DAILY- HOMILY

September 26, 2014
Friday 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sts. Cosmas and Damian]

Eccl 3: 1-11 / Ps 144: 1b and 2abc, 3-4 / Lk 9: 18-22

Reading: Eccl 3: 1-11
There is a given time for everything and a time for every happening under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time for throwing stones, a time for gathering stones; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from em-bracing. A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for throwing away. A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time to be silent and a time to speak. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace. What profit is there for a man from all his toils? Finally I considered the task God gave to the humans. He made everything fitting in its time, but he also set eternity in their hearts, although man is not able to embrace the work of God from the beginning to the end.   

Gospel: Luke 9: 18-22
One day when Jesus was praying alone, not far from his disciples, he asked them, "What do people say about me?" And they answered, "Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say that you are Elijah, and still others that you are one of the former prophets risen from the dead." Again Jesus asked them, "Who then do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Messiah of God." Then Jesus spoke to them, giving them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. And he added, "The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the Law, and put to death. Then after three days he will be raised to life."

Reflection:
     Today's Catholics, if asked the same question by Jesus, would probably answer:  "God, God the Son, Our Creator, Our Lord and Savior, Our Redeemer, the Word Made Flesh, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, the son of Mary, the Christ, true God and true Man" - for all these, he truly is.  Unlike the apostles of his time, our strict instruction now is to tell this to everyone.
     The apostles were not sure who Jesus was. They learned who he was only much later, after witnessing his death and resurrection, and they proclaimed who Jesus was to all the nations so that they would be saved, even at the cost of their own lives. All the apostles, except St. John, died a martyr's death. Now we know who Jesus really is.  His life, death and resurrection proved this to us. We are blessed because God gave us the grace to know this. We must realize how important this knowledge is to us; our eternal life depends on it. We know that " in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing came to be." (Jn 1:1-3)  God originally intended eternal life to our first parents, but because of disobedience and pride, they lost it. So for our salvation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, in order to redeem for us the eternal life which was lost.  We know that he suffered and died on the cross for us in order to achieve this redemption. We must tell what we know to everyone so that they would not reject this eternal life redeemed for us by Jesus Christ.

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

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!

**************************************************
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. 
  +================================================+