Being One...not deceived into division!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 19, 2025: 2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Matthew 6: 7-15

One cannot but admire the pastoral heart of St. Paul, in today's first reading. A heart that bleeds to see his own people, his 'children' as they were, being assailed by other preachers, other gospels and other attractions, so easily and so readily! What about today, when we see brothers and sisters who so readily falling for eloquence in preaching, vivacity in worship, emotional satisfaction, logicality in reasoning, the capacity for quoting from memory, the free flow of words and phrases that are so beautiful and soothing to hear... our hearts bleed even today!

I, personally, have often been remarked by persons as being too conservative or fanatic about the Catholic Church... this is certainly not about that! It is about calling God, OUR Father and Mother... being ONE REIGN OF GOD, doing as brothers and sisters TOGETHER the will of God on earth as in heaven; it is about forgiving the shortcomings of others in the community, the shortcomings of the community itself and staying on, as one community, facing the struggles and temptations as ONE community, overcoming all evil!

Let us not today get lost in the beauty and the splendour of the Lord's Prayer - that is not the message of the Word... it is all about being a community that is worthy of praying that prayer! Evangelii Nuntiandi, the Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI (art.no.77) says, "the division among Christians is a serious reality which impedes the very work of Christ." Being of one heart and one mind, believing in the One Gospel that is handed down to us, is the highest witness we can give the world today, in every sphere of life!

The Christ-giving - a Way of Being

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 18, 2025 - 2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Matthew 6: 1-6,16-18

The Word today continues the discourse of yesterday, about giving... which as we said yesterday, cannot be just an act, but a life style. The readings today go a step further to say, it has to become a way of being, that is the way we think and the way we feel at the deepest core of our being. 

The first reading points to us two most shallow levels of giving. 

First, giving with grudge - it is like some who give, but have within them exactly contrary sentiments, wishing bad for the other, lacking respect for those to whom they give or having a sense of vengeance while giving! This kind of giving is better not done, because it amounts to a sin at the end of it all.

The second type is giving without a choice - it is giving, having to give. If there were an alternative the person would not have rather given. This takes away any merit in the act of giving, although it is good! It has really no value behind it, because it does not come from within, not from a personal choice. 

The Gospel points out another type of shallow giving, which is giving with a hook - this is a very familiar category of giving. Consciously, sub-consciously or even unconsciously, when there is a hook attached to receive directly or indirectly from a giving, that giving cannot still measure up to a Christ-giving.

Christ-giving, giving according to the life style of Christ, is only giving in love! That is what God does and that is what God expects from us. Whether giving the other (in terms of charity), or giving God (in terms of prayer and penance), only when it is done out of love and love alone, it becomes a Christ-like giving and that alone makes us brothers and sisters of that Son who gave himself totally in love.