THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, 2023

Tob 11:5-17

Ps 146

Mark 12:35-37

David himself calls him "Lord"

There is a great deal of praise of God in today’s first reading(Tb 11:5-17). When Tobias healed the blindness of his father Tobit, his father, fell on his son’s neck and exclaimed, ‘Blessed be God! Blessed be his great name! Blessed be all his holy angels! Blessed be his great name for evermore!’ When Tobias went into his father’s house, he joyfully blessed God, telling his father everything about the journey he had just completed. Then Tobit set off to the gates of Nineveh to meet his daughter-in-law for the first time, ‘giving joyful praise to God as he went’. When he met, Sarah, his daughter-in-law, he blessed her with the words, ‘Blessed by your God for sending you to us, my daughter’. Tobit and Tobias recognized the presence of God in all that was happening around them and they gave praise and thanks to God for it. We are all probably much more familiar with the prayer of petition. When we are in difficulty ask God to help us. We pray to God out of the depths. That is as it should be. Sometimes, we forget to praise and thank God for the blessings that come our way in life. We don’t think of God as easily in good times as in bad times. 

According to the gospel reading(Mk 12:35-37), the majority of the people heard Jesus with delight. The presence of Jesus, his deeds, and his words, brought them joy and led them to praise God. Jesus is God’s gift to us all. We can all hear him with delight. God’s gift of his Son to us gives us very good reason to praise and thank God. We say formal prayers of praise and thanks to God in the Mass. Yet, Tobit and Tobias, and the people in the gospel reading, encourage us to be spontaneous in our prayer of praise and thanks to God. It is a prayer that can arise in our hearts at any time of the day, in any place, in response to the Lord’s many, daily, blessings. In the words of today’s psalm, ‘I will praise the Lord all my days’.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, whenever we speak the word "Lord", may we gratefully submit every facet of our lives to Your lordship. Amen

+Remain blessed