What good is it if we dutifully attend Mass whether online or in person, give our weekly offerings but our hearts are NOT changed? If we continue to be impatient with family and friends. If we continue seeking pleasures the world has to offer. If we allow TV drama serials, games, social media to distract us completely from the Lord our God and our brethren in need. Today’s first reading is a reminder of what the Lord said to us in Matt 15:8 quoting Isaiah “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
So then do we stand as the people did in today’s Gospel imploring Him to leave us alone to our own devices? Do we not acknowledge Him as the Son of God sent for love of us to free us from the bondages of sin?
Lord Jesus come into my heart to stay! Amen
First reading
Amos 5:14-15,21-24
Seek good and not evil so that you may liveSeek good and not evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord, God of Hosts, may really be with you as you claim he is.Hate evil, love good, maintain justice at the city gate, and it may be that the Lord, God of Hosts, will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.I hate and despise your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals. When you offer me holocaust, I reject your oblations,
and refuse to look at your sacrifices of fattened cattle.Let me have no more of the din of your chanting, no more of your strumming on harps. But let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing stream.
Gospel
Matthew 8:28-34
The Gadarene swineWhen Jesus reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side of the lake, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs – creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way. They stood there shouting, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?’ Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ And he said to them, ‘Go then’, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off and made for the town, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs. At this the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave the neighbourhood.
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