Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
Reflections
So impressive is the wisdom I found fromt he mother of a Passionist , “There is so much that is good in the worst of us and so much that is bad in the best of us, that it ill...
Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Reflections
Today's Gospel is very appropriate. There are two viewings occurring tonight that are for people that I know. We each come across burdens in our daily lives but the loss of a loved one, a friend or even a friend or relative of someone we care about affects us. It burdens our minds and makes us reflect on our own lives and what we have done so far to make it worth anything. For that matter, what really makes our lives of worth?! What do we value? What should we value?
I wonder what people do that don't believe in God when they are faced with this. Do they tell themselves to get over it? Do they ignore it and not feel anything? Do they think it is all over at this point for the person who moved on from this life?
At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Reflections
Why do we not recognize your goodness, O Lord? Why, after all has been written and taught do people still deny your Presence?
We, the stubborn, still desire what we want for ourselves. We still do not think of others before ourselves. We seek glory and power and we seek to gratify our own desires. We put earthly pleasures above what is of our Heavenly Father. We do not seek the rewards of Heaven and only seek what will make us happy now.
How can we let others know? How can we sing your praises and still demonstrate what should be done in this life? We try and live as examples but still we fail....
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward."
When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.
Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
