October 14, 2014 First Reading Galatians 5:1-6 1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. 4You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. ________________________________________ Responsorial Psalm Psalms 119:41, 43, 45, 47-48 41Let thy steadfast love come to me, O LORD, thy salvation according to thy promise; 43And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in thy ordinances. 45and I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought thy precepts. 47for I find my delight in thy commandments, which I love. 48I revere thy commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on thy statutes. ________________________________________ Gospel Luke 11:37-41 37While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table.38The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. Commentary Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori Let us fully grasp this: our heart will belong wholly to God as soon as we hand over our whole will to him, as soon as we want only what he wants. For the rest, this God only wants our wellbeing and happiness. “For this is why Christ died… that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living,” says the apostle Paul. “Whether we live or die, then, we are the Lord’s” (Rm 14,9.8). Jesus willed to die for our sakes; what more could he have done to win our love and become the sole Lord of our heart? So now it is our turn to show before heaven and earth, by our life and by our death, that we are no longer our own but are entirely possessed by our God and by him alone. How God longs to see a heart that is truly all his! With what intense love does he not love it? What signs of tenderness does he not lavish upon it even here below! What blessings, what happiness, what glory does he not prepare for it in heaven!... O faithful souls! Let us go to meet Jesus: if he is happy enough to possess us then we, too, have the happiness of possessing him! This exchange is far more to our own advantage than to his. The Lord once said to the saint [of Avila]: “Teresa, until now you have not been wholly mine; but now that you are all for me, know that I am all for you”… God burns with an intense desire to be united with us but we have to be careful, too, to unite ourselves to God.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 06:37:29 +0000