CHRIST WILL APPEAR A SECOND TIME TO SAVE THOSE WHO ARE WAITING EAGERLY FOR HIM (cf. Heb 9:28)

⏰Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time 1 – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (23 Jan 2017)

????Heb 9:15, 24-28; Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6 (R.v.1ab); Mark 3:22-30

CHRIST WILL APPEAR A SECOND TIME TO SAVE THOSE WHO ARE WAITING EAGERLY FOR HIM (cf. Heb 9:28)

My dear, in this new working week, I pray that you may emerge victorious in all things especially in your spiritual battles against the enemies of Christ. Amen.
Do you understand why St. Paul said in Rom 8:37 that in Christ Jesus our Lord, we are more than conquerors? It is based on the fact that Jesus is supreme over all. He said it himself in Matt 28:18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews must have understood this supremacy of Christ. So, in the Letter, which is believed to have been written for the Jewish converts who might be facing persecution and with the temptation of reverting to their old religion, Christ is presented as a better place for them.

The sacrifice of an animal is customary in Jewish worship. This is done repeatedly as a way of renewal. But Christ’s sacrifice does not need such renewal because it was done once and for all. In our own worship today, we are only doing a memorial of that perpetual sacrifice of Christ. Each time we participate at Mass, that supreme sacrifice is made present again.

As you among those who doubt the possibility of this reality? Do you know anyone who still think that the Catholic Church errs in her Eucharistic worship? Such a thought could be a limitation of the power of God. The scribes got rebuked by Jesus for doing that.

For those who believe, may the power of Christ continue to sustain us in our faith so that when he comes again in glory, we shall be among those to be saved. Amen.

Have a fruitful and joyful week ahead. It is well with you.