WHAT’S YOUR NEXT MOVE? 

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” – Luke 6:21

We love celebrations and perhaps the best way to celebrate is to eat. But for us to enjoy the food, we need to be hungry  first. I’ve experienced eating in a buffet restaurant and I was not that hungry. The result? I wasn’t satisfied.

So, do we really need to be hungry first to be satisfied? I believe that’s a yes.

In my experience, the best personal prayer periods happen when I am really longing for God. Those are the times when I am spiritually dry, and my emotions need to be expressed before Him. In other words, I am hungry and wanted to be satisfied.

Unforgettable breakthroughs usually happen when I am already desperate to change. Those are the moments when I am already tired of the old me and ready to do everything and embrace a new version of myself. In other words, I am hungry and want to be satisfied.

Friend, don’t be afraid to be hungry. Turning point happens when we hit rock-bottom. Be hungry first and decide to do everything you can for you to be satisfied. Kein Harvey P. Chito (kein.chito@ gmail.com)

 

Reflect: What’s your next move? Be hungry.

 

Father, grant me the heart that really longs for You. Each day of my life, I am willing to offer You the different hungers of my life and please grant me the grace to be satisfied in life. Amen.

Seven Founders of the Order of Servites, pray for us.

As we learn to trust in the Lord, we are like a plant whose roots go deep into the soil to find water. Our trust in the Lord enables our faith to remain firm in times of consolation and desolation. Trusting Him also keeps us on the right path and strengthens us to persevere in times of persecution and trial.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. 7 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

P S A L M 

Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6

R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is integral to the Gospel message of salvation. Death and sin triumph without His resurrection. But Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father to defeat death and sin for our sake. In the resurrection we find one of our greatest hope—hope in the sure knowledge of God’s love and the salvation He offers us.

1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20

12 Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 16 If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. 20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

GOSPEL  

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is more direct and stark in nature. Many believe his version is closer to the original one that he and Matthew referred to while writing the Gospels. Luke wrote that it is the “poor” who are blessed, whereas Matthew tempers this when he wrote the “poor in spirit.” Luke and Matthew wrote to different communities, had different focuses in mind, but used the same material in different ways.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.

Luke 6:17, 20-26

17 Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. 20 And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. 24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. 26 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

think: Who are the poor Jesus has sent to you to help? How do you help them?

Read the Bible in one year Galatians 4-6  

 

BLESSED

Somebody said, “A blessed life is having everything you want and wanting nothing wrongly.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is telling us who are blessed in the eyes of God: “Blessed are you who are poor... you who are hungry... you who weep... you who are hated...” The poor whom Jesus calls blessed are those who have come to realize that they cannot depend on the things of this world for happiness. They seek their happiness in God alone—He means everything to them. Material things mean next to nothing to them. These people, as Jesus says, are truly blessed. Blessed are the lowly.

Basically, the Beatitudes are about the clash between the values of God’s Kingdom and the values of the world. The world craves for wealth, self-satisfaction, pleasure, and popularity. Jesus opposes these things only when they become the goal of our life, only when we get too dependent on them, only when they already control us. Because instead of serving as means to genuine happiness, these can become obstacles in entering God’s Kingdom.

I have encountered a beautiful reflection of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that says:

Where the understanding is outraged, where human nature rebels,
where our piety keeps a nervous distance;
there, precisely there, God loves to be;
there he baffles the wisdom of the wise;
there he vexes our nature, our religious instincts.

There he wants to be, and no one can prevent him.
Only the humble believe him and rejoice
that God is so free and grand,
that he works wonders where man loses heart,
that he makes splendid what is slight and lowly.

Indeed, this is the wonder of wonders,
that God loves the lowly... God in lowliness... Fr. Nelson Orqueta

------- REFLECTION QUESTION -------

Which of the Beatitudes speak more to you personally?

Entering Your Kingdom is more important than all the treasures in this world. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ______________________________