Billions of people in the last 3,000 years have heard the same command that King Hezekiah heard from Isaiah 38: 1-6, 21-22, 7-8!
“When Hezekiah was mortally ill, the Prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.’“
Believers know enough to “put our house in order” by asking God to forgive our sins and let our souls into Heaven while we have time to do so.
Not Hezekiah! “He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: ‘O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in Your presence, doing what was pleasing to You.'”
Hezekiah’s Prayer moved God to give him another 15 years of life. “See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced.’ So, the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.”
Huge earthquakes and tidal waves would have been caused if our planet suddenly stopped rotating and spun backwards to make the shadow “move back ten steps”! Since there is no historical record of that, Catholics see an even greater miracle:
The Loving Programmer moved time backwards to answer the prayers of a beloved person without disturbing the rotation of our planet in His Creation Program. We may want to read that again and see how important it is to “put our house in order”!
Then, God had Isaiah “order a healing poultice of figs be applied to the boil” to cure what was no longer a fatal infection. We must wonder if those “figs” were an early Bible record, or a Prophecy of antibiotics like penicillin.
Catholics connect Hezekiah’s death-delaying Miracle to the Daily Psalm, from Isaiah 38:10-12 & 16, with His Prophecy of what would take form in Christian Teaching about those who properly “Put their house in order”: “You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.”
THEN! He Who Fulfilled The Messianic Prophecies told us who would be blessed to receive that “Gift of Life from God!” Today’s “Alleluia” from John 10:27 predicts whose “houses” would best be “put in order”! “‘My sheep hear My voice,’ says The Lord; ‘I know them, and they follow Me.'”
The Prophesied Messiah also predicted the blessings of those who “followed” Him by living in gratitude to His Call to Catholic Communion that He repeated 12 times in John 6 and twice more at The Last Supper: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.”
All Christians are blessed to “follow” some of the words of Jesus. The more we obey The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope, the better we “follow” Him!
“And I say unto you: ‘Thou art Peter, and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.'”
What are those “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” with which Christ’s Catholic “sheep” are blessed “to put their house in order”?
Christ’s Catholic “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” include Baptism, Confession/Absolution, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Healing, and God’s Holy Orders. They take living form in His Catholic priests, religious, and all who encourage our beloved neighbors to honor what is important to Him in Today’s Gospel, from Matthew 12: 1-8, “I desire mercy, not Sacrifice.”
That encourages all who are blessed to “follow” every Teaching of Jesus to: “Be as Catholic as we can!”
The free links to St. Faustina’s Diary that follow every post on this page are a great help! A hint in reading them: Each day, He gave St. Faustina as much as she could properly “download” on that day. So, find the earliest date of whatever day you begin reading, and start from there! On days when there is no post, re-read the previous one. Over the next few years, your “house” will be “put in better Order” every day!
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “May God’s Words / fly like birds / and build His nest in our minds.”
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