Reflections of Faith
Read and be inspired by a reflection based on today's Gospel made by members of the Verbum Dei Family in Manila.
3/16/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 16 2018March 16, 2018 Friday Gospel: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 “The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad, will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Today’s Gospel narrates us the scene of the people of Jerusalem being confused about Jesus. With their own thoughts, they’ve had a commotion about His identity and mission. And upon seeing this, Jesus effectively cut through their commotion in telling that He “was sent by the One who is true” (cf. Jn 7:28) This scenario is not different with what is currently happening in our society. Frustrations, controversies, contradicting perspectives and beliefs – all create an image of a flock of scattered sheep trying to find their true shepherd. As people grasp for truth, they also are in need of sincerity. The Gospel invites us to live and speak the truth – the Word of God. So with this, others would witness and believe in the purity of our faith.
3/15/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 15, 2018March 15, 2018 Thursday
Gospel: John 5:31-4 Are we living a life testifying about Jesus?In the Bible, prophets who have testified to the truth have been persecuted by people. Jesus Himself died on the cross testifying about the love of God the Father. And we Christians believe in Him who has been resurrected from death saving the world from its sins. Though this is the truth that we believe, other people are still skeptical and choose not to believe. How is it so?
Faith, hope and love. When a person lacks any or all of this three, the connection to Jesus becomes weak eventually leading him into becoming estranged to Jesus and ultimately, to God. Faith is what drives us to believe in the truthfulness of testimonies about Jesus. Hope is the spirit that enables us to live the words of life from Jesus. And love is the personal experience that confirms our authentic relationship with Jesus. Today’s Gospel calls us to believe and testify to the truth sharing to the people our faith, hope and love so they would know and believe in the truth about Jesus.
3/14/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 14, 2018March 14, 2018 Wednesday Gospel: John 5:17-30 When the world has experienced the compassionate love of Jesus, it also has experienced the unconditional love of God the Father.
Jesus is the way to the Father and His gesture of calling everyone as brothers and sisters is the affirmation of truth that we are all God’s children. Upon telling “as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself” (cf. Jn 5:26), He invites everyone to come to Him and live in Him – the source of life from the Father. The Gospel invites us to have faith in Jesus who Himself is loving as God the Father. His words affirm us that being connected to Him is also being connected to the Father. It also calls us to help other people to come to Him and live in Him.
3/13/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 13, 2018“Do you want to be healed?”(cf. Jn 5:6) Out of mercy and compassion, Jesus offered this words to a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years showing his love to burdened people like him. The Gospel inspires us to freely give this kind of merciful and compassionate love to our brothers and sisters offering them our availability to console and heal burdened hearts.
Pope Francis once said, “The task of the church is not to make dogmatic and moral pronouncements but to heal wounds and warm the hearts of people.” This message exactly expresses the invitation of the Gospel that Christianity is not only about believing that Christ has died, He has risen and He will come again in glory but also for us to be instruments and proof of the healing love that Jesus is offering to humanity.
3/12/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 12, 2018March 12, 2018 Monday Gospel: John 4:43-54 Testify to the signs and wonders that Jesus has done in your life! It’s not wrong to grasp for certainty before you believe but such isn’t the case about having faith in miracles. In today’s Gospel, Jesus said to a certain official, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe!” (cf. Jn 4:48). This words enabled him to have faith in Jesus’ miraculous words of healing for his son.
Sometimes we only believe in what our eyes could see compromising our own faith. And sometimes when we pray, we put our faith into test. Unless our prayers were favorably answered, we just leave our faith hanging with words. Today’s Gospel invites us to have faith in Jesus. And having faith means to trust His ever-presence and unfailing works in our lives. It also calls us to testify to the signs and wonders that Jesus has done in our lives so others would then believe and have faith in Him.
3/11/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 11, 2018March 11, 2018 Jn 3:14-21 For God So Loved the WorldJesus said to Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. For God so loved the world that He gave his only son that whoever believes in Him might not perish but will have eternal life.
In this gospel, God is telling us that there is always hope. Like what Jesus said to Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up, Jesus is telling us there is this son of man that we can look up to and is inviting us not to look down on our weaknesses, our imperfections but to look up to the son of man who is lifted up. For in the son of man we have hope. This Lenten season is also the time we go deeper with our prayer with the passion of Christ for God has given His son because of love and that love gives us hope. The invitation for us is to look up to the son of man who is lifted up for we will find hope in him. God is inviting us also to go deeper with His passion, for in His passion we are able to experience love, we are able to see the true love, the love that is mature enough to withstand everything, the love that is eternal.
3/10/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 10, 2018March 10, 2018 - Saturday Lk 18:9-14 If You Hear His Voice, Harden Not Your HeartsJesus addressed the parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. The parable is about the Pharisee and the tax collector who prayed in the temple. The Pharisee prayed and said that he is thankful for he is not greedy or dishonest like the tax collector and that he is not like the rest of humanity. The tax collector prayed to God asking for forgiveness. At the end of the parable Jesus said that the tax collector is the one who went home justified and not the Pharisee.
Jesus is telling is that the righteous one in the eyes of God is the one who humbled himself before God. We have our own weaknesses and imperfections but we are blessed by God. We are righteous in His eyes as long as we humbled ourselves. God is inviting us to humble ourselves, ask for forgiveness when we are sinned, ask for help when we are suffering, put our faith to Him when we are confused. The invitation for us is to humble our hearts and seek the Lord in every moment of our lives. If you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
3/9/2018
Daily GuidelInes: Mar. 9, 2018March 9, 2018 Mk 12:28-34 You Are Not Far From The Kingdom of GodIn today's Gospel, Jesus summarizes the 10 commandments into two: to love God with our everything and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Jesus is telling us that there is more than the commandments. When Jesus summed up the 10 commandments into 2, He opened up our hearts for loving. He wants us to understand that the essence of the commandments is to love. If we are to take the commandments to the letter, then we are just obeying rules. But when God said to love Him with our everything then it goes beyond what is stated in the commandments. Same goes with our neighbors, God wants us to love them and not just to limit ourselves to what is written on the commandments.
The invitation for us is to go deeper in our prayer. To build a more constant and intimate conversation with God as we grow our relationship with Him and to grow our love from Him. God also is inviting us to pray for our neighbors, so that we may be able to love them as how we love ourselves.
3/8/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 8, 2018March 8, 2018 - Thursday Lk 11:14-23 Jesus Wants us to be United with Him.In the Gospel, Jesus is driving out a demon that is mute and many have witnessed this The crowd is divided into three. The first group is composed of people who were amazed; the second group is composed of accusers telling that Jesus drove the demon out using Beelzebul’s name and the third group is composed of people who don’t believe in this action of Jesus—they need to see evidence before they believe. At the end of the passage, Jesus says that a strong man (Jesus is pertaining to the demon) fully armed then his possession are safe but if it is attacked by a stronger man then the armor is removed and the spoils are distributed.
God is doing many things on our life. Are we able to recognize it? Are we the people from the first, second or third group on how the way we see things in life? There are instances that we are able to recognize God’s action in our lives especially when we receive blessings, like the people from the first group, but when we are pushed out of our comfort zone then there is a tendency to respond like the people from the second or third group. At the end of the passage, Jesus assures us that he is the strongest. He will overcome everything. He is stronger than any demons and God is inviting us not be divided but to be united as one. Let us not be like the people from the second group to see the things in life as if it all came from demon or it came from misfortune. Also, let us not be like the people from the third group that they still lack faith to be able to recognize that it is Jesus who works in our everyday lives. Today let’s go deeper and ask for a more intimate conversation with God and be assured that He is stronger than anyone and let our faith grow bigger in our hearts
3/7/2018
Daily Guidelines: Mar. 7, 2018March 7, 2018 – Wednesday Mt 5:17-19 We Live Not Only By CommandmentsJesus in the Gospel is saying to His disciples that he did not come to abolish the law of the prophets but to fulfill it. Jesus, as we have witnessed in our lives, moves in an extraordinary way. Jesus did not live here on earth just following the commandments but lived spreading the good news to everyone and showing in that way his love for us. We communicate with God through prayer. We listen to what God is saying to us and those words make a change in our lives. Those words from God give us happiness, direction in life. They make us feel the unconditional love of God, give us countless blessings and strength to move forward in life and many more wonderful things!
We may choose only to follow the law by attending mass every Sunday, by not killing or stealing but in order for us to fulfill the great commandment of love, then we need to listen to what Jesus tells us in prayer. Our lives are not only to just follow the commandments but to have fulfillment and fruits in our lives. This Lent, we are invited to go deeper with our prayer life and ask Jesus, “Jesus, how do you want me to fulfill the commandment of love?” and “Jesus guide me not to live only by the commandments but to bear fruit in my life”. |
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