DAILY- HOMILY

January 16, 2017 – MONDAY, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

St. Joseph Vaz, Priest and Missionary

Green

Heb 5:1 - 10 / Mk 2:18- 22

     Born in Goa, India, St Joseph Vaz (1651 - 1711), the Apostle of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, was an Oratorian missionary in Ceylon when the Dutch sought to establish Calvinism as the official religion. Beatified in 1995, he was canonized by Pope Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 14 January 2015.

FROM THE 1ST READING:     Heb 5: 1 - 3, 5- 6

     Every High Priest is taken from among mortals and appointed to be their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to understand the ignorant and erring for he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he is bound to offer sacrifices for his sins as well as for the sins of the people....

     Nor did Christ become High Priest in taking upon himself this dignity, but it was given to him by the One who says: You are my son, I have begotten you today And in another place: You are a priest forever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

GOSPEL READING:     Mk 2:18- 22

     One day, when the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees were fasting, some people asked Jesus, "Why is it that both the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but yours do not?" Jesus answered, "How can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and on that day they will fast.

     "No one sews a piece of new cloth on an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear away from the old cloth, making a worse tear. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the skins and then both the wine and the skins would be lost. But new wine, new skins."

REFLECTION

     The first reading acknowledges that our religious leaders are men who are not perfect: only the Son of God is the perfect High Priest. That does not mean that we should not respect our imperfect religious leaders; rather we should encourage them to be better images of Jesus. We do so by ourselves being better images of Jesus.

     Gone are the days when only the bishops and priests do all the leading of the flock; by virtue of their baptism, all Christian laity participate in the leadership role in the Church: they are to pray for others, they are to also fight evil and save others. Jesus is the model and friend in this journey and task.

     The Gospel reading reminds us that we have to be renewed in our hearts in our service of God and neighbor. We must all be men and women of God in serving God and helping others, in fighting injustice and establishing God's kingdom.

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER INTENTIONS:

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

     LIZA &MANNY SALGADO

     RICHARD & BEA TAN

BIRTHDAY

     LUCY M. EUGENIO

     RAMONA MARIE C. TAN

IN MEMORIAM (+)

     RIZALINO M. MENDOZA

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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   |  The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the

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