I am recovering from a bad case of food poisoning which left me in constant pain and lethargy. In fact, I struggled and pushed myself to reflect on the word and share even though I just wanted to curl up and sleep. As I reflect on today’s first reading I feel a little ashamed, that what I have gone through, is so far from what St Paul suffered for Christ and His Gospel message.
What about the constant battle against sin in our lives? In our struggle against sin, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood! Heb 12:4
For if we have, then indeed we have life and to the full in Jesus Christ our Lord.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full says the Lord.” Jn 10:10
Lord Jesus You alone are my treasure! Amen
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First reading
2 Corinthians 11:18,21-30
If I am to boast, let me boast of my own feebleness
So many others have been boasting of their worldly achievements, that I will boast myself. But if anyone wants some brazen speaking – I am still talking as a fool – then I can be as brazen as any of them, and about the same things. Hebrews, are they? So am I. Israelites? So am I. Descendants of Abraham? So am I. The servants of Christ? I must be mad to say this, but so am I, and more than they: more, because I have worked harder, I have been sent to prison more often, and whipped many times more, often almost to death. Five times I had the thirty-nine lashes from the Jews; three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked and once adrift in the open sea for a night and a day. Constantly travelling, I have been in danger from rivers and in danger from brigands, in danger from my own people and in danger from pagans; in danger in the towns, in danger in the open country, danger at sea and danger from so-called brothers. I have worked and laboured, often without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty and often starving; I have been in the cold without clothes. And, to leave out much more, there is my daily preoccupation: my anxiety for all the churches. When any man has had scruples, I have had scruples with him; when any man is made to fall, I am tortured.
If I am to boast, then let me boast of my own feebleness.
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Gospel
Matthew 6:19-23
Store up treasure for yourselves in heaven
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
‘The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkness, what darkness that will be!’
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