Matthew 18:21 ‒ 19:1... The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
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Posted:Aug 16, 2007 7:32 pm
Last Updated:Aug 16, 2007 7:41 pm 2386 Views
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Matthew 18:21 ‒ 19:1
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Peter approaching asked [Jesus], “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered. “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his , and all his property in payment of the debt. And that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, Be patient with me and I will pay you back in full. Moved with his compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgive him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him.
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgive you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
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365 Days with the Lord
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The Commissioning of the Twelve... reflect
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Posted:Aug 16, 2007 12:17 am
Last Updated:Aug 16, 2007 12:18 am 2358 Views
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The Commissioning of the Twelve... Reflect…
The Acts of the Apostles shows us how Barnabas facilitated greatly the gradual acceptance of Paul by the Church of Jerusalem. Here we must remember that Paul had been a rabid persecutor of the first Christians, throwing them into prison. After his conversion, many Christians remembered his fanaticism against them and could hardly bring themselves to believe that his conversion was for real. And so they distrusted him and avoided him. When Barnabas became aware of this, he took Paul under his wing, presented him to the apostles and testified to Paul’s bold work of evangelization in Damascus (Acts 9:26-27).
There are many other ways in which Barnabas acted as a facilitator. Some of them are described in the Acts of the Apostles for instance, how he assisted Paul’s ministry of evangelization during the latter’s first missionary journey (Acts 13-14), how he helped the Council of Jerusalem to reach a happy conclusion (Acts 15), how he brought the decrees of that council to Antioch and remained there to consolidate the faith of that community (Acts 15:22-35).
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365 Days with the Lord
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Matthew 12:7-13... The Commissioning of the Twelve
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Posted:Aug 16, 2007 12:13 am
Last Updated:Aug 16, 2007 12:13 am 2414 Views
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Matthew 12: 7-13
The Commissioning of the Twelve
[Jesus said to the Twelve,] “As you go, make this proclamation; ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, wish peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, if not, let your peace return to you.
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365 Days with the Lord
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A Meal That Feeds the Body and the Soul
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Posted:Aug 8, 2007 10:06 pm
Last Updated:Aug 8, 2007 10:07 pm 2190 Views
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A Meal That Feeds the Body and the Soul…
A banquet is a meal that feeds the body but more especially feeds the spirit. When we dine in friendly company, our souls are nourished by the mutual sharing and the self-disclosure that take place. In the atmosphere of conviviality that a great dinner creates, we renew our sense of meaningfulness and hope. Dining raises to a new level of pleasure the ordinary experience of eating and drinking. It fills our spiritual longing of companionship. Thus there is something holy and sacred about eating together, about blessing God before and after a meal, about sharing food and friendship. A meal is a time when people learn to love each other.
That is why, whenever God gathers his people around himself, he feeds them. In the course of history, he did this repeatedly, each great gathering symbolizing and foreshadowing the next, better gathering. Thus we see God gathering his people Israel in the desert at the time of the Exodus from Egypt (Ex. 16) and feeding it with manna. That first feeding was actually the preview, the harbinger, of a better meal yet to come. The next one took place again in solitary location, but this time the people gathered around the of God himself, who miraculously multiplied bread and fish and fed thousands of men and women. But the meal, too, was only a preparation and an announcement for an even more wondrous meal, the Eucharist.
That is precisely the special event that we are remembering today in this Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Today we are expressing our appreciation and joy for the gift of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the third great feeding of God’s people. But this time, not only we are gathered around the of God, but we have the unique privilege of feasting on the body and blood of the of God. Moreover, this feeding is not a once-and-for-all affair, as we the feeding of the 5,000. it is a feeding which repeated everyday from generation to generation until the end of time. And, because of the unique fare of this feast–nothing less than the very flesh and blood of God–we reach a depth of fellowship impossible in any other feast: fellowship with each other as a members of the Body of Christ, and fellowship with God with whom the blood of his unites us in an unbreakable bond for love. Can such feeling of God’s people ever be surpassed in significance and beauty.
Surprisingly, yes it can. For this gathering around the Eucharist is not an end in itself. However sublime it is, it is still merely a means to an end, foretaste of something even more momentous. For Jesus announced several times during his public ministry (Mt 8:11; Lk 13:28-29; Mr 22:1-14; Lk 22:30 ) that in God’s heavenly kingdom he would gather together, in a fraternal banquet offered by his Father, all of humankind from Adam and Eve to their last descendants. What a meal that will be! There we will eat and drink together in perfect harmony. All tears will be wiped away, as God promises us, and death will have become a thing of the past (Rv 21:4). God will be with his people forever in that heavenly city of Jerusalem, where everything will be new and beautiful.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Luke 9:11b-17 ... The Feeding of the Five Thousand
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Posted:Aug 8, 2007 10:00 pm
Last Updated:Aug 8, 2007 10:01 pm 2159 Views
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Luke 9:11b-17
The Feeding of the Five Thousand
[Jesus] spoke to [the crowds] about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” He said to them, “give them some food yourselves.”
They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” Now the men there numbered about five thousand.
Then he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of (about) fifty.” They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when all the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 12:38-44... Denunciation of the Scribes | The Poor Widow’s Contribution... Reflect
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Posted:Aug 7, 2007 12:35 am
Last Updated:Aug 7, 2007 12:36 am 2157 Views
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Mark 12:38-44
Denunciation of the Scribes | The Poor Widow’s Contribution... Reflect
Our gospel reading present another “woman who was poor” and who was also a model of generosity in her poverty. A small detail shows how generous she was. Her last means of survival were two small copper coins. She could therefore have kept one of them and given the other. But she gave both, therefore everything she had. Jesus was struck by such extreme generosity and cited her example to his disciples. These apparently judge people by the quantity of their offerings; Jesus judged them by the quality of their gifts.
This poor widow is the personification of a lot of poor people who, although they have almost nothing, nevertheless find a way to give part of the little they have. It is the rich who are often most close-fisted when it comes to giving to charities. This is well-known phenomenon to those who have to solicit money from various good causes.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 12:38-44... Denunciation of the Scribes | The Poor Widow’s Contribution
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Posted:Aug 7, 2007 12:12 am
Last Updated:Aug 7, 2007 12:13 am 2146 Views
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Mark 12:38-44
Denunciation of the Scribes | The Poor Widow’s Contribution
In the course of his teaching [Jesus] said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They receive a very severe condemnation.”
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 12:35-37 ... The Question about David’s
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Posted:Aug 6, 2007 6:37 pm
Last Updated:Aug 6, 2007 11:06 pm 2854 Views
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Mark 12:35-37
The Question about David’s
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the of David? David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said:
‘The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.”’
David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his ?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight.
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Reflect…
Jesus tried to hint at who he really was ; not an earthly king who would play the game played by politicians, but a man of God whose mission was to bring humanity to God and God to humanity. Here he is hinting that his real title is “Lord,” the title reserved for God throughout the Old Testament.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 12:28-34 ... The Greatest Commandments... Reflect
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Posted:Jul 5, 2007 5:22 am
Last Updated:Jul 5, 2007 5:22 am 2199 Views
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Mark 12:28-34... The Greatest Commandments... Reflect…
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18 ). Some people cannot understand this commandment of God because they do not distinguish between selfishness (the wrong love of self) and self-love (the right love of self). The importance of this correct love of self is emphasized by psychologist William P. Clemmons in his book Discovering the Depth:
“Self-love,” he writes, “or appreciation of the worth of one’s own self, is the beginning of love of neighbor. When one is able to diminish one’s own self-hate and self-depreciation, one is more likely to stop hating and ridiculing one’s neighbor. Also, the love for self and neighbor will enable one to love God better” (p. 19 ).
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 12:28-34... The Greatest Commandments
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Posted:Jul 5, 2007 5:17 am
Last Updated:Jul 5, 2007 5:18 am 2232 Views
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Mark 12:28-34
The Greatest Commandments
One of the scribes [came to Jesus and] asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this; Hear, O Israel! The lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater that these.”
The scribes said to him, “Well said, teacher, You are right in saying, ‘He is the One and there is no other than he.’ And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offering and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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365 Days with the Lord
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