“You may stain your sword with my blood but you will never profane my body that I have consecrated to Christ.” 

 

 St. Agnes, virgin & martyr

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Hebrews 6:10-20

God is not unjust,

And will not forget everything you have done for love of his name; you have helped, and still help, the believers.

We desire each of you to have, until the end, the same zeal for reaching what you have hoped for.

Do not grow careless, but imitate those, who, by their faith and determination, inherit the promise.

 

Remember God's promise to Abraham. God wanted to confirm it with an oath, and, as no one is higher than God,

he swore by himself: I shall bless you and give you many descendants. By just patiently waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.

 

People are used to swearing by someone higher than themselves, and their oath affirms everything that could be denied.

So God committed himself, with an oath, in order to convince those who were to wait for his promise,

that he would never change his mind. Thus, we have two certainties, in which it is impossible that God be proved false: promise and oath.

 

That is enough to encourage us strongly, when we leave everything, to hold to the hope set before us.

This hope is like a steadfast anchor of the soul, secure and firm, thrust beyond the curtain of the temple,

into the Sanctuary itself, where Jesus has entered ahead of us Jesus, high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek

 

Ps 111:1-2, 4-5, 9 & 10c The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Mark 2:23-28

One Sabbath he was walking through grain fields. As his disciples walked along with him,

they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus,

"Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!"

 

And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did in his time of need;

when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the House of God, when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate the bread of offering,

which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him." Then Jesus said to them,

"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath."

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"Hope is essential for our human existence."

The contemporary French philosopher Rémi Brague says that the anchors of human existence are in the heavens.

The image is loosely based on the ancient philosopher Plato, who said that man is like an upside-down tree,

with its roots in the eternal. This upside-down theme is also presented to us in the Letter to the Hebrews,

which declares that "the anchor of the soul" is our hope of eternal life and our hope in God.

 

The anchor is made "steadfast" by Christ who has planted that anchor in the Sanctuary of Heaven,

where he has entered as High Priest. A ship that has lost its anchor is in danger of running aground or being lost at sea.

We need a solid point to hold onto in life, and that solid point is God himself.

 

To forget that means that we are in danger of drifting with every current that comes our way,

and our life starts to lose its purpose and beauty. Hope is essential for our human existence.

We have many hopes and aspirations in life, but let's make sure that they are all anchored in the greatest hope that is Christ.