Daily Catholic Reflection: Tuesday, August 20, 2024, Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

Ez 28:1-10

Ps Deut 32:26-27AB, 27CD-28, 30, 35CD-36AB

Mt 19:23-30                                Full Readings             

Saint Benard of Clairvaux, Abbot

The Rich and the Kingdom

Today’s gospel is the continuation of the message of yesterday and continues to shed light on the inadequacy of riches in making us to inherite the kingdom of God. The word of God describes how hard it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is not a denigration of material wealth. We must know that material wealth is a gift from God. In fact, the Bible also sometimes describes salvation in terms of material wealth. But Jesus uses imagery from his time to show the incompatibility of the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven with one whose heart is full of earthly treasures.

Daily Catholic Reflection: August 19, 2024, Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Ez 24:15-23

Ps: Deut 32:18-19, 20, 21

Mt 19:16-22                                Full Readings             

Saint John Eudes

The Inadequacy of Riches

Today's Gospel presents to us what we must do in order to become perfect and inherit the kingdom of God apart from following the commandments. Jesus tells the young rich man to go and sell all he had and give the money to the poor. The young man could not imagine this for he had so much, and he went away very sad. Will your riches stop you from attaining the Kingdom of God?  The Gospel shows us the inadequacy of riches especially in the aspects of the kingdom of God.

The young man came to Jesus and though he was rich and had won all the world, he felt that it was not enough, but there was something missing in his life. That's why he came and asked, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life. This question means that his wealth alone cannot gain him eternal. We all know that money can do everything but cannot buy love, cannot buy eternal life. Wealth also can seriously make one feel lonely by losing all the friends. All these show that wealth is inadequate and cannot provide us everything we need.

Daily Catholic Reflection: August 17, 2024, Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Ez 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32

Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

Mt 19:13-15                                Full Readings             

Saint Joan of Arc

Individual Responsibility

In today's first reading, we are presented with the declaration of individual responsibility, one of the key passages of Ezekiel. Both here and in Jeremiah 31 the proverb “The fathers have eaten unripe grapes; and the children’s teeth are set on edge” is set aside. This had been the primitive situation which had prevailed in Israel since tribal times, particularly in a desert context, where the fate of one was the fate of all, the punishment of sin of the father would be given his children or even grandchildren. It was the morality of the Deuteronomic history, in which the sins of one generation were often seen as visited upon the next. Now this morality was being questioned, especially among the exiles: why should they suffer for the sins and offences of a previous generation? Were they to be held responsible for the infidelities which had led to the exile?

Daily catholic Reflection: Friday, August 16, 2024, Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B

Ez 16:1-15, 60, 63 or Ez 16:59-63

Ps Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6

Mt 19:3-12                                Full Readings             

Saint Stephen of Hungary

The Two Vocations

Jesus, today, is talking about two vocations, marriage and celibacy. Marriage is modeled to reflect the love of God that forgives and endures forever. The long and everlasting love and fidelity that should exists between a man married a woman who are in marriage is shown by the love and fidelity that God had for his people Israel. The first reading tells us all the care, wonders and good things that God did for His people right away from childhood until maturity as the most beautiful among all nations, and how Jerusalem turned shamelessly from God and how God, despite this turning away, never forgot his lasting and loving covenant with them, forgave them, and promised then a new covenant. This love of God should that which exists in our vocations whether married or single for the Lord; a love that never breaks it covenant with each other and to God no matter what comes in our way. This love thinks first of the good of the other person. This love inspires compassion because it understands other people’s mistakes and weaknesses. This love sees the good in others and does not give up on them.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday, August 14, 2024, Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

EZ 9:1-7; 10:18-22

PS 113:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Mt 18:15-20             Full Readings                 

Saint Maximillian Mary Kolbe

Making Peace

Today's Gospel is part of the community or ecclesial discourse which Matthew presents in the whole of Chapter 18. This discourse gives the guidelines upon which the church of Christ will depend on in preserving the memory of Christ and in spreading the Gospel. Jesus today teaches us the best way to make peace with one another and says that if a person wrongs you or if you wrong any person, go to that person individually ask for forgiveness and if you win his or her heart then you have won your brother or sister back. But if the person refuses, don't give up take a trusted friend or friends who are not judgmental, to talk to the person, and if the person refuses again, then tell the Christian community, and if the person refuses, you have done your part and you are no longer guilty, regard the other one as a sinner. He gives a stern warning that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose here will be loosed in heaven. After, Jesus shows the power which is in unity and a community prayer for where two or three are gathered in his name, He is in their midst and when we pray together through him, God will answer our prayers. He ends by promising to be with us always.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday, August 11, 2024, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

1 Kgs 19:4-8

Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Eph 4:30—5:2

Jn 6:41-51         Full Readings

Saint Clare of Assisi

Food for the Journey

The First Reading highlights how the Eucharist is food for our earthly journey. It tells the story of Elijah and his journey to Mt. Horeb. Just as the pharaoh persecuted the Israelites as they journeyed toward the Red Sea and Mt Sinai, Queen Jezebel persecuted Elijah, who fled to the same mountain. Like the Israelites who were fed with miraculous food from heaven during their forty years in the desert, Elijah was fed by miraculous food that sustained him for forty days and forty nights on his way to Mt. Horeb. Both Israel and Elijah were sustained by miraculous bread from heaven. In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us miraculous bread – the Bread of Life and Bread of the Angels – that sustains us on our journey to the eternal promised land. That means that our life is like an exodus journey in the wilderness. It is a time of testing.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Friday, August 9, 2024, Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7

Ps: Deut. 32:35CD-36AB, 39abcd, 4

Mt 16:24-28                           Full Readings

Saint Benedicta of the Cross

What Profit Would There Be?

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us that whoever wants to follow Him should renounce him or herself and take up his or her cross and follow Him. He again tells us that whoever wants to save his or her life at the expense of Jesus will lose it and whoever loses his or her life for the sake of Jesus will gain it, for what profit is it for one to gain the whole world and lose his or her life? This encourages us to put our investment in Jesus by picking up our crosses and following him daily.