Thursday 9 February
Thursday of week 5 in Ordinary Time First reading - Genesis 2:18-25 “The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: ‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man’”. The creation of woman shows the role of woman in the creation. God created woman from the rib of man which signifies the importance of woman in the life of man. Rib is close to heart and protects the heart of a person. It’s from the rib God created woman according to the narration of the book of Genesis. The author of the book of Genesis wants to communicate the divine truth about the creation, not the history of the world. The woman is not a creation secondary to man but equal to man and complementary to man. The complementarity of man and woman is clearly written in the book of Genesis. “Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other”. They were not ashamed because their unity and their complementarity were same. Each one has his or her uniqueness. The uniqueness of each person is not a threat for me but it’s a complementarity in my life. Let’s reflect: How much I understand the complementarity of each person in his or her uniqueness in my life?
Wednesday 8 February
Wednesday of week 5 in Ordinary Time Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking 2023 First reading - Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 “The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being”. The breath of the Lord God is our life. It’s the life of each person. And so, each person is precious. Let’s pray today against Human Trafficking and all its forms which undermine the dignity and value of human persons. Each person carries the breath of the Lord God, irrespective of what we are, from where we are and what we have. This preciousness of each person can be maintained only if we respect the principle of good and evil commanded by Lord God. “Nevertheless, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die”. This means, I cannot decide what is good and evil according to my wish. It’s the Lord God who decides. Each time, someone decides on good and bad according to his or her wish, the preciousness of others is at stake. We cannot make a world with our principles on good and bad. It should be world the Lord God makes where the preciousness of each person can be saved. Let’s reflect: How many times I remember that the person in front of me is carrying the breath of God?
Tuesday 7 February
Tuesday of week 5 in Ordinary Time First reading - Genesis 1:20-2:4 “Be fruitful” is what God says after His creation while blessing His creation. His blessing is for being fruitful. God created everything out of His love. That is seen in the creation of man and woman. “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them”. He created man and woman in His own image because He loves us so much. And the blessing He gave is to be fruitful. It’s our duty to be fruitful with that blessing of God. We can be fruitful by being a blessing for the others and for the whole creation. We are fruitful when we make the life of others easy and happy. Whenever we make the life of other difficult, we are not being fruitful. Moreover, we are created in the image and likeness of God means, we must continue to be in the image and likeness of God, who created everything with His love. To being fruitful we must keep that love in the creation and by keeping that love in the creation we can be in the image and likeness of God who is our creator and who blessed us. Let’s reflect: Am I making the life of others happy and easy by being a blessing in their life?
Monday 6 February
Saints Paul Miki and his Companions, Martyrs First reading - Genesis 1:1-19 Reading the creation narration one truth becomes very clear. Everything comes from the Word of God. “God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light”. Then God saw that what came into existence is good. Everything in the nature is from the Word of God and is good. Then in the reading we can see that God is assigning each created being a place and a role. We must understand this truth very well to have the right relationship with the nature around us. This is very important to find our own place in this picture. Everything in the nature is willed by God and is approved by God as good. Moreover, each created being has its role and responsibility. So, what must be our relation to the nature? Our relation to the nature must be a relation which respect that truth. The truth of the creation which must become part of our life which makes us sensitive to all ecological issues and sensible to the pain of each created being. And we cannot distance ourselves away from this truth. We are entrusted with this truth to be cared with responsibility. Let’s reflect: how much sensitive am I to the truth of creation, that everything come from God, and everything has its good place in the creation?