Thursday, September 11, 2014

 

Friday 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

September 12, 2014
Friday 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
 [Memorial, The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary]
 
1 Cor 9: 16-19, 22-27 / Ps 84: 3,4, 5-6, 12 / Lk 6: 39-42

Reading: 1 Cor 9: 16-19, 22-27
Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel: I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. How can I, then, deserve a reward? In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel. So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody's slave in order to gain a greater number. To the weak I made myself weak, to win the weak. So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it. Have you not learned anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, as athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline. Yet for them the wreath is of laurels which wither, while for us, it does not wither. So, then, I run knowing where I go. I box but not aimlessly in the air. I punish my body and control it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.

Gospel: Luke 6: 39-42 
And Jesus offered this example, "Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master. So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother's eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it? How can you say to your neighbor, 'Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,' when you can't remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor's eye. 

Reflection:
     In today's gospel, we see our Lord Jesus continuing to teach his disciples and followers by using very common situations in daily life to illustrate what he wanted to get across to his audience. They form part of his "sermon on the plain" which began with his seemingly contradictory teachings in what we know as the beatitudes. The gospel verses for today teach us very simple truths which may seem like common sense to most of us. How can a blind man who cannot see where he is going lead another person? Surely a student cannot know more than his teacher. But if he fully learns everything that his master knows and teaches, then he can know as much as his master but never more because this teacher is the source of all his knowledge. Being very familiar with the wood working trade, he used elements from his work like logs to illustrate his teaching on our natural but very flawed tendency to put the blame on other people. As we read the "good news" today we are challenged to reflect more deeply on what we do or fail to do in the different situations in our daily life. 
     Have we responded favorably to the Lord's teaching or have we failed?  Can we recall, or are we even aware of situations when we failed to use our "common sense" and failed our Lord miserably? 

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!

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   |  The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
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