Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church
First Reading: Titus 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Lk. 17:11-19)
Mercy. Next to love, this is one of God's greatest gifts to us. He does not have to be merciful to us; He wants to because of His great love and desire to have all of His children with Him. How often do we recognize God's great mercy in our lives. How many of us take time to just stop and thank Him for everything, from the smallest of things like the air we breathe to the big things like miracles in our lives? Most of this time we just go about our day, letting so much time go in between our recognizing and thanking God for everything, especially His mercy. In the gospel today, we read of the healing of the ten lepers. When the ten lepers were cleansed, only one came back to thank Jesus for His mercy and healing. The rest did not seem to recognize the great act of love and mercy that took place. This leads us to the question, when God is merciful in your life, do you recognize it? Do you take time to stop and thank Him for all that He has done? Do you thank Him often for His amazing love? The first thing that we must do is recognize that God is working in our lives. We must take time to reflect on His love and mercy in our own lives; once we recognize His works, then we can truly be thankful for all that He does.
Today, reflect on the words by Saint Paul in his letter to Titus.
But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life. (Ti. 3:4-7)
Father above, we thank you and praise you for the gift of this day. Lord, thank you for your great love and mercy in our lives. Lord, you have given each of us so much, much more than we deserve, please help us to always have gratitude in our hearts and to keep mindful of you at all times. Lord, fill us with your love, help us to be you out in this world. May we have the courage and the perseverance to live a life of faith, now and always. Amen.
Do you understand the 4th Cup?
ReplyDeleteAfter the beginning of Jesus' Last Passover Supper (Seder) Judas Iscariot left to do what he had to do. The twelve left in the room were at the point where the second of four traditional cups was about to be drunk.
(The first is at the beginning of the Seder meal.) Jesus took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes."
More of the lamb meal was consumed. During that He took a loaf of unleavened bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, "This IS my body given for you; do this to recall me."("Recall" is a better translation of the Greek "anamnesis" than "remember".)
After the supper He took the third cup saying,"Drink from it, all of you. This IS my blood of the NEW and everlasting covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
A hymn was sung, which is a combination of several psalms called The Great Hillel, and they went out to the Mount of Olives.
What happened? The Passover ceremony and ritual was not complete. There was no fourth cup. There was no announcement that it was finished. Could it be that Jesus was so upset with what He knew was about to happen that He forgot? Doubtful!