Mar 4, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Tuesday of the 3rd week of Lent
Gospel – Matthew 18:21-35
“Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times. …And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.” This passage is very challenging because this calls for absolute trust in the Lord. This passage questions more about your relationship with God than your relationship with your brother. Because we don’t forgive someone because of the damage done or hurt imposed or even worse things. But we don’t forgive because the presence of God in your life is not stronger than what you feel against your brother. Your hatred is deeper than the presence of God in your life. That is why you cannot forgive. It’s not about forgetting. We cannot forget things, but we can forgive if we grow in the trust in the Lord. When we trust in the Lord, we can forgive from the heart and not only with lips. Whatever is lost or threatened by the behavior of the other person, is assured by the presence of the Lord. Grow in the trust in the Lord and forgive from heart. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to forgive from heart by growing in the trust in the Lord.
Mar 3, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of the 3rd week of Lent
St Casimir
Gospel – Luke 4:24-30
“I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country”. This is a warning which Jesus gives us because of our prejudices and hasty judgement of those around us. We have lots of these in our life. Ordinary people around us, members of our family, often have no special value in our eyes. Whatever they do, we immediately judge it as useless or valueless. This attitude is against the will of God. And Jesus is saying that God has a different way of looking at persons. Those persons who do not a value before other persons, has value before God. God chooses them and they come instruments of God’s grace. Because these people are open to the action of God in their lives. Whereas we who judge others and we who carry with us prejudices are often close to the action of God in our life. Our pride closes ourselves to the grace of God and our humility opens ourselves to the grace of God. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to reflect whether I am closing myself to the grace of God with my prejudices and hasty judgements about others.
Mar 2, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
3rd Sunday of Lent
Gospel – John 2:13-25
“Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.” Temple signifies the presence of God. God who condescends to be with People whom He adopted as His own with all their defects and weaknesses. And His presence is gratuitous. This gratuitous presence is to create culture of reciprocal gratuitous love. Whereas it became a market where everything is calculated, and nothing is gratuitous. Everything is profit oriented. In the house of the Lord, who is gratuitously giving everything, the market culture took over. This is why Jesus was so furious about it. The culture of bazaar which is totally contrary to the presence of God which is a free manifestation of His love. God also is present in our heart. So, we also make it suitable for the presence of God. We must not make our heart a bazar with calculations and looking for profits. We must keep our heart as our Father’s house with gratuitous love towards others. If we had made our heart, a marketplace, let’s welcome Jesus to clean it up. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to welcome Jesus to transform our heart into Fathers’ house.
Mar 1, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent
First Saturday: Let us entrust ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Gospel – Luke 15:1-3,11-32
“He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him”. The parable of the prodigal son is the parable of the generous Father. This can be seen in his approach to the younger son but it is also very much evident in his approach to the elder son. The elder son seeing the welcome, which the younger son got, he became angry and refused to go in to join the happiness of the family. He does not understand his father. Then the father is coming out and he is pleading with him. God the Father comes in search of us who are not understanding His will. He came in search of us in the person of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Holy Trinity. He not only comes out in search of the son, but also pleads with him. God the Father, through His Son pleads to us to enter into the joy of the Kingdom of God. And the words of the Father are so generous, “all I have is yours”. This is the love of God the Father. Let’s reflect: Lent is time to understand in depth the love of God the Father for us.
Mar 1, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of the 2nd week of Lent
First Friday: Let us entrust ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Gospel – Matthew 21:33-43,45-46
“It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone”. This is the about Jesus Christ who was abandoned and crucified. Jesus Christ became the keystone of our salvation. He became the keystone of the new world which enjoys the fruits of redemption. But this parable is also applicable to us. Because the story continues. We have given this new vineyard which is the Church. We are supposed to give fruits to the keystone. But when we make of the grace for our own selfish interests without giving the right importance to the cornerstone, we are committing the same mistake of those servants in the parable. We are supposed to produce the fruits and to be handed over to Jesus Christ. All glory and honor belong to Him. Instead, if we are gathering all the glory and honor for ourselves, it is wrong. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to assure that all glory and honor is given to God and we don’t take it for ourselves.
Feb 28, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Thursday of the 2nd week of Lent
Gospel – Luke 16:19-31
“But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours”. Who created this great gulf? This gulf is not a creation of God. But it’s the creation of that rich man. This rich man with his lifestyle and attitude towards Lazarus during his lifetime on earth created this gulf. He dressed in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. So, every day he expanded this gulf by making a distinct life from the poor Lazarus, who was lying there covered with sores. And this poor man only longed to fill himself with the scarps that fell from the rich man’s table. The indifference of the rich man towards the poor man who is before his own eyes created this gulf. When we are indifferent to the poor and marginalized persons in the society we do the same thing. We create a gulf between God and us. Distance from the poor is distance from God. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to get rid of our indifference towards the poor and the needy.
