MY daily reflection and prayer:
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Dear my friends,
Here is the Gospel for us today according to St. Matthew 13:10-17
The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You shall indeed hear but not understand you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them. “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
***
THE Gospel reading today is more telling us about faith, hope and love rather than about something material. So when Jesus says that “to anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich” or that “from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away”; he is referring to spiritual goods rather than material ones.
Faith, hope and love are all spiritual goods. Jesus assures us that to anyone who has them all, more will be given. What does it mean?
When we exercise our faith, our hope and our love, they increase in our soul. We then will grow rich in grace. On the contrary, when we do not exercise our faith, hope and love, we will lose all. With them all we can view the world in a supernatural way for faith, hope and love allow us to view the world supernaturally. Without them all we will hear but not understand, look intently but never see.
In the Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist, while adoring Jesus Christ we learn to exercise our faith, hope and love so that they increase in our soul. Can we hear and understand, look and see in the light of our faith, hope and love?
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus Christ, to know you is to fight to be like you then we begin to know you. Grant us faith, hope and love that we have a heart like yours to fight and suffer without cowardice, without taking time out and without discouragement. With you our future is always brighter than our past, filled with more faith, hope and love forever and ever. Amen.
Kredit foto: Ilustrasi (Ist)
