It is 3rd August 2020.
The readings are from Jeremiah 28:1-17; and the Gospel from Matthew 14:22-36.
The oxygen of our life is prayer. Prayerless life perishes in lies. Prayer allows us to go after truth. Prayer prepares us to embrace and radiate the rays of truth. Truth is blunt, and it hurts yet it can be faced with the power of prayer that gives us the inner courage.
Most of us love soft lies that soothes our lives. We wish to hear that pleases our heart even though we know it is a lie. We tend to like people who speak what suits and sweetens our minds. Birds of a feather flock together.
To communicate and to learn from the Holy Spirit, we need to humble ourselves in consistent prayerful moments of silence and discernment. To confront lies, we need to come in front of God. Whenever we have issues with God, we tend to go behind the lying people.
The people of Israel wanted to hear what they were comfortable to hear. We are always given the option to face truthful people with resounding messages of God and people-pleasers with full of untruthful messages that the majority go after. It was between truthful prophet Jeremiah and false prophet Hananiah. It is between the spirituality of poverty and the spirituality of prosperity. It is what we would opt for. We opt for soothing, promising, and attractive messages even though they are lies.
Beware of false and lying prophets, teachers, and leaders among us. Their words and promises are sweeter than honey.
As the body craves for sweet, so the mind is coached in the stillness of prayer to face the moments of bitter truth. Sin is sweet. Repentance is a bitter pill everyone needs to consume to enjoy the desired healing.
The responsorial Psalm intercedes, “Teach me your laws, O Lord.” (Ps.119:33).
The Gospel presents the fears and doubts faced by the young Church with its leader Peter. By trusting the Lord at all times, we can sail through the storms of lives. Consoling message is that the Church, family, and community need not fear times of storms of life when we gaze upon Jesus who calms all our fears and deals with the shadows of lies. Cry of Peter, “Lord, save me,” is the sentiment all around the world during this pandemic. May we strengthen the strings of hope by the power of prayer to help us walk across the water to Jesus. Our initial attempts to grab the hands of the Lord might end up in failure. Yet our faith in Jesus leaps the gap created by the inner doubts. By confessing “You are the Son of God,” all darkness of doubts dispels and allow us to believe Him even more amidst the storms of life. Have a lovely day. May God bless you.