DAY 92: MARCH 4

DT 10-11

Deuteronomy 10-11

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

The Second Pair of Tablets

10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.” ³ So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments^[a] that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan^[b] to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. ⁹ Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)
¹⁰ I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

The Essence of the Law

¹² So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of theLord your God^[c] and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴ Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, ¹⁵ yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸ who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. ¹⁹ You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹ He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. ²² Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

Rewards for Obedience

11 You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always. ² Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ³ his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea^[d] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company; ⁷ for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.

⁸ Keep, then, this entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy, ⁹ and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, ¹² a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
¹³ If you will only heed his every commandment^[e] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— ¹⁴ then he^[f]will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; ¹⁵ and he^[g] will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. ¹⁶ Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, ¹⁷ for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
¹⁸ You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem^[h] on your forehead. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
²² If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.
²⁶ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:²⁷ the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lordyour God that I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.
²⁹ When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak^[i] of Moreh.
³¹ When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it, ³² you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

PS 92

Psalm 92

Thanksgiving for Vindication

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day.

¹ It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
    to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
² to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
    and your faithfulness by night,
³ to the music of the lute and the harp,
    to the melody of the lyre.
⁴ For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
    at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

⁵ How great are your works, O Lord!
    Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶ The dullard cannot know,
    the stupid cannot understand this:
⁷ though the wicked sprout like grass
    and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever,
⁸     but you, O Lord, are on high forever.
⁹ For your enemies, O Lord,
    for your enemies shall perish;
    all evildoers shall be scattered.

¹⁰ But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
    you have poured over me^[a] fresh oil.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
    my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
    and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the Lord;
    they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ In old age they still produce fruit;
    they are always green and full of sap,
¹⁵ showing that the Lord is upright;
    he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

ACTS 22.17-29

Acts 22:17-29

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Paul Sent to the Gentiles

¹⁷ “After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸ and saw Jesus^[a] saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ ¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. ²⁰ And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’²¹ Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Paul and the Roman Tribune

²² Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” ²³ And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. ²⁵ But when they had tied him up with thongs,^[b] Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?” ²⁶ When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.” ²⁷ The tribune came and asked Paul,^[c] “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.” ²⁹ Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

CAT 668-672

Article 7

"FROM THENCE HE WILL COME AGAlN TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD"

I. He Will Come Again in Glory

Christ already reigns through the Church. . .

668 "Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."⁵⁴⁸ Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his feet."⁵⁴⁹ Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are "set forth" and transcendently fulfilled.⁵⁵⁰

669 As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body.⁵⁵¹ Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. the redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The kingdom of Christ (is) already present in mystery", "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom".⁵⁵²

670 Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfilment. We are already at "the last hour".⁵⁵³ "Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect."⁵⁵⁴ Christ's kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.⁵⁵⁵
. . . until all things are subjected to him

671 Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth.⁵⁵⁶ This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover.⁵⁵⁷ Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God."⁵⁵⁸ That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him:⁵⁵⁹ Maranatha! "Our Lord, come!"⁵⁶⁰

672 Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel⁵⁶¹ which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace.⁵⁶² According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church⁵⁶³ and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.⁵⁶⁴