DAY 93: MARCH 5

DT 12-13

Deuteronomy 12-13

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed

12 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.

² You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^[a] with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. ⁴ You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways. ⁵ But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there, ⁶ bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
⁸ You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹ for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety, ¹¹ then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the Lordyour God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lordwill choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.
¹⁵ Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that theLord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer. ¹⁶ The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; ¹⁸ these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lordyour God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lordyour God in all your undertakings. ¹⁹ Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
²⁰ When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, “I am going to eat some meat,” because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. ²² Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose. ²⁷ You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of theLord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside^[b] the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.
²⁸ Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today,^[c] so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Warning against Idolatry

²⁹ When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, ³⁰ take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, “How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same.” ³¹ You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lordhates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. ^32 [d]You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.

13 ^[e] If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, ² and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, “Let us follow other gods” (whom you have not known) “and let us serve them,” ³ you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the Lordyour God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love theLord your God with all your heart and soul. ⁴ The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast. ⁵ But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁶ If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or^[f] your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, ⁷ any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, ⁸ you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. ⁹ But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and never again do any such wickedness.
¹² If you hear it said about one of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you to live in, ¹³ that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” whom you have not known, ¹⁴ then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you, ¹⁵ you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it—even putting its livestock to the sword. ¹⁶ All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Do not let anything devoted to destruction stick to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and in his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors, ¹⁸ if you obey the voice of the Lordyour God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of theLord your God.

PS 93-94

Psalm 93

The Majesty of God’s Rule

¹ The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty;
    the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength.
He has established the world; it shall never be moved;
²     your throne is established from of old;
    you are from everlasting.

³ The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
    the floods have lifted up their voice;
    the floods lift up their roaring.
⁴ More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
    more majestic than the waves^[a] of the sea,
    majestic on high is the Lord!

⁵ Your decrees are very sure;
    holiness befits your house,
    O Lord, forevermore.

Psalm 94

God the Avenger of the Righteous

¹ O Lord, you God of vengeance,
    you God of vengeance, shine forth!
² Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    give to the proud what they deserve!
³ O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
    how long shall the wicked exult?

⁴ They pour out their arrogant words;
    all the evildoers boast.
⁵ They crush your people, O Lord,
    and afflict your heritage.
⁶ They kill the widow and the stranger,
    they murder the orphan,
⁷ and they say, “The Lord does not see;
    the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

⁸ Understand, O dullest of the people;
    fools, when will you be wise?
⁹ He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
¹⁰ He who disciplines the nations,
he who teaches knowledge to humankind,
    does he not chastise?
¹¹     The Lord knows our thoughts,^[b]
    that they are but an empty breath.

¹² Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
¹³ giving them respite from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the Lord will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
¹⁵ for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶ Who rises up for me against the wicked?
    Who stands up for me against evildoers?
¹⁷ If the Lord had not been my help,
    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
¹⁸ When I thought, “My foot is slipping,”
    your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
¹⁹ When the cares of my heart are many,
    your consolations cheer my soul.
²⁰ Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
    those who contrive mischief by statute?
²¹ They band together against the life of the righteous,
    and condemn the innocent to death.
²² But the Lord has become my stronghold,
    and my God the rock of my refuge.
²³ He will repay them for their iniquity
    and wipe them out for their wickedness;
    the Lord our God will wipe them out.

ACTS 22.30-23.11

Acts 22:30-23:11

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Paul before the Council

³⁰ Since he wanted to find out what Paul^[a] was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

23 While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, “Brothers,^[b] up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.” ² Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. ³ At this Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?” ⁴ Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”⁵ And Paul said, “I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.’”

⁶ When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection^[c] of the dead.” ⁷ When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.) ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees’ group stood up and contended, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” ¹⁰ When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks.
¹¹ That night the Lord stood near him and said, “Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.”

CAT 673-677

The glorious advent of Christ, the hope of Israel

673 Since the Ascension Christ's coming in glory has been imminent,⁵⁶⁵ even though "it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority."⁵⁶⁶. This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are "delayed".⁵⁶⁷

674 The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus.⁵⁶⁸ St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old."⁵⁶⁹ St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?"⁵⁷⁰ The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles",⁵⁷¹ will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all".⁵⁷²

The Church's ultimate trial

675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.⁵⁷³ The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth⁵⁷⁴ will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. the supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.⁵⁷⁵

676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. the Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,⁵⁷⁶ especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.⁵⁷⁷

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.⁵⁷⁸ The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.⁵⁷⁹ God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.⁵⁸⁰