Jan 20, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Word of God
St Agnes
Gospel – Mark 1:14-20
Three verbs Jesus is using in His proclamation. “The Kingdom of God Is close at hand”, “Repent”, and “believe the Good News”. These verbs, we must understand in the context of the Sunday of the Word of God in which the importance of the Word of God in our life has to be understand. It’s important the Word of God in our life to understand that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. It’s the Word of God that helps us with that. It’s important the Word of God so that we can repent. Only the Word of God can really invite us for repentance. Then at last, it’s important the help of the Word of God to believe in the Good News. The closer we are with the Word of God, the easier we understand that the kingdom of God is at hand. The dearer the Word of God is for us, easier we will repent. The deeper the Word of God is in us, it’s easier for us to believe in the Good News. Let’s reflect: We must be close to the Word of God, to recognize the closeness of the Kingdom of God, to repent and to believe in the Good News.
Jan 19, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Saint Sebastian, Martyr
Gospel – Mark 3:20-21
This is a very family situation where we find Jesus. Jesus went home. All the people arrived there, and the crowd was such that they could not even have a meal. People wanted more and more of Jesus. But when the relatives of Jesus heard this, they set out to take charge of Jesus. Because they thought that Jesus was out of his mind. The relatives of Jesus trying to take Jesus away from the crowd because they did not understand the mission of Jesus. We always have this challenge. People who are close to us and who love us, do not understand our mission. They will try to persuade to abandon our mission, or to take away from our mission, or to deviate from our mission. Let’s reflect: In the midst of people who does not our mission, we must continue to give witness to Jesus Christ.
Jan 19, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Mark 3:13-19
“Jesus went up into the hills and summoned those he wanted. So they came to him and he appointed twelve”. Jesus went up into the hills. And then He summoned those He wanted. That means, when Jesus went up into the hills, these people followed Him. These people were with him. From those who followed Him, He summoned those He wanted. So, these were people who followed Him where He went. And then there is another important point, from all those who were following Him, only twelve got called. Others were not called; they kept following Him. They were following Him because they wanted to follow Him. They did not expect anything other than to be in His presence. All the Apostles belong to this group which just wanted to follow Jesus. From our desire to follow Jesus begins our mission to be testimonies of His love. Let’s reflect: I must follow Jesus from my desire to be with Him and there I will be called to be a witness of His love.
Jan 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Thursday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Mark 3:7-12
“And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned them strongly not to make him known”. Jesus warns strongly not to speak about him. Because He did not want a testimony from the unclean spirits. The testimony for Jesus is His love. Not His miracle. Jesus wants that His love is His testimony. This reveals an important element of our witness of Jesus. Our witness or our testimony must be our personal relationship with Jesus. It must not be a miracle or something we received from Him. Our witness must be our relationship with Jesus. Our witness must be the statement of His love we received in our life. Our witness must be more than the revelation of His identity. It must the revelation of our relationship with Him. Let’s reflect: Jesus wants that our testimony of Him be the testimony our relationship with Him.
Jan 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saint Antony, Abbot
Wednesday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Matthew 19:16-26
“But when the young man heard these words, he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth”. Today we are celebrating the feast of St. Antony, the originator of the monastic life. Born in Egypt, he listened to the words of the Gospel and gave all his belongings to the poor. He went to the wilderness and began a life of penitence, living in absolute poverty, praying, meditating, and living by manual work. Why he sold everything and went to the desert? Because he understood the words of Jesus we read in the Gospel of today. ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ Giving up everything one has makes the disposition to welcome Jesus into his or her life The young man went away sad because he cannot think about something bigger than his wealth. More than that, he lacks faith because the greatest challenge in selling everything we have is our thought about after the sales. When I have nothing, how do I live? This fear can be overcome only in the total faith in the Lord. Because what we can gain from selling everything, we have will enable us to enter into a relationship with Jesus. This relationship relativizes everything. Let’s reflect: The faith in Jesus must help us to overcome our fear in selling everything to follow Him.
