Reflection for Wednesday, the 34th week in Ordinary time, 29 Nov 2023: MENE, TEKEL, and PERES

The Readings for Mass on Wednesday, the 34th week in Ordinary time, 29 Nov 2023, involve the handwriting on the wall.  The writing on the wall:

MENE, TEKEL, and PERES

These words, written on the wall, terrified the King of Babylon.  The book of Daniel explains:

When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote, his face blanched;  his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.

Daniel reads and explains the meaning of the words to the King:

This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, TEKEL, and PERES.

These words mean:

MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;

TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;

PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

One may wonder what the King had done to warrant such a sign, and so severe a punishment.

Here is what he had done:

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords, with whom he drank.  Under the influence of the wine, he ordered the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, to be brought in so that the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.

When the gold and silver vessels taken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in, and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers were drinking wine from them, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

What had the King done?  He, his lords, his wives and his entertainers were drinking wine from the sacred vessels dedicated to the worship of God, and praising their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.  

They had misused the sacred vessels that were for the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of Israel, the one true God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

We, who live and breathe, who are body and soul, the sons and daughters of Adam, are vessels for the worship of the one true God.  Let us not misuse these sacred vessels, either ourselves or those around us.

Kathryn Lopez, the Sisters of Life and Ohio's shame

 

At National Review Online, Kathryn Lopez has an article (Ohio Abandoned Women & Babies on Election Day: Sisters of Life Fight for Them | National Review: behind a paywall) concerning abortion in NY state and more recently in Ohio.

She begins by writing about birthdays, and how the Sisters of Life make a point of celebrating birthdays for the women in their care.

Later, she turns to Ohio and writes:

On Election Day, Ohio just expanded abortion — enshrining abortion rights in its constitution — eradicating even parental consent already on the books in the state. That vote didn’t happen because people love abortion. It happened because voters are unsure of what is going on — unclear about what women’s options are. The last people in the country you want to silence or encumber in any way are the Sisters of Life. They make love known. They receive women as they are and love them back into life, as they have so often been used and abused and not seen as the beautiful gifts that they are to the world.

What happened in Ohio on election day 2023 was a travesty.

It took more than 70 years for the Soviet Union (USSR) to collapse after the Bolshevik revolution.  It took 50 years for the US to correct the absurdity of Roe.  One wonders how long before Ohio corrects this serious error.

Reflection -- Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: The last shall be first and the first shall be last

 Yesterday was the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Readings include from the Gospel according to St. Matthew:

the last will be first, and the first will be last.

As we look through the Bible, we see many instances where this saying is apparent.

1. Cain and Abel --  Cain was born first and Abel second, but Abel's sacrifice was accepted by God, and Cain's wasn't.
2. Ishmael and Isaac --  Ishmael was born first, and Isaac was born second,  But Ishmael was born of the slave woman, while Isaac was born of Abraham's wife -- Sarah.  It is with Isaac that God maintains his covenant as an everlasting covenant and with Isaac's descendants after him.
3. Esau and Jacob -- Esau was the older of the twins,  but God told Rebekah "the older will serve the younger." -- Esau sold his birthright to his brother, and by a ruse Jacob received his father's blessing:
• "May God give to you of the dew of the heavens and of the fertility of the earth abundance of grain and wine.  May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.  Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”
4. The two Commandments on which the whole Law and Prophets rests are:

• You shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.
• You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The first is from Deuteronomy, or second Law, while the second is from Leviticus, or first Law.

 Finally, there is John the Baptist, and Jesus.   John was born first from a woman too old to bear children, while Jesus was born second from a Virgin.  John is the Voice, while Jesus is the Word made flesh.  Jesus is both the first and the last, the alpha and the omega.  The way, the truth and the life.  The light of the world.

Reflection 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time -- 13 Aug 2023 -- Truth shall spring out of the Earth

 

The readings from todays Mass include psalm 85.  I've written a post that involves this psalm previously.

That post includes:

The psalm is fulfilled in Christ's resurrection and ascension because he who is the Truth has sprung out of the tomb, out of the Earth.  And He who is our justice has ascended into heaven where he looks down upon heaven and earth.

The Lord, who speaks in that still small voice that so frightened and awed Elijah in the 1st reading, says to his disciples in the boat, who are terrified at his appearance during the 4th watch of the night, walking on the water:

Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.

And, at Peters request says :

Come.

Let us remember that Jesus fulfills the scriptures, that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and that he did this, he came into the world, to save us, who are poor sinners in desperate need of his mercy.

As Peter cried out, as he was sinking beneath the waves, to Christ for his help, so we must do.  He is already coming to our aid even as we ask for it.

Reflection -- 25 May 2023

In the Readings from Mass today, the psalm (16) includes the verse:

Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,

nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

This passage is fulfilled in Jesus, who did not abandon us to the nether world, because as we pray in the Apostle's Creed, "He descended into Hell."

He rose from the dead on the third day.  He did not undergo corruption, but rose in his glorified body.  Because Jesus is the Faithful One.

This passage is fulfilled to a lesser extent in Mary, who was assumed, body and soul into heaven, and in several Saints who's mortal remains were incorrupt.

These include St Charles Borromeo, whose incorrupt heart is retained in a monstrance in the Basilica of Sts. Ambrose and Charles in Rome (seen below); 

 

St Raphaela, who died in the 1920s, was canonized in the 1970s, and whose incorrupt body was still observable in Rome in 1996, the entry to the church which housed her incorrupt remains is shown below.

Pope  St Innocent III whose remains are housed in St Peter's Basilica in Rome; and Pope St John XXIII, whose remains are also in St Peter's in Rome.  The remains of Pope St Innocent III are located at the altar shown below in St Peter's Basilica.

Reflection -- 24 May 2023

 The Readings from Mass today include from the psalm (68):

For your temple in Jerusalem let the kings bring you gifts.

This passage of the psalm is fulfilled in Jesus, who is in and of himself God's Temple on earth, the marriage and meeting place of God and man, the hypostatic union.

In Matthews Gospel we read:

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod,* behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star* at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

And in Psalm 72 we read:

May the kings of Tarshish and the islands* bring tribute, the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.  May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him.

The Magi come to Jerusalem seeking the newborn King of the Jews.  They seek the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

As noted in earlier posts, they are seeking the one whom their souls love.