Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
One day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, “If you come to me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not follow me, carrying his own cross, cannot be my disciple.
Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you: ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks. In the same way, none of you may become my disciple, if he doesn’t give up everything he has.

Lectio Divina
READ: The author of the Book of Wisdom writes that through Wisdom humans are directed to the right path, learn what pleases God, and are saved. Saint Paul would not keep One - simus at his side; and because of friendship, he gave him back. In the gospel narrative, Jesus identified the cost of following him.
REFLECT: God sent Jesus to enact his saving plan, to establish his reign of love and mercy, and to restore humanity and the rest of creation back to him so that we may enjoy an “abundant” life and creation reach its fulfilment. This is God’s generosity and goodness in action. But to receive the full benefit of his generosity and goodness, there is a condition that must be satisfied, that is, the following of Jesus. And it does not come without cost. The decision to follow Jesus entails giving-up of that which is most important to us and the willingness to place one’s self in an uncomfortable situation. It is a free decision we take because God has opened our eyes to his love. Just like Wisdom which gives right direction, the fol- lowing of Jesus leads us to the heart of God.
PRAY: Gracious God, help us follow the example and teachings of Jesus so that we can direct our lives to what is genuinely good and valuable.
ACT: Critically evaluate thoughts and actions. Do they bring us closer to God? Are they aligned with gospel values?

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Luke 6:1-5
One Sabbath Jesus was going through a field of grain, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain, crushing them in their hands for food. Some of the Pharisees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?” Then Jesus spoke up and asked them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering, and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.” And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the Sabbath.”

Reflections
“Pick heads of grain . . . for food.”
In his book The Gospel of Life: Following Christ, Together, on the Path to Holiness, Pope Francis described St John Paul II’s notion of the “paradox of abundance” as the “[situation] in which there is food for everyone, but not every- one can eat, while waste, excessive consumption and the use of food for other purposes is visible before our very eyes.” There is, indeed, food for everyone. The Earth produces, in its abundance, all that every form of life needs to survive. Humanity and other living species take their foodstuffs from the Earth. That is why to destroy the ecosystem of the Earth and its biodiversity, and to intervene with its natural processes, is to deprive people, particularly the poor, of their daily sustenance and source of livelihood.
When we consider the imbalance in the distribution and use of the Earth’s resources we might ask: If our present world economic system works for the health and well-being of all the Earth’s living inhabitants and if the progress it claimed to have achieved truly benefit humanity, then why does the poor sector of the world continue to increase and poverty is on the rise; and, why does the gap between the poor and the rich of the world continue to widen.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Luke 5:33-39
Some people asked him, “The disciples of John fast often and say long prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why is it, that your disciples eat and drink?” Then Jesus said to them, “You can’t make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. But later, the bridegroom will be taken from them; and they will fast in those days.”
Jesus also told them this parable: “No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; otherwise the new coat will be torn, and the piece taken from the new coat will not match the old coat. No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed as well. But new wine must be put into fresh skins. Yet, no one who has tasted old wine is eager to drink new wine, but says, ‘The old is good.’”

Reflections
“New wine must be put into fresh skins.”
We might call the Jesus Christ event, his incarnation, saving activities, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, as a “di- vine visitation” (Brendan Byrne), where God became historically present in Jesus, bringing and demonstrating his pure and all- embracing love. The visitation is radical in nature. It brought the consciousness and expectations of people in Jesus’ days upside down. It opposed the prevailing system of abuse and exploitation; it exposed hypocrisy. It brought to the fore the saving love of God and the value and dignity of the human person before him.
The divine visitation in Jesus left a legacy of love, mercy and compassion. This legacy is culture-changing; it is changing the culture of death, hatred and destruction. The legacy goes against the attitude of indifference and carelessness. Jesus love, mercy and compassion are life-changing and life-giving. They bring hope. And they are only welcomed by a converted heart, the heart that al- lows itself to be touched by them, the heart that opens up itself to the truth, and the heart that delights only with the authentically good and valuable. The converted heart is the fresh skin that receives Jesus’ legacy of love, mercy and compassion.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11
One day, as Jesus stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, with a crowd gathered around him listening to the word of God, he caught sight of two boats, left at the water’s edge by fishermen, now washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to pull out a little from the shore. There he sat, and continued to teach the crowd.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will lower the nets.” This they did, and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats almost to the point of sinking.
Upon seeing this, Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and his companions were amazed at the catch they had made, and so were Simon’s partners, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. You will catch people from now on.” So they brought their boats to land and followed him, leaving everything.

Reflections
“If you say so, I will lower the nets.”
Australian Catholic New Testament scholar Brendan Byrne SJ has a beautiful phrase to capture the essence of Jesus’ ministry from a different perspective, that is, “‘people-catching’ trade” in comparison to the fishing-for-fish trade of Simon and his companions. The notion of people catching expresses the bringing in of people into the loving embrace of the reign of God by means of the nets of preaching the good news, healing, forgiveness and reconciling. These nets constitute Jesus’ saving ministry, and they are de- signed to gather people for God.
We, members of the Church, are now partners in this people- catching trade of Jesus because we were once “caught” into these nets. Those who are caught in the nets become themselves teachers of the good news, and agents of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. We participate in Jesus’ people-catching trade to “bring [people] the more abundant life of the kingdom” (Brendan Byrne). As co-workers in the trade, we help reclaim the dignity and value of all God’s creation, humans and non-humans alike.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019