Blessed Virgin Mary

＊＊＊1st Reading＊＊＊

Leviticus 25: 1, 8-17

Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai:

When seven Sabbaths of years have passed, that is, seven times seven years, there shall be the time of the seven weeks of years, that is forty-nine years.  Then on the tenth day of the seventh month sound the trumpet loudly. On this Day of Atonement sound the trumpet all through the land. Keep holy the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom for all the inhabitants of the land.

It shall be a jubilation year for you when each one shall recover his property and go back to his family.  In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee, you shall neither sow nor reap the after growth, nor gather the grapes from the uncultivated vines. This Jubilee year shall be holy for you, and you shall eat what the field yields of itself without cultivation. In this year of Jubilee each of you shall recover his own property. When you sell something to your neighbor or buy something from him, do not wrong one another. 

According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy it from your neighbor and according to the number of years left for harvesting crops he shall sell to you.  When the years are many the price shall be greater and when the years are few the price shall be less, for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you.  So you shall not wrong one another but you shall fear your God, for I am Yahweh, your God.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 14: 1-12

At that time the reports about Jesus reached King Herod.  And he said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. John has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”Herod had, in fact, ordered that John be arrested, bound in chains and put in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.  For John had said to him, “It is not right for you to have her as wife.”

 Herod wanted to kill him but he did not dare, because he feared the people who regarded John as a prophet.On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced among the guests; she so delighted Herod that he promised under oath to give her anything she asked for.  The girl, following the advice of her mother, said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a dish.”

The king was very displeased, but because he had made this promise under oath in the presence of the guests, he ordered it to be given her.   So he had John beheaded in prison and his head brought on a dish and given to the girl. The girl then took it to her mother. Then John’s disciples came took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

 

Reflection gospel：

“HEROD WANTED TO KILL HIM.”

The words of prophet Jeremiah also stands against Herod’s action: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11). This is exactly the opposite of the malicious and wicked intent of the weak characters in the gospel reading.Herod, a person of weak “moral backbone”, caused harm to both his brother and John the Baptist. 

To him, John the Baptist, having spoken the word of God and the Torah, is a stumbling block to his evil intent. He has caused him and his brother an unfortunate lot.An evil heart brings forth evil thoughts and actions; it injures and infringes the concern for justice and mercy.

It destroys, rather than create and build. The evil heart disregards the good and well-being of others. It glories in pain and suffering inflicted to others. The misfortune of others is not his business. Because of these, the evil heart can easily be identified. For the human person is gifted with a faculty to know both evil and the good.