Thursday, May 30, 2024

Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary time

(I Peter 2:2-5.9-12; Mark 10:46-52)

Addressing himself to non-Jewish Christians in today’s first reading, Peter reminds them of the graces they have received.  They are no longer vulnerable individuals but a strong nation with God as their protector.  Each person of the nation has a priestly status whereby she or he might offer prayers as valid sacrifices. 

The new status of the people carries with it heightened responsibilities.  The people must live as God has directed in the commandments as reinterpreted by Jesus.  What is more, they should offer spiritual sacrifices of self-denial and works of mercy.  In these ways they will be silently preaching salvation in Jesus.

What Peter says to the churches of the first century certainly applies to us today.  We too may be rejected by others for insisting on the right to life and the evil of euthanasia. We too have been called out of the darkness of pursuing convenience into the light of never fading, sacrificial love.

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