1ST READING The psychology present in the Letter to the Romans is full of insight. One of the greatest paradoxes of the Christian life is the number of people who simply do not know, or seem to be interested in, the extent of the grace and power that we have been given in the Sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is our sharing and entry into the death of Christ that is the defeat of sin. Sin has no more power over us because Christ has defeated it once and for all. Romans 6:19-23 19 Brothers and sisters: I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. P S A L M Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6 R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. 1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R) GOSPEL Jesus knows that it is in His death that His Father will work a marvelous miracle — the miracle of salvation. Jesus wants this for us — even though the cost to Him will be great — because He loves us. This is the nature of love. It seeks the absolute best for the other person. Whatever the cost and whatever the pain, it is worth His love for you. GOSPEL ACCLAMATION I consider all things so much rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Luke 12:49-53 49 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! 50 There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” LIST think: Sin has no more power over us because Christ has defeated it once and for all.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 05:39:30 +0000
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