DAILY- HOMILY

May 2, 2014
Friday Second Week of Easter
[Memorial, St. Athanasius, bishop, doctor]

Acts 5: 34-42 / Ps 27: 1, 4, 13-14 / Jn 6: 1-15

Reading: Acts 5: 34-42
But one of them, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly respected by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin. He ordered the men to be taken outside for a few minutes and then he spoke to the assembly. "Fellow Israelites, consider well what you intend to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas came forward, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed or disappeared. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census and persuaded many people to follow him. But he too perished and his whole following was scattered. So, in this present case, I advise you to have nothing to do with these men. Leave them alone. If their project or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. If, on the other hand, it is from God, you will not be able to destroy it and you may indeed find yourselves fighting against God." The Council let themselves be persuaded. They called in the apostles and had them whipped, and ordered them not to speak again of Jesus Savior. Then they set them free. The apostles went out from the Council rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name. Day after day, both in the Temple and in people's homes, they continued to teach and to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.   

Gospel: Jn 6:1-15
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, near Tiberias, and large crowds followed him because of the miraculous signs they saw when he healed the sick. So he went up into the hills and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Then lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw the crowds that were coming to him and said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread so that these people may eat?" He said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Two hundred silver coins would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece." Then one of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was plenty of grass there so the people, about five thousand men, sat down to rest. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish and gave them as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten enough, he told his disciples, "Gather up the pieces left over, that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with bread, that is with pieces of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw this sign that Jesus had just given, they said, "This is really the Prophet, he who is to come into the world." Jesus realized that they would come and take him by force to make him king; so he fled to the hills by himself.

Reflection:
The feeding of the multitude manifests how God lovingly provides. With him, we will never be hungry. He feeds our spiritual and physical needs. He loves us so much that He created the plants and the animals for our sustenance as well as the people around us to care for us. Unfortunately, we oftentimes take all these blessings for granted. Have we not abused our environment? There is too much wastage on the food, water, power, etc. around as if these resources will never run out. We throw away things without consideration. Have we ever thought that what we throw out could be of use to others who could not afford as well we could? Christ himself set the example of prudence and frugality when he told his disciples to "gather up the left-over fragments, that nothing may be lost" (Jn 6:12). This only shows how much he values every grain of blessing. What God provides us is a gift. As a simple gesture of our appreciation and gratefulness to His gift, we should not put any of it to waste.

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
     * Herman Gamboa
... for world peace and reconciliation
... for all the intentions of Mike Torres

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. 
  +================================================+

May 3, 2014
Saturday Second Week of Easter
[Feast, Sts. Philip And James, Apostles]

1 Cor 15: 1-8 / Ps 19: 2-3, 4-5 / Jn 14: 6-14
 
Reading: 1 Cor 15: 1-8
Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain. In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received: that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest. Then he appeared to James and after that to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

Gospel: Jn 14: 6-14
Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

Reflection:
    In the gospel, Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." By these words, one would think that Jesus has already given us the way on how to get to know the Father.  And yet one wonders why does getting to know him still seem so difficult?  When you think about it, this gospel is rather straight forward. To get to the Father, we need to go through the Son. Now, although the source of the next statement is somewhat unorthodox. The meaning of the words still rings true.
    Taken from a recurring "urban myth" about Albert Einstein and his atheist teacher  "The link between man and God is --- FAITH." And there lies the crux of our seeming inability to accept Jesus' words at face value.  Given that we are such thinking beings, we find it difficult to simply accept that "Jesus is in the Father, as the Father is in the Son." For faith calls for a kind of believing in something that is not directly backed up by anything that we can truly see, hear, touch, taste or feel. That is why, even in our belief, often there lies a part of us that stays unbelieving at times. It is that small part that causes the greatest gulf between man and God. So what do we do to bridge that gap? 
    We believe in Jesus and in God the Father, even in the midst of their seeming intangibility. We believe, because we CHOOSE to believe. Reason and logic be forgotten, we choose to believe because in God we feel a "wholeness" and a sense of love that sets our minds, our hearts and our spirits at peace.

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

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. 
  +================================================+