What relevance does today’s first reading have for us? Yes indeed Jesus offered Himself a once for all sacrifice to save us from sin. But how do we respond to that expression of love on our part at every Eucharistic Celebration? Had we come, body, mind and spirit to partake in the celebration? Are we offering up with the offertory couple the works of our hands? The fruits of our labour? Have we heard the word of God from the previous Sunday and have done His will for us throughout the week so that we offer that up in this Eucharistic Celebration? Have we shared the joy of the Gospel with others when we were sent at every mass?
We can say we are all brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God our Heavenly Father. But have we put into action His Will for us as true sons and daughters?
Here I am Lord, I come to do Your will. Amen
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us…
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First reading
Hebrews 10:1-10 ·
Christ’s self-offering sanctifies us
Since the Law has no more than a reflection of these realities, and no finished picture of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, with the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins. Instead of that, the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices. Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what he said, on coming into the world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,
prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
then I said,
just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,
‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’
Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
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Gospel
Mark 3:31-35
Who are my mother and my brothers? Those that do the will of God
The mother and brothers of Jesus arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, ‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’
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