Tuesday 10 January
Tuesday of week 1 in Ordinary Time First reading - Hebrews 2:5-12 Jesus experienced everything we have to experience so that we can be part of His glory. God wanted to give back the joy to which we were created and which we lost with our sin. When the humanity chooses to move away from God with the choices contrary to God, we lost our glory to be with God. When Jesus Christ with His choice to become one among us, like us, and to make our destiny His destiny, the whole thing changed. He did the reparation for our sins and our choices. Our errors were corrected through his suffering. Our sins were repaired through his suffering. Jesus Christ redeemed us. His suffering saved us. Because in His suffering, He eliminated the role of ego and selfishness. We made the wrong choices not to suffer and we erred. Jesus loved us and decided to suffer for us to make right our errors. With His love He saved us. His love which purifies our selfish love with His sacrifice sanctifies us. Jesus Christ is the center of our life. Let’s reflect: It’s important to understand the role of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our life to make our love selfless.
Monday 9 January
Monday of week 1 in Ordinary Time First reading - Hebrews 1:1-6 “he has spoken to us through his Son”. God the Father has spoken to us through his only Son. What did he speak? He spoke how much we are important to him. He made his son to be one among us so that he can talk to us. How profound is this mystery! He was happy with the prophets whom he sent to us. But he wanted to love us more. So he sent his Son. And the Son did something every important that we can talk to the Father. He has destroyed the defilement of sin so that we can talk to the Father through him. The son is now at the right hand of divine Majesty. So, the question now is, “how do you respond? God has spoken. He has spoken to us. So, how do you respond? We start responding by recognizing the Son. Let’ reflect: Are we really aware of the fact that God has spoken to us through his Son?
Sunday 8 January
The Baptism of the Lord First reading - Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7 “Faithfully he brings true justice; he will neither waver, nor be crushed until true justice is established on earth, for the islands are awaiting his law” This is the Baptism of the Lord where the mission begins. Mission to bring true justice. True justice is to open the eyes of the blind and to free the captives from prison and those who live in darkness. Jesus with his baptism is assuming this mission. This mission is not a show. It is not shouting aloud or making his voice heard in the streets. This is a mission in the hearts of persons. This is a mission with love that enkindles the light in each person. This is a mission with a covenant with each person that develops into a personal relationship with Jesus. It is a mission where Jesus takes you by the hand and form you. This a mission of liberation. The question: “am I accepting the mission of liberation of Jesus in my life?”
Saturday 7 January
St Raymond of Peñafort (c.1175 - 1275) First reading - 1 John 3:22-4:6 “This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.” How can we distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood? We can distinguish between when we say that we believe in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ and we don’t love one another. This is the spirit of falsehood. But when we believe in Jesus Christ and when we love one another, that is the spirit of truth. Also it's vice versa; if we don’t believe in Jesus Christ and just we love each other this is spirit of error because your love to each other is superficial and attached to this world. But if our love to each other is based on our belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God, we have the spirit of truth. Because our love to one another is a participation in the life of God as we love one another as the Son of God told us. We believe in Jesus Christ; we follow Him, and we love each other. When one element in this is missing, we fall into error. Let’s reflect: Are our belief in Jesus Christ and our love to one another are connected?