Jun 11, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Wednesday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Gospel Matthew 5:17-19
Often the teachings of Jesus are mistakenly considered as opposed to the Law given to the People of God in the Old Testament. It’s not. Jesus tells it very clearly. “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved”. The Law in the Old Testament was given as the result of the covenant of God with the People of God. The Covenant of God will not change and so is the Law. When we try to put the teaching of Jesus Christ in opposition to the Law, we are missing the continuation of the covenant of God with the People of God. God became man so that man can be saved as he or she cannot fulfil the Law. God became man to forgive his infidelity and not to change the Law. Law is the relationship between God and man. And his weakness in this relationship is remedied by the saving action of Jesus Christ. Let’s reflect: How much I am aware that the Law is to maintain our relationship with God and that the grace helps us to follow that?
Jun 10, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saint Barnabas, Apostle
Tuesday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Gospel Matthew 10:7-13
“You received without charge, give without charge”. Today we are celebrating the feast of St. Barnabas, who is known as Apostle from Cyprus. In the Acts of Apostles, we read about his missionary journeys along with St. Paul. Jesus made this teaching on the context of sending the Apostles to preach that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Each Christian in Baptism receives this mandate to preach the Gospel. We are called to preach the Gospel through our words and actions. Many times, we don’t think about this duty in our daily life. We have received this grace to preach the Gospel freely and often we don’t do it freely because we are not free. Among our responsibilities and tasks of each day, the grace to preach the Kingdom of God is often neglected. So, it’s important to transform our daily responsibilities and tasks into a platform for preaching the Kingdom of God. The best way to do this is to perform these responsibilities and task as a gift to those around you. Transforming the grace to preach the Gospel by being the Good News to others. Let’s reflect: How much I succeed in transforming the gratuitous grace to preach the Gospel by being the Good News to others?
Jun 9, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Matthew 5:1-12
The sermon on the Mount is the way of life for a disciple. This is the way in which each disciple must face the realities in the life of his or her discipleship. Both action and reaction of the disciple are to be based on these principles. His thoughts and plans are to be based upon these beatitudes. And what is common in all these beatitudes is – all these points to be “Happy” or “Blessed”. And this is the most important factor for a disciple. To be happy because the disciple is following Jesus Christ. And because the disciple is following Jesus Christ, he is blessed or happy. And these principles of action and reaction help us to be the disciples of Jesus Christ who are happy and blessed. Many times, we follow Jesus Christ, but we are not happy because we are following Him according to our own principles or methods. But when we renounce our ways and follow Jesus Christ according to the way of the Beatitudes, we will be happy and blessed. Let’s reflect: How much I compare my ways of action and reaction to the ways detailed in the Beatitudes?
Jun 8, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St Ephraem the Deacon
Gospel – Mark 3:20-35
Jesus in the Gospel passage is misunderstood by his relatives because he was taking care of the people who wanted to listen to him without having a meal. The scribes who came from Jerusalem misunderstood him because they accused that it is “through the prince of devils that he casts devils out”. From these two misunderstandings Jesus is giving us the true picture of what a relationship is in God. The relationship with God is based on the action of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that carries the love of God, incarnated in Jesus Christ to us. If someone denies the Holy Spirit, that person is completely cutting oneself out of the love of God. That’s his or her choice. But that is what, that’s happening. When we don’t have a relationship, we cannot also have forgiveness. The second picture of relationship is about the Word of God. The Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnated. So, to be related to Him, we need to be part of the Word of God. We become part of the Word of God by doing the will of God. By doing the will of God we become part of the Word of God and we actualize the life of Jesus Christ received through the sacraments as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. Let’s reflect: How much I value the possibility of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit
Jun 8, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Saturday of week 9 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – Luke 2:41-51
“He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart”. What did she store in her heart? He stored the life of Jesus Christ. The Word incarnated in her womb and grew around her. From the moment of Annunciation to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. From there each moment with Jesus. His smiles, His words, His cries, His walk, His runs, in short, His growth moment by moment. This is what Mother Mary is storing up in her heart. Her heart is immaculate because in her heart there is only place for the Word of God. Her heart is immaculate because in her heart there is only place for the Will of God. Her heart is immaculate because in her heart there is only place for the Love of God. And in her son Jesus Christ, she finds space for each one of us and He has given her to us under the cross. He died for each one of us and she wants to be the mother of each one of us so that the fruit of her Son’s cross be realized in each one of us. She loves us with an Immaculate Heart which gives everything, and which does not ask anything in return. Let’s be in the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that we can let Jesus grow in us.
Jun 6, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Solemnity
Gospel – John 19:31-37
Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a very special devotion to Jesus in his human nature, in particular referring to the heart as the seat of the emotions. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus comes from an immense love to the immeasurable love of Jesus to us. And there is something unique in this love. It’s God who loves us but also with a human heart. It has the strength of divine love and the warmth of human love. It has the forgiveness of divine love and the tenderness of human love. This love surpasses any other love. It goes deep into the mystery of salvation. In the first reading we read how this love evolved, “as a child I loved him, I called my son out, I myself taught him to walk, I took him in my arms…I led them with reins of kindness, with leading-strings of love”. This immense love, St. Paul says, only when Christ lives in our hearts through faith, planted in love and built of love, we will have strength to “grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God”. In the Cros, this love burst out from the pierced side of Jesus. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a dedication to that Heart, it is a diving into that Heart, it is a disappearing in that Heart.
