Saturday 11 February
Our Lady of Lourdes XXXI World Day of the Sick First reading - Genesis 3:9-24 “The Lord God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied, ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid”. God is searching for man. Lord God created man in his image and likeness. The He put him in the garden of Eden. He is not anymore there. And God is searching for man. The first thought is this: God puts us in places. When we go away from those places or responsibilities because we did not want to do what God wants, God is coming in search for you. You try to hide, and He comes in search of you. Another thought is about the answer of man. “I am afraid because I was naked”. Yes, once you are away from God, you are naked. You are not more covered by the Grace of God. And when we have no grace, naturally we are afraid. You find your emptiness without God. That emptiness is frightening. Let’s reflect: Am I running away from the place God has put me and losing the Grace of God?
Friday 10 February
Saint Scholastica, Virgin Friday of week 5 in Ordinary Time First reading - Genesis 3:1-8 It’s the Word of God against the word of the serpent. The Word of God said not to eat and then the word of the serpent contradicts the Word of God. That tree symbolizes the presence of the Word of God in the life of man. The word of the serpent is the false certainty you get. It’s kind of false self-assurance. False self-confidence that tempts you to take the place of God in our life. The false self-assurance which pumps one’s ego to pretend to be like God or equal to God. This is the sin. Substituting God with something that gives you that self-assurance. Substituting the commandments of God with our ideas or principles what give us that self-assurance. Or sometimes, creating our own images and ideas of God. God according to our selfishness or ego. That is why, the Word of God must be given the utmost importance in our life. Nothing can substitute that. Let’s reflect: Do my self-confidence take the place of God at times?
Thursday 9 February
Thursday of week 5 in Ordinary Time First reading - Genesis 2:18-25 “The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: ‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man’”. The creation of woman shows the role of woman in the creation. God created woman from the rib of man which signifies the importance of woman in the life of man. Rib is close to heart and protects the heart of a person. It’s from the rib God created woman according to the narration of the book of Genesis. The author of the book of Genesis wants to communicate the divine truth about the creation, not the history of the world. The woman is not a creation secondary to man but equal to man and complementary to man. The complementarity of man and woman is clearly written in the book of Genesis. “Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other”. They were not ashamed because their unity and their complementarity were same. Each one has his or her uniqueness. The uniqueness of each person is not a threat for me but it’s a complementarity in my life. Let’s reflect: How much I understand the complementarity of each person in his or her uniqueness in my life?
Wednesday 8 February
Wednesday of week 5 in Ordinary Time Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking 2023 First reading - Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 “The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being”. The breath of the Lord God is our life. It’s the life of each person. And so, each person is precious. Let’s pray today against Human Trafficking and all its forms which undermine the dignity and value of human persons. Each person carries the breath of the Lord God, irrespective of what we are, from where we are and what we have. This preciousness of each person can be maintained only if we respect the principle of good and evil commanded by Lord God. “Nevertheless, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die”. This means, I cannot decide what is good and evil according to my wish. It’s the Lord God who decides. Each time, someone decides on good and bad according to his or her wish, the preciousness of others is at stake. We cannot make a world with our principles on good and bad. It should be world the Lord God makes where the preciousness of each person can be saved. Let’s reflect: How many times I remember that the person in front of me is carrying the breath of God?