Archive for October 5, 2013

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: October 5, 2013 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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samaritanlowat

Lord Jesus I come before You today ashamed as I recall my past. “Love your neighbour” was just a lovely concept to me. For I didn’t know how to love. It was all always about me, “if anyone loves me then I will love them. If they are unkind to me, I’ll be equally unkind to them or more.” “I am Christian and I love my faith, and that will never change but even if I don’t go as often to Church I know in my heart God loves me and I love Him.”

You my dear Jesus, have opened my eyes to see the true light and the beauty of love in action. And this can only come with a relationship with You which grows and goes deeper over time. To know You is to spend time with You, in deep reflection of Your Word and learning to live like You. To dwell in Your heart as You dwell in mine as I take up my cross.

To love You is to love others, and to serve You is to serve others. There is no life without You and life with You is to die in Your embrace so that I may truly live!

Bearing all these in mind, let my heart and my eyes be opened always to the needs of others. Let my mouth speak to them of Your love.  Let my hands show them Your love as I gently tend to their wounds, feed, clothe and bathe them in Your love. Let me care for them as I lead them home to You. Amen

GOSPEL
Luke 10:25–37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half–dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

October 6th 2013 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: October 5, 2013 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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SUNDAY BIBLE REFLECTIONS BY DR. SCOTT HAHN

October 6th 2013 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Life By Faith

Readings:
Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4
Psalm 95:1-2,6-9
2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14
Luke 17:5-10

Because of his faith, the just man shall live. We hear in today’s First Reading the original prophetic line made so central by St. Paul (see Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

We are to live by faith in Christ who loved us and gave himself on the Cross for us (seeGalatians 2:20).

The world, though, can seem to us as seventh-century Judah seemed to Habakkuk – in the control of God’s enemies. The strife and discord we face in our own lives can sometimes cause us to wonder, as the prophet does, why God doesn’t seem to hear or intervene when we cry for help.

We can’t let our hearts be hardened by the trials we undergo. As today’s Psalm reminds us: Israel forgot His mighty works, lost faith in the sound words of His promise. They tested God in the desert, demanding a sign.

But God didn’t redeem Israel from Egypt only to let them die in the desert. And He didn’t ransom us from futility only to abandon us in our trials. He is our God and we are the people He shepherds always – though at times His mercy and justice seem long delayed.

If we call on the Lord, as the Apostles do in today’s Gospel, He will increase our faith, will stir to a flame the Holy Spirit who has dwelt within us since Baptism.

As Paul tells us in today’s Epistle, the Lord will always give us the love and self-control we need to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel – with a strength that can come from God alone.

Our task is to continue doing what He has commanded – to love and to build up His kingdom – trusting that His vision still presses on to its fulfillment.

For His vision still has its time. One day, though we are but “unprofitable servants,” we will be invited to eat and drink at our Master’s table. It is that day we anticipate with each celebration of the Eucharist.