DAY 89: MARCH 1

Deuteronomy 4:25-5:33

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

²⁵ When you have had children and children’s children, and become complacent in the land, if you act corruptly by making an idol in the form of anything, thus doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you. ²⁸ There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.²⁹ From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.³⁰ In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him. ³¹ Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

³² For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? ³³ Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. ³⁷ And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, ³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. ³⁹ So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ⁴⁰ Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart on the east side of the Jordan three cities ⁴² to which a homicide could flee, someone who unintentionally kills another person, the two not having been at enmity before; the homicide could flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites.

Transition to the Second Address

⁴⁴ This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the decrees and the statutes and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they had come out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned at Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites on the eastern side of the Jordan: ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion^[a] (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

5 Moses convened all Israel, and said to them:

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. ⁵ (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words^[b] of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

⁶ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ⁷ you shall have no other gods before^[c] me.

⁸ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I theLord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, ¹⁰ but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation^[d] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

¹² Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

¹⁶ Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷ You shall not murder.^[e]

¹⁸ Neither shall you commit adultery.

¹⁹ Neither shall you steal.

²⁰ Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Moses the Mediator of God’s Will

²² These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. ²³ When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; ²⁴ and you said, “Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live.²⁵ So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die. ²⁶ For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? ²⁷ Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will listen and do it.”

²⁸ The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. ²⁹ If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever!³⁰ Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ ³¹ But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.” ³² You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. ³³ You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

Psalm 89:19-52

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

¹⁹ Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
    “I have set the crown^[a] on one who is mighty,
    I have exalted one chosen from the people.
²⁰ I have found my servant David;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him;
²¹ my hand shall always remain with him;
    my arm also shall strengthen him.
²² The enemy shall not outwit him,
    the wicked shall not humble him.
²³ I will crush his foes before him
    and strike down those who hate him.
²⁴ My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
    and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
²⁵ I will set his hand on the sea
    and his right hand on the rivers.
²⁶ He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
    my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’
²⁷ I will make him the firstborn,
    the highest of the kings of the earth.
²⁸ Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him,
    and my covenant with him will stand firm.
²⁹ I will establish his line forever,
    and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
³⁰ If his children forsake my law
    and do not walk according to my ordinances,
³¹ if they violate my statutes
    and do not keep my commandments,
³² then I will punish their transgression with the rod
    and their iniquity with scourges;
³³ but I will not remove from him my steadfast love,
    or be false to my faithfulness.
³⁴ I will not violate my covenant,
    or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
³⁵ Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness;
    I will not lie to David.
³⁶ His line shall continue forever,
    and his throne endure before me like the sun.
³⁷ It shall be established forever like the moon,
    an enduring witness in the skies.”Selah

³⁸ But now you have spurned and rejected him;
    you are full of wrath against your anointed.
³⁹ You have renounced the covenant with your servant;
    you have defiled his crown in the dust.
⁴⁰ You have broken through all his walls;
    you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
⁴¹ All who pass by plunder him;
    he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
    you have made all his enemies rejoice.
⁴³ Moreover, you have turned back the edge of his sword,
    and you have not supported him in battle.
⁴⁴ You have removed the scepter from his hand,^[b]
    and hurled his throne to the ground.
⁴⁵ You have cut short the days of his youth;
    you have covered him with shame.Selah

⁴⁶ How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
    How long will your wrath burn like fire?
⁴⁷ Remember how short my time is—^[c]
    for what vanity you have created all mortals!
⁴⁸ Who can live and never see death?
    Who can escape the power of Sheol?Selah

⁴⁹ Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
    which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
⁵⁰ Remember, O Lord, how your servant is taunted;
    how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples,^[d]
51 with which your enemies taunt, O Lord,
    with which they taunted the footsteps of your anointed.

⁵² Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen and Amen.

Acts 21:1-16

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Paul’s Journey to Jerusalem

21 When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.^[a] 2 When we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail. ³ We came in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there. ⁴ We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. ⁵ When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed ⁶ and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

⁷ When we had finished^[b] the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the believers^[c] and stayed with them for one day. ⁸ The next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. ⁹ He had four unmarried daughters^[d] who had the gift of prophecy.¹⁰ While we were staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” ¹² When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³ Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴ Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, “The Lord’s will be done.”

¹⁵ After these days we got ready and started to go up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along and brought us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to stay.

catechism 

The Resurrection as transcendent event

647 O truly blessed Night, sings the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, which alone deserved to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the dead!⁵¹² But no one was an eyewitness to Christ's Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people."⁵¹³

II. THE RESURRECTION - A WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY

648 Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. the Father's power "raised up" Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead".⁵¹⁴ St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power⁵¹⁵through the working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus' dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.

649 As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise.⁵¹⁶ Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."⁵¹⁷ "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."⁵¹⁸

650 The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were separated from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by the union of the two."⁵¹⁹