Wheat and Weeds!

Every human heart contains a mix of good and evil. Good and bad people are always coexist like wheat and weeds growing in the same field, (MT 13: 24-30)

"When you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it" (MT 13: 29). One of the key things in this parable is that the servants are impatient to root up the weeds and to purify the field. They want to root out the weeds when they first appear. Yet the owner urges patience because in their enthusiasm and desire for purity they will also uproot wheat and kill it before it has time to establish itself and grow to completion. The Chinese proverbs say, “One moment of impatience may ruin your whole life.”

“Do not mastered by evil, but master evil with good," (Romans 12: 21). So look to Christ for the strength you need in order to do the right things. Let us pray for patience, courage, self-discipline and self-control towards evil.

The Bible Sunday

Our disposition for the Word of God is a good indication of our relationship with the Lord. Today’s gospel (Mt 13: 1-23) is an invitation to review and renew our attitude to the word of God. The Parable of the Sower likens the teaching of God’s word to the sowing of seeds. The seeds fall on different types of soil, the pathway soil, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. The Parable focuses more on how it is received.

Each of these types of soil is said to represent a certain type of heart with which hearers receive the word of God. The question each of us must ask ourselves today is, “What type of soil for the word of God do I represent? Am I like the pathway where the seed cannot even sprout, or like the rocky ground where the seed sprouts but has no roots, or like thorny ground where the word of God is choked to death by worldly cares, or like the good soil that bears much fruit?

Every day we should ask ourselves: What have I done today to spread the seeds of the Gospel?

Come to Me!

I am sure all of us feel tired from our hard works. Some of us feel boredom. Stress and tension become so visible in our lives. From time to time, when our problems and worries overwhelm us, we all find life difficult and discouraging. On many occasions, people do not know where to go or how to overcome their stress, tensions, depression and misfortunes. 

In the midst of trying to cope up our lives, in the Gospel reading today, the Lord invites us “Come to me all of you who are tired and are overburdened and I will give you rest,” (Mt 11:28). He tells us that He came to carry the weight of ours and to free us of our burdens.

We should know that life is not a bed of roses. No one in this world is exempt from illness, suffering, stress, tension, etc. They are the crosses that we all have to bear every day. Remember that on our own we can do nothing. We need to rely on Him alone.

In the most difficult periods of our life the Lord will never abandon us. Jesus replied. “My child, I love you and I would never leave you". Whatever is it; leave it in the hands of the Lord and in His time He will make everything beautiful in your life.

Sts Peter and Paul

Today, we celebrate two great persons in the history of the Catholic Church – Peter and Paul. They are the founders and the beginners of the Universal Church.

They are the solid rock on which the Church is built. They are at the origin of faith in Christ and its Church. They will forever remain as examples for us. To them the Church owes true greatness because they were sanctified by their martyrdoms.

They too were persecuted. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. He did not feel worthy to be crucified right side up like His Master. Whereas Paul was beheaded on the spot where his Cathedral stands today in Rome.

Peter makes his great confession of faith; “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” It was one of the glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called to become fisher of men for Christ.

Paul’s central conviction was simple – “only God can save humanity”. Paul’s experience of the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus made him once of the most Zealous, dynamic and courageous, and ambassador of Christ. The dying Christ was in Him and the living Christ was his life.

Who Is Jesus for Me?

As a member of the Church, we know who Jesus is. We profess our faith in him each Sunday as we recite the Nicene Creed. We share our faith with the rest of the Church. 

Do I live my faith in Jesus in my daily life? Jesus is asking me, “Who do you say that I am?” Today, the Church wants me to live my faith and to love my faith as an expression of my personal relationship with Him. 

The Real Presence of Jesus

This Sunday we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, popularly known as “Corpus Christi”. What we are celebrating is the devotion and worship of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Why do we need a feast of the Eucharist? In order to arrive at a better understanding of the Eucharist we need to ask why Jesus gave us this sacrament in the first place. There are two main reasons:

(1) Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). In the Eucharist he provides a visible sign and an effective means of Him being present to us and us being present to him. As Jesus himself said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

(2) Jesus said that He came that we may have life and have it to the fullest, (John 10:10). In the Eucharist He provides a visible means of communicating this life to us so that we can be fully alive both in this world and in the next world.

Pope Benedict XVI says, “The Church is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Eucharist is the Church; they do not simply stand side by side; they are one and the same; it is from there that everything else glows.”

The Body and Blood of Christ unites us more closely to Christ and, through Christ, we are united into one Body, the Church.