30. VI TUE of Apostles

 Mk. 4: 21-25: The word works secretly within the heart but when we discover the transformation that is at work in our life, we readily proclaim Christ and make known to others the secret that has made us happy. So Jesus wants us to read the Gospel and challenge ourselves before we follow any further. Then we produce fruit according to the Gospel in our life. 

29. VI MON of Apostles – Sts. Peter & Paul

Jn 21: 15-19: Jesus reveals himself as the supreme shepherd because he loves his people and that he appoint a shepherd to look after his flock. The basis of his shepherd is love. So he confirms that love from St. Peter of his love for him. As he affirms his love for him, Peter becomes the new shepherd of his flock, when Jesus is absent from them physically.

28. VI SUN of Apostles

Lk. 12: 57 - 13: 5:  Jesus speaks about individual conversion and to have that conversion at the earliest, lest it is too late like that happened to those people upon whom the tower fell and perished. A Christian must be prepared to face any eventuality to settle things before the things go wrong.

27. V SAT of Apostles – St. Irenaeus (28 Sunday)

Mk. 12: 38-44: Though the teachers of the law were not bad persons and interested in religion and teaching people trying to be a saint, he becomes a weak person. The very respect that people show leads them to overlook in themselves many wrongs that in anybody else would be severely censured. The poor woman is the personification of those uncountable poor, who made retribution to God as one deserves. God calls on the poor give all that they have to live on. 

26. V FRI of Apostles

Mt. 13: 24-30, 36-43: Because of the roots of wheat and weed are intertwine it is dangerous to put out the weeds. In the same way virtue and vice are seen intertwined in our life and it is, for us to see which direction we are moving forward. Because good and evil mingle in this world we need vivid symbols and signs to serve as focal points for our faith and our life. 

25. V THU of Apostles

Jn. 6: 60-63: Jesus knew that some would not receive him and reject him with hostility. No man can accept him unless he or she is moved by the Spirit of God. The word of God that Jesus spoke is the key to this Spirit of God by which one can come to God through Jesus. 

24. V WED of Apostles – Birth of John the Baptist

Mk. 12: 1-12: The early church saw what was told in the parable fulfilled. The Jewish people rejected Jesus while the gentiles receiving him. The church is this new vineyard of Christ being entrusted by Christ to cultivate, care for and to bring forth fruits for God who is the rightful owner. 

23. V TUE of Apostles

Mt. 11: 1-6 Jesus preached the gospel of divine holiness with divine love. He was saying to the disciples of John (to whom the episode is directed) “May be I am not doing the things you expected me to do. But the powers of evil are being defeated not by irresistible power, but by unanswerable love”. Jesus’ aim was to draw faith and hope from the disciples of John. It is again a direction to his disciples too. 

22. V MON of Apostles-Sts Fisher & Thomas Moore

Mt. 10: 16-22: The passage gives us the experience of the generation of Christians after Christ’s earthly life. The Christians were hunted by the state, rejected by the religious establishment and ridiculed by their families. A great leadership was demanded to unite them all as of today when the church faces religious pluralism, affluence and secular hegemony. We have to struggle to keep ourselves at spiritual peace.  

21. V SUN of Apostles

Lk 12: 22-34 It is not what we earn but what we give makes our life a blessing to all. To explain the above, Jesus tells this parable of the rich fool, in which the quantity of his wealth never saves him and never gives him eternal security. So the one who trusts in the providence of God, will find happiness in life, safety in the hand of God. He will forsake anxiety of heart and seek the kingdom of God in all throughout his life. 

20. IV SAT of Apostles

Mk 1: 40-45: All who had skin diseases were considered lepers at Jesus’ times and thereby unclean and are outcastes.  By curing such a one is a conspicuous and significant feature of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus brings back the lost dignity of man into the warmth of human communion.

19. IV FRI of Apostles

Mk. 5: 21-24 & 35-43: Jairus wanted a physical contact with Jesus-but Jesus looked beneath the surface touch to the deeper contact of faith. Through faith we make contact with Jesus. We can contact the same Jesus and be healed by the same saving power through faith and the sacramental liturgical life of the church. 

18. IV THU of Apostles

Mk. 7: 24-30:  Jesus is seen here in healing and preaching without looking into the people’s background especially of religion or caste. Jesus wants us to avoid all kinds of disparity from our minds and in matters of service; he wants us to be more generous. In this gentile woman also Jesus finds faith and he praises it in front of others. 

17. IV WED of Apostles

Mt. 14: 22-33: ‘Walking on water’ is considered a divine act from Old Testament times. The disciples failed to understand the significance of this divine act even after ‘the multiplication of bread’. Only the final acts – the cross and the resurrection of Jesus could invoke some understanding in the minds of his disciples. Thereafter all deeds of Jesus were understood by the disciples probably with the help of the Holy Spirit.

16. IV TUE of Apostles

Lk 10: 38-42: Two sisters respond differently but authentically to the Lord. Martha is busy serving and Mary listens to the Word. Jesus approves what Mary has done. We all develop spiritual and sacred shorthand by which we standardize our efforts and responses to events. Such an approach is much easier in a busy world that seeking out the uniqueness of individuals that come our way. Mary reminds us to make time to examine the special features of our family, Social and professional loves. Each situation caries its own individual potential for Grace and Life. 

15. IV MON of Apostles

Mk 5: 25-34: Jesus manifests his lordship over life and death, which no doubt is another sign of his kingdom. A missionary is asked to support life enhancing programmes of health, environment, housing, food production, clean water and so on. The Jews regarded this woman ‘unclean’ but for Jesus, she is the owner of immense faith and dares to defy all Jewish regulations.

14. IV SUN of Apostles

Lk 6: 27-36 Love your enemies in v.27 apply first to his persecutors of Christians in his communities. Jesus doesn’t ask for a mere tolerance but active love. More specifically the above verse 27 applies to the possessors of his community. They are not to show a mere reciprocity but to be uncalculating in their giving. In any society, the rich, the middle class, the poor and the poorest need conversion to Jesus’ words though in different degrees, manners and terms.  

13. III SAT of Apostles – Immaculate heart of Mary

Lk. 2: 41-51: ‘He went home and he was obedient to them’. The fact that he was God’s Son made him the perfect Son of his human parents. The real man of God does not despise earthly ties; just because he is God’s man, he discharges human duties with supreme fidelity. 

12. III FRI of Apostles – Sacred Heart of Jesus

Jn. 19: 30-37: Water that flowed from the side of Christ stands for the powerful new life as well as the spirit. Blood expresses the saving power of Jesus’ death. The Salvific power is displayed in these symbols of blood and water. 

11. III THU of Apostles – St. Barnabas, the apostle

Mt. 10: 16-22: The passage gives us the experience of the generation of Christians after Christ’s earthly life. The Christians were hunted by the state, rejected by the religious establishment and ridiculed by their families. A great leadership was demanded to unite them all as of today when the church faces religious pluralism, affluence and secular hegemony. We have to struggle to keep ourselves at spiritual peace. 

10. III WED of Apostles

Jn. 4: 39-42 The Samaritans were introduced to Christ by the woman. The word of God must be transmitted by man to man. We also find in Samaritans a nearer intimacy and growing knowledge of Christ. Soon their growth in knowledge in Jesus came to discovery and they surrendered to Christ as the savior of the world. What they found in Jesus, John writes later in 1 John 4: 14 and gives Jesus this title ‘par excellence’

9. III TUE of Apostles – Mar Aprem

Mt. 5: 13-20 Jesus gives three missionary images to explain the role of these who follow him. They are to be salt, light and a city built on a hill. This means that they are to be a grout of peoples who will be highly visible because of the unusually dedicated character of the lives, who will illuminate the world as light does, and who sanctify, purify and preserve the world in its relationship of God lie salt.

8. III MON of Apostles-Bl. Mariam Thresia

Mt. 25: 31-40:  The purpose of the passage is to tell us what we must do in order to be saved. Jesus instructs his people to give simple help to the people who they meet every day. Those who thus help people, whom they meet, did not think that they were helping Christ and thus piling up eternal merit; they helped them because they could not stop themselves. This should be the nature of a Christian advocated by Jesus. Bl. Mariam Thresiawas an example for us.

7. III SUN of Apostles

Lk. 10: 25-37: The Jewish conception of a neighbor originates from ‘flesh’ and ‘blood’.  Jesus corrects this by establishing that the neighbor is the one who is close to any brother or sister in need. Loving the neighbor must not be only in the thought but also in deed as we see in this parable of Good Samaritan. 

6. II SAT of Apostles

Jn. 6: 1-15: Jesus needs what we can bring to him. It may not be much but he needs it. If we would lay ourselves on the altar of service, there is no saying what we could do with us and through us. We may be sorry and embarrassed that we may not have more to bring, it is no reason to fail to bring. Little is always more in the hands of Jesus. 

5. II FRI of Apostles

Jn. 6: 45-50: Jesus is the bread of life. Bread is very essential for life. Those who refuse to Jesus are those who miss life in this world and in the world to come. Those who accept Jesus will find this life worth and glorify God in the world to come. 

4. II THU of Apostles- The Body and Blood of Christ

Jn. 6: 51-59 In a general sense Jesus speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The flesh of Jesus means his complete humanity. In Jewish concept blood means ‘Life’. So it means that we should have the humanity and life of Jesus. John meant more that this general sense. He was saying if you want life, you must come and sit at that table where you eat that broken bread and drink that poured-out wine which somehow, in the grace of God brings you into contact with the Lord and life of Jesus Christ. 

3. II WED of Apostles

Jn. 6: 37-44: Life in Jesus is life in time and life in eternity. In him we find new satisfaction. The hunger and thirst are gone in him. The human heart finds what is was searching for and life ceases to be mere existence and becomes a thrill and peace and even beyond life we are safe in him.

2. II TUE of Apostles

Jn. 6: 64-71: Peter has a personal relationship with Jesus though he did not understand many things he spoke. So Christianity is not a philosophy we accept, nor a theory to which we give allegiance but a personal response to Jesus. It is this personal allegiance and love one is motivated to surrender his heart, mind and soul to Christ. 

1. II MON of Apostles

Jn. 11: 17-27: When one believes in Jesus, he or she is freed from the fear of godless life; from the frustration of sin-ridden life; from the futility of Christ less life. Life is raised from sin’s death and becomes so rich that it cannot die but must find in death only the transition to a higher life.