and sisters:
Do we need, as some do,
letters of recommendation to you or from you?
You are our letter, written on our hearts,
known and read by all,
shown to be a letter of Christ ministered by us,
written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
Not that of ourselves we are qualified
to take credit for anything as coming from us;
rather, our qualification comes from God,
who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,
not of letter but of spirit;
for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

(Paul is sure that the witness of his life and that of his companions will be sufficient to commend the Good News he has for the Corinthian people. Paul takes the opportunity to play around with the understanding of a letter of commendation and basically says that if one carried a written letter perhaps it is only because his or her life's witness was lacking in one way or another! The witness of his life is one based on the Spirit of God and not in any written letter of the law. Words are well enough when they will suffice. A living witness, however, will speak much louder and be far more effective.)

Gospel
Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to him and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

(Once again, the Pharisees trip themselves up with a misdirected focus upon the law. It is very unfortunate when the law becomes the focus as this means that rules and regulations begin to take over love. When I truly obey the law of God written in the commandments and also upon my heart, I do so out of love for God and my neighbor. When I obey because I ougth or have to do so, I do so out of fear of the consequences. which of these two options speaks most powerfully to you?)

God's special verse/thought for me today.

my reflections
think: A living witness will speak much louder and be far more effective.

thank You Lord for: