Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

Gospel: Matthew 23:23-26
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You do not forget the mint, anise and cumin seeds when you demand the tenth of everything; but then, you forget what is most fundamental in the law: justice, mercy and faith! You should have done these things without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain out a mosquito, but swallow a camel.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You fill the plate and the cup, with theft and violence, and then pronounce a blessing over them. Blind Pharisee! Purify the inside first, then the outside, too, will be purified.

Reflections
“Without neglecting others.”
Our modern consumerist world brags about the economic growth, continuous progress and development, and breakthroughs in medicine, science and techno­ logy, that provide a better quality of life. But is it really a better quali­ ty of life, is it real progress, that we have before us? We now live in a period in which the gap between the rich and the poor has become tremendously wide, almost im­ possible to bridge; in a period in which poverty and homelessness is in every corner of the world. Are we not deceived when war and killings are justified? Are we not deceived when unfair labor practices are put into law? Are not the poor being robbed of their livelihood and food on their table when natural resources are plundered and destroyed? Our modern economic system has successfully developed and marketed a consumerist lifestyle that exploits our fellow humans, a kind of lifestyle that exhausts and destroys the limited resources of the Earth, a lifestyle that is not sustainable, and a lifestyle that is extremely difficult for majority of the peoples of the world to attain. The poor sector of the world and the various life­forms on Earth are being used and abused. They cry out for justice and mercy.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Matthew 23:13-22
But woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You, yourselves, do not enter it, nor do you allow others to do so.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ property; and as a show, you pray long prayers! Therefore, you shall receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel by sea and land to make a single convert; yet, once he is converted, you make him twice as fit for hell as yourselves!
Woe to you, blind guides! You say: To swear by the temple is not binding; but, to swear by the gold of the temple is binding. Foolish men! Blind men! Which is of more worth: the gold in the temple, or the temple which makes the gold a sacred treasure? You say: To swear by the altar is not binding, but to swear by the offering on the altar is binding. How blind you are! Which is of more value: the offering on the altar, or the altar which makes the offering sacred? Whoever swears by the altar, is swearing by the altar and by everything on it.
Whoever swears by the temple, is swearing by the temple, and by God, who dwells in the temple. Whoever swears by heaven, is swearing by the throne of God, and by him, who is seated on it.

Reflections
“Woe to you, hypocrites.”
We learn of some people who give gifts so that they can exercise certain degree of subtle control or manipulation over others. We learn of people who employ the services of professional “image”­ builders to transform themselves attractively before the eyes of the public. We also learn of people, groups, organizations who create situations to deflect attention from real issues; to cover up their agen­da and wrongdoings; and even to justify atrocity, killings and war.
Many people think they can get away with it unnoticed. They think people around them do not know their hypocrisy or insincerity. We have experiences of this kind of people who project a pleasing external image far different from what is inside. All the above are tactics intended to deceive others for personal and selfish gain; and, they show up as expressions of hy­pocrisy. Sometimes we are able to recognize them, but in some cases they are not easy to detect. That is why, more than ever, to develop a critical thinking is wise. It is wise to subject things to question(s): Is it true? Is it really the case? Why is it so? Is it really of genuine value?

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Luke 13:22-30
Jesus went through towns and villages teaching, and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, is it true that few people will be saved?” And Jesus answered, “Do your best to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has gone inside and locked the door, you will stand outside. Then you will knock at the door, calling, ‘Lord, open to us!’ But he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know where you come from. Away from me, all you workers of evil.’
You will weep and grind your teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. Others will sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last, will be first; and some who are among the first, will be last!”

Lectio Divina
READ: In Isaiah, we hear of Yahweh making himself known to all nations, inviting them to see his glory, and performing wonderful things. The Letter to the Hebrew emphasizes the importance of correction. While correction is not pleasant, (but) its fruit is rewarding. The gospel tells of the requisite to be saved, that is, by entering the narrow door, which is Jesus.
REFLECT: There are funda­mentally two things needed to be saved, namely: faith in Jesus and conversion to new life. They are the keys to enter the narrow door. They are the requisites to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Faith and conversion enable one to build a relation­ship with Jesus. Faith and con­version pose some difficulties to those who wish to follow Christ because they involve radical shift/change in one’s thinking and doing. They touch the core of our being so that we become open to the transfor­ming action of the Spirit. Faith in Jesus would mean an absolute dependence in his love, compassion and mercy. Conversion to new life means redirecting our lives to a new way of living. It means discarding, or transfor­ming our old ways, and incor­porating beneficial and creative ways of thinking and acting. To many, the narrow door of Christ is a big challenge. But to those who have faith and have been converted to the love of God, the narrow door “widens”.
PRAY: Lord Jesus, may we grow in faith and love of you.
ACT: Develop a program for self ­transformation and put it to action.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: John 1:45-51
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets: he is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Naza­reth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Na­thanael coming, he said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, and I saw you.”
Nathanael answered, “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that.
Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Reflections
“You will see greater things than that.”
When called to do something, we do not know really where it will lead us. However, there is a feeling of assurance, a sense of peace, that everything will just be fine and that we are in the right di­rection. When God calls, he knows exactly when and how to do it; the timing is so perfect. The call will hit us right at the core in the most op­portune time.
Like the question of Nathaniel “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”, we can also ask: “Can anything good come out from us once we follow the call? Can anything good/great happen?” Indeed, great things unfold in life as a result of following the call— things beyond our expectations. But they may not be according to our taste, standard, or time frame. One thing is certain these great things are for the flourishing of God’s very good creation, for the well­ being of the Earth’s commu­nity of life, and for the expansion of God’s reign. The call is specifical­ly designed for all of these, that is, to contribute to the bringing in of the reign of God on Earth, a reign of love, justice, and peace. The call is intended to accomplish just this.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019