General Theme: Missionaries witnessing the mercy of God. General Objectives: to live out the missionary aspect of mercy especially the missio ad gentes. - to enter deeply in the merciful heart of the Father that goes out to every child. - to be one with the Church in her mission of mercy. Objective of the week: To continue to be one with the Church in promoting the lay to take great part in the mission.
INTRODUCTION
Life is beautiful but short; yet, we take our life for granted and leaving our wasted days with a sigh. The message last week was a beautiful reminder to all of us that we should incarnate Christ. We need the grace of God to personify Him to make our life productive, full of love, mercy and compassion. These are the prime motors to reach out to our brothers and sisters. Sometimes, we are hesitant to extend ourselves to others may be because we prefer to commit sin rather than to commune with our father to gain spiritual energy in order to move our hearts to be merciful and compassionate like Him. We need to humble ourselves before God and beg Him to heal us from our sinfulness. The blind Bartimaeus when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing, he began to shout, “ Jesus , Son of David, Have mercy on me!” (Matthew 18:37) Bartimaeus shout was eventually an expression of humility, faith, and trust with the hope that he would transform his life from living in darkness to light. Truly indeed that it is in Jesus that make our life beautiful, meaningful, and fruitful. Let us ask before Him the grace to move our heart to become sensitive to the needs of others. It is in Him we can embrace our needy brethren, we can find the purpose of our life, we can find the fullness of life amidst chaos and rejection. Let us dedicate ourselves to the mission by helping those who are spiritually sick because of hunger and thirsty for God’s words; blind because of pride and prejudice, crippled because of laziness and selfishness, etc. hoping that one day, they too may find their lives more beautiful and worth living for. As Jesus said, “The harvest is large, but there are few workers. Pray to the owner of the harvest that He may send out workers to gather in his harvest.”(Matthew 9: 37-38) MONDAY I must cultivate my life with the love of Christ each day. Luke 13:6-9 6 He told this parable, 'A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. 7 He said to his vinedresser, "For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?" 8 "Sir," the man replied, "leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: 9 it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down." ' Let us not waste our time of living futile for life is very precious and all our wasted days would never come back at all. Let us give ourselves a chance to work in God’s vineyard and allow our hearts to be the vessel of the Father’s heart full of mercy and compassion. TUESDAY I must remain united to the real source of life. John 15:1-17 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. 3 You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch -- and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it. 8 It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples. 9 I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete. 12 This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. 13 No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I command you. 15 I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. 17 My command to you is to love one another. Let us make our life beautiful each day with the Lord for He is the source of joy. No matter what kind of circumstances we encounter, indeed, when we remain in Jesus, life becomes easier and lighter to bear. It is much more beautiful and joyful if we have extend ourselves to others. WEDNESDAY I fill my heart each day with courage to reach out my brothers and sisters. Luke 6:17-19 17 He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon 18 who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, 19 and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. Mission is a call to incarnate Christ and to carry Him out to others. Mission is a gift to us for it is not our choice to fulfil it, but it is Christ Himself who chooses us. We must remain with Him for this is the only secret to sustain the mission. Let us rejoice each day the privilege of self-giving. THURSDAY I must live as a child of God John 6:1-14 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee -- or of Tiberias- 2 and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he had done in curing the sick. 3 Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. 4 The time of the Jewish Passover was near. 5 Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, 'Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?' 6 He said this only to put Philip to the test; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough to give them a little piece each.' 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 9 'Here is a small boy with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many?' 10 Jesus said to them, 'Make the people sit down.' There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were sitting there; he then did the same with the fish, distributing as much as they wanted. 12 When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, 'Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing is wasted.' 13 So they picked them up and filled twelve large baskets with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. 14 Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.' Reaching out to others is a sure sign of God’s grace active in us. God extended His covenant in us to make Himself be known to others through our works of charity and proclamation of the gospel. Being in the mission would guarantee the growth of our intimacy with him. FRIDAY I must proclaim the good news of the Lord as long as I live. Matthew 9:27-31 27 As Jesus went on his way two blind men followed him shouting, 'Take pity on us, son of David.' 28 And when Jesus reached the house the blind men came up to him and he said to them, 'Do you believe I can do this?' They said, 'Lord, we do.' 29 Then he touched their eyes saying, 'According to your faith, let it be done to you.' 30 And their sight returned. Then Jesus sternly warned them, 'Take care that no one learns about this.' 31 But when they had gone away, they talked about him all over the countryside. Jesus performed not only miracle, but He also manifested His great love to mankind. He showed us His ultimate concern to all the needy ones. In like manner, He showed us concrete examples of mercy and compassion which He always wanted us to follow. He wanted us to gather all the lost and the needy and establish with them friendship and love. SATURDAY I am a missionary forever. Matthew 10:5-15 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: 'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; 6 go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. 7 And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out devils. You received without charge, give without charge. 9 Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses, 10 with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the labourer deserves his keep. 11 'Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave. 12 As you enter his house, salute it, 13 and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you. 14 And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. 15 In truth I tell you, on the Day of Judgement it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Christ wanted us to build the world with love. We must do the mission in which we must always ready to strive and work. Let us be generous with our gifts of self to others. This is our way of showing others that Christ is in us and through our expression of self-giving, they may know that Christ is alive. Mercy and compassion is the vivid manifestations that we value Christ in our lives. So let us make use of our life to be productive each day. SUNDAY 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Wisdom 11:22-12:2 Responsorial: Psalm 145 2nd Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 Gospel: Luke 19:1-10 Comments are closed.
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