It-Tieni Ħadd tar-Randan
Messalin B pp 148
God put Abraham
to the test. He called to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” he replied. Then God
said: “Take your son Isaac, your
only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah : “I swear
by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in
not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you
abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of
the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take
possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants
all the nations of the earth shall find blessing— all this because you obeyed
my command.” . This is the Word of the Lord.
L-Ewwel Lezzjoni - mill-Ktieb tal-Ġenesi
22.1-2.9a.10.13,15-19
F'dak iż-żmien, Alla ried iġarrab
lil Abraħam u qallu: "Abraħam!" U hu wieġbu: "Hawn jien!" U qallu:
"Aqbad lil Ibnek il-waħdieni, li int tħobb, lil Iżakk; u mur lejn l-art
ta' Morija, u hemm offreh b'sagrifiċċju tal-ħruq fuq waħda mill-għoljiet li jien se ngħidlek." U
waslu fil-post li kien semmielu Alla. U
Abraham medd idu u qabad is-sikkina biex joqtol lil ibnu. U sejjaħlu
l-anġlu tal-Mulej mis-smewwiet u qallu:
"Abraħam, Abraħam!" U dan wieġbu: "Hawn jien." U qallu: "La
tmiddx idek fuq iż-żgħażugħ u tagħmillu ebda
ħsara; għax issa naf li inti tibża' minn minn : "Naħlef fuq ruħi – oraklu tal-Mulej – la
darba int għamilt ħaġa bħal din, u ma ċaħħadtnix
minn ibnek il-waħdieni, jien imbierkek żguru u nkattarlek sewwa lil nislek bħall-kwiekeb
tas-sema u bħar-ramel f'xatt il-baħar; u nislek għad jret bwieb l-għedewwa tiegħu. U jitbierku b'nislek il-ġnus kollha tal-art
talli smajt minn
Responsorial Psalm PSalm 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. (116: 9) I will walk before the Lord, in the
land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones. R.
“I am greatly afflicted.”
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones. R.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. R/
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. R/
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. R/
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. R/
Salm Responsorjali Salm 115(116)
R/ Jien
nimxi quddiem il-Mulej f'art il-ħajjiin.
Bqajt
nemmen, imqar meta għedt:
"Jien
imdejjaq ħafna!"
Għażiża
f'għajnejn il-Mulej
hi
l-mewt tal-ħbien tiegħu/ R/
Iva,
Mulej, jien qaddej tiegħek,
jien
qaddej tiegħek, bin il-qaddejja tiegħek.
Int
ħallejtli l-irbit tiegħi.
Lilek
noffri sagrifiċċju ta' radd il-ħajr,
u
isem il-Mulej insejjaħ. R/
Intemm
lill-Mulej il-wegħdiet tiegħi,
quddiem
il-poplu tiegħu kollu,
fil-btieħi ta' dar il-Mulej,
ġo
nofsok, Ġerusalemm! R
Reading 2 ROMans 8:31B-34
Brothers and
sisters: If God is for us, who can
be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for
us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who
will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who
will condemn? Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised— who also
is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. . This is
the Word of the Lord.
It-Tieni Lezzjoni - mill-Ittra lir-Rumani 8. 31b-34
Ħuti, jekk Alla hu magħna min
jista' jkun kontra tagħna? Hu, li lanqas lil Ibnu stess ma ħafirha, imma tah għalina
lkoll, kif ma jagħtuniex ukoll kollox miegħu? Min je jakkuża l-magħżulin ta'
Alla? Alla stess hu dak li jiġġusstifikahom. Min se jikkundannhom? Kristu Ġesu' li miet, jew aħjar, li qam mill-imwiet, jinsab
fuq il-lemin ta' Alla, hu li jidħol għalina.
Il-Kelma tal-Mulej
Gospel MarK 9:2-10
Jesus took
Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
nd he was transfigured before
them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on
earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and
they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi,
it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say,
they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from
the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly,
looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they
were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had
seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they
kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead
meant. This is the Word of the Lord.
L-Evanġelju - skont
San Mark 9, 2-10
F'dak iż-żmien, Ġesu' ħa miegħu
lil Pietru u lil Ġakbu u lil Ġwanni, tellagħhom weħidhom
fuq muntanja għolja, u tbiddel quddiemhom.
Ilbiesu sar abjad u jgħammex b'dija
tal-għaġeb: ebda ħassiel fid-dinja ma jista' jġib il-ħwejjeġ
bojod daqshekk. U dehrilhom Elija ma' Mose' jitkellmu ma' Ġesu'.
Qabad Pietru u qal lil Ġesu':
"Mgħallem, kemm u sew li aħna hawn!
Ħa ntellgħu tliet tined, waħda għalik, waħda għal Mose', u oħra għal
Elija." Dan qalu għax ma kienx jaf
x'jaqbad jgħid bil-biża' kbir li waqa' fuqhom. Imbagħad ġiet sħaba u għattiethom, u minn : "Dan
hu Ibni l-għażiż, isimgħu lilu."
Minnufih taw ħarsa madwarhom, u ma raw lil ħadd iżjem magħhom ħlief lil Ġesu'
waħdu. Huma u neżlin minn
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Father Cantalamessa on Where
Jesus Speaks
Pontifical
Household Preacher Looks at This Sunday's Gospel
Listen to Him!
"This is my beloved Son; listen to him." With these words, God
the Father gave Jesus Christ to humanity as its sole and definitive Teacher,
superior to the laws and the prophets. Where
is Jesus speaking today, so that we can hear him? He speaks to us above all
through our conscience. It is a sort of "repeater," set within us, of
the very voice of God. But conscience is not enough on its own. It is easy to
make it say what we like to hear.
Thus it needs to be illuminated and supported by the Gospel and the
teaching of the Church. The Gospel is the place par excellence in which Jesus
speaks to us today. But we know by experience that the words of the Gospel can
also be interpreted in different ways. It is the Church, instituted by Christ
precisely for this end, which assures us of an authentic interpretation: "He who hears you hears me." Because of
this it is important that we endeavor to know the doctrine of the Church, to
know it firsthand, as she herself understands and proposes it, not in the
interpretation -- often distorted and reductive -- of the media.
Almost as important as knowing where Jesus is speaking today is to know
where he does not speak. Needless to
say, he does not speak through wizards, fortunetellers, necromancers, horoscope
orators, alleged extraterrestrial messages; he does not speak in spiritualistic
sessions, in occultism.
In Scripture, we read this warning in this regard:
"Let there not be found among you
anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortuneteller,
soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts
and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an
abomination to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18: 10-12).
These were the pagans' typical ways of referring to the divine, who read the future by consulting the stars, or animals' entrails, or birds' flight. With that phrase of God -- "Listen to him!" -- all that came to an end. There is only one mediator between God and men; we are no longer obliged to move "blindly" to know the divine will, or to consult this or that source. In Christ we have all the answers.
These were the pagans' typical ways of referring to the divine, who read the future by consulting the stars, or animals' entrails, or birds' flight. With that phrase of God -- "Listen to him!" -- all that came to an end. There is only one mediator between God and men; we are no longer obliged to move "blindly" to know the divine will, or to consult this or that source. In Christ we have all the answers.
Lamentably, today those pagan rites are again fashionable. As always,
when true faith decreases, superstition increases. Let us take the most
innocuous thing of all, the horoscope. It
can be said that there is no newspaper or radio station that does not offer
daily its readers or hearers their horoscope. For mature persons, gifted with a
minimum capacity for criticism and irony, it is no more than an innocuous joke,
a kind of game or pastime.
Meanwhile, however, let us consider the long-term effects. What
mentality is formed, especially in children and adolescents? A mentality
according to which success in life does not depend on effort, diligence in
studies and constancy in work, but of imponderable external factors; being able
to acquire certain powers -- one's own or others' -- for one's own benefit. Worse still:
All this leads one to think that, in good and evil, the responsibility is not
ours, but of the "stars," as Don Ferrante thought, of Manzonian
memory.
I must allude to another realm in which Jesus does not speak and where,
however, he is made to speak all the time:
that of private revelations, heavenly messages, apparitions and voices of
various kinds. I do not say that Christ or the Virgin cannot also speak through
these means. They have done so in the past and they can do so, of course, also
today.
It is only that before taking for granted that it is Jesus or the
Virgin, and not someone's sick imagination, or worse, of fraudsters who
speculate with people's good faith, it is necessary to have guarantees. In this
area, it is necessary to wait for the judgment of the Church, and not precede
it. Dante's words are still timely:
"Christians, be firmer when you move:
do not be like feathers in the wind."
[Translation by ZENIT]
© Innovative Media Inc.
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