Reflection for TUESDAY, 12th Week, Ordinary Time.

By

 

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest, Bidar

Today's Gospel Verses 

Matthew 7:13-14 

“Enter through the narrow gate. 

 For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 


Today's Reflection 

To be a bully, one needs to have some advantage over others. 

It may be size, it may be wealth, it may be status or connections with the high and mighty.

 Whatever it may be, a bully uses those things to get what he wants from those he is bullying. 

But without all those things to support him, a bully is just as weak and vulnerable as those he is bullying. 

The one who is being bullied has a couple of options. He can try to stand up to the bully, but it may not turn out well for him. 

Or he can have recourse to someone stronger and higher for protection. 

That was what king Hezekiel did in the first reading. When he read that letter from Sennacharib, he would have quivered with fear because he knew what Sennacharib could do. 

But instead of worrying and panicking, Hezekiel went to the Temple, laid that letter before the Lord, and pray for God's help.

And God answered immediately. The prophet Isaiah relayed God’s reply and that same night Sennacharib’s mighty army was wasted. 

The 1st reading reiterated the truth that God does not favour the proud, the mighty and the bully. 

God hears the cries of the weak and the lowly and He will come to their help to be their protector and Saviour. 

So, in the face of bullies or injustice or oppression, let us turn to the Lord for help.

God will hear the cries of the lowly and humble and come to help them and deliver them from danger.

Today’s Gospel Passage, Taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Speaks about the Proper Use of Holy Things, the Golden Rule We have to Obey, & the Less-Traveled Narrow Way We Have to Take in Our Christian Lives.

1) JESUS Advises HIS Listeners to Use Holy Things in a Holy Manner. The Jews had a Statement in Their Scriptures (“Do Not Put a Golden Ring in the Nose of a Pig or on the Ears of a Dog” Proverbs 11: 22), Parallel to JESUS' Statement, “Do Not Give Dogs what is Holy; & Do Not Throw Your Pearls Before Swine”(Mt 7: 12) 

The Jews Understood the Injunction to Mean the Exclusiveness of Their Religion, which Meant that They should Not Teach the Law to the Gentiles. The Early CHURCH Interpreted JESUS' Statement in Its Earliest Catechism,the Didache, to mean that only the Baptized should Approach the Eucharistic Table. 

This View is Reflected in the Canons of the Oriental Churches, Introducing a Command in the Text of the Mass Before Eucharistic Prayer, “Let the Catechumens, Hearers & Unbelievers Quit,” & a Serious Warning before Holy Communion, “Holy Things are for Holy People.” 

2) The Statement of the Golden Rule, “Whatever U Wish that Men would Do to U, Do so to Them” (Mt 7: 12), is JESUS' Positive Contribution to Ancient & Negative Jewish Principles, Meaning that Real Christianity Consists in Doing Good to Others by Loving Service & Works of Mercy.

3) Enter by the Narrow Gate: 

Supplementing the Instructions Given by Moses (Dt 30: 15 - 20), Joshua (Dt 24: 15), & (Jeremiah 21: 8), JESUS Challenges HIS Followers to “Enter by the Narrow Gate & Take the Hard Way that Leads to Life.”

Let Us Choose JESUS' Narrow Way of Sacrificial Love & Humble Service. 


GOD BLESS YOU

Good noon. Have a nice day.