A Reflection on Today's Readings for the Memorial of St. Bernard

Well, this week is a big one in the Church. We have so many feasts of saints in the church this week. Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Bernard, one of the great monastics of the Church.

link to today's daily scripture readings for Mass: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082012.cfm

Our first reading comes from the book of Ezekiel. In this reading, God first says to Ezekiel that he will take away "the delight of your eyes, but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears." God does exactly that, and Ezekiel is instructed by God not to mourn for his loss.The people, wondering what all this means, asked Ezekiel and he says the following:

Thus the word of the LORD came to me:
Say to the house of Israel:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will now desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold of your pride,
the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul.
The sons and daughters you left behind shall fall by the sword.
Ezekiel shall be a sign for you:
all that he did you shall do when it happens.
Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
You shall do as I have done,
not covering your beards nor eating the customary bread.
Your turbans shall remain on your heads, your sandals on your feet.
You shall not mourn or weep,
but you shall rot away because of your sins and groan one to another.

God says that he will take what is dear to them and ruin it. At this point in time, the Israelites were in a state of exile. God gently reminds the Israelites that they are still in exile and does not allow the them to mourn because of their past sins. All this is a part of the preparation for the coming of Christ.

In our Responsorial Psalm, we have the response of "You have forgotten God who gave you birth."In this psalm, God is angry at the Israelites for forgetting him and putting idols in place of him. This psalm very well applies to today's society as well. American society has grown into a very egotistical one. In the word egotistical, we find the word "ego", which, in Latin, means "I". In other words, our society is all about "me", the individual. With all the bad things that happen in society, like, for example, abortion, the mercy-less killing of the unborn, or contraception, the (unnatural) prevention of new life from existing, we can very well say we have forgotten God and put ourselves in the place of God.

In the gospel reading, we have the familiar story of a rich young man approaching Jesus and asking what you need to inherit eternal life. In short, Jesus says that you must keep his commandments (the ten commandments). What follows is an indication that following the rules is simply not enough:

"If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me."

After this, we read that the young man went away saddened, "for he had many possessions." Now, from a literalistic point of view, we could come to the conclusion that besides following the 10 commandments God gave us, we need to sell everything we have. Some people, such as Saint Francis of Assisi, have done this, but those are the more extreme cases. The real point of this is to say that wealth is not a bad thing, but the wealth (or anything else we hold dear to ourselves) should stand in the way of following Christ and also what you do with that wealth matters. We should not hoard our wealth, but freely give from it without expectation of return to help the poor where we live.

In all of our readings, we find a theme of putting God before all else. Not doing so will result in dire consequences for us all. As I mentioned previously, a great bit of American society has turned away from God and turned to false idols instead. Because of this, we can see the horrible results of this turning away in society today. In an egotistical society, the poor and needy are the hardest hit because everyone cares only about the well-being of himself or herself, so in a way, "I" am more important than helping my brothers and sisters in need. The first step to make right is, as a society, to turn to God once again and ask for his mercy and forgiveness.Without God, a society (or even a civilization) cannot exist and bear good fruits. The sacrament of Confession is a great resource in this regard. After all, it is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles that one must "Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. That when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send him who hath been preached unto you, Jesus Christ". (Acts 3:19)

For the record, I am not a priest or deacon (yet), so I can't call this a "homily" (yet). I am just a layman, but also with the feeling that God is calling me to the priesthood. Please continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and for society to turn back to God.

Comments on this and suggestions for improvement are very much welcome, as this is some "practice" for when I have to start writing real homilies. Please submit comments and suggestions in the comment box below.

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Feel free to try out my apps for Windows Phone: Mobile Media Manager, a media player app I made which has some features which (I feel) are missing from the system Zune player, and BSA Eagle Tracker, an app that boy scouts can use to track their progress to Eagle Scout (when the scout handbook isn't always handy). The update for the paid version of Mobile Media Manager is out, but my last submission update for the free version in Microsoft Apphub certification failed, so release of the update to the free version will be a few days (< 7). BSA Eagle Tracker is also getting a bug fix for an obscure bug I noticed recently.

BSA Eagle Tracker download: http://bit.ly/Mm1Upo
Mobile Media Manager (paid version) download: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
Mobile Media Manager (free version) download: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us
Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us
Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us



Well, today is the feast of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As it is a solemnity, a reminder that Catholics everywhere are not bound by the usual Friday abstinence from meat today.

In today's Daily Readings, we see the reoccurring them of "God loves you". In the first reading, we find God talking about love of his people, Israel, from the perspective of a parent. We also see that God has some grief regarding the conduct of the people of Israel. As parents know, there are times when kids are misbehaving and you feel like you want to vent this on the kids. Certainly, we see evidence of this here with God.

My heart is overwhelmed,
my pity is stirred.

Yet, God realizes that it wouldn't be right to take his anger out on Israel.

I will not give vent to my blazing anger,
I will not destroy Ephraim again;
For I am God and not a man,
the Holy One present among you;
I will not let the flames consume you.

In our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians, the theme of love occurs again. Paul remarks that he has been given grace from God to preach to the Gentiles so that God's wisdom may be known through the Church to "the principalities and authorities in the heavens." Paul then asks God that the gentiles may be strengthened with the power of God's spirit and that Christ dwell in their hearts so that they may know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge and has no bounds, be filled with the fullness of God. To know that the love of Christ has no bounds is comforting, but let's not forget that sin can still ruin things for us.

In the gospel reading from St. John, we are taken back to Jesus' passion. The passion of Christ was the ultimate act of love, willing to suffer death, even death on a cross, in order to redeem us from the sinfulness of mankind. In many pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the heart has blood and water flowing from it. That is a reference to this passage from scripture:

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.

I would also like to add that today, there is an opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence by praying the Iesu dulcissime (Act of Reparation). A reminder that you must fulfill the 4 necessary conditions  to obtain the indulgence

1. Go to Confession
2. Recieve the Eucharist
3. Do the act itself and also pray for the Pope's intentions (by saying an "Our Father" and the Apostles' Creed works for praying for the Pope's intentions, but other prayers can work for this as well) with the intention of obtaining the indulgence
4. (The Last and Hardest Condition of All to fulfill)  You must be free from all attachment to sin, INCLUDING venial sin

If you cannot fulfill that last condition (but yes to the other 3 conditions), you may still obtain a partial indulgence. You can find the text of the prayer here in both Latin and English. (for more on indulgences, please see this.

I might add that this is my first attempt at a scripture reflection for a large audience, so I hope I did well. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment box below or e-mail me at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can also ask me on twitter (twitter username is @rctechgeek). Feel free to subscribe to my rss feed as well. If you can, please comment on what you like in what I wrote and what I could work on.

If you need some coffee to help get you going in the morning or to help you stay awake during the day, try some Mystic Monk Coffee (use this link or click on the picture below to access the store and purchase). Trust me, it's good coffee (in many instances, better than Starbucks coffee) and you won't regret buying some. For the summer they are also offering Iced Coffee as well. If you like tea more than coffee, they also offer tea (use the same link above). Using the link to buy the coffee (or tea) helps me with college expenses and helps the monks as well.

Feel free to try out my apps for Windows Phone: Mobile Media Manager, a media player app I made which has some features which (I feel) are missing from the system zune player, and BSA Eagle Tracker, an app that boy scouts can use to track their progress to Eagle Scout (when the scout handbook isn't always handy). New versions of the media player with new features/bug fixes is coming soon. BSA Eagle Tracker is also getting a bug fix for an obscure bug I noticed.

BSA Eagle Tracker download: http://bit.ly/Mm1Upo
Mobile Media Manager (paid version) download: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
Mobile Media Manager (free version) download: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE