THE THIRD COMMANDMENT
Keep holy the Sabbath Day
The Lord speaks:
The Sabbath, Sunday, has always been special for the community. From the beginning the faithful would gather to celebrate the memorial of the Lord’s death and resurrection. The great gift which I have given you in the Mass makes you present, in faith, at Calvary and Easter Sunday. Mass is brining into your world this great act of reconciliation. My apostle Paul reminds you that when he writes: he reconciled all things through the blood of His cross. Reconcile means to make things the way they should be.
So at Mass my mercy is given to you. It is there, you may not feel it, but it is working within you. I guess a simple way of defining my mercy is: I fix things. I fix the mistakes of people, I work inside of terrible situation trying to bring good out of them, My mercy, or rather I the merciful one do an awful lot that people will probably never know. This is what Mass does.
Now since you have all been touched by this mercy you should share it. You see I do not give gifts just for the individual but I give to the individual to he may use it to make my kingdom present in the world. My gifts, in this case mercy, are for the world.
Having said all that the next part is the tough one. You see I like to use people to do this. Look at the world and see all the things that are not right with it. Poverty, selfishness, greed, pride man’s inhumanity to man all these need fixing. You can not do everything. But you can do something to make my kingdom better. Maybe volunteering to work at the parish food pantry? The point that I am trying to make is that Sunday Mass is not just one hour you spend in Church. To keep it holy means to live what has happened to you…touched by God’s mercy. The words of my prophet Isaiah come to mind: Come let us set things aright, says the Lord
Questions for reflection:
Have you ever felt during Mass a weight being taken off your shoulders?
Do you see yourself as a “fixer” in God’s Kingdom?
Any ideas of what you could do to be the hands of God?
About Me
- fr.Bill,ofm
- It really is about time I got to do this profile. Because of the nature of the animal there are going to be a lot of "I" please excuse. I was born in NYC many years ago. I entered the Franciscan Order, Holy Name Province, in July 1960.ordained a Franciscan Priest in 1966. Shortly after Ordination I was sent to Japan where I spent the next glorious 28 years working as missionary. In 1994 I went to India to work with lepers, Unfortunately, I got sick and had to cut my stay short.The next stop was the Holy Land. Two more very happy years. Finally, after 30 years out of the country I returned to the States. My first posting was to a Chapel in a shopping mall outside of Albany NY. In my spare time I worked with the fillipino Community in Albany and also with the collegiates at Siena College. In 2002 I was transferred to St.Francis Inn, a soup kitchen run by the Franciscans of the NY Province.
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