Saturday March 15, 2025
Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica
“Today you are making this agreement with the Lord: He is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways.” (Deuteronomy 26:17)
Good News Reflection for:
Saturday of the 1st Week of Lent
March 15, 2025
Today’s Readings:
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031525.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-march-15-2025
Do you know God is rejoicing over you?
In your prayer time, can you imagine that God the Father is beaming a smile at you? And his reason is that he is very pleased with you? Imagine him telling the angels around his throne how wonderful you are. What is he saying?
God has made a covenant with you: “I will raise you high in praise and renown and glory!” (See today’s first reading.)
Because you are keeping your part of the covenant — trying to grow stronger in faith — you are, in effect, giving glory to God and praising him. Through your deeds of faith and the behavior that comes from growth in faith, you’re acknowledging that his ways are good.
God the Father therefore is glorifying you and praising you! Yes, really! He is so pleased with you that he’s telling the angels how wonderful you are. Yes, really!
To get more in touch with this reality, get a copy of my book The Father’s Heart @ tothefathersheart.com.
When our deeds are not in keeping with true faith, and if we refuse to go to wherever Jesus is leading us on the journey of faith, then we’re breaking ourselves against the covenant that God has made with us. We are breaking our relationship with God.
The promise is always there, like an unbreakable wall protecting us from evil, because God never fails to fulfill his part of the covenant. Thus, when we fail to live up to our side of the covenant, we only break ourselves. — Oh ouch!
It’s easy to say with our lips that the ways of God are good, but when our behaviors do not agree with the covenant that God has made with us, we hurt ourselves. We break. We feel pain, stress, worry, fear, lonely and unloved. And we hurt others.
The ways of God can feel painful, too. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. — Oh ouch!
It hurts to give love without being loved in return. But this is a different kind of pain; it’s the pain of the Cross. It’s unity with Christ. In the midst of this pain, the Lord is our God, and our covenant relationship with him strengthens us and blesses us. He glorifies us.
Rejoice that you suffer with Jesus and experience the joy of his glorious resurrection rather than suffer the self-destruction of turning away from Jesus. Yes, really!
© 2025 by Terry A. Modica
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