Tuesday 8 November
Tuesday of week 32 in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 17:7-10 “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.” We are merely servants but chosen to be servants by the Lord who knows us. We know our limits. We know our difficulties. We know our weaknesses. My limits, my difficulties and my weaknesses do not hinder me in doing my mission. Because the one who called me knew all these and still, He called me. That is the beauty of Christian vocation. My limitation is the starting point of His grace. This gives me the courage to overcome my limits, to exceed my difficulties, to surpass my weakness because it is not my capacities, it is not capabilities, and it is not my strength but it’s His grace. So, what we need to have in life is an eternal gratitude for the grace which works through me. The grace that makes me an instrument of His grace to work miracles.
Monday 7 November
Monday of week 32 in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 17:1-6 “Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them! It would be better for him to be thrown into the Sea with a millstone put round his neck than that he should lead astray a single one of these little ones. Watch yourselves!” Jesus is speaking about obstacles. About persons who provide the obstacles. How wretched is their situation. And then he immediately speaks of: “ If your brother does something wrong, reprove him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, “I am sorry,” you must forgive him.’” So, what is the real obstacle? The real obstacle is not forgiving from the heart. Every time we don’t forgive, we are creating an obstacle for the other person and for ourselves. Obstacle for the other person to correct and to come back. Obstacle for us to accept that person as a person loved by God with all his mistakes. That is why when I am not forgiving, I go to the wretched state of being thrown into the Sea with a millstone put around my neck. Let’s us forgive from our heart anyone any number of times not to be an obstacle.
Sunday 6 November
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 20:27-38 “Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’” Often, we want that the God be God of the dead and not of the living. Because when God is God of the dead, He is not my God because I am still living. Then I can make my own gods. Or we can configure God according to our necessities. We can disregard everything and everyone as God is only God of the dead. My principles and my convictions become god. Because of this, Jesus said, God is God of the living. God of the living is love because it’s His love that keeps everything alive. Even death does not affect us, in fact with the death, everyone turns into children of the resurrection. God of the living cannot be put into my framework or cannot be configured. God of the living demands that I respect each one as each one is alive in Him. And then the relationship with God is not a static lifeless one but a dynamic living relationship. It’s an eternal relationship which gives eternal life. God of the living stands above everything because He is life. Therefore, the Gospel puts before us the question: Do you feel alive your relationship with God?
Saturday 5 November
Saturday of week 31 in Ordinary Time Gospel - Luke 16:9-15 “For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.’” The key to understand the gospel passage is this phrase of Jesus. What we think as noble could be disgusting in the sight of God. When I read this phrase again and again. The question comes: What are the things which I think noble in my life and around me? Then I would think, “imagine, if these things are disgusting to God, where am I?”. Our value is to be centered around God. If we fix our value around things we consider as noble and important, those things could be disgusting to God, and we will find ourselves senseless. With whatever we associate, it is not those things that give us value or importance. Only the relationship with God that makes our life meaningful. When we depend on other things, may be our own capacities, connections, or possessions, we may fail to serve the Lord because we feel ourselves in control of situations and our life. This is where we lose ourselves. We lose the sense of life. Therefore, the Gospel asks us: make sure the things I consider noble are not disgusting in the sight of God!