When I was younger, I was an insecure person. I wasn’t confident because of my acne, skin color, the way I dressed, and many other things. I said no to a lot of opportunities due to my low self-esteem.

Life can feel heavy when we are burdened by insecurities, anger, shame, or addiction. These struggles can make it hard for us to move forward. When we are crippled by these emotions, we become stuck—unable to fully live the life God wants for us. But God doesn’t want us to live this way. He wants to set us free. He wants us to bring our struggles to Him, to surrender the things that hold us back. Healing begins when we trust Him with our pain and allow His love to transform us.

As I learned God’s love for me, I learned to love myself too. Slowly, I was set free from my insecurities. It opened my life to the blessings around me.

God’s mercy is greater than our weakness or infirmity. Through prayer and faith, He gives us strength to let go and move forward. When we allow God to heal us, we can live to the full as the person He created us to be! 

Mia Bueno (buenos@yahoo.com)

reflect

What do you want God to set you free from?

Lord, please set me free from the burdens that weigh me down. Help me to trust in Your power. Let Your hope and peace fill my heart, guiding me back to the life You have envisioned for me. Amen.

St. Alfred the Great, pray for us.

First Reading | Exodus 22:20-26

The Scriptures are not for those who oppress the poor and powerless. The term ‘widow’ is synonymous with the poor and powerless; they needed others’ help to improve their lot in life during Jesus’ time. There are many poor and powerless people in the world today, and we may know some of them. Let us help them improve their lives out of love for the people of God.

²⁰ Thus says the Lord: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. ²¹ You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. ²² If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. ²³ My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans. ²⁴ “If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. ²⁵ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; ²⁶ for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

R: I love you, Lord, my strength.

² I love you, O Lord, my strength, ³ O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. (R) My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! ⁴ Praised be the Lord, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies. (R) ⁴⁷ The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock! Extolled be God my savior. ⁵¹ You who gave great victories to your king and showed kindness to your anointed. (R)

Second Reading | 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10

We must remember that we are models of Christian living for others. If we have accepted the role of godparent at Baptism, then that is one of many opportunities we have to embody our faith. Let us be examples of Christian living—so that others may be inspired to do the same. 

⁵ Brothers and sisters: You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. ⁹ For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God ¹⁰ and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.

Gopel | Matthew 22:34-40 

Loving God and our neighbor is indeed a good summary of the Law. However, it is not enough to know what the Law is–we have to live it every moment of each day. This is the challenge when we encounter indifference and obstinacy as we follow God’s will. Let us never give up and throw away the life of faith.

Gospel Acclamation

Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him and we will come to him. 

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵ and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷ He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and the first commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read ISAIAH 13 - 16 today.

Jesus healed a woman crippled by a spirit on a Sabbath. This did not go well with the leader of the synagogue where Jesus did the miracle. For Jesus, the welfare of the suffering woman need not wait another day. Sabbath or no Sabbath, charity to the sick was primary.

Laws must not be applied blindly. Every situation must be evaluated and observed. Love and concern for the human being must be foremost. While animals and other living things are also God’s creation, human beings are way above in dignity and must be cared for, no matter how bad they are. Our love for our neighbor must be unconditional. Animals, when they die, end their existence. Human beings, though, have souls and continue to exist in the next life. For that reason, we reserve extreme regard for our fellow human beings.

Once, in a recollection, I asked a child to lie down beside a crucifix. Then I called another child and asked him to choose whether to lay his foot on the crucifix or on the child. The child kicked the child. With due respect to the crucifix, which is a representation of the Crucified Jesus, the child is a human being created in the image and likeness of God. The crucifix is a wooden symbol. The child is a real person, has a soul, and is the best of God’s creation. The human person better represents God compared to the crucifix. The human person deserves the optimum concern. No wonder, Jesus took no time in liberating the woman from her bondage to a spirit.

It is this spirit of high regard for every human being that Jesus wanted tocommunicate to the religious leaders and teachers of the Law. Sabbath was made for man, not vice versa. The Law is in the service of man. That is the purpose of God. Let it be followed essentially and faithfully. 

Fr. Benny Tuazon

reflection questions

Do you obey the commandments of God for the sake of obeying them? How do you make them meaningful and lovingly fruitful?

God, our Father, You provided us with Your Laws to guide us toward Your Kingdom. We are aware of the spirit of those laws. They move us to love and to serve others and You. Help us sustain that love and service. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ____________________________________