Today’s 1st reading reminds us of the need to pray for our departed brothers and sisters. As Catholics we are taught of the Church triumphant, suffering and militant. The triumphant Church is composed of the community of angels and saints who are now enjoying the beatific vision of God. We, the living belong to the Church militant and those who already passed away who neither went straight to heaven or hell belong to the Church suffering. Tobit who is the man speaking in today’s 1st reading has this compassion for the dead. Somehow I can identify with him because of the several experiences I’ve had in connection to the faithful departed as I have been sharing in my reflections. It is not like I am deliberately searching for them but things just happen that I always have this opportunity to remember them in prayers in the most extraordinary and special way. Amen. Hallelujah!
Tobit 1:3; 2:1-8
...I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched; and I carried the dead man from the street and put him in one of the rooms, so that I might bury him after sunset. ...The neighbours mocked me, saying to one another: “Will this man never learn! Once before he was hunted down for execution because of this very thing; yet now that he has escaped, here he is again burying the dead!”
We can always rely on the words and promises of God for they are trustworthy. Amen. Hallleujah!
Psalms 112:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R: Blessed the man who fears the Lord.
...Light shines through the darkness for the upright; he is gracious and merciful and just. (R) 5 Well for the man who is gracious and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice; 6 he shall never be moved; the just man shall be in everlasting remembrance.
Today we celebrate the feasts of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua. They are martyrs known for their great faith in God. They have been subjected to various unimaginable tortures but they never waivered in their profession of faith. Nowadays we are no longer faced with these kinds of dangers in our faith because we are blessed to have the freedom to practice it without fearing for our lives but the world we live today tries in the most discreet and enamored way to draw us away from our faith. This is what the world does to draw us away from our commitment to the Lord. We have to be like the saints with tremendous strength and boldness in their faith in God. Saints Perpetua and Felicity marched to their death and martyrdom with great courage. The crowd was so outraged by this show of courage they shouted that they be subjected to scourging and the men were fed to the leopard. When we read the accounts of the saints who endured trials, persecutions and sufferings, we might as well come to think of ourselves, too. Do we endure with love of the Lord in the sufferings that we encounter daily? God has sent prophet after prophet in order to come to a relationship with us throughout the course of our salvation history. Finally, He sent His beloved son and we all know what happened. By our own sins, He was killed and put to death so that in his mercy we have been adopted and get the identification of beloved sons and daughters of God. We beg forgiveness and mercy we receive the entire inheritance that Jesus has won for us. We should recognize the great gift of our baptism, which means that we are Christians. The life of God is within us. We must not reject this truth and accept our identification. We can’t change it and be called by any other name. We lay hold of the inheritance of eternal life by perfect identification (I.D.) in Jesus Christ. Amen. Hallelujah!
Mark 12:1-12
...‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes’?” 12 They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.
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