In a world filled with social media influencers, motivational speakers, and experts, we can be overwhelmed with the amount of information and insight bombarding us. Worse, many ideas conflict with one another. Which one should you follow? 

My suggestion? Look at how these people live. Check their fruits, results, and impact. If I follow a health and fitness influencer, I check if he’s really healthy and fit. If I follow a marriage expert, I check the state of his marriage and children. If I follow a business guru, I check his business deals, his systems, and their impact. 

Talk is cheap. Everyone has an opinion out there. That’s why I prefer to heed advice of actual practitioners: people who’ve been through tough seasons in their field and emerged victorious. 

What’s ironic is that, often, those who really have something valuable to say don’t speak too much. Most of them don’t even have huge social media platforms. Instead, they just walk, and their walk does the talking. 

Velden Lim (veldenlim.firedup@gmail.com)

reflect

If you want to change, stop talking about it. Start being and living the change you desire.

Jesus, give me the grace to obey You and do Your will. Let my obedience inspire others to do Your will for them.

Saint Barnabas, Apostle, pray for us.

First Reading | 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 (or Acts 11:21-26; 13:1-3)

None of us are worthy nor do we have the capability of being the administrators of the New Covenant. However, this does not matter because as soon as God chooses us for a particular mission or to witness to the truth of the Gospel in the presence of men, He gives us the grace to carry out this task. All we need to do is obey Him. Obedience may not always be easy but it is better than trying to accomplish an impossible task.

⁴ Brothers and sisters: Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather, our qualification comes from God, ⁶ who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life. ⁷ Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of its glory that was going to fade, ⁸ how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory. ¹⁰ Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.    

 Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 99:5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (or Psalm 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6)

R: Holy is the Lord our God.

⁵ Extol the Lord, our God, and worship at his footstool; holy is he! (R) ⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests, and Samuel, among those who called upon his name; they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.   (R) ⁷ From the pillar of cloud he spoke to them; they heard his decrees and the law he gave them. (R) ⁸ O Lord, our God, you answered them; a forgiving God you were to them, though requiting their misdeeds. (R) ⁹ Extol the Lord, our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for holy is the Lord, our God. (R)   

Gospel | Matthew 5:17-19 (or Matthew 10:7-13)

Jesus is not a rebel who calls for great changes in the Law of Moses. What He wants is for us, His disciples, to follow the Law of Moses with love. If we can make love the foundation of all that we do, we can abide in Jesus and be obedient to all that God asks of us. If we abide in Jesus, we will not only keep the Law but also fulfill it. This is what Jesus does perfectly in giving His life for us on the cross. May we follow His example and be living witnesses of all that the Law demands of us. 

Gospel Acclamation

Teach me your paths, my God, and guide me in your truth.

¹⁷ Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. ¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Reflect:

How do you obey the Law of Moses and that of Jesus with love?

Read the Bible in one year! Read 1 KINGS 19 - 20 today.

Is Paul Exaggerating? 

Paul speaks very disparagingly of the Old Testament at times. He seems to classify the Old Covenant as defunct and probably not worth much attention. On the other hand, he also recognizes the need for a moral code against which one’s actions can be measured. Can he have it both ways? Yes, he can! We need to remember that Paul has had an extaordinary conversion experience that has turned him from being a hater of the Gospel to arguably its greatest proponent. Anyone who has had such an experience will realize that it leads to speaking in extremes.

Paul wants to affirm that it is the Gospel of Jesus, and in and through what Jesus has done, that salvation comes to us. We cannot achieve salvation apart from Jesus. This leaves Paul with a problem as to the point of the Law and the history of God’s work as contained in the Old Covenant. It could not have been a waste of time as this would mean that God is malicious—leading the Jews up a path that has no worthwhile destination. The only way we can look at God’s relationship with the Jews is to see it as preparation for the coming of Jesus, the advent of whom leaves all people, Jews included, with an important decision to make, which is whether to accept the Gospel or look elsewhere for salvation.

Being a zealous Jew before his conversion to Christianity, Paul has been solidly grounded in both of these paths. Having toiled under the lesser graces of the Old Covenant, he wants to make it abundantly clear that the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus is the only worthwhile road to follow.

Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

reflection questions

What do you believe in? Are you utterly convinced that faith in Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation? 

Holy Spirit, form my mind and heart in the truth of the Gospel so that I will never be diverted by the lies of the enemy or the alluring nature of the world’s illicit pleasures. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ________________________________________