7TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 3 / (Red)
St. Polycarp, bishop & martyr
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
1st Reading: Sir 5:1-8
Do not rely on your wealth. Do not say, “I am self-sufficient.“ Do not let yourself be carried away by greed and violence; they would make you their slave.
Do not say, “Who can stop me?“ For the Lord has power to punish you. Do not say, “I have sinned and nothing has happened!“ For the Lord bides his time.
Do not be so sure of pardon when you are heaping sin upon sin. Do not say, “His compassion is great! He will forgive the vast number of my sins!“ For with him is mercy but also anger; his fury will be poured out on sinners.
Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly the anger of the Lord will blaze forth and you will perish on the day of reckoning.
Do not rely on riches wrongfully acquired for they will be of no use to you on the day of wrath.
Gospel: Mk 9:41-50
Jesus said to his disciples: “If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward. If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.
“If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand, than with two hands to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out. And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot, than with both feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out. The fire itself will preserve them.
“Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.“
REFLECTION:
Presumption
Ben Sirach in our first reading speaks of one of the most dangerous sins the sin of PRESUMPTION. Many fall into this sin. This sin makes the sinner presume that he or she will always have the time to repent in the future. The sinner says “I will have time to be good when I grow old or retire.“
Postponing repentance is dangerous. One presumes that one has control of ones’ own time. That is farthest from the truth! Death may come suddenly! Tomorrow may never come to the sinner! Moreover, postponing repentance to an uncertain future eventually can make the sinner so callous that return to God may become too difficult. At that point one has become like the salt that has lost its saltiness that the Gospel speaks of today.
Presumption is an affront also to the mercy of God. Thus Ben Sirach tells us that one who takes sin lightly is courting the anger of God who hates sin! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the American poet of the 19th century, has a beautiful poem on Divine Retribution
Though the mills of God
grind slowly;
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience
He stands waiting,
With exactness grinds He all.
Presumptuous sinners, beware! God can exact an accounting of every sin on judgment day!
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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