Lectionary: 314
Reading 1
Heb 7:25—8:6
Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.
The main point of what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest,
who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.
Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;
thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest,
since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,
as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle.
For God says, “See that you make everything
according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Alleluia
See 2 Tm 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mk 3:7-12
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.
REFLECTION
SOURCE: One Bread One Body
THEME: THE BEST OF TIMES
"The main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a High Priest, Who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, Minister of the sanctuary and of that true tabernacle set up, not by man, but by the Lord." –Hebrews 8:1-2
Jesus is a better Priest (Heb 7:28) with a better ministry in "a better covenant, founded on better promises" (Heb 8:6). The Jewish people did not think of God's work with them as completed. They were waiting for the Messiah to give them the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews maintained that Jesus was the Messiah, the Fulfillment of the law, the ultimate High Priest Who made the once-and-for-all sacrifice (Heb 7:27) and tore open the curtain separating us from God's presence in the Holy of Holies (Mt 27:51).
Are you living the fulfilled life, or are you back in B.C.? Do you realize that "absolute fullness" resides in Jesus? (Col 1:19) Are you living the new covenant of Baptism to the fullest? Do you know and live both the Old and New Testaments? Do you focus your life on the Eucharist, the perpetuation of Jesus' once-and-for-all sacrifice on Calvary? Do you tell the world that Jesus has done it all and is our All in all? In Christ, we have everything we will ever need (see 2 Cor 6:10; 1 Cor 3:21).
Rejoice that you are alive in Jesus, in the Messianic age, the end times, the new covenant.
PRAYER: Father, I know that "when much has been given a man, much will be required of him" (Lk 12:48). May I live appropriately to what I have received from You.
PROMISE: "Because He had cured many, all who had afflictions kept pushing toward Him to touch Him." –Mk 3:10
PRAISE: St. Vincent, deacon and martyr, is noted for courageously enduring excessively cruel torture in his martyrdom. Like Jesus, Vincent refused relief while being executed (see Mk 15:23).
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