SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Psalter: Proper / (White)
Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10
The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
1st Reading: Dt 7:6-11
You are a people consecrated to Yahweh, your God. Yahweh has chosen you from among all the peoples on the face of the earth, that you may be his own people. Yahweh has bound himself to you and has chosen you, not because you are the most numerous among all the peoples (on the contrary, you are the least). Rather, he has chosen you because of his love for you and to fulfill the oath he made to your fathers. Therefore, with a firm hand Yahweh brought you out from slavery in Egypt, from the power of Pharaoh.
So know that Yahweh, your God, is the true and faithful God. He keeps his covenant, and his love reaches to the thousandth generation for those who love him and fulfill his commandments, but he punishes in their own persons those who hate him and he repays them without delay.
So keep the commandments, the norms and the laws that today I command you to practice.
2nd Reading: 1 Jn 4:7-16
My dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves, is born of God and knows God.
Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love. How did the love of God appear among us? God sent his only Son into this world, that we might have life, through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that, he first loved us and sent his Son, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love one another.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love comes to its perfection in us.
How may we know that we live in God and he in us? Because God has given us his Spirit.
We ourselves have seen, and declare, that the Father sent his Son to save the world. 15 Those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in them, and they in God.
We have known the love of God and have believed in it. God is love. The one who lives in love, lives in God, and God in him.
Gospel: Mt 11:25-30
On that occasion, Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise you; because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to simple people. Yes, Father, this was your gracious will.
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is easy; and my burden is light.”
REFLECTION:
When one travels, it is always pleasant when the load is light. Too many baggage spoils the fun. It is therefore an art to travel light, to carry only what is necessary, and to let go of things one can do without. In this travel we call life, we need not agonize on what to carry and on what to let go. Jesus had solved the problem for us. He invites us to carry His load which is easy and light. Where does this sense of lightness come from? It is not because of a reduced load. It rather stems from an attitude that one brings in carrying the load. Jesus loves much that the load He carries in the name of love becomes nothing. Likewise, when we carry loads for the ones we love, they weigh nothing. In the end, it is not the weight but the disposition that is important when we carry the yoke of life.
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
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