31. Lk. 20: 1-8

Lk. 20: 1-8: The authority of Jesus is questioned. The emissaries of the Pharisees didn’t want to face the truth which would confront them with a sore and to refuse to face it makes them even more a difficult situation. By their own refusal to answer the question which Jesus asked them about John the Baptist, made them frustrated and discredited in the crowd.

30. Mt. 16: 13-19

Mt. 16: 13-19: The foundation of the church is faith in Jesus, the Christ and Son of God. The above text points to the primacy of Peter among all the apostles. The church always needs a visible head. This we believe is the successor of Peter, the Pope.

29. Jn 9: 17-23

Jn 9: 17-23: One may not put the things in words theologically about Jesus but can witness to what Jesus has done for his or her life. Even when a man cannot understand with his intellect, he can still fell with his heart. It is better to love Jesus than to love theories about him. 

28. Jn 15: 18-25

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 persecution of the Christians or Christ’s followers who is 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. 

27. Lk. 9: 46-48

Lk. 9: 46-48: Children were least important members of society. Jesus indicates that whoever is prepared to spend his or her life in serving and helping people who do not matter much in the eyes of the world is serving Him and the Father in heaven. They are the people of God who works for unity.

26. Mt 25: 14-30

Mt 25: 14-30: How we live in this world, as well as how we pray in the church, can be apostolic and powerfully evangelistic. This parable of the talents, both used and unused speaks on several levels to us on our life. It can be applied spiritual, intellectual and material opportunities. Gifts unused remain unused and for every gift we received we are responsible. Through the members of the church enormous abundance of gifts for the spread of the Gospel are received. Often a fearful attitude that seeks only to preserve the past and not to launch out into the future has hindered the growth of the Gospel.

25. Jn 11: 1-16

Jn 11: 1-16: Death is an inescapable reality. Consciously or unconsciously we confront death everyday: every minute we die a little – we realize that we are limited. In today’s Gospel Jesus is seen preparing the disciple to that realization so that they may believe in the resurrection and with him of all who believe in him may be resurrected. Jesus is the light and whoever walks with him will not ‘stumble’ to death but will be always be in the light and in the life eternal. 

24. Mt 24: 3-14

Mt 24: 3-14: In this last discourse on the eschatological times, Jesus refers two events that speak all about the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus concludes the end of the world also together with. Jesus never entertains the curiosity of the disciples, but warns them that the end of the world cannot be calculated. He instills in them to have a heart that is prepared to face the events at any time. 

23. Mt 8: 23-34

Mt 8: 23-34: The presence of Jesus is power. The disciples realized it only in the dire need to calm the storm. But the people of the town failed to convert the power of the presence of Jesus into faith due to fear. Jesus is with us in the very middle of the storm. In the complexity of our lives, we seldom have the date we would like to make a decision. The best way for us is to consult, pray, decide and then go forward. Having done our best, we can be assured that Jesus remains with us in whatever follows. Jesus gives us strength to survive the storm of our life. 

22. Lk. 9: 18-20

Lk. 9: 18-20: Jesus wanted to know whether the disciples understood what he said and done. So he asks ‘who do they say I am’? Peter responds that he is the fulfillment of Old Testament hopes and that he is the MESSIAH. In order for the kingdom to become public, we must first experience its glory within our lives. 

21. Lk. 16: 1-8

Lk. 16: 1-8: The parable is not about the dishonesty of the steward but about the genius with which he plan for his own future. Jesus remarks that we should be enterprising to exploit spiritual opportunities for our own life. We have to learn to deal creatively and maturely with the Holy Spirit that we have received.

20. Mt 25: 1-13

Mt 25: 1-13: The parable of the ten virgins –five wise and five foolish teaches us that we Christians are not expected to behave like idle spectators, just waiting for the coming of the Lord; we have to work for it; we have to persevere and persist. We have at all times to be always ready, living the word of God, bearing the torch of Christ. 

19. Lk. 11: 37-42

Lk. 11: 37-42: Jesus does not condemn the ritual and external observances but insists that the heart of ritual is faith. The heart of every ritual and religious practices are faith and love. If external observance is the limit of our religion, then sin becomes as superficial as the righteousness that such a faith would seek. So faith brings prayer and ritual to life. 

18. Lk 10: 1-9

Lk 10: 1-9: The sending out of the 72 brings out two important messages for the preachers. The urgency of preaching the Gospel is seen in v.4. He is required to have haste and single-mindedness: they should not waste time on social pastimes (v.4) be fastidious about food out shelter (v.8) they must concentrate on healing and blessing (v.9). Jesus also warns the 72 in v.3 that they will have to face hostility and persecutions if they really involved in the ministry. 

17. Mt. 18: 10-14

Mt. 18: 10-14: Jesus instructs his faithful and disciples not to preoccupy with ranking themselves but with serving the rest. The lost sheep teaches us that though there is joy in finding the strayed one but we must be more concerned to go behind the wandering ones to seek them out and to bring them back to the fold.

16. Lk 8: 41b-56

Lk 8: 41b-56: We find again a man Jairus by name who could pocket his pride within himself to present his need and request for help from Jesus. We also find a woman who dares to touch Jesus’ cloak in her dire need. Both people showed immense faith in Jesus. The woman is not the last in the crowd to receive a favour from Jesus. Jesus treats her as if she is the only one in the crowd. So God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love. 

15. Jn 10: 1-15

Jn 10: 1-15: Jesus warns the disciples of ‘false shepherds’ who pretend to guide others without being mandated for it. Jesus is the ‘good shepherd’ who leads them out to green pastures, to happiness, to genuine blooming out, to real nourishment ‘who calls his own sheep’ by name, who fights against ‘anonymity’. Jesus is the one who opens for mankind a new ‘vital space’. Without him one is closed within oneself without ideology, theory, religion which delivers one from fatality. 

14. Lk. 20: 27-40

Lk. 20: 27-40: Jesus confronts the question of resurrection. It is God’s gift to ‘those who are considered worthy’ to enter into the other world. The body is the physical expression of the soul. Salvation does not consists in the liberation of the soul from the body, but in the liberation of the whole human person (body and soul) which is achieved through resurrection. 

13. Lk 9: 28-36

Lk 9: 28-36: It was as if the princes of Israel’s (Moses and Elijah) life and thought and religion approve to go ahead of the salvific act during the transfiguration of Jesus. The passage comes with a vivid message in the verse ‘when they were fully awake they saw his glory’. In life we miss so much because of our minds sleeping because of our prejudices to new ideas, because off our mental lethargy for strenuous thought with our unexamined life and because of our love for ease that shut our minds against any disturbing thought. So transfiguration of our Lord teaches to be awake to grasp the meaning and significance of things around us and the events in our life. 

12. Lk. 11: 24-26

Lk. 11: 24-26: The purity of the external dimension without the purity of the spiritual power always invites the evil and demons. No one can take away the Holy Spirit away from us. We are the only ones who can cut off His influences.

11. Lk 11: 14-23

Lk 11: 14-23: The cosmic dimension of that ultimate battle took local form in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is accused of destroying the kingdom of God! So he experiences another form of poverty – misunderstanding, misinterpretation and his words or intentions distorted. In this controversy Jesus stresses the importance of unity. Division leads to failure and destruction. So Jesus, who establishes unity and destroy the failure of everyone who has faith in Him. 

10. Lk 10: 38-42

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. 

9. Mt. 20: 1-16

Mt. 20: 1-16: The late workers were paid as much as the early workers here in this passage. The message of the parable is to show that God rewards not according to the time of work but according to one’s entry to God’s call. Applying to ourselves it means that God does not compare us with known or popular saints. The Lord looks at what we have done with what we have. He examines how we have used the opportunities and skills we have been given. We fashion our own spiritual life or death. 

8. Lk. 10: 17-21

Lk. 10: 17-21: The disciples are seen overjoyed about the subjecting of the demons in the name of Jesus. Jesus is more powerful than Satan they understood. This power of casting away of demons are received by those who try to live and preach the Gospel with sincerity. By this power, they can set an individual free to become the son and daughter of God by which he or she was destined to be at birth it is by this way one restore the original order of creation. 

7. Lk. 21: 7-19

Lk. 21: 7-19: Jesus warns about the impostors and persecutions of many ways that the church will have to face. The persecution in our country takes the form of a subtle nature. We are subjected to a barrage of stereotyping through the media, attacks upon the institutions of the church-career and professional discrimination against Catholics. The old Colosseum of persecution has now become the board offices, universities, television studios, classrooms, government offices and legislatures and so on. 

6. Jn. 5: 39-47

Jn. 5: 39-47: ‘If another comes in his own name, him you will receive’ (v.43b) Jesus attacks the impostors who come and preached what people desire – victory and material prosperity but Jesus preaches the cross. The characteristic of these impostors are to offer the easy way while Jesus offers the hard way to God. The impostors perished while Christ lives on. This knowledge of the way to the kingdom of God is being given only to the Jews then. It become their privilege but failed to use them and thereby had become their condemnation. Responsibility is always the other side of privilege. 

5. Lk 20: 20-26

Lk 20: 20-26: For a Christian, God has the last word not the state. The voice of the conscience is greater than any other man-made laws. To be the conscience of the heart to be allowed to work in the state, a Christian should be part of the government and he must be one and the same time fear God and honour the state authority. 

4. Mt. 5: 13-16

Mt. 5: 13-16: Like salt and light, our faith is most operative when it is part of the everyday texture of our lives. The disciples are to be salt and light not only for the revival of Judaism but of the whole world. If we refuse to be the salt and light of the earth our faith can easily become vulgarized into harmless chocolate images of Christ and religious scenes painted on dinner plates – the harmless artifacts of a faith with all the backbone of a seedless grape. 

3. Mk. 6: 18-29

Mk. 6: 18-29: The story of John’s death is placed here to advert to the shadow of the cross that is darkening the ministry of Jesus. When we live and speak the Gospel clearly and directly, we are most like Jesus in his ministry suffering and hidden glory. The shadow of the cross is always on the horizon of the church’s work. The ministers of the church die and sometimes violently and pass on to the Father every day. 

2. Mt. 18: 1-9

Mt. 18: 1-9: Service to the powerless is the very essence of discipleship. It is not an easy task. It creates problems and misunderstandings just as Jesus encountered during his passion and death. ‘Child’ is the symbol of need and helplessness. He asks us to receive the ‘children’. It is a message that certainly challenges usto address the problems of the powerless and the needy and thus to continue the mission of Jesus till the end of times.