DAILY- HOMILY

JANUARY 26, 2011
MEMORIAL, STS. TIMOTHY AND TITUS, BISHOPS
WEDNESDAY 3RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR I

Readings: 2 Tm 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5 / Ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a, 10 / Mk
4:1-20

2 TIMOTHY 1:1-8
From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of
his promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus, to my dear son Timothy.
May grace, mercy and peace be with you from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord. God did not give us a spirit of bashfulness I give
thanks to God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my
ancestors did, as I remember you constantly, day and night, in my
prayers. I recall your tears and I long to see you that I may be
filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, so like the
faith of your grandmother Lois and of your mother Eunice, which I am
sure you have inherited. For this reason I invite you to fan into a
flame the gift of God you received through the laying on of my hands.
For God did not confer on us a spirit of bashfulness, but of strength,
love and good judgment. Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord,
nor of seeing me in chains. On the contrary, do your share in laboring
for the Gospel with the strength of God.

MARK 4:1-20
Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd
gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there.
The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land. He taught them many
things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them,
`Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he
sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds
came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found
little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of
earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any
roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns
grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell
into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the
yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.' And he said, `Anyone who
has ears for listening should listen!' When he was alone, the Twelve,
together with the others who formed his company, asked what the
parables meant. He told them, `To you is granted the secret of the
kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in
parables, so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen
and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and
being healed.' He said to them, `Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is
sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is
sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes
and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who
are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the
word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root deep down and
do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of
the word, at once they fall away. Then there are others who are sown
in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of the world,
the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the
word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have been
sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a
harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.'

REFLECTION
How can we make our hearts more fertile to accepting God's word in our
lives? It's all a matter of proper disposition. Once we recognize the
distractions of material things, of the illusion of power, of our own
selfish pride, hopefully we become more teachable.

When we prepare ourselves in humility, we become open to whatever God
has in store for us. We can be sent to the most isolated places on
this earth; we can find ourselves in the most challenging of
circumstances; we can even encounter loneliness and despair, but we
will never feel lost when we completely rely on our Lord to guide us
with his teachings. We are fertile because we accept God's love to be
brought forth in us and through us that love will grow in others.

In that mission that we choose to partake; and on the roads he wants
us to journey, that is how and where the love of God is multiplied.
And the people we encounter will recognize His majesty in our little
and simple ways of proceeding.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Jo Marcelo
- Jun Lee
- Lagrimas Buhain
- Wendy
- Cristy
- Vicky Fabella
- Susan
… for the eternal repose of the soul of Thomas Sy. Eternal rest grant
unto him and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he and all the
dearly departed rest in peace.
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
… 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!

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