May the Lord bless you with peace and health in the Holy Spirit. It is 31st October 2023.
The readings are from Romans 8:18-25; and the Gospel is from Luke 13:18-21.
As we conclude the month of October dedicated to Mother Mary, let us continue to emulate her as She is the icon of hope; and the Synod on Synodality – the spark of hope reaches another stage, may it keep the flame of faith in love for all people.
“A journey of a thousand miles Begins with a single step.”
A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for office, so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. His wife, preoccupied in the kitchen totally forgot about the open medicine bottle. Fascinated by the colour of the bottle, the drank the medicine happed to be high dosage meant for adults. The child died. The mother was terrified how to face her husband. When the father arrived, devasted to the core to see the child, and looked at his wife and uttered just five words: “I AM WITH YOU DARLING.”
Life in the spirit is the ideal for every believer to reach. Every pain, struggle and challenges of life surely will pass by leaving an impact, an indelible mark in our inner being.
Our patience and perseverance in handling the pieces of life to integrate it as one is our spiritual maturity. We all can attain and reach the spiritual growth by our patient endurance and prayerful assurance.
Transformation of our bodies into spiritual body is not merely a human effort but it is through grace, and faith in the risen Lord. We are out of the dungeon of sin only by the constant effort we put in our life in the Spirit.
Living in hope of what is promised after life on earth is impeccably profound. The longing to be liberated from the shackles of sins is present even amidst the rebellion and stubbornness right within each one of us.
A wilful and selectively coded culture that opposes God, life and living in truth is on the rise, yet God is working with the humanity to reach the perfection day in and day out.
Hope is the sign of spiritual fertility. Hope is not merely a positive attitude or optimism. St Paul says hope is a virtue of eager longing for the revelation of the Son of God. Hope is an anchor in Christ. We groan inwardly as we wait. We are waiting. This is a kind of labour”.
If the Spirit is at work, the mustard seed will sprout to become a tree and the leaven makes the dough to rise. Hope is alive when we live by the Spirit.
The responsorial Psalm rightly acclaims, “What marvels the Lord worked for us!” (Ps.125:3).
The Gospel invites us to experience kingdom of God by transforming society. We each one of us who hear the groaning of our being and echoed in the nature need to do our part to secure the beauty and perfection of the nature as a caretaker of the creation. May the Lord bless us to transform the world around us. May you have a good day.