Try and win your brother

Welcome to my blog and peace be with you.

You will find here daily readings from the Bible and a prayerful reflection on them. Through the daily reading and reflection on the Word of God we grow as human beings.

All human beings have spiritual longings. The Word of God satisfies them.

May you experience the joy intended for you by God.

 

Wednesday 12 August 2020

Try and win your brother

Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23

Look to your covenant, O Lord,

and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever.

Arise, O God, and defend your cause,

and forget not the cries of those who seek you.

 

____________________

 

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,

whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,

we dare to call our Father,

bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts

the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters,

that we may merit to enter into the inheritance

which you have promised.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

 

____________________

 

First reading

Ezekiel 9:1-7,10:18-22

The cross marks the foreheads of all who are pure

As I, Ezekiel, listened, God shouted, ‘Come here, you scourges of the city, and bring your weapons of destruction.’ Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. In the middle of them was a man in white, with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar. The glory of the God of Israel rose off the cherubs where it had been and went up to the threshold of the Temple. He called the man in white with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt and said, ‘Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who deplore and disapprove of all the filth practised in it.’ I heard him say to the others, ‘Follow him through the city, and strike. Show neither pity nor mercy; old men, young men, virgins, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.’ So they began with the old men in front of the Temple. He said to them, ‘Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses, and go.’ They went out and hacked their way through the city.

The glory of the Lord came out from the Temple threshold and paused over the cherubs. The cherubs spread their wings and rose from the ground to leave, and as I watched the wheels rose with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. This was the creature that I had seen supporting the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I was now certain that these were cherubs. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were just as I had seen them beside the river Chebar. Each moved straight forward. THE WORD OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

Ezekiel is in Babylon with the exiles. The people left behind in Jerusalem and sheep without a shepherd and they have wandered off. Many are practicing idolatry, worshipping the gods of the people with whom they live. The true God leaves them. This is all symbolic language. The reality is that sin always brings destruction and distress. It was true then and is true now. Sin is the most senseless of things to do. Likewise, to seek for peace in the idols of this world, wealth, power, pleasure brings only a void. Only in the worship of the true God in spirit and truth will bring peace. God will always save those who are faithful to him, even if all others are destroyed.

 

 

 

Psalm

Psalm 113:1-6

Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord!

May the name of the Lord be blessed

both now and for evermore!

Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.

From the rising of the sun to its setting

praised be the name of the Lord!

High above all nations is the Lord,

above the heavens his glory.

Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.

Who is like the Lord, our God,

who has risen on high to his throne

yet stoops from the heights to look down,

to look down upon heaven and earth?

Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.

 

____________________

 

Ps110:7,8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure;

they stand firm for ever and ever.

Alleluia!

____________________

 

Gospel

Matthew 18:15-20

If your brother listens to you, you have won back your brother

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.

‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.

‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’ THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

Despite the presence of Jesus in the community, there will be disputes, injuries will also take place. Rather than talking about them with everyone else, we are to speak directly to the person involved. In the end if the person does not listen even to the community, Jesus tells us that we should consider them as tax collectors or pagan. Jesus, himself, was the friend of tax collectors. We should never bear a grudge.

Whenever we gather in prayer Jesus is with us. We should claim the promise of his presence. Wherever Jesus is, there wonderful things happen.

 

 

Jn 6: 51

The bread that I will give, says the Lord,

is my flesh for the life of the world.

 

____________________

 

Prayer after Communion

May the communion in your Sacrament

that we have consumed, save us, O Lord,

and confirm us in the light of your truth.

Through Christ our Lord.