Daily Gospel

Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5-9, 28

Moses is one of the very few people in Scriptures to experience speaking to God face to face. This tells us a lot about his holiness and standing in the eyes of God. And yet he is a sinner like us too“ he was denied entrance to the Promised Land due to a matter of disobedience concerning the number of times he struck a rock to bring forth water for the people. He is human like us. He needs salvation just like each one of us.

7 The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents. 11 The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, would not move out of the tent. 34: 5 Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with him there and proclaimed his name, LORD. 6 Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, 7 continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers wickedness!8 Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. 9 Then he said, If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own.28 So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

The Sicilian Leo II was the successor of Saint Agatho to the pontificate. Though he was elected for the position on January 10, 681, a few days after the pope s death, Leo II was consecrated only after a year and seven months. The possible reason for it was the continued discussion regarding the tax the new pope needed to pay to the imperial treasury on his consecration. This had been a custom for more than a century, but under Pope Agatho, negotiations between the pontificate and the Byzantine court of Emperor Constantine Pogonatus regarding its abolition or reduction had already taken place. In the short pontificate of Leo II (682-683), his greatest contribution to the Catholic Church was the confirmation of the acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. The council was in opposition to the heretical Monothelites. As a result, Leo II notified the rulers and bishops of the West about the decree and its implementation.This, however, led to the condemnation of Pope Honorius I. Honorius I was condemned not because of teaching heresy, but because he remained passive and inactive in fighting against it.

During this period, the archbishops of Ravenna wanted to be autocephalous, meaning they desired to be free from the direct jurisdiction of the pope. They were not able to get the consent of the popes. So instead, Leo II did the following for them — he obtained from the emperor the abolition of tax the archbishops must pay when they receive the pallium; since the elected archbishop did not want to stay long in Rome, he was still required to visit the city for his consecration but he was not obliged to stay longer than eight days; and, since they were bound to pay homage to the pope every year, the bishops may only send for a delegate instead on their behalf.

The good and just pope died of natural causes on June 28, 683 in Rome, Italy.

How do we follow Jesus? This is indeed an important question, especially in the face of today’s ideologies without direction and leaders without backbone.

Our Gospel episode today presents us two examples of “volunteers” who offer themselves to follow Jesus. All we know of them is that one was a scribe (eagerly presenting himself to Jesus), and the other was a disciple (grieving just after the death of his father). We do not even know if they indeed followed Jesus eventually.

Anyway, what certainly matters is the teaching of Jesus given on this occasion. He presents a triple demand: first, we must give up all security; second, we must subordinate everything (not just anytime but at once) to the duty of evangelizing; and lastly, we must forget the past and face the future.

Whew! We can almost just shudder and sigh in the face of this radical challenge. Such indeed is the high cost of discipleship.

For all we know, the two volunteers did follow Jesus after all. For all we know, they understood the full impact of Jesus’ words to them. For all we know, they were willing to pay the high price to follow Jesus. Surely their lives were never the same again. It was well worth the effort. We ourselves might be following Jesus for some time now, but, just how radically do we do so? Are we merely “eager beavers” who would easily back out at the slightest demand of Jesus? Or do issues of the past continue to bog us down and drag us in our journey?

We might not have exactly “volunteered” to follow Jesus (it was really perhaps He who called us, and we simply responded). But still, that doesn’t dispense us from the all-too-important element of volunteerism in the following of Jesus. That is, it proceeds from our own will, from our own choice or consent, aware of the demands and yet unconstrained by the difficulty, trusting completely in the one we are following: the Lord Jesus Himself. Fr. Martin M.

REFLECTION QUESTION: What kind of volunteer are you?

I submit my will to Yours, Lord.

“For the sake of those ten... ” – Genesis 18:32
8-6232. 8-6232. 87000. 887-8888. 911-1111.

If you’re Filipino you’ll know that all these are numbers of fast food companies that have delivery services.

And if you’ve ever called one of these, you would have experienced having to wait longer than you should have had to for your order. There was this one time when we waited a whole hour and 30 minutes for our food. I called at least eight times — the first two times to the call center that took the order and the last few times to the actual branch that was in charge of delivering the food. I had threatened murder at least thrice. Okay, maybe I didn’t. But I did say that I refused to pay for the meals when they came.

And then the messenger arrived. He was a scrawny little kid who probably needs the job to pay for his tuition fee. When he told me that the payment will come from his paycheck, I handed over the money without speaking and tried to enjoy the by-now cold food.

If I can be merciful, can you imagine how merciful God can be? He delivers more than food. He delivered us from the bondage of sin and death. Victoria L.

REFLECTION:

In what ways have you not shown mercy?

You sent Your Son, Lord, even if there were only ten people left who deserved Your mercy. Your mercy knows no bounds.

Saint Elizabeth, daughter of King Pedro III of Aragon and Constancia, was born in 1271. Since childhood, the princess exuded a life of piety, strict regularity and self-denial. She fasted, did penance and gave up amusement. At a young age of 12, Elizabeth was married to King Diniz of Portugal. The king was noted for being a good poet and a hard worker.

Unfortunately, his morals were extremely bad. For years, the queen tried to win her husband s affection through her gentleness and extraordinary forbearance. But it was only later in life when the king had a change in heart. Saint Elizabeth bore King Diniz two children, Constantia and Affonso. Affonso rebelled over the favors the king showed his illegitimate sons. Thus, in 1323 the son declared a war against his father. Elizabeth opposed the decision. She rode in between the two armies and made father and son reconcile. Two years later, King Diniz died.

Saint Elizabeth left the kingdom in the care of Affonso. She founded the convent of Poor Clares at Coimbra, where she retired as a Franciscan Tertiary. She continued her service to the poor and sick. In 1336, the former queen was made to go back. She settled a war between her son and his father-in-law, the King of Castille. She left the convent and made the two resolve in peace.

Not long after, Saint Elizabeth fell ill. She died of fever on July 4, 1336 at Estremoz. She was buried at Coimbra, Portugal where miracles were said to have taken place. Saint Elizabeth of Portugal was proclaimed a saint by Pope Urban VIII on June 24, 1625.

Jesus narrowly escapes from a thorny and controversial predicament by carrying out a miraculous cure, which is actually a proof anyway of His power over evil and sin. It’s a relief to arrive at the conclusion: “At the sight, a feeling of awe came over the crowd, and they praised God for giving such authority to men.”

Truly it is God who is the source of such authority and power. The scribes of the incident thought that they were exercising their authority as guardians of the Law by passing judgment on Jesus: “The man blasphemes.” According to them, Jesus had no right in the first place to forgive sins. In the end, authority which is not at the service of the person becomes twisted, subject to the whims and caprices of human judgement. Our Lord Himself knows our innermost thoughts, just as he was aware of what the scribes were thinking, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts?” He might be asking us also the same question now, with our tendency to cling to the comfort zones of our rigid categories.

Let us, instead, always seek God’s glory. Let us allow Him to intervene in our lives, even if He will go against our established ways of thinking and doing. He need not even prove to us His power and authority, for in the first place it is something we already acknowledge. Fr. Martin M.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Why do you harbor evil thoughts?

I seek Your Glory, Lord. I acknowledge Your sovereignty.

St. Zoe, martyr, pray for us.

“When they came to the place... he tied up his son Isaac...” – Genesis 22:9

Early in the Bible, we are given a story such as this.

It’s the story of a man to whom was promised a multitude of descendants, so many that they will be like the sands of the seashore and the stars in the heavens. All this in spite of the fact that he and his wife are past childbearing age.

The promise is fulfilled with the birth of a son. But then the Lord asks him to offer the boy as a holocaust!

What a twist, eh?

And we know what he did, right?

“Early the next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac... ”

He went “early the next morning.” No dillydallying regarding what the Lord commanded.

It was then that Isaac asked, “Father, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?”

“Son, God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust,” replied Abraham.

Then they continued going forward.

What courage it took Abraham to take every step! What faith!

“Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar.”

Then God intervened. Lallaine G.

REFLECTION:
If you were Abraham, who or what would your “Isaac” be? Let the Lord speak to your heart.

Lord, teach me about the sacrifice of Abraham. How boldly he went to follow You! May I do the same today.