Tuesday, January 27 2015; Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 318

Reading 1
Heb 10:1-10

Brothers and sisters:
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, 
and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect 
those who come to worship by the same sacrifices 
that they offer continually each year.
Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, 
since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer 
have had any consciousness of sins?
But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, 
for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats 
take away sins.
For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.

First he says, Sacrifices and offerings, 
burnt offerings and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, Behold, I come to do your will.
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated 
through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 40:2 and 4ab, 7-8a, 10, 11

R. (8a and 9a) Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. 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.
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.
Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;
your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;
I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth
in the vast assembly.
R. Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

Alleluia
See Mt 11:25

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel
Mk 3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”

REFLECTION
SOURCE: One Bread One Body
THEME: FAMILY TRANSPLANT

"Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me." –Mark 3:35

Jesus said that He came for division, to divide a family three against two (Lk 12:52). He meant that some family members would receive Him while others would reject Him, at least for a time. For those who love Jesus, love their families, and yet have been rejected within their families because of their love for Jesus, there is great pain.

Yet Jesus offers the greatest consolation amidst this pain: by doing the will of God, we are adopted and transplanted into the family of God (Mk 3:35). We become a brother or sister of Jesus, a son or daughter of God the Father, united in love through the Holy Spirit. Praise be to the Holy Trinity forever! Our family meal is now the Mass, as we gather with the rest of our family at the table of the Lord and receive the Holy Eucharist.

In the meantime, continue to love your biological family and pray for them. Your love and prayers may not seem to be having any impact. It might even seem to you that your love and prayers are making the situation worse. Keep persevering anyway. Day by day, the Lord is working behind the scenes (Mk 4:26ff) to unite your family in Him. Jesus is the stumbling Stone that smashes a family apart (Mt 21:44) and the Cornerstone upon Which the family is restored (Mt 21:42; Ps 118:22).

PRAYER: "I have come to do Your will, O God" (Heb 10:7).

PROMISE: "By this 'will,' we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." –Heb 10:10

PRAISE: St. Angela was a creative visionary. Not only was she the first to found a teaching order of women in the Church, but she also founded the Church's first secular institute.