READINGS for 2006-03-13

MEASURE OF GENEROSITY

?Give and gifts will be given to you.? ? Luke 6:38

My husband has been blessed financially and we live comfortably. But I continue to work, to which my relatives, friends and co-workers persistently ask: What for? Working to earn a living is not my motive. If I opted to stay at home, I would not have the same opportunity to share God?s love to others, in the same scale. At a workplace, I am able to share God?s word; minister to people with whom I have to interact and to stand ground against compromises. My earnings are plowed back to my chosen mission field ? the workplace and to the missionary outreach. The blessings of income are shared with our missionary co-workers as they enjoy the benefits and comfort of the use of our vehicles. With such motives, God blesses us some more. We cannot outdo God?s generosity. As we give our time, talent and treasure that God has given us, He in return generously blesses us with what we need. Just as He promised the widow who despite their own neediness gave Elijah water to drink and cake to eat. God in return gave her a jar of flour that did not go empty and a jug of oil that never runs dry (1 Kings 17:16). Donna E.

REFLECTION:
How do we measure true generosity, by God?s standards or by man?s?

Father, blessed are You for You provide for us to help others who are in need.

 

1st READING

Daniel 9:4-10

Integrity is essential to the life of a disciple of Jesus. There is no way that we can follow the Lord?s will without embracing it. This will involve recognizing our sin and repenting of it. It also means that we strive with every resource that we have to avoid sin in the future. This true contrition for our sins is one of the basic building blocks of a holy life.

4 I prayed to the LORD, my God, and confessed, ?Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant towards those who love you and observe your commandments! 5 We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. 6 We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. 7 Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you. 8 O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. 9 But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness! Yet we rebelled against you 10 and paid no heed to your command, O LORD, our God, to live by the law you gave us through your servants the prophets.

P S A L M

Psalm 79:8, 9, 11, 13

R: Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins.

8 Remember not against us the iniquities of the past; may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. (R) 9 Help us, O God our Savior, because of the glory of your name; deliver us and pardon our sins for your name?s sake. (R) 11 Let the prisoners? sighing come before you; with your great power free those doomed to death. 13 Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all generations we will declare your praise. (R)

G O S P E L

Luke 6:36-38

There is no doubt that God believes in us. He calls us to holiness with the firm belief that we are capable of attaining it because with the help of His grace it is possible. The friendship that God desires to share with us demands this sort of commitment upon our part. It is from the basis of this deep form of friendship with God that we will draw the strength and ability to truly befriend and serve one another. Let us embrace this call to holiness and become true disciples of Jesus.

36 Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful. 37 ?Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. 38 Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.?

my reflections
think:God calls us to holiness with the firm belief that we are capable of attaining it because of His grace.

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God?s special verse/thought for me today_______________________

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T O D A Y ? S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ______________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 1Samuel 18-20

 

JUST FREEDOM

I wonder if we have ever reflected deeply upon the meaning of the word ?justice.? What does it mean to live a just life? What does it really mean to treat others in the way that we want them to treat us?
     Jean Paul Sartre, one of the main proponents of the existentialist philosophy that exalts personal freedom as the highest good, reflects upon the nature of free choice in one of his plays, The Flies. One of the characters, St. Genet, reflects upon the desire for absolute freedom and is forced to accept the cryptic fact that, ?Hell is other people!? Why? Simply because if I am to be, I have to afford the same freedoms that I want for myself to all others as well! Herein lies the essence of a just life.
     In order to live justly I must accept the responsibilities that I have towards others. This means that I have to ensure that all that I desire for myself is not, in any way, precluded from the lives of others by my desire for it. This means that there are limits to my freedom as prescribed by the responsibilities that are attached to the communal life of a human being. Not only is it not possible to be free from responsibilities towards others, sometimes these responsibilities will impinge on the rightness and wrongness of my own desires and actions. It is this truth that Jesus is trying to establish in today?s Gospel. To live a holy and just life we must put our responsibilities before our desires. If humanity fails to do this, we will end up living in a society that is so self-centered that it will implode. This is the fundamental moral challenge that faces the western world today. The Roman Empire collapsed from within because the moral decay of its society enabled the barbarian tribes to overrun it. We can see the selfishness of the West in the declining birth rates and the obsession with materialism and pleasure-seeking. Unless there is a recapturing of a sense of moral responsibility, we are going to witness a continuing decay in the moral rectitude of our society and a growing isolation of people from real and lasting relationships. Fr. Steve T.

REFLECTION QUESTION:
How deeply am I trapped in the selfish spiral of my own desires to the exclusion of taking up my responsibility towards society as a whole?

Lord Jesus, You gave your life so that others might live. You were the least selfish person who has ever lived. I pray for the grace to be able to lose my life in following You and thus gain the greatest reward of holiness and eternal life with You.

St. Euphrasia, virgin, pray for us.