Tuesday 11 October
Saint John XXIII, Pope Tuesday of week 28 in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 11:37-41 “Instead, give alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean for you.” How is giving alms cleanse us? It cleanses us because giving alms is sharing with freedom of heart against the selfish desire to hold everything for us alone. It’s not compelling and it’s from your free will. And most important, we don’t get anything in return from the poor person to whom we give. It’s sharing of what you have inside you. It’s sharing without desiring anything in return. It is sharing for making the poor person closer to me. When we give from our heart, our inside becomes clean because of the goodness we are spreading inside ourselves with the decision to share. Every time we decide to share with someone poor what we have, we are generating a good will inside our heart which will clean our heart from our selfishness and from our ego. The more you can share, the more you can clean your inside. Am I sharing enough to clean my heart?
Monday 10 October
Monday of week 28 in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 11:29-32 The crowd is getting bigger because they want to see something amazing. Something that satisfies their curiosity. And they are not seeing anything except a man who is one among them. A man from Nazareth. Our faith is not about anything spectacular but about a person. Our faith is not about anything miraculous but about a person, the son of God who incarnated and became one among us in everything except sin. Our faith is not about anything extraordinary, but about the person of Jesus Christ who is above everyone. But often our faith is so shallow that we search something spectacular, something miraculous and something extraordinary. In this search for this, we forget the most important thing, our relationship with Jesus Christ. The Queen of the South searched for Solomon. Jonah preached and the people of Nineveh changed their lives. Their relationships changed and they changed. Their relationship with God changed. In our search for the extraordinary, let’s not forget our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sunday 9 October
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 17:11-19 “…threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him…. Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you”. Gratitude is an expression of your faith. The way the Samaritan leper expresses his gratitude is very touching. “Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him”. Turning back, praising God at the top of his voice, and throwing himself at the feet of Jesus. Three actions: turning back, with gratitude you turn back to Jesus, you change, you convert; praising God at the top of his voice, with gratitude you give your best, all what you can, all what you have; throwing himself at the feet, with gratitude you surrender your complete self at His feet. Then, it’s important to notice what Jesus rewards him. “Stand up and go on your way”. Jesus is giving him back his freedom as son of God. Stand up like a son and go on your way with your freedom. Gratitude gives you back your dignity as sons and daughter of God. Meanwhile, the other cured lepers are going on their way to show to the priests, the Samaritan leper goes on his way with his freedom as a son of God. The former tied around the law and the later freed by grace. So, the question here is: Are you grateful enough to be gain your freedom as son or daughter of God?