The story of  Tobit this morning begins with the lamentation that is pure praise for God and recognition that if we look towards God we become miniscule in his sight. God is complete Justice so Tobit sees his plight as completely justified; he and his nation, the people of the Covenants have sinned countless times. The story continues, very much like a modern soap, and God's providence, the writer, has begun to move the plot. The female lead is also afflicted in an unfathomable way and is scorned by all. She considers all her options but decides to beg the Lord for death. The prayers of both are answered and the Mercy of God is sent as Raphael the Archangel.

In the Gospel there is another plot to catch Jesus out. Of course it fails but in its failure Jesus assures us that there is most definitely a life after death. A life that was revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; God is the God of the living and man may die but continues in the Life of the Resurrection. After death all the modern nonsense and preoccupation about sex and gender will be nothing. We will be like the Angels, not in that we will have no bodily existence but in that as we are with God there will be no reproduction of our species.

Dear Lord, I thank you that I am able to fill my time with work and yet know that this happiness as a tiny cog in your creation too will pass; grant me time in which to confess my sins and let me be sincere in my amendment.

 The Tobit story which is today's first reading is hard for us to relate to as  although it was written only 300 years before the birth of Christ, it is set in a age remote from the one that was the setting for the New Testament, the time of the Exile. The story illustrates the ways of God which are not man's ways. Tobit is, as was Job, a God- fearing man who was stricken with a random misfortune that was surely going to test his faith. What a panic he fell into when he was sure that the kid had not been acquired licitly. We feel the desperation of the blind man who only wanted to do what was right but was hampered by his handicap. His wife sees the kid as a reward for all the times he had done good to his neighbour in days before the random act of fate which had blinded him. His faith was in God and in the covenants made with Abraham and Moses. 

The New Testament Jesus is put to the test by men and he definitively separates politics and religion. The problem that we face today is that politics does not accept this and imposes non-Christian norms onto the people of God. Some of our Church leaders seem to have lost their primary purpose and are more than ready to concede their Faith which comes from God to the twin Caesars of popularity and power. Why are the nonsenses about sex and gender not condemned for what they are, evil stupidity.

Dear Lord, may we regard the faith displayed in the Old Testament as pointers to the true faith brought to us by the Holy Spirit from You and the Resurrection.  May I find your mercy and pardon for all my sins which are such an offence to Your Saving Grace. 

 

 There is nothing but joy in today's readings. There is the prospective joy of the two mothers to be, the Messianic joy promised to Zion and our own joy as we share in the joy contained in the words of the OT and the new. The alternative reading from St Paul is a definition of Christian acts and interaction with one another.  I don't think that St Paul was present at the Sermon  on the Mount but his letter contains the basis of that which has become in time Catholic Social teaching expounded in millions of words in thousands upon thousands of books. There is nothing more beautiful in any writing  than the Holy Spirit inspired paean of joy to our Creator by the bearer of His Son, that is the Magnificat. 

In these modern times, Jesus, true God and true man, was  in an embryonic state that would be  approved for termination of pregnancy. Lord what have done to thee?

Dear Lord send us your Holy Spirit that we can have the power to truly withstand the evils that we condemn but still allow to happen. Many are condemned but few change their ways. Help us Jesus.

 Today our Church faces God directly and professes our total belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in persons three but one God collectively and individually. When clever people and non-Christians mock this seeming contradiction we can say that this is evidence of the revelation that has come to us. If we were trying to convince / evangelize the unbeliever such a proposition as "The Trinity" would not have been conceived.. The Risen Christ, a stumbling block for his people and a joke to the Greeks, was difficult  enough for St Paul to preach. I find that I can say yes to these articles of faith because that is the gift I have. I thank the Lord that the faith given to me is more important than the evidence of church failures of which each day brings more instances. God is one and three, Jesus who  was truly dead, an empty corpse, is living now and will protect His Church until the end of this universe. All is for, by and in God!

Dear God , help me to praise and know what it truly is to Love and Serve you in my life and at the End may your Mercy bring all of us into that blessing that can be ours if you so wish. 

 The wisdom sought is the Wisdom that comes from God . This wisdom is to know God. God is beyond  our wisdom to comprehend . His gift to us as humans is to be able to understand that no matter how delightful is  our pleasure in his creation,  the world, the universe, matter we are not seeing God . And when science can see the very ions that compose matter that is also not God. It is wisdom from God that reveals to us the everlasting glory of our Creator and the Holy Spirit that is his love for sinful man is brought to us by the Sacrifice of the Son. Human knowledge continues to increase like a virus it grows every hour, every second of every day but our knowledge of God is complete in the Church whose teaching is teaching essentially the same as in the first century. The Pharisees recognised that they were in a hard place but Jesus was not setting a problem for human logic to answer he wanted them to believe that in Him was all the Wisdom of God.

Dear Lord you know me for what I really am. Let me not this day tangle myself up in the thickets of my self love but continue to know that you are my Lord and my God, my Creator and my Protector my Saviour and my Sanctifier.

 The Old Testament is different from the New. The first reading seems to suggest that the rewards of  knowing God are to be found in this world. We are alive and praising the Lord because our fathers did so. There is no trace left in the world of the generations who did not live rightly but the righteous are blessed not in heaven but in the here and now. 

Jesus throughout his teaching insists that his kingdom is not of this world. The real, not in a parable, fig tree arouses some sympathy for it was not in season and so could not have been expected to have fruit. Here we see the humanity of our Lord as the poor tree gets blasted  because Jesus is hungry. After that we see the human nature again which in anger lashes out at the merchants who by making money are making a mockery of the holiness that should be there in the world's only place of true worship.

Jesus told the Pharisees that the only sign that they could expect was the "sign of Jonah" The withered fig tree seems to contradict this but Jesus uses it to reinforce his teachings about true belief; if we have faith we will move mountains. Not only faith but also forgiveness in our hearts so that Our Father in heaven, which is not some remote geographical location but a" being with God", can forgive us and welcome us into his domain which is not of this world.

Dear Lord you know what it is that I need. Please this day let me stay aware of your Glory and I hope that I can do something that makes you delight in me.

 Today's first readings proclaim the role of Priesthood in our religion while at the same time give us grounds to question it. "Then there will be no need for neighbour to teach neighbour etc". The letter to the Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus' one sacrifice is enough for it has redeemed the World . In the Gospel Jesus anticipates his passion. death and resurrection and offers up the first Eucharist. If we are to follow the teachings of the Church we have to reflect and do a lot. Our priests repeat "over and over again" as does Jesus the scene in Mark's gospel. The Love in the Father's creation can be in our hears if we open them to the Holy Spirit and seek the aid of Our Lady and of all the saints. It is we who must do this turning to the Lord in our freedom. Our wills must do the Will of the Father for there is nothing in this world without  our Triune God.

Dear Lord let me retain throughout the day the prayerfulness that I have started with. May I not forget that I and all your church are supported by the ceaseless prayers of Our Lady and all the saints.