FAITH WITHOUT GOOD DEEDS IS USELESS

ANYONE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL SAVE IT

FRIDAY WEEK 6 IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

MY DAILY OFFERING: O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. 

First Reading James 2: 14-24, 26 A body dies without spirit; faith without good works is not alive

Take the case, my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty’, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead. 

This is the way to talk to people of that kind: ‘You say you have faith and I have good deeds; I will prove to you that I have faith by showing you my good deeds now you prove to me that you have faith without any good deeds to show. You believe in the one God  that is creditable enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do realise, you senseless man, that faith without good deeds is useless. You surely know that Abraham our father was justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar? There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did. This is what scripture really means when it says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was counted as making him justified; and that is why he was called ‘the friend of God.’

You see now that it is by doing something good, and not only by believing, that a man is justified. A body dies when it is separated from the spirit, and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds.  Lectures

Responsorial Psalm: Happy the man who takes delight in the commands of the Lord

Gospel Mark 8:34-9,1 Anyone who loses his life for my sake will save it

Jesus called the people and his disciples to him and said: 

‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his life? And indeed what can a man offer in exchange for his life? 

For if anyone in this adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ And he said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.’ Reflections 

Your Birthday Saint: Blessed John of Fiesole, Religious May he interecede for you as you celebrate your birthday.

My Father in heaven, let not my humanity come in the way of your glory. Father purify me. May I  manifest your righteousness to my fellow creatures. Father it is by doing something good, and by  faith  I am  justified. Guide my actions and my deeds let my faith be equal to my good deeds, for faith without good deeds is useless.

Lord Jesus Christ save me for the sake of your Holy Name. Guide me, protect me from  inordinate things around me that may cause my ruin, an eternal death. Preserve me Lord for happy is the man who takes delight in God's commands.

Lord Jesus Christ I trust in you. Virgin Mary pray for me. Saint Joseph pray for me. God's Holy Angels pray for me. My Angel Guardian, guard and guide me. Be my protection.

Pray the Holy Rosary: Hail Mary. Ave Maria,