Reflections
Mass readings august 30th 2015
Text courtesy of EWTN App
Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 6-8
1 "And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances
which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take
possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you.
2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that
you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
6 Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these
statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people.'
7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD
our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?
8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so
righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?
Psalms 15:3-5
3 who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor
takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
4 in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the
LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe
against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
James 1:17-18; 21-22; 27
17 Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to
change.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and
receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. j
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained
from the world.
Mark 7:1-8
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the
scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is,
unwashed.
3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their
hands, observing the tradition of the elders;
4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they
purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the
washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze. )
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples
not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands
defiled?"
6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as
it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of
men."
Mark 7:14-15; 21-23
14 And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me,
all of you, and understand:
15 there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him;
but the things which come out of a man are what defile him."
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts,
fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride,
foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."
First, There
are those who will add to the commandments to suit there fancy. There are those
who will say that us Catholics have added to the law because we worship God on
Sunday and not Saturday. We worship on Sunday because it is commemorating the
rising of our Lord from the dead, which is a fulfillment of the Passover. The Passover
being only a shadow of our ultimate liberation from sin and death. Second, did
our lord "add" to the letter when he said "You have heard that
it was said to them of old thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that whosoever is angry with his
brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, 'raca', she'll be in danger of the council and whosoever shall say, thou
fool, shall be in danger of hellfire." Matthew 7:7 No, of course not. Our lord added nothing
to the law. He had only required that our observance of the law be more
perfect. What is meant by adding and
taking is that we should not add things to the law that are not of God and we
should not take anything from his law out. What Christ does, what we do on
Sundays is not a butchering of the law but the law, `the commandments being perfected.
Now, There has never been a religion nor will
there ever be a religion that has a God as close to them as Catholicism. We
have the holy Eucharist! We eat God every day or at least we can if we choose.
We can visit our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and our Lord happily obliges us
and encourages us to go often. We can call God our Father and we have in
baptism become His sons and daughters. We can adore Christ in Eucharistic
adoration and approach him with confidence in prayer so much that Christ says:
"Ask,
and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
to you." Matthew 7:7
Yet it seems as though we are far from him.
We
have so many beautiful doctrines in our faith. We have many wise teachings
which holy mother church in her wisdom has given us through her holy saints.
Christ gives us teachings not only to teach us what is wrong that we may avoid
sin. He also gives us countless spiritual books through his beloved saints
through out the ages that have, by word and deed, guided us in the way of
sanctity and righteousness. Yet, sometimes the doctrines do not bring us closer to God. He are intellectually stimulated but we do not challenge out hearts.
We
who go to the Latin Mass love to hear the word of God. We love to hear learned sermons and if not learned,
pious but do we put them in to practice? We have realized how efficacious the
Latin Mass is and know that the graces that come from it are bountiful. It does
bring forth more grace than the Novus Ordo. When we leave Mass do we spend they
day in thanksgiving to God, multiplying our works of charity. Or do we spend our day or even our week in
idle conversations about the problems that are in the church or the bishops who
say or do one thing or the other. This is akin to gossip. The only difference is that these sins are
public. But does that make it any less sinful? No. We still are at risk of
pride. We hear the words of Mass and instead of partaking in holy, edifying
conversation, we partake in things that destroy charity in our hearts. Should not
the abundance of grace that comes from the Latin Mass propel us to a charity
that is greater than those that go to the Novus Ordo? It should. We should be
people filled with charity. The Latin Mass has the capacity to make us saints
faster than the Novus Ordo.
Listen to saint James. Religion that is
pure and undefiled is one that amongst its people, purity and charity abound.
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