It is 1st September 2018. It is the Bible month in which we need to reflect more deeply and concretely the way we could apply the teachings of the Bible. This is the month we need to read, know, pray, summarize, reflect, relate, apply, speak, preach, and share the Word of God. We must read the Word of God to know what God is saying to me personally not the person next to me, or the community or the society. Let us promise to ourselves to dedicate a quality time in being with the Word of God on a daily basis. Let us make the habit of carrying the bible physically whenever we attend the Eucharistic celebrations and other para liturgical celebrations in the Church. It is good to carry an approved Catholic version of the Bible in our hands in whatever form whether printed or in audio or in apps. Even it is given for free, let us stop reading the versions that are altered by the other churches and unapproved version by the Catholic Church. The readings are from 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; and the Gospel from Matthew 25:14-30. We are all gifted and chosen by God. We are entrusted with the responsibility none other is given. We have a mission to accomplish within the life span that God has given this life as a free gift. There are targets to be met, goals to be achieved, fruits to be collected, the rubbish to be cleansed and visions to be reached in everyone’s life. We cannot go on living blaming the other or a situation for all that we have failed to accomplish. God completely relies on us to accomplish something through us in the world. If we cannot, then there is no one that God could entrust the responsibility with. God has trusted us and entrusted with the most valuable things to be achieved in our lives. Are we wasting our time with something or someone? Are we living in false hope without doing anything of our own to make a little change in us and around us? It is all about initiatives we take without incentives that makes a fruitful person we can be. No one can force us to be fruitful. In the first reading, St. Paul teaches us that God knew our capacities and capabilities and expects us to be fruitful accordingly. God does not expect too much from us. It is mere cooperation with the plan of God and trusting in God that makes us to achieve all that God intends and desires. “God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom He made our wisdom, our virtue and sanctification and redemption; As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast let him boast about the Lord.” (1 Cor.1:31). The responsorial Psalm praises, “Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.” (Ps.32:12). The Gospel points out that we are all entrusted with something and we are accountable for all that we have received from God, the Church and the community we serve. The growing behaviour of looting, cheating and corrupting cannot undermine the spirit of people who wish to be truthful and fruitful. Are we wasting the resources of God in our lives? We all need to face God who will demand an account of our lives and the gifts we received as a person. What are we doing with all that is entrusted by God? Have we buried them and hidden them away? Or Have we made them multiplied and fruitful? Let us have an honest stock taking of our lives and submit our findings whether we are happy about it and if not, what are we going to do about? No one can escape the personal encounter with God no matter who we are and what we hold in the society, the church and in the community. May you have a good day. God bless you.