Skip to main content

Weekday Homily - Tuesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time

 Today in the readings we find Jesus rebuking the scribes and the pharisees for their blindness and hypocrisy. He calls them blind because they neglect the most important teachings of the Law of God — justice, mercy and faithfulness — while at the same time concentrating their attention on the payment of taxes and tithes. He calls them hypocrites because they clean the outside while the inside remains unclean.

Jesus asks us to pay attention, observing first the most important commandments without neglecting the others. Justice consists in giving to every man and every woman what is due to them. To be just requires courage and strength.

Let us turn to our own lives and ask God for the strength and the determination to be just. We will meet difficulties if we try to practise justice, if we try to be fair and to give to each one what belongs to them. But the Lord says: blessed are you if you are persecuted for the cause of righteousness. The world has a different conception of justice, tied to punishment; but the justice of God goes beyond simply punishing the guilty. Showing mercy towards others is an important teaching of the Law of God, as is keeping faithfulness — being faithful to our words and to our promises.

Let us pray also that hypocrisy may be removed from our lives: that our inner thoughts and the motivations of our heart may be pure and pleasing before God.

Today, as we stand before this Altar, let us pray for the grace to draw strength from Jesus Christ to observe His commandments of justice, mercy and faithfulness, and to have upright and pure hearts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gazing at the Lord Jesus

Gazing at the Lord Jesus Dear friends, Greetings! Today is the Feast of the Visitation.  Today I would like to share with you on "Gazing on the Lord." Gazing is different from glancing. Gazing is a steady and more intent look, while a glance is a hurried look. In the Bible we read quite a lot about gazing. Gazing has to do with not only our eyes, but more importantly, our mind, and even our spirit.  What happens when we gaze? We look at something intently, and so allow a reflection and more importantly, an impression of the same object to be formed upon our minds. If we gaze upon good things, that has its effects, if we gaze upon bad things, that has its effects too. Our minds are indeed, are constantly "looking at" or considering or "seeing" something.  Just think of the human eye - can the eye be without sight? It is constanly looking at or seeing something. The Lord tells us, "The lamp of the body is the eye." (Luke 11:34) The eye fills our...
2 comments
Read more

14 "I AM" sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of John

Dear friends, may I present to you some very important Scriptures which if you can take time to read and treasure, will be a great fountain of life all through our lives - some of the "I AM" sayings of Jesus. Reading them, may we be attracted more towards Jesus, and discover Him as the real answer to our search - here they are: 14 "I AM" sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of John John 6.35 "I AM the Bread of Life. He that comes to Me shall not hunger: and he that believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6.48 "I AM the Bread of Life" John 6.51 "I AM the Living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." John 8.12 "I AM the Light of the world. He that follows Me walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8.58 "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM." John 9.5 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

We beg you, come and give us Jesus Christ!

"One night Paul had a vision: a Macedonian appeared and kept urging him in these words, ‘Come across to Macedonia and help us.’ Once he had seen this vision we lost no time in arranging a passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to bring them the good news." (Acts 16:9-10) The first sound a baby makes is a cry! He or she cries and cries. When the baby cries, the mother flies to its assistance, knowing that it needs milk. In the same way, souls all over the world cry out for receving the milk of the Gospel, which alone can help them to "grow up to salvation". (1 Peter 2:2)  A true missionary cannot ignore these cries. When a missionary is born (or born again), he is sure to hear voices of souls crying out to him for the saving words of the Gospel, "Come and help us!" One such great missionary who generously responded to God's call was St. Patrick. Here is an excerpt from the story of how St. Patrick answered God's ca...
2 comments
Read more