Tuesday, October 13, 2015
WEDNESDAY, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
October 14, 2015 WEDNESDAY, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
Green
Rom 2:1 – 11 / Lk 11:42 – 46
[Pope St. Callistus I (d. 222) was martyred in Rome under Alexander Severus.]
Reading: Rom 2:1 – 11
Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you are able to judge others. For in judging your neighbor, you condemn yourself, for you practice what you are judging. We know that the condemnation of God will justly reach those who commit these things, and do you think that by condemning others you will escape from the judgment of God, you who are doing the same?
This would be taking advantage of God and his infinite goodness, patience and understanding, and not to realize that his goodness is in order to lead you to conversion. If your heart becomes hard and you refuse to change, then you are storing for yourself a great punishment on the day of judgment, when God will appear as just judge.
He will give each one his due, according to his actions. He will give everlasting life to those who seek glory, honor and immortality and persevere in doing good. But anger and vengeance will be the lot of those who do not serve truth but injustice. There will be suffering and anguish for everyone committing evil, first the Jew, then the Greek. But God will give glory, honor and peace to whoever does good, first the Jew then the Greek, because one is not different from the other before God.
Gospel: Lk 11:42 - 46
Jesus said, "A curse is on you, Pharisees; for the Temple you give a tenth of all, including mint and rue and the other herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. This ought to be practiced, without neglecting the other. A curse is on you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and to be greeted in the marketplace. A curse is on you for you are like tombstones of the dead which can hardly be seen; people do not notice them and make themselves unclean by stepping on them.
Then a teacher of the Law spoke up and said, "Master, when you speak like this, you insult us, too." And Jesus answered, "A curse is on you also, teachers of the Law. For you prepare unbearable burdens and load them on people, while you yourselves do not move a finger to help them."
Reflection:
Have you ever found yourself making a judgment on another person and then realizing that you are guilty of the same offense? Probably not often because we so easily see the faults of other people but are very hesitant to admit our own.
When it comes to sinfulness and wrongdoing we tend to be demanding and harsh on others, but kinder and more considerate on ourselves. How readily we assail graft and corruption in government officials? And yet we are not unwilling to evade paying the correct taxes? When others curse or use foul language, they are foul-mouthed and boorish; when the same comes out of our mouths, they are harmless "expressions." The courts would easily condemn a cell-phone thief-snatcher but take ages to convict a plunderer.
In the Gospel reading Jesus condemns the Pharisees and the teachers and leaders of Israel for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy: they focus on externals and minutiae of observance of the Law and forget the Spirit and real purpose of the Law. They stress observance of the Law and forget about the people to be served and protected and helped by the Law.
How much of the Pharisees condemned by Jesus is there in each one of us? How much hypocrisy is there in us? How easily do we judge others? How much do we ourselves focus on externals? How often have we forgotten the spirit behind the Law and that the real purpose of Law is to help and protect real people?
WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER DIARY INTENTIONS:
BIRTHDAY
DAVIES SANTOS
ROWENA GABUCAY
IN MEMORIAM (+)
CO TI CHUA (FEB 14, 1919 – OCT 14, 2004)
OTHER INTENTIONS:
For the thanksgiving and special intentions of Beny Chua.
For the special intentions of Sylvette Tankiang and Arianne Ferrer.
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
| distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
Archive: http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
© 2014 Daily-Homily
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DAILY-HOMILY" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to daily_homily+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
