31. Mt. 7: 1-6

1 Mt. 7: 1-6: We are forbidden to condemn people because good or evil is a matter not of external behaviour but of the intention of the heart which only God can see (Mt. 5: 21-48) and since all of us are sinners, none of us has the right to condemn, for it makes us uneasy with ourselves. We discuss the teachings of Jesus among those who can understand the subtlety of what is being expressed.

30. Jn. 16: 20-24

1  Jn. 16: 20-24: The world’s careless joy will turn to sorrow, and the Christian's apparent sorrow will change into joy. Faith is the foundation of this joy. It will never be taken away and it will be complete. So in Christian joy, the pain which went before is forgotten.

29. Mk 10: 35-45

1  Mk 10: 35-45: The disciples were not a company of saints. They were ordinary men set out by Jesus to change the world. They were ambitious having failed to understand Jesus, his mission and the purpose of his coming. In them, we find the amazing confidence and the amazing loyalty in Jesus. Jesus raised these ordinary men to change the world as apostles and his ambassadors of the Divine plan – the will of God to which Jesus submitted himself to.

28. Mt. 13: 1-9, 18-23

1  Mt. 13: 1-9, 18-23: The seed grows where there is the openness to the Word (FAITH), trust in its power (HOPE) and a readiness to go out of oneself (LOVE). Seeds fell on footpath are the disinterested people with their own interest clashing. The superficial ones receive the seed of faith like that fell on rocky grounds and soon discouraged and burnt and dry away. Those sown among thorns are believers but the fruits to be harvested along the difficult path seem not to satisfy them.

27. Mt 13: 44-51

1 Mt 13: 44-51: If we really understand the worth of the kingdom, we shall do this with great joy because we are aware that what we are getting (the treasure, the pearl) is what our deepest self really wants and is worth far more than anything we can give up for it. The parable of the net tells us about the scandals existing in the church and one should not tolerate them passively. The separation is needed and is permanent for the kingdom and will become definitive on that very day because love is the law of the kingdom of heaven.

26. Lk 12: 54-59

1  Lk 12: 54-59: People knew to read the signs of nature. So the signs which are seen around Jesus are enough for the sincere ones to understand that now is the time announced by the prophets to be converted and Israel must acknowledge it the Savior. The urgency of conversion for Jesus must be done before it is too late by a reconciliation between brothers and sisters because we are in our way to God’s judgment so that we can take advantage of the right situation we are then if we are in the above said positions. 

25. Lk. 17: 20-37

1  Lk. 17: 20-37: The final coming of the kingdom of heaven is something men can never calculate or make research upon. Jesus says that in one sense the kingdom has already come. It is at work in people who have received the Good News of Jesus. False prophets will bring confusion in the minds of some people. The end of the world comes suddenly for which the believers are told to prepare and wait. 

24. Lk 6: 12-19

1  Lk 6: 12-19: The 12 disciples including St. Bartholomew were called by Jesus to be with him as friends and messengers. They were called from the 72 disciples to become apostles to be sent out as ambassadors of Christ.  They were very ordinary men with strange mixture – hot-tempered, zealots, tax collectors, the fisherman with their own emotional attitudes. All of them found themselves peaceful co-existence in the company of Jesus. 

23. Lk 9: 23-27

1 Lk 9: 23-27: If Peter’s profession of Jesus is the truth but not the whole truth. To grasp the full meaning of Jesus’ definition of his identity, it is to have vast consequences for the lives of his disciples. We cannot take Christ without the cross; it will lead one to delusion. Nor can we take the cross without Christ, this leads to despair.

22. Lk 12: 35-40

1  Lk 12: 35-40: The message of preparedness is presented in a parabolic language here. The disciples are asked to wide awake to God’s gift and to the demands of God’s kingdom. One should be open to truth. It is not enough just not to avoid evil but to promote goodness. 

21. Lk. 18: 35-43

1  Lk. 18: 35-43: The cure of the blind man speaks not only of the restoration of the physical sight but the gradual emergence of spiritual sight among the disciples. While the disciples saw what is happening in the outside world and so told the blind man to keep quiet, the blind man has an inner focused need to be rectified i.e. to regain sight. So he shouts for Jesus!

20. Mk. 2: 13-17

Mk. 2: 13-17: Jesus dines with tax collectors. The association with public sinners of which Levi the tax collector included could make one ritually unclean in these time. Jesus cracks open the status quo as he draws people into the kingdom by cleaning, healing them. Now the power to forgive which moves among us is the power of Jesus. He is the Messiah-our abiding agent of reconciliation and the source of liturgical power.

19. Mk 10: 13-16

1  Mk 10: 13-16: The act of faith is unique to human beings, as is also the fact of sin. The point of our accepting the reign of god as little children is not naïve innocence but a wholehearted acceptance. This is the reason why Jesus told the people to allow the children to come to him. It is to the total trust to which Jesus is calling us. V.14 speaks about the need of giving first Holy Communion to the baptized and confirmed children as practiced in the eastern churches (CCC 1244)

18. Mt 13: 10-17

1 Mt 13: 10-17: Jesus makes every parable a challenge. Every parable makes one to decide after understanding his or her situation in life in the context of the parable told. Confronted by God’s love erupting into our life, we are forced to decide. We either accept God’s love or reject it. Many Jews chose the latter. 

17. Mk 5: 1-13

Mk 5: 1-13: A man, who was possessed by evil spirits, was cured by Jesus. The demon enjoyed a routine way of life in the man who was living among the tombs of the dead. Jesus comes there to disturb that routine. Life went peacefully on till there arrived ‘this disturbing’ Jesus. They complained to Jesus; they hated him. More people hate Jesus because he disturbs them of their wrong doings. They don’t accept Jesus by saying “Go away and let us be in peace.” Those who come out from their routine life serve the church but Jesus says they must start from their home. 

16. Lk. 14: 1-6

1 Lk. 14: 1-6: The Jews were corrupted by the interpretation and practice of the Sabbath laws. To them comes Jesus active. He revives them by giving new meaning for the Sabbath laws. He proves that ‘Sabbath is for the good of man and not man for the Sabbath’(Mk 2: 27).  

15. Jn 2: 1-12

1  Jn 2: 1-12: Independence or Liberty is the celebration of the spirit. If the spirit cannot celebrate due to a physical bondage or the absence of a physical need, how can there be true independence? Bl.V. Mary did the same. She helped the host family at Cana to have good wine in abundance by a miracle by her son Jesus. She freed the spirits of the people there. She gave importance to the spirit than her physic. So she also indicated to the true freedom by her Assumption to heaven or her son showed humanity the true freedom by his mother’s assumption.

14. Lk 18: 1-8

1  Lk 18: 1-8: If the persistent plea of a helpless widow gets through to an unjust, how much more effective will it be with God? Jesus the son of God will surely come however long – delayed his coming may seem towards the groaning under the persecution of Christians living in difficult times. So the Christian should never cease praying and pleading for redemptive justice inspired by faith in Jesus. 

13. Lk. 9: 23-26

1  Lk. 9: 23-26:  ‘A man must deny himself’ is like Peter’s denial of Jesus by saying “I do not know the man” which means ‘I do not know myself’ ie to ignore the existence itself. ‘Take up the cross’ men to face any eventuality in life as a follower of Jesus. A man must spend his life not to hoard it. The question that one has to ask always is “How much I can give” not “how much can I get”. 

12. Jn 15: 18-25

1  Jn 15: 18-25: If love is the essential nature of the disciple of Christ, hatred is of the world and it’s ruler the Satan. When a person begins to live a more responsible and committed life he or she meets with opposition and hatred from the other. This is the beginning of the persecution of the Christians or Christ’s followers who are committed to Christ and his word. Jesus makes his disciples of this incoming persecution and must be prepared to suffer like that he suffered in this Gospel passage. 

11. Mt 12: 46-50

1  Mt 12: 46-50: Passage through the red sea inaugurated the beginning of the people of God. Our baptism is also the beginning of a process of our maturing in the Lord. The truly significant bonds that join people are not biological but spiritual: the shared experiences of school, seminary, political campaigns, joy, sorrow, and deliverance. Jesus tells us that those who listen to and keep his word are his brothers and sisters in a new family that knits together by the Holy Spirit. We all have experienced deliverance through baptism.

10. Mt. 24: 37-44

1  Mt. 24: 37-44: The second coming of Christ is predicted. Only God knows the hour and event in detail. We are not to speculate these things but to wait and watch. These things take place suddenly when the rest of the world go easy in life and lead the life normally. And in such time we are asked to believe in God and those issues of life and death, which are in his hands. It will be the time of separation and judgment.

9. Mt. 9: 18-26

1  Mt. 9: 18-26: The ruler of the synagogue and the woman with hemorrhage came to Jesus with insufficient faith. The former came out of desperation and the latter with a superstition. Both were granted the favours they asked for or desired in their hearts. Jesus makes the event holy and memorable and inadequacy of our faith is made wholly. 

8. Lk 6: 43-45

1 Lk 6: 43-45: A man cannot be judged in any other way than by his deeds. Teaching and preaching are both ‘truth through personality’. Fine words will never take the place of fine deeds. The modern secular movements can never be defeated by mere words, writing and so on than proving that Christianity produces better man and woman. 

7. Lk. 17: 11-19

1  Lk. 17: 11-19: 10 lepers were healed  but only one who came back to thank God, was told “ your faith has saved you” while the 9 Jews who were healed responded to the legal requirements, the latter was the one who happened to be a non-Jew responded straight from his heart. Among the many people asking God for healing and favours, how many will come to that saving faith which is a new relationship to God through Jesus?

6. Mt. 17: 1-9

1 Mt. 17: 1-9: Mountain has been the traditional place of divine revelations from Old Testament times. Peter representing us answered as to who Jesus was and now it is the Father who gives us the answer. Jesus is the Beloved Son; the Eternal Love of the Father can only be satisfied by the Son who shares as his own Divinity. Jesus is the chosen one, the savior announced by the prophets of old. He ‘makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation’ (CCC 1701)

5. Mt. 10: 16-25

1  Mt. 10: 16-25: Jesus warned his disciples that the days to come they might well find the state, the church and family conjoined against them. Christianity preaches a view of man which no totalitarian state can accept. Christianity aims to obliterate certain trades, and professions and way of making money- it still does – and the church can never close her eyes towards the malpractices of the state, church and family members.  So is a Christian liable for persecution.

4. Mk. 10: 35-45

1  Mk. 10: 35-45:  The ambitious James and John who failed to understand Jesus asked special places in the kingdom of Jesus. When the others heard about this, they had resentment in their hearts towards them. The basic trouble in the human situation is that man wish to do as little as possible to get as much as possible. It is only when they are filled with the desire to put into life more than they take out, that life for themselves and for others will be happy and prosperous. 

3. Mt. 7: 15-20

1  Mt. 7: 15-20: Teaching people in a brilliant way, working miracles are gifts though good for the community does not guarantee that one is pleasing to God. True faith activated by love is the real key of the kingdom of heaven. To explain this message Jesus uses the parable of grapes and its fruits. The true disciples are those who produce fruits of love. 

2. Jn. 4: 27-38

1  Jn. 4: 27-38: The desire to tell others of the Samaritan women’s discovery about Jesus killed in her the feeling of shame –a shame of being an outcast and now being cured by Jesus her intimate sinful status, made her discover Jesus as the Messiah and she ran to tell her neighbors and the people of her village whom she was avoiding till now. Once she is cured her inner self, she is free to share Jesus. She understood to do the will of God and for her, that was the only way to happiness. 

1. Mk. 4: 26-34

1  Mk. 4: 26-34: Like the mustard seed that grows into a great tree the beginnings of faith are small. The image illustrated the enormous potential locked into our baptismal grace. With the passage of time and the grace of the Holy Spirit, circumstances reveal the power of faith and it can reveal the enormous potential of our faith and love.