Good morning good people,
May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 27th August 2025.
We reflect on 1 Thess. 2:9-13 and the Gospel of Matthew 23:27-32.
His holiness Pope Leo XIV encourages, ““Our faith is authentic when it embraces our whole life, when it becomes a criterion for our decisions to doing for what is right out of love, even as Jesus did.”
We are what we are because of others. No one can claim to be the person they are today without acknowledging the contributions of people, places, and ideology they cherish. We are all born contributors, yet many of us have become collectors for ourselves.
Leaving the world without a legacy is something to be seriously avoided. God wants each one of us—through our efforts, gifts, charisms, intelligence, abilities, strengths, and calibre—to offer something worthwhile to humanity and the world at large.
We can spend our whole life as actors without genuine actions. By now, many of us may have become people who speak eloquently rather than people who care, share, and participate in the humanitarian welfare and common good. The more we give importance to the outside while neglecting the inside, the more we fall into hypocrisy and a life of dichotomy.
St. Paul explains his life of integrity and equanimity. Without honesty, we cannot honour God and respect others. As St. Paul puts it, our conduct needs to be pure, upright, and blameless in reaching out to the needy persons in our community. He was a volunteer in the work of the Lord, yet he supported himself by his hard labour. Working without expecting anything in return always makes God happy. And when God is pleased, we are showered with the rain of blessings. How do we support the local Church or parish where we belong and worship?
That is why the Psalmist exclaims that we cannot hide from God no matter where we run. By chasing after fame, praise, and vainglory, we forget the people in front of us and those in our lives. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for giving so much importance to appearance rather than the application of the law. Are we also looking righteous on the outside, while inside we are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness?
Let us examine our lives today and offer ourselves to the Lord and humanity.
Have a lovely day. God bless you.