TODAY'S WORD

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Acts: 4:32,34 "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, ..... There was not a needy person among them,"


TODAY'S REFLECTION

FIRST READING

The first reading shows us one way in which the Spirit of God took flesh in the life of the early church. 

Within that community of faith, no member was ever in want, because all who had more than they needed shared with those in need, through the agency of the Apostles. 

Such a life was the fruit of the Spirit’s activity among them. 

Here in the early church was the life of God in human form. 

The life of God is a life of love given and received. 


GOSPEL

In the gospel reading Jesus speaks of ‘things of this world’ and ‘heavenly things’. 

Yet, it is clear from what Jesus has been saying that there isn’t a sharp distinction between the earthly and the heavenly realm. 

Heavenly things can be viewed through earthly things. 

The human experience of birth can speak to us of another kind of birth, a being born of the Spirit. 

The natural phenomenon of the wind can speak to us of the spiritual phenomenon of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus is the en-fleshed Word, God in human form. 

To look upon the flesh of Jesus, his human life, is to look upon God. 

In Jesus, the earthly has become the revelation of the heavenly, and Jesus shows us how to see the deeper, heavenly, reality in and through the earthly reality. 

In all four gospels, Jesus shows us how so much of human life can speak to us of God’s life, the kingdom of heaven. 

Just as God became flesh in Jesus, so the Spirit of God can become flesh in our lives. 

When we allow the Spirit of the Lord to shape our lives, others can see something of the life of God in and through our lives. 


RESOLUTION

Let's resolve  to make our calling as individual believers and as a community of faith to allow the Holy Spirit to take flesh in our lives so that others can see heavenly things through our way of living and our manner of relating to one another.


SAINT OF THE DAY

St. Martin I✠

74th Pope:

Born: June 21, 598

Near Todi, Umbria, Roman Empire

Died: September 16, 655 (Aged 57)

Cherson, Roman Empire

Venerated in:

Roman Catholic Church

Eastern Orthodox Church


Feast: April 13

Pope Martin I reigned from 21 July 649 to his death in 655. He succeeded Pope Theodore I on 5 July 649. The soul of the new Pope had to be great to face the great difficulties of the times. To save the Church in the East, he condemned Monothelism, which claimed Christ had only one will. He was the only pope during the Eastern Roman domination of the papacy whose election was not approved by an Iussio from Constantinople. Martin I was exiled by Emperor Constans II and died at Cherson. He is considered a saint and martyr by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Let us ask him to give us the grace to accept the whole and eternal truth.

Have a fruitful day.

Make the Resurrection of Jesus a beacon of hope for your life

God bless you all.