May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 23rd July 2021.
We reflect on Exodus 20:1-17 and the Gospel of Matthew 13:18-23.
At times, we wonder which way to go in life and live a life of blessings. The first reading offers the path to do the will of God by following the Ten Commandments. God offers God’s a clear way of walking and living towards fruitful life. They are like seeds that bear fruit when it germinates as we practice them. The catechism teaches us that “God has loved us first. The love of the One God is recalled in the first of the “ten words.” The commandments then make explicitly the response of love that man is called to give to his God.” (CCC 2083).
Through very many ways, God, the generous farmer of the Word sows in every land whether it is edgy and shallow, rocky, and hard, thorny, and crushing, good, and fertile conditions of the heart of the recipient.
The Decalogue is based on loving God and neighbour. It is by honouring our parents and revering God we begin to bear fruit thirty, sixty and hundredfold in our life. Our freedom and happiness come only by being faithful to the commandments of God.
The Gospel brings out a lot of insight into our personal life. The Word is captured and crushed by the evil and evil interactions, sometimes suffering suffocates the growth of the seed, worries and allurement of the world suppresses the possibility of growth of the seed, the Word of God. The enemies of the Word are always around us, and in us as the worries come from inside. Even though the seed has the potential to bear fruit, we need to provide the conditions required for the seed to bear fruit.
The Ten Commandments offer all the possibilities for a meaningful life. To do that the first three commandments invite us to revere God and the sabbath. The rest of the seven commandments are surrounding the way we interact with others. Fourth is the order of charity by honouring our parents. The sixth and ninth are protecting and setting an appropriate boundary for families from all kinds of ideologies and new teachings against the welfare of families. The sixth invites us to protect human lives and the seventh and tenth expect us to provide protection to the goods of the others.
May the Lord help us to adhere to His Word to be fruitful in all we say and do. God bless you.
Fr. Peter, your words which I heard in person through BOTIM call and this reading – both boost my spirits and have given me a new sight to look at the ways of God; I feel the love of God and feel blessed to be under your infinite spiritual guidance.