Sunday 30 July
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time First reading - 1 Kings 3:5,7-12 “Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great?’ It pleased the Lord that Solomon should have asked for this”. Solomon asked what is pleased to God. This is because he was not thinking about himself. He was thinking about the people of God. We are selfish and we have egoistic desires when we think of ourselves. But when we think of others, when we place others before ourselves, there is totally a different perspective. We see things in a different perspective. In the words of Solomon we can see that. “Your servant finds himself in the midst of this people of yours that you have chosen, a people so many its number cannot be counted or reckoned”. The People is more important than him. He considers the people as great. That’s why he is humble enough to ask for the wisdom to serve the people of God. When we put the other in front of ourselves we can be humble enough to ask the grace of God to serve others. Let’s reflect: Am I humble enough to put the other before me to ask the wisdom from God to serve the other?
Saturday 29 July
Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus Saturday of week 16 in Ordinary Time First reading - 1 John 4:7-16 “Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love”. This is the fundamental and foundation of our belief. God is love. It emphasizes the idea that God's love is unconditional, infinite, and all-encompassing, and it serves as a foundational principle for understanding God's relationship with humanity. This is the revelation about God which summarises everything about God and love. Love comes from God, and we can know God only if we love. We understand God only if we truly love and we can only truly love when we understand God. Love is the starting point of knowing God. True love is the end point of knowing God. Only in knowing God, we can grow in love. In the memorial of today, we can see the family in Bethany growing in love with Jesus. Each one in that family grows in a unique relationship with Jesus and between them. Growing in love with God is growing in love with each other. This cannot be separate. If we believe that God is love, we can only be part of the God, by loving one another. Let’s reflect: How much I understand that God is love?
Friday 28 July
Friday of week 16 in Ordinary Time First reading - Exodus 20:1-17 “‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ‘You shall have no gods except me”. This is the Word of God which establishes the fundamental relationship between God and us. God is the one who bring us out of our slavery and misery. Slavery and misery created by our choices and our way of life. From this slavery God liberates us. Because we are His creatures, and He has created us as free persons. So, when we become slaves of any situation due to our poor choices and wrong choices, God liberates us. In exchange of this liberation, we must acknowledge the unique existence of God. We cannot think of many gods. But of only one God in whom we are liberated. Only one God can liberate us because in this one God there is the freedom. The moment we think of other gods is moment we lose faith in the any God. Because in many gods there is no God but only my selfishness to create a god of my own. Here we become slaves of our own selfishness. The true one God is the liberator. Let’s reflect: Do I recognize the role of God in my liberation from the slavery of my selfishness?