Thursday 30 June 2016

30. Mt. 23: 13-22

1    Mt. 23: 13-22: The word ‘hypocrite’ not only means to appear to be what one is not but also it refers to the one who makes light of the things of God and who causes loss of respect for them. These teachers close the path to true knowledge of God the Father and bar the way to freedom and confidence which is proper to the children of God.   

Wednesday 29 June 2016

29. Jn 21: 15-19

1    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. 

Tuesday 28 June 2016

28. Mk. 1: 29-34

1   Mk. 1: 29-34: Jesus restores Peter’s mother-in-law to a full and productive life. Our deepest fulfillment is found in allowing the Father to work through our intelligence, abilities, imagination and personalities. Communicating that message of the liberation available to us when we submit to the rule of God and it was more crucial to Jesus than attracting crowds through miracles. 

Monday 27 June 2016

27. Mt. 12: 38-42

1    Mt. 12: 38-42: The Pharisees want a miracle that will undoubtedly prove that Jesus does the work of God. Jesus refuses. People who love truth and seek what is right will recognize the seal of God in the deeds of Jesus. But Jesus will have to give a sign – his resurrection. So people, who demand a miracle before they believe, receive no answer. 

Sunday 26 June 2016

26. Lk. 13: 22-30

1    Lk. 13: 22-30: Jesus foresees that people from all nations will convert and come into the church. The Jews alone cannot claim the kingdom of God by merely having a superficial acquaintance with Jesus. It demands serious effort like entering through a narrow door. The v. 25b “I do not know where you come from” is very frightening.  It exhorts us to have a serious examination of conscience.

Saturday 25 June 2016

25. Jn. 7: 14-24

1    Jn. 7: 14-24: Jesus heals the impotent man on the Sabbath and the action infuriates the Pharisees. Jesus  justifies his action glorifying God. Jesus has the argument with them and he tells them to judge fairly. We see the logical, keen and clear mind of Jesus defeating the wisest but ill-intentioned men of his times. 

Friday 24 June 2016

24. Mt. 22: 15-22

1    Mt. 22: 15-22: Jesus invites his adversaries to give political life its true place and not to confuse faith and religious fanaticism. ‘What belongs to Ceaser ‘ means ‘the kind of things which fall under his rule’. Thus ‘what belongs to God’ means ‘the obedience of conscience was due only to God’. So he separates religion from politics. From now on, religion should not be manipulated for political purposes, nor should religion confuse its political opponents with the enemies of the kingdom.

Thursday 23 June 2016

23. Mk. 10: 46-52

1    Mk. 10: 46-52: The blind man at Jericho understands that if he lets this opportunity go by there will not b another chance; so he shouts all the way. An authentic disciple must be the one who is fully convinced of his/her total inability to become God’s child except through the power of Jesus. Only Jesus can provide the divine light. The bind man designates Jesus as Son of David. He actually ‘sees’ who Jesus is, more clearly than the disciples and the crowd who have been with him all along.

Wednesday 22 June 2016

22. Lk. 15: 8-10

1    Lk. 15: 8-10: A woman searches diligently for her lost coin. The same way Jesus speaks of a God who searches for men who are lost in sin. For Jews it is a new idea or concept. Man searching God is understood by them easily. We believe in the seeking love of God, because we see that love incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. 

Tuesday 21 June 2016

21. Mk. 4: 21-25

1   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. 

Monday 20 June 2016

20. Mt. 12: 33-37

1    Mt. 12: 33-37: That which is in the heart can come to the surface only through lips. Jesus laid it down that a man would specially render account for his idle words. In public, he carefully chooses what he says in private he takes the sentinels away. So whatever he says in anger what he really thinks and what he has often wanted to say, but which the cool control of prudence has kept him from saying. It is often these words which cause the greatest damage. A man may say in anger things he would never have said if he was in control of himself. 

Sunday 19 June 2016

19. Lk. 12: 57 - 13: 5

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.

Saturday 18 June 2016

18. Mk. 12: 38-44

1    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 who give all that they have to live on. 

Friday 17 June 2016

17. Mt. 13: 24-30, 36-43

1    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. 

Thursday 16 June 2016

16. Jn. 6: 60-63

1    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. 

Wednesday 15 June 2016

15. Mk. 12: 1-12

1    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. 

Tuesday 14 June 2016

14. Mt. 11: 1-6

1  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. 

Monday 13 June 2016

13. Jn. 16: 25-33

1    Jn. 16: 25-33: Jesus opens up the way to the father making the one who believes in Jesus is also the beloved of God. To him there is the forgiveness, sympathy and the gift of Jesus. He is not alone, but with the Father making easy for the believer to come to the Father. 

Sunday 12 June 2016

12. Lk 12: 22-34

1   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. 

Saturday 11 June 2016

11. Mt. 10: 16-22

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. 

Friday 10 June 2016

10. Mk. 5: 21-24, 35-43

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. 

Thursday 9 June 2016

9. Mt. 5: 13-20

1   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. 

Wednesday 8 June 2016

8. Mt. 25: 31-40

1    Mt. 25: 31-40 The purpose of the passage is to tell us what we must do in order to be saved. The passage is as much a parable of separation (the sheep and the goats) like the wheat and the weeds in 13: 24-30 or the net and the fish in 13: 47-50. It is also a description of judgment.

Tuesday 7 June 2016

7. Lk 10: 38-42

1    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. 

Monday 6 June 2016

6. Mk 5: 25-34

1    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.

Sunday 5 June 2016

5. Lk 6: 27-36

1    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.   

Saturday 4 June 2016

4. Lk. 2: 41-51

1    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. 

Friday 3 June 2016

3. Jn. 19: 30-37

1    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. 

Thursday 2 June 2016

2. Lk 8: 4-15

1    Lk 8: 4-15 Luke wishes to impress the Christians that they must be fervent and ‘active’ hearers of the word (v. 8:8). So whatever worries, pleasures, discomforts that they may tend to strangle the growth of faith in the word, they should persevere with open and responsive minds and hearts. The parable of the sower is meant to elicits from the hearers to be active. 

Wednesday 1 June 2016

1. Jn. 4: 39-42

1    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’