Daily Readings and Homily - 2022-03-05 - Fr. Mark

a reading from the book of the prophet isaiah thus says the lord if you remove from your midst oppression false accusation and malicious speech if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted the night shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday then the lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land he will renew your strength and you shall be like a watered garden like a spring whose water never fails the ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up repair of the breach they shall call you restore of ruined homesteads if you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day if you call the sabbath a delight in the lord's holy day honorable if you honor it by not following your ways seeking your own interest or speaking with malice then you shall delight in the lord and i will make you ride on the heights of the earth i will nourish you with the heritage of jacob your father for the mouth of the lord has spoken verbum domini [Music] teach me your way o lord that i may walk in your truth incline your ear o lord answer me for i am afflicted and poor keep my life for i am devoted to you savior servant who trusts in you you are my god have mercy on me o lord for to you i call all the day gladden the soul of your servant for to you o lord i lift up my soul for you o lord are good and forgiving abounding in kindness to all who call upon you hearken o lord to my prayer and attend to the sound of my pleading glory and praise to you lord jesus christ [Music] christ [Music] i take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man says the lord but rather in his conversion that he may live glory and praise to you lord jesus christ [Music] dominus fabisco [Music] jesus saw a tax collector named levi sitting at the customs post he said to him follow me and leaving everything behind he got up and followed him then levi gave a great banquet for him in his house and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them the pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners jesus said to them in reply those who are healthy do not need a physician but the sick do i have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners verbum domini [Music] during lent we take up special penances we have fasting and prayer almsgiving expressions of conversion i often like to look at my faults and sins and try to get at that stuff especially during lent so how's it going we're a few days in right everybody's maintaining their resolutions no problems but i think we all know the struggle of overcoming ourselves that's no small task to die to ourselves to grow in holiness and we see this incredible example today the call of levi known as matthew he's one of the gospel writers he's a tax collector he collects taxes for rome rome occupies the holy land so it's being sent back to rome to pay for their government and their projects and things so he needs to excise these taxes a certain amount for rome and then he also taxes for his own salary he has to buy the position buys the job so to speak for the roman government so he wants this right he does it and it makes him i'm sure very unpopular with his countrymen he's probably hated he gives great parties apparently he's probably known tax collectors would probably do that with their wealth and jesus we are told today he sees levi sitting in his custom post and says follow me he calls him while he is sitting at his customs post i read a reflection a few years ago in the magnificat and a simple line in it about this scene struck me it says his call is our cure his call is our cure that he is calling us to vocation our state in life or calling us to be holy jesus is calling us to strive you know for holiness to seek his will and our answer to that call our following him is our cure that's our path to holiness that's our path to healing the pharisees you know don't like what they're seeing you know it doesn't seem like you would if you're gonna start a movement you would pull into town and call the holiest people the smartest people the brightest people the most popular people right if this guy has to write a gospel and preach to everybody it's good if you're not hated right it seems like it'd be more effective and that's not an obstacle to jesus right he gives us grace he purifies us pharisees take issue why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners and jesus answer is the healthy do not need a physician but the sick do and in humility we need to recognize that that we are sick we need a divine physician we're sick with sin sin warps us it attaches us to things that attaches us to sin it isolates us makes us more unlikable by our brothers and sisters right there's a lot of bad stuff going on with that we need help jesus is the divine physician he is the healer he cures that sickness in us that sickness of soul of sin levi is sitting at his customs post and he hears this follow me he gets up and he follows the lord and that's true for all of us right we are sitting oftentimes struggling with our sin and it is easy to become discouraged i heard a great quote from padre pio recently he said even sins themselves are used for the good of those who serve him by his divine providence if the holy king david had never sinned he would never have acquired such a profound humility nor would mary magdalene have so ardently loved jesus if he had not forgiven her so many sins and if she had not committed them that jesus even uses these failures and maybe these poverty of faults and characteristics that we have to come meet us in those weak points to strengthen us to pour his grace his love his mercy into that to transform us that's our sickness po benedict the 16th he said in speaking about the saints he said they are people like us with problems even complicated problems sanctity does not consist of never having made mistakes or sinned sanctity grows in the capacity for conversion and penance of willingness to start again and above all in the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness to accept that mercy right to be reconciled with god are we ever going to be perfect right we you know we have a fallen human nature we live in a fallen culture we have family of origin stuff raging in us we are called to a perfection of charity but we are going to have faults and struggles in our character we have weaknesses god gives us grace to strengthen us that we have to begin again we have to repent of our sins and trust more in him jesus is the source of our righteousness not ourselves not our own efforts and we see the obstacles and difficulties maybe in our character we could be afraid but i think we have to remember that if we read the saints you know the message they tell us that in the scriptures is that god is with us god is with us do not be afraid he's with us in that storm on the sea he's in control of everything he uses all things in our life to heal us to make us whole to bring us salvation and we have to keep our eyes on the cross on his passion his suffering death resurrection that's the source of our righteousness that's the source of our holiness and there is such a i think a comfort in seeing the suffering jesus in the sense that he knows suffering he knows struggle he is more than enough taking on the weight of our sins and overcome that on the cross you know he strengthens us to endure and to carry that cross his call is our cure his call to holiness our following of him our trusting of him our keeping our eyes on him is our cure jesus saw levi the tax collector sitting at the customs post how does jesus see us if we were to review our day make like a particular examine and you know the same nations would say pray to the holy spirit ask his guidance and insight examine our day we can look at moments of sin or moments of failure of our raging character flaws weaknesses and patiences etc how does jesus see that sometimes we can be merciless with ourselves sometimes we can demand this exterior perfection and we can condemn ourselves and really discourage ourselves and not see ourselves in the light of his love and mercy that yes i'm sick i need a physician that's okay you know i have faith that jesus is there to give us his forgiveness to give us his love and mercy to see it through the eyes of jesus you know look at that look at the good things we do during the day and to see how that is a gift to us by god's grace there go i but by the grace of god look at stuff maybe we could have fallen into and we didn't we can repent of our weaknesses you know not stay isolated not you know just hide ourselves from the gays of christ and we get kind of more crazy neurotic you know if we open ourselves up to his gaze we can accept his love and mercy he sees us you know as a child of god he wants to heal us he wants to heal us he wants our salvation if you've been to the doctor and if you had a good doctor i've got some good doctors in my life and i marvel at how effective they can be if they're a good doctor if they know what they're doing you know if they're thorough they listen to you right they know and follow up on what you tell them and directs us maybe to a specialist or something else that we need jesus is the divine doctor the divine physician he allows trials and situations in our life that test us that cause us to grow and he's with us and all of that he's assuring us and all of that and guiding us in that growth in holiness a good doctor has some compassion he's not cold he's insensitive he's encouraging he wants us to be healthy you know maybe tells us you know we can do it you know be faithful to this plan you know we can we can do this you can get better jesus does all that for us he has compassion he strengthens us by the gift of his holy spirit he is leading us and any trials and difficulties you know he can use it's not that we're so hopeless that he can't be there for us to make us holy whatever situation whatever difficulty we are in our job is to to get up and to follow him to be willing to to let go of the sin to let go of our self-centeredness and you know just our desires but to seek his heart to seek where he is leading us you

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: homily, ytsync-en

Id: kxr6okE_76s

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022