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.
Feb 27, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Wednesday of the 2nd week of Lent
Saint Oswald
Gospel – Matthew 20:17-28
“…anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. Jesus was going towards Jerusalem and He clearly stated to His disciples what is going to happen there: His condemnation, His death on the cross and His resurrection. The disciples but got carried away by another thought. It came from the mother of Zebedee about having privileged positions for her sons. And all the apostles followed that. Jesus made use of this situation to teach a fundamental principle of the new order which is going to be established with His mission in Jerusalem. The privilege in the Kingdom of God is to be a servant. The greatest privilege is to give up your own life for the other. Jesus Christ is setting forth this new paradigm of world order to save the humanity. He is giving His life to save the humanity. He is God and He is dying on the cross for us. If we want to belong to Him, we must give our life for others. Let’s reflect: Lent reminds us to conform ourselves to the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for us and for many.
Feb 26, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Tuesday of the 2nd week of Lent
Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot, and Doctor of the Church
Gospel – Matthew 23:1-12
“Everything they do is done to attract attention”. Jesus today speaks of a challenge inherent in our spiritual life. All our spiritual activities can be motivated by this danger. Jesus is pointing out this danger. There were so many customs and traditions developed among the People of God in order to follow the precepts of the law which is the sign of the relationship between to God. All these precepts and subsequent traditions and customs were born from the commandments of the Lord which is the sign of covenant between God and His people. So, everything was directed to this relationship. But slowly the attention shifted from the covenant to the oneself. The attention shifted from the relationship with God to oneself. So, every prayer and customs became an instrument to call the attention to oneself. This is dangerous for our spiritual life. Because in that kind of spiritual life we do every prayers, every Holy Mass, every Rosary, to get the attention to ourselves and not to grow in our relationship to God. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to make sure that our spiritual activities are not to attract attention of others to ourselves.
Feb 25, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of the 2nd week of Lent
St Alexander of Alexandria
Gospel – Luke 6:36-38
“Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you:”. These words of Jesus show exactly how is the relationship of God the Father with us. God the Father is compassionate. And we must be compassionate as He is because we are His sons and daughters. We are His sons and daughters in the life of Jesus Christ, but we actualize that life of Christ in us by being compassionate like the Father. And also, this is necessary for the actualizing the grace we received. If we are not forgiving others, we will not be forgiven even though we receive the grace through Jesus Christ. Likewise, if we are judging others, we will be judged too. If we are condemning others, we will be condemned too. So, even though God the Father is compassionate, unless we become compassionate, we will not be able to enjoy the taste of His compassion. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to examine whether we are compassionate as our heavenly Father is.
Feb 24, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
2nd Sunday of Lent
Gospel – Mark 9:2-10
“This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.” Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. The heavenly Father is confirming that in the Mount of Tabor. In this statement of the Father, there is a declaration and an obligation. Declaration about the identity of His only Son, the beloved. Obligation is upon us to listen to His only Son. Because it’s through the Son the plan of God for the salvation of humanity is unfolding. This can be seen in the whole setting. Jesus going up to the mountains with a group of chosen Apostles to be alone by themselves. This being alone up in the mountains is show that God’s plan is a unique one. Then the appearance of Moses and Elijah shows that the plan of God is the fulfilment of law and prophets. Moses represent the covenant and law God made with the people of Israel and Elijah the prophet through which God continued to intervene in the life of the people of Israel. God the Father made His definite intervention in our history with the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. We have the obligation to listen to Him. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to verify how much we listen to Jesus Christ, beloved Son of Our Father in heaven.
