REFLECTION FOR TUESDAY, 21st Week, Ordinary Time.

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Director, Social Action Movement, Don Bosco Bidar

TODAY'S GOSPEL VERSES 

Matthew 23:23-26 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 

TODAY'S REFLECTION 

Whenever we watch a movie or a tv series, or read a book, we should be feeling the build-up of the story line and the excitement and tension.

We won't want to go to the ending first and see or read what it is all about, and then begin watching the movie or the series or begin with the first pages of the book.

Yet there is always this curiosity and impatience in us that want to know what the ending is.

But to give in to this curiosity and impatience would rob us of the experience and meaning of journeying through the movie or the book.

Going through life is very different from watching a movie or reading a book. We can never know the ending until we get there. So each moment in life is an experience to behold and to be treasured.

That is what the 1st reading is saying - as much as we know that there will be an ending, yet we don't have to hasten it or even leave everything aside and just wait around for it.

What is important is to ask God to strengthen us in everything good that we do or say so that every moment in life is a loving and joyful moment.

And the gospel would highlight a couple of areas in life that would require this goodness - the practice of justice, mercy and good faith.

And equally important are also the virtues of purity and chastity. Good morality is a sign of a life lived in the goodness of the Lord.

So we don't have to be overly worried about the end. Each moment lived loving and joyfully is a preparation for the end and also for eternity.


SAINT OF THE DAY 

August 23 | Saint Rose of Lima 

The first canonized saint of the New World has one characteristic of all saints—the suffering of opposition—and another characteristic which is more for admiration than for imitation—excessive practice of mortification.

She was born to parents of Spanish descent in Lima, Peru, at a time when South America was in its first century of evangelization. She seems to have taken Catherine of Siena as a model, in spite of the objections and ridicule of parents and friends.

The saints have so great a love of God that what seems bizarre to us, and is indeed sometimes imprudent, is simply a logical carrying out of a conviction that anything that might endanger a loving relationship with God must be rooted out. So, because her beauty was so often admired, Rose used to rub her face with pepper to produce disfiguring blotches. Later, she wore a thick circlet of silver on her head, studded on the inside, like a crown of thorns.

When her parents fell into financial trouble, she worked in the garden all day and sewed at night. Ten years of struggle against her parents began when they tried to make Rose marry. They refused to let her enter a convent, and out of obedience she continued her life of penance and solitude at home as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. So deep was her desire to live the life of Christ that she spent most of her time at home in solitude.

During the last few years of her life, Rose set up a room in the house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick. This was a beginning of social services in Peru. Though secluded in life and activity, she was brought to the attention of Inquisition interrogators, who could only say that she was influenced by grace.

What might have been a merely eccentric life was transfigured from the inside. If we remember some unusual penances, we should also remember the greatest thing about Rose: a love of God so ardent that it withstood ridicule from without, violent temptation, and lengthy periods of sickness. When she died at 31, the city turned out for her funeral. Prominent men took turns carrying her coffin.

St. Rose of Lima, pray for us.

GOD BLESS YOU

Good morning. Have a nice day.