DAILY- HOMILY: 09/04/10

DAILY- HOMILY

DAILY-HOMILY is a Catholic-based Scripture and Homily Reflections. It is a great source for scripture readings, homilies and reflections for Weekdays, Sundays and Holydays of Obligation. Subscribe to this list and you will receive a free, informed, down to earth and illustrated homilies focusing on the readings on Weekday & Sunday Masses, Liturgical Services or personal reflection. And best of all it's a FREE service. To subscribe or unsubscribe send email to: dailyhomily@gmail.com

Saturday, September 04, 2010

23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C

SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C

WISDOM 9:13-18
'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can
comprehend the will of the Lord? For the reasoning of mortals is
inadequate, our attitudes of mind unstable; for a perishable body
presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with
its many cares. It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth,
laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover
what is in the heavens? And who could ever have known your will, had
you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above? Thus have
the paths of those on earth been straightened and people have been
taught what pleases you, and have been saved, by Wisdom.'

PHILEMON 1:9-10, 12-17
I am rather appealing to your love, being what I am, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for a
child of mine, whose father I became while wearing these chains: I
mean Onesimus. I am sending him back to you -- that is to say, sending
you my own heart. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could
have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains
that the gospel has brought me. However, I did not want to do anything
without your consent; it would have been forcing your act of kindness,
which should be spontaneous. I suppose you have been deprived of
Onesimus for a time, merely so that you could have him back for ever,
no longer as a slave, but something much better than a slave, a dear
brother; especially dear to me, but how much more to you, both on the
natural plane and in the Lord. So if you grant me any fellowship with
yourself, welcome him as you would me.

LUKE 14:25-33
Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to
them. 'Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife,
children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my
disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be
my disciple. 'And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a
tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had
enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then
found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start
making fun of him and saying, "Here is someone who started to build
and was unable to finish." Or again, what king marching to war against
another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten
thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing against
him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still
a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same
way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he
owns.

REFLECTION
Jesus' words in today's gospel reading are very disturbing. We might
wonder if St. Luke is not seriously misquoting Jesus. One after
another, admonitions are thrown at us that seem an affront to common
sense and to the central message of the gospels. Are we to take Jesus
at his word when he says: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters,
yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

It is important to keep in mind that what Jesus primarily called for
in his followers was not hatred of anyone but a change of heart. What
mattered most was becoming a loving person. Anything that would hinder
the freedom, openness, and outgoing movements of love, would need to
be abandoned. What Jesus is asking us to renounce are our attachments.
It is one thing, for example, to love members of our family, and quite
another thing to be so dependent on them that we never develop our
uniqueness, or hear the call to our own destiny. It is one thing to
have possessions, and quite another to be so attached to them that
they become our whole life.

Being well-to-do is not of itself a sin, and poverty is not
automatically a virtue. There are wealthy people who are very
generous. There are also poor people who wouldn't part with a glass of
water. In the mind of Jesus, it is all a matter of where our heart is.
Yes, where is your heart right now as you hear Jesus' words? Do your
relationships with others help or prevent you from being a true
disciple of Jesus? How do you view the things you own? Are you so
concerned about your possessions that little else matters in life?

What is it that you need to renounce in order to fulfill your
Christian destiny and become a more loving person? Is it your
vindictiveness, laziness, stubbornness? Is there a need for you to
always have the last word or have things always go your own way?

Be willing to detach yourself from whatever is a hindrance to your
following Christ ever more closely. Following Jesus is not something
we can do in our spare time. Following Jesus cannot be simply one of
our many interests in life. Jesus must come first in our lives. It is
possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a true disciple. If
we are unwilling to give up some sinful situation, or change a
lifestyle that contradicts the gospel, or sacrifice our own
convenience to love our neighbor, then we can't call ourselves serious
disciples. We might be superficial followers who hang around Jesus
hoping to catch some of his glory, but we are not serious disciples
who are devoted enough to carry the cross after him. It is one of the
supreme handicaps of the Church that in it there are so many distant
followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.

As Christians, we must walk in Christ's steps unconditionally, not
just for a day or two or a couple of months, but for a whole lifetime.
Now, if you are afraid of the high demands of Christ, remember that
you are not left to fulfill them all alone. Jesus who called you to
the steep road will walk with you every step of the way. And he
promises a fruitful journey to whoever keeps going with him and giving
up everything to stay with him.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Ely Lara
- Russel Tenerife
- Deanne
- See Yung Hui
- Susan
… for the personal intentions of
- Titong V.
- Jose C. Rodriguez and family
- Donna
- JES
… for the eternal repose of the souls of
- Col. Jose R. Villarico
- Boyet Balilla
- Mama Anaestasia Carabay Rodriguez
- Ruben M. Pasion
- Sy Ching
Eternal rest grant unto them and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May they and all the dearly departed rest in peace.
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Nancy Alicbusan
- Birthday: Paul Chua
- Birthday: Carissa Marin
… for world peace and reconciliation.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

**************************************************

These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only.
Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends,
colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the
following:

+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 8:33 AM 0 comments

SATURDAY 22ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR II

SEPTEMBER 4, 2010
SATURDAY 22ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR II

FIRST CORINTHIANS 4:9-15
For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on show right at the
end, like men condemned to death: we have been exhibited as a
spectacle to the whole universe, both angelic and human. Here we are,
fools for Christ's sake, while you are the clever ones in Christ; we
are weak, while you are strong; you are honored, while we are
disgraced. To this day, we go short of food and drink and clothes, we
are beaten up and we have no homes; we earn our living by laboring
with our own hands; when we are cursed, we answer with a blessing;
when we are hounded, we endure it passively; when we are insulted, we
give a courteous answer. We are treated even now as the dregs of the
world, the very lowest scum. I am writing all this not to make you
ashamed but simply to remind you, as my dear children; for even though
you might have ten thousand slaves to look after you in Christ, you
still have no more than one father, and it was I who fathered you in
Christ Jesus, by the gospel.

LUKE 6:1-5
It happened that one Sabbath he was walking through the cornfields,
and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their
hands and eating them. Some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing
something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?' Jesus answered them,
'So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were
hungry- how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of the
offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which the
priests alone are allowed to eat?' And he said to them, 'The Son of
man is master of the Sabbath.'

REFLECTION
The Sabbath commandment is incredibly concise: "Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy".

On this Sabbath day, we might imagine some Pharisees badgering Jesus
with questions, hoping to trap Him. Much to their delight, some
disciples began to strip heads of grain from the field, rub them in
their hands, and pop them into their mouths. Hence, the challenge was
made - "How can the Sabbath be so blatantly broken?"

In response, Jesus began by asking them if they remembered Scripture.
It is his way of saying, "Your question is a very elementary one, and
one that reveals a very poor grasp of the Scriptures". Here, Jesus
imparts that it is more important to help those in need for the sake
of love than it is to follow the law merely for the sake of fulfilling
it.

Still, he grants his opponents their argument but presses on to show
that they were wrong in accusing him because, as Lord of the Sabbath,
Jesus has authority over the Sabbath. Even more significant, as Lord
of the Sabbath, Jesus claims to be the fulfillment of all that the
Sabbath foreshadows.

Keeping the Lord's day holy means offering the day to God in whatever
we do. There are people who need to work on the Sabbath (or Sunday as
we observe it) in order to serve people in need. They are not to be
condemned but should be commended because their work is good and holy.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Ely Lara
- Russel Tenerife
- Deanne
- See Yung Hui
- Susan
… for the personal intentions of
- Josheil Dapo
- Titong V.
- Jose C. Rodriguez and family
- Donna
- JES
... Birthday: Cesca
… for the eternal repose of the souls of
- Ng Yia
- Raul, Epifania, Leoncio, Lumeng, Josefina, Juan Sr.
- Col. Jose R. Villarico
- Boyet Balilla
- Mama Anaestasia Carabay Rodriguez
- Ruben M. Pasion
- Sy Ching
Eternal rest grant unto them and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May they and all the dearly departed rest in peace.
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Ricky P. Sy
- Birthday: Patrick Lawrence Ngo Sy
- Thanksgiving: Blooming Fields Phils, Inc.
- In Memoriam (+): Ana Bernabe Guieb
… for world peace and reconciliation.