AIM FOR PROGRESS

So that everyone may see your progress... – 1 Timothy 4:15

My friend confessed that he is gay. We’ve been serving together in the community for many years. He was overwhelmed by the love of God and of brothers and sisters in the community who accepted him, appreciated him, and affirmed him. He decided to attend seminars and to join a support group for people with Same-Sex Attraction (SSA). Little by little, God helped him change. He now shares his conversion story and encourages others who have SSA to choose to live a chaste life.

I have a great challenge to love a difficult person in my life. For many years, we just endured each other. All our attempts to reconcile was fruitless. For many years, I prayed to God to change her. One day, I started praying to God to change me— my judgmental thoughts, my negative feelings, and my silent treatment towards her. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of my pastoral head and the prayers of my small group, I started to change. I gradually stopped judging her, started doing small acts of kindness, and opened little conversations with her.

After a few more years, things changed. We changed. By God’s grace and mercy, our relationship is improving. Meann Tee (meanntytee@yahoo.com)

Reflect: Is there something you need to change in your life? Begin with small steps. Do it daily. Aim for progress, not perfection.

Father, thank You for Your grace that I am not the same person that I used to be. Help me to become more and more like Jesus and be Jesus to others. Amen.

St. Januarius, bishop and martyr, pray for us.

Paul encourages Timothy to continue leading by example. This advice is for all who want to be good leaders. Timothy had some difficulties because he was a very young leader, but age does not hinder good leadership. Paul knows Timothy and wants him to trust in the gifts that God has given him, and not hold back because of fear of offending those who think he is too young for leadership.

1 Timothy 4:12-16

12 Beloved: Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. 13 Until I arrive, attend to the reading, exhortation, and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate. 15 Be diligent in these matters, be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to everyone. 16 Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

Psalm 111:7-8, 9, 10

R: How great are the works of the Lord!

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; sure are all his precepts, 8 reliable forever and ever, wrought in truth and equity. (R) 9 He has sent deliverance to his people; he has ratified his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his name. (R) 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are all who live by it. His praise endures forever. (R)

The woman washes Jesus’ feet as a service, an honoring, and repentance for her sins. Jesus sees the great love behind her action and forgives her sins. This is a blasphemous thing to say unless of course you are God. Jesus knows He is the Son of God and has the authority to forgive sins. His detractors do not believe Him and dislikes Him even more.  

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

Luke 7:36-50

36 A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. 42 Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. 47 So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48 He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

think: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

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Read the Bible in one year - Psalm 120-125 

 

 

REVERENCE FOR JESUS

In this Gospel reading, a four-part ritual transpired. The prostitute washed the feet of Jesus, wiped it with her hair, kissed the feet, and anointed it with oil.

The washing of the feet promotes a friendly welcoming attitude. Not to do so would be interpreted as a sign of mourning. The sinful woman did not have water. Instead, she washed the feet of Jesus with her tears—not simply as a ritual but as a sign of her poverty, an act of total surrender, like a slave washing the feet of her master.

Common sense tells us that when something is wet, we wipe it. The act itself presents not just a ritual because of all things, why use the hair? Hair is neither absorbent nor useful for wiping anything. Normally it would be a towel. But the woman, by using her hair, was giving full access to Jesus. At the same time, she used her hair to spread the fragrance of what God had done to her. Upper-class women used nard to attract more men that time.

When she kissed the feet of Jesus, it was a gesture of homage. This entailed prostration. Nobles and soldiers did this ritual when summoned by the king. What the sinful woman did was not just a ritual because she not only prostrated, she went so far as kissing the dirty feet of Jesus coming from a dusty journey.

And finally, the sinful woman anointed Jesus’ feet with oil. It was an expensive gesture, a rite which only nobilities and kings did. In her case, it was not merely a rite. She, a sinful woman, decided this time to choose Jesus.

What the prostitute did were not mere rituals. She went beyond the ceremonies. It was a total wilful surrender to God asking for forgiveness.

When we go to confession, we do not do it only because it is part of our Lenten routine, a penitential rite, or a ceremonial penance we have to carry out. Rather it is a total surrender of the self asking God for forgiveness. Fr. Haluendo Amit, OCD

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

How do you approach Jesus in the sacraments?

 

I’m sorry for the times I have received You in the sacraments irreverently, Lord. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ______________________________