Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent
We fear the rich and the powerful,
yet we often have no fear of God and continue in our inability to rise above
our weaknesses. It is when we like Ester rise above our fears that we can live
up to our potential.
The Law of the Sacrifice[1]
·
Ester
is willing to give her life for the people.
·
A
leader must be willing to give up to go up.
·
Leaders
only do this when their cause becomes more important than their life.
·
Likewise,
Jesus a descendent of Ester, called on his staff to deny themselves, take up
their cross and follow Him.
·
Christ
stated that those who wished to save their lives would lose them and those who
gave up their lives would save them.
·
True
leadership places the cause of the people above the instinct for
self-preservation.
Tuesday
in the Second Week of Lent[2]
Jesus’
condemnation of religious externalism, hypocrisy and vanity is not meant to
correct only the Pharisees of his time. It is also directed at us. We should
look into our Lenten practices of piety and works of charity and see whether
they are tainted with hypocrisy. During the celebration that follows, Christ,
the servant of Yahweh, will increase in us the spirit of human service.
The
“phylacteries” mentioned in the gospel were bands of parchment enclosed in
small boxes worn on the forehead and left fore-arm where they were fixed by
straps. On these bands were inscribed the most important texts of the Law. The
“fringes” were the tassels which the Law required to be worn at the four
corners of the cloak. By wearing broad phylacteries and long tassels the
Pharisees intended to show clearly their fidelity to the Law. —St. Andrew
Missal
Prayer.
GRANT, we
beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that Thy family, who, afflicting their flesh,
abstain from food, by following justice may fast from sin.
EPISTLE.
Daniel ix. 15-19.
In those days Daniel prayed unto
the Lord, saying: O Lord our God, Who hast brought forth Thy people out of the
land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made Thee a name as at this day: we
have sinned, we have committed iniquity, Lord, against all Thy justice: let Thy
wrath and Thy indignation be turned away, I beseech Thee, from Thy city
Jerusalem, and from Thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the
iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and Thy people are a reproach to all that
are round about us. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of Thy
servant, and his prayers: and show Thy face upon Thy sanctuary which is
desolate, for Thy own sake. Incline, O my God, Thy ear and hear: open Thy eyes,
and see our desolation, and the city upon which Thy name is called: for it is
not for our justifications that we present our prayers before Thy face, but for
the multitude of Thy tender mercies. O Lord hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken
and do: delay not for Thy own sake, O my God: because Thy name is invoked upon
Thy city, and upon Thy people.
GOSPEL.
John viii. 21-29.
At
that time Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: I go, and you shall seek Me,
and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. The Jews
therefore said: Will He kill Himself, because He said: Whither I go, you cannot
come? And He said to them: You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of
this world; I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you, that you shall
die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your
sin. They said therefore to Him: Who art Thou? Jesus said to them: The
beginning, Who also speak unto you. Many things I have to speak and to judge of
you. But He that sent Me is true: and the things I have heard of Him, these
same I speak in the world. And they understood not that He called God His Father.
Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the
Father hath taught Me, these things I speak: and He that sent Me is with Me,
and He hath not left Me alone: for I do always the things that please Him.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO-THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER
TWO-YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
ARTICLE 4-THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
Honor your
father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord
your God gives you.
He was
obedient to them.
The Lord
Jesus himself recalled the force of this "commandment of
God." The Apostle teaches: "Children, obey your parents in the
Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother,' (This is the first
commandment with a promise.) 'that it may be well with you and that you may
live long on the earth."'
2197 The fourth commandment
opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the order of charity. God
has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents to whom we owe life and
who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and
respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.
2198 This commandment is
expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It introduces the
subsequent commandments which are concerned with particular respect for life,
marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations of the
social doctrine of the Church.
2199 The fourth commandment is
addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and
mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns
the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor,
affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to
the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to
leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.
This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of parents, instructors,
teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all who exercise authority
over others or over a community of persons.
2200 Observing the fourth
commandment brings its reward: "Honor your father and your mother, that
your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives
you." Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual
fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure to observe
it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Protection
of Life from Conception until natural death.
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 5 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Total Consecration
to St. Joseph Day 13
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Rosary
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