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The BreadCast


Daily Exposition of the Readings for Catholic Mass...

as well as Prayers to the Saints on the General Roman Calendar (for the U.S.).  

From the books Our Daily Bread and Prayers to the Saints by James H. Kurt - both with imprimatur.

Jun 16, 2022

(2Kgs.11:1-4,9-18,20;   Ps.132:11-14,17-18;   Mt.6:19-23)

“The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eye is good, your body will be filled with light;

if your eye is bad, your body will be in darkness.”

And “how deep the darkness” is upon Athaliah.  For her eye is evil, her “light is darkness,” as so desperately she seeks to “lay up for [herself] an earthly treasure” by unjust and murderous means.  Seeing that her son, the king of Judah, has died, she attempts to hold on to his crown by killing all the rightful heirs to his throne, caring more for the things which “moth and rust corrode” than for the righteousness of God.  And she succeeds, though only briefly, as, true to the words of our gospel today, “thieves break in and steal” the kingship she has herself stolen away.  And how great is her woe upon seeing all she has so anxiously and vainly sought removed from under her sight.  How deep indeed is her darkness, deeper than the death she is about to endure.

In our psalm today we are reminded of the promise the Lord has made with David, king of all Israel: “If your sons keep my covenant and the decrees which I teach them, their sons, too, forever shall sit upon your throne.”  For in Zion the Lord vows to “place a lamp for [His] anointed,” and declares that upon His chosen one His “crown shall shine.”  This crown, this lamp, is for all the Lord’s children to receive, to shine forth in His holy presence.  All who keep to His ways shall know such blessing.  But, clearly, those who turn away lose the light the Lord deems to give to us as followers of His One Light, Jesus Christ.  And however boldly or by whatever anxious means we attempt to hold on to it, it shall be removed from us like the passing day.  Only remaining in Him are we saved.

In our first reading the people, led by Jehoiada the priest of God, renew the covenant “by which they would be the Lord’s people.”  Terribly they have fallen from it and its grace and seek to regain what has now, and so often, been lost.  Continually, in fact, the Israelites fell away from the Lord’s command and so were abandoned to their sins – thus necessitating the coming of Christ – but continually the Lord returns them to the light when they return to Him, until finally Jesus does come.

Let us not be as the Israelites have been, brothers and sisters, so easily led into darkness and error, so easily seeking to look upon the evil of this earth.  The Lord has come now to lead us away from just such things and give us a light that never fades.  It is for us to remain with Him.  Let your eye be sound, and so let His wisdom shine through you, O blessed one.

*******

O LORD, let us shine like your Son

in your heavenly kingdom.

YHWH, upon what are our hearts set?  Are they set on you and the doing of your will?  Do we seek indeed your kingdom?  Or do we look to gain whatever we can of earthly treasure, and so set ourselves in opposition to your law of love?  You alone are King; your Son alone is the rightful heir to all.  Let us place Him upon the throne of our hearts and rejoice at your presence there.

How evil man can be, O LORD, how blind and desperate in his selfishness.  Into such grave darkness can we fall when we set our hearts on the things of this world.  But how vain power and riches are; how quickly they come to an end, for these are not ours but yours alone, and they return to you at the end of the day.  And so, if we would hold to them, we would find ourselves fighting you… and that is a battle we cannot win.

O LORD, have mercy on your people!  Take not your light from our midst – make us your very dwelling place.  Let your light shine forth from all your children as they set their hearts on Heaven.