DAILY- HOMILY

September 25, 2014
Thursday 25th Week in Ordinary Time

Eccl 1: 2-11/ Ps 90: 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17bc / Lk 9: 7-9

Reading: Eccl 1: 2-11
All is meaningless - says the Teacher - meaningless, meaningless! What profit is there for a man in all his work for which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes and the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, hastening towards the place where it again rises. Blowing to the south, turning to the north, the wind goes round and round and after all its rounds it has to blow again. All rivers go to the sea but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers come from, there they return again. All words become weary and speech comes to an end, but the eye has never seen enough nor the ear heard too much. What has happened before will happen again; what has been done before will be done again: there is nothing new under the sun. If they say to you, "See, it's new!" know that it has already been centuries earlier. There is no remembrance of ancient people, and those to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.   

Gospel: Luke 9:7-9
King Herod heard of all this and did not know what to think, for people said, "This is John, raised from the dead." Others believed that Elijah or one of the ancient prophets had come back to life.  As for Herod, he said, "I had John beheaded; who is this man about whom I hear such wonders?" And he was anxious to see him.

Reflection:
     King Herod had John beheaded because John told him the truth and he could not accept it because of his ambitions and pride.
     Today, some of us are like King Herod. We are having difficulty in accepting the teachings of Jesus even if we have studied in Catholic schools and hear mass on Sundays regularly. We only accept the teachings that we like and are easy to follow but disregard the teachings that we find hard to obey and follow. The challenge for us is to make the gospel come alive in our daily lives.  Do we teach our teenage sons and daughters that premarital sex is not acceptable? Do we believe in the sacredness of marriage and are against divorce? Do we oppose the provisions in the RH bill that are against life? Do we disobey basic traffic rules and contribute to corruption by bribing the policeman as a convenient habit? Do we have shady business dealings? Are we struggling to forgive the people who have hurt us?
     God's word is absolute. Black is black and white is white. There are no gray areas. We cannot compromise the teachings of Jesus. As Catholics, our goal is to be like John, who dared to speak against those in powerful positions and to make known the truth no matter if it meant danger and imminent death. The truth will set us free from the bondages that we have created for ourselves.

Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary
... for families who are in need of healing
... for world peace and reconciliation
... for the special intentions of:
     * early recovery and good health of Egypt Padilla
     * safety of Ma. Fatima Nona

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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