It is 31st July 2020. We celebrate the memorial of St Ignatius of Loyola, Priest.
The readings are from Jeremiah 26:1-9; and the Gospel from Matthew 13:54-58.
When false ideas and persons appear to be attractive and appealing, we choose to close our heart to truth, mercy, and love.
Shortage of trust creates a vacuum in the presence and the power of the Word of God.
Without faith in God, we cannot even face the ordinary events of life.
With a fraction of faith in God, we can move mountains of issues.
The absence of faith generates pessimism, rejection and criticism on ourselves, others and even God.
Our present responses to God are influenced by the past conditions and life we lived.
Returning and coming back to normalcy is always a struggle. When we got used a type of life, thinking, and relating, it is difficult to respond to challenging situations. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah warned people to return to the Lord and be faithful to the Lord.
Lack of faithfulness in God leads us to aggression, anger, and frustrations.
The responsorial Psalm intercedes, “Lord, in your great love, answer me.” (Ps.69:14).
In the Gospel, Jesus could not perform any good work due to their selective listening and lack of faith in Him.
To accept the proclamation and preaching of the Lord, we need to let go off our prejudices, pessimism, and narrow-mindedness.
Prejudice is the offspring of Pride and arrogance of undermining the other’s goodness.
Miracles are possible in the environment of faith, and faithfulness.
The Word of Lord will not permeate the intentional shutdown of our inner lives. God performs miracles in the atmosphere of openness and optimism.
It might be of true of ourselves too that God and Jesus are not able to perform any miracle due to the issues of faith.
To become a friend of Jesus, we need to have faith in Jesus. Let us not go by the cover of the book.
Familiarity, and knowledge of someone cannot lead us to hate the person’s goodness.
May we ask the Holy Spirit to help us believe in Jesus to receive the blessings that waiting for us. May you have a lovely day. God bless you.