Gospel: March 4, 2025
March 4, 2025 (Tuesday)
8th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 4 (Green/White)
St. Casimir
Ps 50:5-6, 7-8, 14 & 23
To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
1st Reading: Sirach 35:1-12
Keeping the law is worth many offerings. Being faithful to the commandments is like a peace offering. Returning kindness is an offering of fine flour; giving alms is a sacrifice of praise. Renouncing sin pleases the Lord, and shunning injustice is a sacrifice of atonement. Do not appear before the Lord with empty hands. The commandment requires that you bring an offering. When the offering of the righteous is burned on the altar, the fat drips down and a fragrant aroma rises to the Most High. The sacrifice of the just man pleases God and will not be forgotten. Honor the Lord with a generous heart and do not be stingy with the first fruits of your harvest. Offer your gifts with a smiling face and when you pay your tithes do it gladly. Give to the Most High as he has given to you; give generously to the Lord according to what you have; the Lord will repay; he will reward you sevenfold. If you attempt to bribe him with gifts he will not accept them; do not rely on offerings from dishonest gain. The Lord is judge and shows no partiality.
Gospel: Mark 10:28-31
Peter spoke up and said, “We have given up everything to follow you.” Jesus answered, “Truly, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel, who will not receive his reward. I say to you: even in the midst of persecution, he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time; and, in the world to come, eternal life. Do pay attention: many who now are the first will be last, and the last, first.”
Reflection:
“Offering of everything to God”
My mother Elsie used to say, “Give, and the Lord will give you back.” She was a very generous and loving person, renowned for taking time to listen to people and to go out of her way to help in all sorts of ways. The first reading focuses on the ideas of offering and sacrifice, and yet, the offerings that are being praised are not of grain or animals, but of interior dispositions. We are to offer our lives to God generously and that offering of everything to God is rewarded by the blessings of a joyful life, even in challenges. The more often we seek to be loving and generous, the more loving and generous we become; the more like Christ we become. Saint Casimir was renowned for his piety and exceptional generosity. Artists portrayed this generosity by painting Saint Casimir with three hands, reminding us that our generosity should not have ulterior motives, but should be spontaneous, summed up by Christ in the command “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Mt 6:3).
