WE HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT…

Baruch 1:15-21

15 “And you shall say: ‘Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but confusion of face, as at this day, to us, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
16 and to our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers,17 because we have sinned before the Lord,18 and have disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord which he set before us.
19 From the day when the Lord brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent, in not heeding his voice.
20 So to this day there have clung to us the calamities and the curse which the Lord declared through Moses his servant at the time when he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey.
21 We did not heed the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us, but we each followed the intent of his own wicked heart by serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.

Luke 10:13-16

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Beth-saida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.14 But it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.15 And you, Caperna-um, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.16 “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

 
MEDITATION

THE FIRST READING. Baruch is one of the seven deuterocanonical books that is part of the Catholic canon of scripture. Baruch address his correspondence to the people in Jerusalem, imploring them to restore the temple that was desecrated and to make offerings to God as an act of repentance for their wickedness and disobedience to not heed and obey the commands of the Lord that led them into a life of sin.

THE GOSPEL READING: Jesus continue His catechism of the disciples by referring to an historical event that saw the destruction of a synagogue in the town of Chorazin wherein Moses’ seat known as the Cathedra and the Ark of Moses’ law resided. Jesus draw a parallel between past events that saw the rejection of Moses’ teachings and the desecration of the places of worship to assert that anyone who reject these disciples and what they teach, are in fact commiting a grave act of sin! To reject the Apostolic Fathers and their two thousand year teachings as handed down to us, is to reject Christ Jesus.

Catec 1463 “Certain particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments and the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which absolution consequently cannot be granted, according to canon law, except by the Pope, the bishop of the place or priests authorized by them. In danger of death any priest, even if deprived of faculties for hearing confessions, can absolve from every sin and excommunication.”

In the year 1517 Martin Luther a Catholic priest and teacher of the faith rejected seven books of the bible as well as many of the Apostolic teachings of Christ in favor of his personal interpretation of scripture which led to his excommunication! Christs words to His apostles still ring true today: “He who hears you, hears me.” We are called to submit to the authority of the Magisterial office of the Church on matters of faith, doctrine and morals. Any wilful disobedience on our part is tantamount to an act negligence that shall shipwreck our salvation! 

LET US PRAY: Psalms 79:1-5,8-9

O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; they have defiled thy holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of thy servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those round about us.
5 How long, O LORD? Wilt thou be angry for ever? Will thy jealous wrath burn like fire?8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers; let thy compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name’s sake!

Author. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.