Fasting was out of the question. The Word has become flesh. The giving of a cup of cold water can stand for any number of small acts of kindness which give life to others. People suspect them of co-operating with the nations enemies, if war should break out, they might add to the number of our enemies. Catholic Liturgical Calendar My Catholic Life! We all come before the Lord in our brokenness, in our various forms of dis-ease. Yet, the good news is that Jesus does not ask us to be worthy. Like the centurion, we express our faith in Jesus ability to heal us at a distance. What new wineskins are the Lord asking us to create so as to adequately hold the new wine of his loving and life-giving presence? We are just as much in need of the Holy Spirit today, as the first disciples were, if we are to bear witness to the Lord and all he stands for. Jesus is declaring that what God wants before all else is mercy, and his own style of table fellowship is reflecting that primary desire of God. the ePriest Daily Reflection, Subscribe to People enter the kingdom of heaven by coming to Jesus and Jesus was aware that people have to become like children if they are to come to him. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.. My Catholic Faith! Undisturbed by their aggression, Jesus went on to heal them and to restore them to themselves and to the community. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the subjects of the kingdom will be turned out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. And to the centurion Jesus said, Go back, then; you have believed, so let this be done for you. And the servant was cured at that moment. His love for people brought them life to a unique degree. The Holy Spirit will be given to them by God, to strengthen them for the ordeal and to enable them to witness to Jesus by what they say and do. He mentions rest twice in the space of a few sentences, come to me and I will give you rest. Those who are well do not need a physician; I desire mercy, not sacrifice. To someone who is already a disciple Jesus declares that following him takes priority over even the most sacred of family duties such as burying ones father. It is against that background that Jesus declares in todays gospel reading, if anyone gives as much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then, I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward. Genuine faith will always find expression in acts of loving service. In todays gospel reading, Jesus heals at a distance. He could guide and direct them in a way that ensured a field was properly ploughed. Yet, Jesus was capable of breaking into Matthews world and calling him to a very different way of life to the one he had known. Jesus reveals God to be someone who desires that mercy be shown more than that sacrifices be offered and who seeks out sinners more than the virtuous. The Holy Spirit will be given to them as a resource and will inspire their witness. (v) Thursday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. In todays gospel reading, Jesus brings life to a synagogue officials young daughter who had died. Then the disciples went up to him and asked, Why do you talk to them in parables? Because he replied, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them. In that sense our own relationship with the Lord, or lack of it, while very personal is never purely private; it always impacts on others in some way or other. They were not faithful to their calling. He knows there is good soil there somewhere. In todays gospel reading, Jesus speaks about the relationship which is most important to him, his relationship with his heavenly Father. Towards the end of that gospel reading, Jesus speaks of the need to stand firm to the end. But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. (vi) Saturday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. When it comes to witnessing publicly to our faith in the Lord, we can all be held back by fear. There is a mysterious quality to the growth that takes place within nature that is always worth observing. It is only in eternity that we will see the Lord face to face. As Paul recognized very clear, the church is a unity in diversity, like a human body. In the gospel reading, Jesus sends out the twelve to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is close at hand. When the plant was large enough, it would be transferred out into the garden, where it would grow larger and more colourful. Todays gospel reading invites us to give thanks to God for all those who have brought us to the Lord in some way, perhaps teachers, priests, religious sisters or brothers, friends and, for most of us, parents who were the first to bring us to the Lord when presenting us for baptism. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to men. Matthew 13:123 This indeed was something to be wondered at. Resources of various kinds are made available to people to help them succeed in the task they have set themselves. We can be distressed at the degree of doubt that we experience within ourselves, troubled that such doubts may even become more pronounced as we get older. Help me to believe this and to live my life purely as a steward of the possessions I have. This knowledge should stimulate us to be more generous with God and more centered on things that are above. In todays gospel reading, Jesus paints a stark picture of the hostility that his followers can expect from the surrounding society. Have you come here to torture us before the time? Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus, If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs. And he said to them, Go then, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. If the Law says, an eye for an eye, Jesus says love your enemy. What will there be for us? Jesus said to them, Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The Lord looks to us to have as much enthusiasm for him in the dark times as in the good times. The harvest remains rich and a varied and full workforce is needed. In coming before the Lord in our weakness, he gives us his strength; in coming before him in our sinfulness, he gives us his mercy; in coming before him in our brokenness, he brings us healing. Whenever we give generously, we invariably receive more than we give. Jesus chose these twelve very deliberately. Hear then the parable of the sower. The kind of experience Jesus describes may seem somewhat remote from us and, yet, it is not far removed from the experience of many Christians today who live in a culture dominated by religious fundamentalism and intolerance. This is not to suggest that we are called to keep hitting our head off a stone wall indefinitely. If the Law prohibits murder, Jesus prohibits the kind of anger that can lead to murder. the ePriest Weekly Bulletin, Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time. Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. We do our research, we satisfy ourselves that the outlook is promising and, then, we go for it. Having been carried by the faith of others at the beginning of our Christian lives, there will come a time when we will be called upon to carry others by our faith. (vii) Friday, Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time. Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. Much of what he scatters on the ground is wasted; nothing comes from it. Not even Jesus could meet the needs of people on his own; he needed helpers. We too are called to transform others by our own goodness. The gospel reading calls on us to be alert to the signs of goodness in others, to the signs of Gods presence all around us, especially in those who cross our path in life. The first part of this mornings gospel reading is one of the examples of the prayer of Jesus that we find in the gospels. You who have followed me will receive a hundred times more. When we constantly seek his face we discover that the Lord is constantly seeking us. He not only calls on us to come to him with our burdens, but to learn from him, to make our own his standards and his values, which are so often at variance with the standards and values of the age in which we live. We are told that they were so fierce that no one could pass close to where they lived. (i) Thursday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. Parishioners have been attending Mass at a distance, as they tune in to parish Masses via Parish webcams. At other times our prayers are less formal and much more personal. He simply felt unworthy that this Jewish man of God should visit his pagan household. We need other people of faith around us, if not physically, then spiritually. Yet, it is a reminder to us all that our way of seeing can be extremely skewed. In what way would this scene have spoken to Jesus about his ministry? His ministry had something of that scatter gun approach of the farmer in the parable. (iii) Saturday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Courage, child, your sins are forgiven. At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming. Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Also, because God has graced us so much, we want to live graced lives, to live as God would want us to live. We often say that a burden shared is a burden halved, and, hopefully, we have all found that to be true. We are always very interdependent when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. 1. Deeper and deeper into the woods the rabbi went until he came to the cottage of an old woman who was very badly crippled. The prayer of one of the more minor gospel characters, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, may find a ready place in our heart. In the gospel reading Jesus is trying to teach us the value of what we might be inclined to dismiss as of very little significance. It is only in responding to the Lords call to receive than we can then go on to give as we have received, without charge. There he wrote his Monastic Rule which set a standard for the future Western Monastic tradition. The wild lilies of the field spoke to Jesus of Gods loving care of creation. Yet, like the widow in the gospel story who put two small coins into the Temple treasury and in doing so gave her all, the smallest gestures of loving kindness can reveal a very generous heart. The evangelists suggest that the Roman centurion was one of very few to recognize the powerful presence of God in this most bleak of moments. (iii) Wednesday, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. Many believers feel more and more like sheep among wolves and are becoming more aware of their need for the cunning of the serpent while remaining free of malice towards those who are hostile to them. Sometimes our teachers in the faith can come from the most unlikely quarters. It is at such moments that the invitation of Jesus in the gospel reading can speak to us most powerfully, Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. New book for 2021 'You Have the Words of Eternal Life' ~ Weekday Reflections for Liturgical Year 2020/21 at messenger.ie & @veritas.ie Fr. In reply, Jesus declares that the time is not right. Becoming like children captures what Jesus means by being gentle and humble in heart. In telling that parable, Jesus was not only speaking about himself and his life, he was also giving us a way of looking at our own lives. When Jesus declares in the beatitudes, Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth, he was speaking both of himself and of his disciples. Divine Office Liturgy . To a much greater extent than Joseph, Jesus became a life-giver for all who turned to him in faith, including for those who put him to death. Matthew 9:32-37 It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. Clearly, the two people whom Jesus encounters are extremely disturbed. There have been many examples of whistle-blowers who are ostracized because they brought to light some inappropriate behaviour that others would have preferred to keep hidden. Woe to you, Bethsaida! Jesus did not follow this path. You will go down to the netherworld. He would keep sowing in spite of unfavourable odds, because he knew that at the end of the day, the harvest would be great, or in the words of todays first reading, Gods word would not return to him empty. No one would ever think of fasting at a wedding feast. The only response God asks us to make initially to this gift of his gracious love is to receive it. There is a story in the gospel of John which depicts Jesus in need of such a cup of cold water at the hottest time of the day, at noon. Our Gospel reflections are always posted and emailed a day early. He alone can satisfy the deepest hungers and thirsts of our heart. In those dark times when we might be tempted to think that the Lord has abandoned us, he is, in reality, calling out to us to come to him. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. However, if you are interested in reading ahead, you may access our upcoming daily Gospel reflections from the links below. As I grow in faith towards the Lord, I help others to do so as well. He went on to declare, Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 1783-1785 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Our baptismal calling is to keep on choosing the Lord who has chosen us. He gave to the Lord and to others without regard for personal gain. Matthew 10:1-7 In the gospel reading Jesus is trying to teach us the value of what we might be inclined to dismiss as of very little significance. The gospel reading says that when the people brought the paralytic to Jesus, he saw their faith. We all feel overburdened from time to time, in the language of that gospel reading. Reflection: A Happy Ending Just Out of Reach We conclude today our reading of the Book of Genesis. He can do very little about these obstacles. Jesus then heals the man of his paralysis to demonstrate this deeper truth. So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.