Monday 21^st September 2020

Take care how you hear the Word of God

 Luke 8: 16-18

 

A lamp is put on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.

 

1. Jesus said to his disciples: 'No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a bed.
2. No, he puts it on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.
3. For nothing is hidden but it will be made clear, nothing secret but it will be known and brought to light.
4. So take care how you hear;
5. for anyone who has will be given more;
6. from anyone who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.' THE GOSPEL OF THE  LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

As a lamp is put in a place where everyone can see it, so one day will our every thought, word and deed will be visible and known to everyone.

 

For whom am I living? This is the question and it will determine how I think, how I speak and act. Answer this question and you have the key to understanding your life and how your existence will finally come to its destination. When it reaches its destination then everything about you will be known to everyone.

 

The wise person will try to discover the One who created him/her and what that One had in mind when doing so. This is difficult because this One is not part of the universe in which we live. We have no way of knowing him through the only means of knowing that we have, namely, our five senses. There is no knowledge which does not come except via these. He is not an object of these, so we cannot know him as he is.

 

However, the Creator has become a human being and is accessible to everyone. He is Jesus of Nazareth. By listening to him, we can come to know the Creator and his plans for us.

 

“Then take care how you listen.” If we listen carefully then we will learn more and be able to live more fully. If we listen with all our strength, then we will be able to fulfil the plan/dream of the One who created us. More than that we cannot do. We have reached our destination.

 

Life is to listen to Jesus and take to heart everything he says. To live out what he says will make us grow in our being. We will become the person we were meant to be when first designed in the mind of our Creator. That is to become like him in every way. To become the living image of God in all his glory is the destination we should reach.

 

If we don’t care to listen, then in the course of time we will lose whatever little wisdom we have now and end up a failed creature. Live for yourself and you will end up the  image and nothing more than the clay in the field from which you were made.

 

Learn to listen to Jesus and be a success in your existence.

 

 

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Exemplary disciples

Gospel

Luke 8:19-21

'My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God'

1. The mother and the brothers of Jesus came looking for him,
2. but they could not get to him because of the crowd.
3. He was told, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.’
4. But he said in answer, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.’ THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has just told the parable of the sower. He has described how people receive the seed in different ways. The seed is the Word of God. According to the way they listen to the Word God, they produce the harvest in their life. Some who listen well, produce a hundredfold harvest.

It is immediately after this that Luke gives the account of his mother and brothers coming. They want to see him. They try to come inside but the room is full. Someone tells Jesus, ‘You mother and brothers want to see you.’ At once Jesus says “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

They are the model disciples. In Luke’s Gospel Mary is the first and exemplary disciple. She is the first to hear the Good News from the heavenly visitor. She believes it and accepts it wholeheartedly. ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your Word.’ She then proclaims the Good News, she has heard, to Elizabeth. According to the letter to the Romans, we must not only believe in our hearts but also proclaim with our lips. Mary is the one disciple who is present at the birth, life ministry and death of Jesus and is also present at the descent of the Holy Spirit and the founding of the Church. The Church rightly honours her. She is first of all the saints in heaven and on earth. John will explain her role even more powerfully. She is the great intercessor with Jesus and appointed mother of all believers by Jesus in the last act of his life.