Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

Gospel: Matthew 13:36-43
Then he sent the crowds away and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” Jesus answered them, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the kingdom; the weeds are those who follow the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, and the workers are the angels.
Just as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil. And these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine, like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.

Reflections
“Then the just will shine . . in the kingdom of their Father.”
We may be disheartened because of the perennial suffering, persecution and violence happening in every part of the globe. Those who intentionally inflict them do not discriminate; everyone is a prospect. And dastardly actions are unrelenting. Jesus’ words to the disciples is a source of hope in this global human predicament.
Jesus, on the one hand, is strong in his message that in the last days those who allow themselves to become instruments of the evil one will not go unpunished. “Persecution and oppression will not last forever; evil doers will eventually suffer the fate their behavior deserves” (Brendan Byrne). Jesus explication of the parable, on the other hand, assures those who pro- mote peace, justice, and love their heavenly reward. He gives us not only consolation but also hope - hope that our work of advancing the reign and love of God awaits a glorious price. This is our motivation to continue doing good and working against any form of injustice, always be- coming a voice of the voiceless.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: John 11:19-27 (or Luke 10:38-42)
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary, after the death of their brother, to comfort them.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.”But Jesus said to her,“I am the resurrection. Whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

Reflections
“Mary sat down to listen to his words.”
Ordinarily, the function of “listening” is to know, to learn something. (It is an intentional or deliberate act. It is not a passive mental act.) But more than this function, a corollary product of listening is that: it prepares one to take action.
Have we not experienced in our lives, when we were at a crucial point of making a difficult decision, we took some time to pray, to listen to the Spirit for guidance? In the case of being attentive to God’s word, listening supplies spiritual courage and strength. Genuine listening empowers one to take action.
Assuming a listening attitude or preparing the heart to be attentive is the kind of hospitality God seeks from us, that is, the “hospitality of loving attention and listening” (Brendan Byrne). This is Mary’s “seemingly pas- sive” action, but to Jesus the one thing that is profoundly important. There is nothing more important to Jesus than to give him our undivided attention.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place; and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this: Father, may your name be held holy, may your kingdom come; give us, each day, the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins; for we also forgive all who do us wrong; and do not bring us to the test.”
Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is traveling has just arrived, and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me now; the door is locked, and my children and I are in bed, so I can’t get up and give you anything.’ But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who
knocks the door will be opened.
If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Lectio Divina
READ: Abraham negotiates with God the fate of Sodom. Saint Paul writes to the Christian community in Colossae, saying that God gave us life in Christ, forgave our sin, etc. In the gospel passage, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray and stresses God’s generosity and the importance of persevering in prayer.
REFLECT: Three things may be noted in the prayer that Jesus (thought) taught the disciples: first, it was in a communitarian context that he taught the disciples how to pray. We say, “Our Father” and not “My Father.” This would mean that people in the group/community/Church are in mind. Second, by addressing God as our “Father”, we share in Jesus’ relationship to God as Father. It is through Jesus that we are able to call God “Father”. And third, calling God “Father” brings us to a relationship of sisterhood and brotherhood to the other person who also calls God “Father”. A new and extraordinary relationship is formed with this person when we call God “Father”. The key here is the “call”; it is not a simple or meaningless “call” we use, but a profound address to God as our “Father”. When we approach God as “Father”, as Jesus did, then we can truly see the person next to us as a sister or a brother. That is why our prayer for daily sustenance, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from temptation, becomes also a prayer for the sisters and brothers who call God their “Father”.
PRAY: God, our “Father”, help us grasp the profundity, meaning and implications of calling you our “Father”.
ACT: Strive to see the other person as a sister or as a brother.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus told the people another parable, “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a man, who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy came, and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared. Then, the servants of the owner came, and said to him, ‘Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’
He answered them, ‘This is the work of an enemy.’ They asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ He told them, ‘No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let them grow together, until harvest; and, at harvest time, I will say to the workers: Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Reflections
“This is the work of an enemy.”
Evil is in opposition to God. Its primary intent is to destroy the good that God has made: everything that bears God’s love, anything that expresses his goodness.
Jesus recognizes and identifies the existence of evil in the world and its capacity to wield destructive power within the created order. He is aware of its power to inflict suffering and pain. The evil one is out there simply to destroy God’s beautiful creation, humans and non-humans alike; and his main agent of destruction is humanity itself. Just as we can be instruments of God’s goodness, so too can we become means of unleashing this evil power. The evil one’s focus of ruination is “relationships”. Relationship is a basic element within creation. Human society, family, friendship collapse, when relationship breaks down. The environment, the natural world, decline, when human relation- ship with them is characterized by alienation. What are the forms and manner that the evil one uses to ruin relationships?
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019