Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection February 28, 2025
7th Week in Ordinary Time
28th February 2025 (Friday)
Psalter: Week 3
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Sirach 6:5-17
A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him. For one sort is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress. Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame. Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes. When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants; But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you. Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends. A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.
Psalm 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35 (R. 35a)
R/. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel: Mark 10:1-12
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “”Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “”What did Moses command you?”” They replied, “”Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.”” But Jesus told them, “”Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”” In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Friday – 7th Week in Ordinary Time
Main Point: In any relationship, selfishness is very damaging. It leads to closed-mindedness and stubbornness. These shut the doors to understanding and kindness
Today, especially the walls of married and family life are shaking and crumbling. Excessive ego and cheating are two reasons for this. People are carried away by self-pride in the name of self-dignity. Self-interests are promoted in the name of self-making. Deceiving and manipulating are justified as tools for success and happiness.
This is really the corrosion of the dignity and sanctity of married life. This is visibly reflected in the increasing number of divorces. It is sad that sometimes divorces are sought even for silly reasons. Jesus today addresses this issue. He makes it very clear that marriage union is divine and sacred and so indissoluble. Any breach of this bond is never His will.
In this context, humility, and fidelity can be the two greatest pillars on which the edifice of married life can be rebuilt. The efforts of both the partners should be to safeguard the bond rather than being hasty to break it at the slightest pretext.
A healthy family life requires more humility to acknowledge and admit one’s own weaknesses and failures instead of defending and justifying them. It calls for reducing our sense of false ego, which is inflated and blown up. It also calls for making more space for the weaknesses of the other and accepting him or her.
Further, it needs more fidelity. As long as there is no trust and trustworthiness in each other, as long as there is no openness and transparency to each other, as long as there is no honesty and truthfulness, but instead there is hiding, lying, and cheating, then surely that family life will collapse.
My Practice: There can sometimes be valid reasons for divorce and separation. However, we cannot glorify it or legitimize it. The fact remains that family life today requires more steadfastness and fidelity
