Jun 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Tuesday of week 11 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Matthew 5:43-48
“You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the desire of Jesus Christ for us. And the way to become perfect, Jesus is indicating us. We must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is the way to become sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. He loves everyone. And by loving in the same way, we become His sons and daughters. What is the great thing about loving the enemies? The uniqueness lies in the fact that it’s divine. To hate the enemy is human. To forgive the enemy is spiritual. To love the enemy is Christian. This is what Jesus has shown us in the cross. This love is not a passive love but active. And our prayer for the enemy becomes the first sign of our active love towards our enemies. Only in loving the enemy we do something exceptional. Otherwise, we are not following the way of Jesus Christ. Often, our love for the enemy stops by saying, “I don’t do anything against him or her”. I forgive and I don’t want anything more with him or her. This is not what Jesus wants. Jesus wants that we really love our enemies. We must start by praying for them. Let’s reflect: How far my love towards my enemy goes?
Jun 16, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of week 11 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Matthew 5:38-42
“On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well”. This is a completely new paradigm. Accepting the violence and welcoming more into you. This is the way of the Cross. Accept the fault of the other and transform it in the cross by love for that person. This is what happened in the Cross. Jesus Christ came to save the world. He was crucified. He welcomed all His sufferings. And in the Cross He forgave us and opened the door of heaven for us. The evil cannot do harm to us because in the Cross the evil is defeated definitively. But in forgiveness the man subjected to evil is welcomed to convert and receive the light. When you don’t react back violently when someone hits you on the right cheek and you offer him the other, this reaction is something different. This gesture is a call to the person who is resorting to violence that the violence has no power. Only love has power to transform. So, in the model of Jesus Christ, all violence, forcefulness, aggressiveness loses its strength. Love becomes powerful. Let’s reflect: How much I understand according to the Gospel the weakness of aggressiveness?
Jun 15, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Mark 4:26-34
Jesus here is using two parables to explain the Kingdom of God. The man throws seed on the land. “Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know”. And when the crop is ready, he starts to reap. This shows one aspect of the Kingdom of God. We can meditate this aspect of the Kingdom of God in relation to different spiritual realities. The best example is the Grace of God. The receive the sacraments and these sacraments continue to work, day and night in us. We don’t know how. But it works and the different good deeds sprout from that. Then Jesus speaks about the mustard seed which is one of the smallest of all seeds on earth. But it grows into the biggest shrub of them all. Our small deeds inspired by the grace will produce big results since our small deeds are part of the Kingdom of God. Let’s reflect: How much can I relate my good deeds inspired by grace to the Kingdom of God?
Jun 14, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Gospel – Matthew 5:33-37
“All you need say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”. This is an important teaching of Jesus Christ that we must keep in our mind always. Don’t try to adjust ourselves in our response to evil or to good. We must not try to mix the evil with the good or vice versa just to adapt to our selfish interests. This is not about seeing positive. It’s about the intention which we have when we deal with the right and wrong. We must not twist things to adapt. We must say ‘yes’ as ‘yes’. Not to manipulate because we want to please someone, or we want to put also our selfish interests. Also, it’s a question of justice. Justice to good. When we manipulate good, it becomes evil. We need grace and mercy to follow always the good but that does not mean that we must manipulate the good. We ask for grace and do the good. And, we ask for mercy when we go wrong. And not to justify the wrong as right. Let’s reflect: Do I recognize the moments in which I manipulate good to adapt to my selfishness?
Jun 13, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Matthew 5:27-32
“If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away”. Very radical statement of Jesus regarding the cause of sin. Because He came to save us from our sins. He repaired our sins. But at the same time, it’s our duty not to sin. And one of the most important aspects of sin, is to avoid occasion to sin or to take out the cause of sin. If we can deal with the cause of sin, we can more effectively deal with sin. In sin, we are using the gifts of God to do actions against the same God. God gave us our eyes and in sin, we are using the same eyes to see against the will of God. We use our eyes to see things not in the way God wants. We use to see as we want and not as God wants. This must be dealt radically. We must see what God wants. Otherwise, we are using the gifts of God for our selfish interests. We are misusing the love of God. This is applicable to each and every gift of God. Let’s reflect: Am I using the gifts of God according to His will?
