Mar 18, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Gospel - Matthew 1:16,18-21,24
“Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit”. Here Joseph represents each one of us. He represents us because we all have this fear. Fear and anxiety are always blocking our way to accept the will of God in our life. In those moments when we don’t know what to do, in those moments when we get stuck and frightened to proceed, St. Joseph is our model. He received his light in a dream. St. Joseph wished so much to be a man of honor so that he wanted so much to find out the will of God regarding the question before him. This ardent desire to do the good is the reason for the dream. The dream of St. Joseph is where his deep desire to do the good and the profound love of God meet. Dream is the prayer of where the longing of human heart for God meets the plan of God for us. Let’s reflect: Can we dream like St. Joseph where the longing of human heart for God meets the plan of God for us?
Mar 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of the 5th week of Lent
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Doctor
Gospel - John 8:1-11
‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ The Pharisees and scribes brought this woman caught in the act of committing adultery to test Jesus. They wanted to find out whether Jesus will be lenient in the law of Moses. In this episode we see how God sees the sins and how man sees the sins. For men the sins are occasion to accuse and condemn. But for Jesus, the sin is the occasion to save the sinner. Man condemn the sinner and continue to sin. Jesus condemn the sin but save the sinner. This love of God is very important to understand what we must do with our sins. Jesus loves us and wants to save us. He condemns ths sin but He loves each person and He sees each person different from the sin. The sinner is not identified with the sin. The sinner is identified as a person to be saved and loved. Let’s reflect: Lent is to understand the love of God which saves the sinner but condemns the sin.
Mar 16, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
5th Sunday of Lent
Gospel – John 12:20-33
“I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”. This Word of God explains the profound meaning of suffering. The falling of the grain on the ground and the dying of the grain under the soil are two moments of great pain – falling and dying. But these moments are necessary for the beginning of new life. These moments are necessary for the leaving behind its existence as a single grain. These moments are necessary to produce rich harvest. These moments take life to a different stage. The suffering is like this. The moments of pain we accept because we believe in the love of God which takes our pains and transform them as grace for eternal life. This is seen in the life of Jesus Christ. In the person of Jesus Christ, the human suffering is transformed into joy of resurrection. So, when we unite our suffering to Jesus in the cross, we walk the same path of the Cross of Jesus Christ. The path towards resurrection. Let’s reflect: Lent is to understand the meaning of my suffering in the meaning of the Cross of Christ.
Mar 15, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of the 4th week of Lent
Gospel – John 7:40-52
“The police replied, ‘There has never been anybody who has spoken like him.’” The police were sent by the Pharisees and chief priest to arrest Jesus. But they couldn’t because they listened to Jesus, and they had this impression. Then in the beginning of passage we read: “Several people who had been listening to Jesus said, ‘Surely he must be the prophet’, and some said, ‘He is the Christ’,”. This group also listened to Jesus. Then the Pharisees and chief priests who are despising Jesus. And there is Nicodemus who has his desire to listen and to discover who is Jesus. So, the words of Jesus are provoking different reactions in these people. But none of them is moving towards believing or accepting. Some are admiring, some are despising, some are indifferent, and some are doubtful. Those who want to arrest Jesus are those who are not listening, those who do not want to listen, and those who are blind because of their pride and pretension that they know everything. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to listen to Jesus to make the choice of accepting Him as God.
Mar 14, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of the 4th week of Lent
Gospel – John 7:1-2,10,25-30
Jesus cried out in the temple. “Yes, you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me”. Jesus was crying out this in the temple because everyone around Him was seeing only the human part of His person. Their knowledge went only as far as Nazareth. Beyond that, no one was able to see. This is because they were not looking through the eyes of faith. Only when we will be able to look through the eyes of faith, we can see beyond the obvious and the tangible. Our celebrations and our devotions, if we don’t see beyond the palpable, if we don’t go beyond the superficial, with the help of faith, Jesus will have to cry out again. “You know me, but you don’t know my Father who sent me”. You know the prayers, but you don’t know to whom you are addressing. You know the rites, but it does not mean anything to you. Let’s reflect: Lent is to go beyond the superficial with faith to see God who loves us.
Mar 13, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Thursday of the 4th week of Lent
Gospel John 5:31-47
Jesus is the fulfilment of all the promises of the Old Testament. That’s why Jesus is saying that “if you really believed him (Moses) you would believe me too, since it was I that he was writing about;”. The main accusation against Jesus is that He was proclaiming himself as God. But Jesus is explaining how He is being testified by the Father. The testimony of the Father can be seen in the completion of the paschal mystery. Not only that, the Word of God announced in the Old Testament also testifies the mission of Jesus. In both cases, Jesus is not claiming anything. He attributes everything to His Father who sent Him and to the promises made by God to the People of God. This is converging point of the identity of Jesus. Jesus is revealing the face of Father. But only if one has the love of God in himself or herself, can recognize this face of the Father. The authorities of the People of God in that time did not want a face for God because the absence of the face of the Father was their way to sell what they want. In Jesus, the face of God the Father is revealed. Let’s reflect: Lent is to discover the face of God the Father revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
