Good morning, Good People,
May the Lord give you peace. It is 18th July 2025. We reflect on Exodus 11:10 – 12:14 and Matthew 12:1-8.
Is my faith freeing or freezing others?
Pope Francis taught us in Misericordiae Vultus (1)”Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life… The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love.”
The first reading immerses us in the very heart of Israel’s sacred memory—the first Passover. It was not merely a historical event, but a divine act etched into the soul of a people. “This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, forever.” (Exodus 12:14)
The blood of the lamb, painted on doorposts, was not only a sign of deliverance from death, but a foreshadowing of the eternal Lamb—Christ Jesus—whose Blood has set us free from the tyranny of sin and fear. Today, in our world clouded with uncertainty and noise, God still desires to enter our hearts and homes to bring redemption, to silence the shadows, and to guide us from captivity into the glorious freedom of His love.
St. Francis de Sales reminds us, “The measure of love is to love without measure.”
In the Gospel, Jesus awakens our spirit to the deeper meaning of holiness—not one confined by rigid ritual, but one flowing from mercy. “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7)
Today’s world is thirsty for justice, yet often parched of mercy. There will always be critics ready to point fingers. But the Lord calls us to respond not with bitterness, but with the balm of compassion. Mercy isn’t weakness—it’s divine strength in action. Feeding the hungry, forgiving the broken, healing the forgotten—these are not mere gestures, but acts of worship, pleasing in God’s sight.
Jesus did not dismiss religious tradition; He purified it. He invites us to do the same—by making space for mercy at the heart of every law we uphold and every altar we serve.
So then, may we be people of the Passover—marked not only by sacrifice but by mercy, not only by remembrance but by renewal.
Have a grace-filled day. God bless you.