04 June 2010, Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
2 Tm 3:10-17

You have followed my teaching, way of life,

purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions,

and sufferings, such as happened to me

in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra,

persecutions that I endured.

Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me.

In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted.

But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse,

deceivers and deceived.

But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,

because you know from whom you learned it,

and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,

which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation

through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching,

for refutation, for correction,

and for training in righteousness,

so that one who belongs to God may be competent,

equipped for every good work.

Gospel
Mk 12: 35-37

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,

“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?

David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:

The Lord said to my lord,

‘Sit at my right hand

until I place your enemies under your feet.’

David himself calls him ‘lord’;

so how is he his son?”

The great crowd heard this with delight.


Meditation: Psalm 119:157,160-161,165-166,168

Your every word is enduring; all your just edicts are forever. (Psalm 119:160)


Today’s psalm offers the “bottom line” for all our thinking about God: He never changes. There is no contradiction in God, as there is in human beings. He is always good, always faithful, always fruitful.

God’s “every word is enduring” (Psalm 119:160). Think about it. Everything God has ever said will remain true for all time. He never changes his mind. And because God is always good as well, his word will always bear good fruit. Because he is always faithful, your heavenly Father will never betray your trust. He will never lie to you or give you a false impression. He is completely and utterly reliable!

We humans, on the other hand, can hold a lot of mistaken beliefs. And we can advocate some of these false premises in loud, convincing voices. St. Paul warned Timothy about this. He urged his young disciple to “remain faithful” to what he had learned about the gospel and to hold onto the word of God in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14-15). This was the only way Timothy could guard against the “charlatans” who were offering false gospels (3:13).

The same is true today. Let yourself be taught by the word of God in Scripture. Root yourself in it. Ponder it. Learn it. Lean on it as you go through life. On a practical level, this means reading it every day. A good way to start is to take one of the daily readings from Mass and think about it during the day. Write down one or two verses that strike you and keep them close to you. Keep coming back to it during the day, looking for ways it applies to you. Let the promises in the passage become more important to you than the things that might discourage or confuse or frighten you.

Scripture itself promises: “Lovers of your teaching have much peace” (Psalm 119:165). So do it. Learn to love the Scriptures, and you will begin to see all that God, who is always good, has in store.

“Father, I believe you are good and faithful. Help me to think about your word more than all the other words I hear.”