In couple of days we enter in to October. October is traditionally celebrated as the month of Rosary. To mark the beginning of the Holy Rosary Month, Holy Spirit will have public Rosary Procession on Saturday, October 3 at 10:00 AM followed by the Holy Mass. October is also Respect Life Month. Respect Life Sunday and Life Chain Sunday: October 4, we will participate in the 33rd anniversary of Life Chain, the Peaceful, Prayerful, Public Witness of Pro-Life Supporters. I would like to personally invite you to come out and join your church family for these events.
The Gospel parable – a tale of two brothers, a parable found only in Matthew – relates one of the last encounters Jesus had with the Jewish leaders. It occurred just the week before he was killed. Jesus originally told this parable to the chief priests but Matthew put it in the Gospel for us. The Chief priests were religious people. They lived in the Temple, were constantly offering sacrifices and reciting prayers. Yet Jesus condemns them. It is not sacrifices and prayers that God wants but love and obedience to his will.
Devout Catholics: When talking of Catholic celebrities, the media may call them ‘Devout Catholics’ – meaning that they go to church and keep the regulations of the Church. Is going to church and being a ‘practicing Catholic’ enough? You couldn’t have found more ‘devout Jews’ than the chief priests. They were faultless in keeping the letter of the Law. Yet Jesus hits out at them in this parable and in his comment afterwards – I tell you solemnly…
Jesus has given us one commandment: love one another as I have loved you. It is the fulfilment of this commandment that determines how God sees us. We go to church to listen to the Word and know what the commandment means in daily life. Through prayer and the sacraments, we receive the mind of Christ and the strength to fulfil his commandment.
If I am married do I love my spouse? Do I make the love for my spouse the vocation of my life, something I cultivate in my heart and show by deeds and words every day? Do I with my spouse give my children a stable atmosphere of love in which they can grow and mature and be themselves? If I am a child do I contribute to making our home a place of peace and mutual understanding, the joy of my parents now, as I was when I was born? Am I able to forgive from my heart the inevitable failings of parents and family members?
Being a disciple is all about fulfilling the command to love others as Jesus loves us. His love is the model and standard. It embraces justice in my work place – fulfilling promises, doing an honest day’s work. Treating everyone with dignity and respect and giving them what is their due.
That is why St. Paul urges us to have the same mind that Christ has. We go to church, we listen to the Word of God, confess our sinfulness and failings, pray and most of all receive Christ himself in the Eucharist so that we will progressively become living members of Christ’s Body. With Christ living in us we will make him and his love present wherever we go.
Do you see all the practices of religion as the means by which you can live the life of Christ in your world?
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