May the Lord give you peace and blessings in the Holy Spirit. It is 26th October 2023. We reflect on Romans 6:19-23 and Luke 12:49-53.
When God is no longer remains the meaning and motto of our existence, we tend to lean on sin and Satan for our livelihood.
Sin not only destroys the relationship with God and with one another.
Every sin is a sin against love, faithfulness, and trust.
St. Paul points out in the first reading as though sin is being paid to keep God out of our life and preferring to offer the place of God to created things and people.
Sin separates us from God and bring us closer to death. This pain of separation is self-inflicted and a personal choice to reject God.
By loving sin, we lose the capacity to love God. By choosing to embrace sin, we become weakened to choose God.
Life is all about choices. Our choices cannot exclude God and God’s kingdom, grace and faith, holiness, and faithfulness in our lives.
We need to clarify and examine daily whether we are at the service of Christ or in the service of sin. Our life of charity is the sanctification for our souls, and we need to be the slaves of God not of sin and Satan.
God does not owe anything to anyone however good we might be. Yet, salvation is grace in Christ offered by God as an underserved gift. We need to welcome it and nurture it daily.
The Gospel teaches us that meeting Christ ignites humanity with the flames of the Holy Spirit, the fire of love and blazing tongues of the word of the Lord. The encounter with Jesus brings division in the strangers and to the members of the same family. Jesus remains a sign of contradiction as prophesized by Simeon. (Lk.2:34).
Fire denotes the judgement of God and directly connected with the baptism of the Lord. The flames of fire that descended upon the Church to be prophetic in its evangelising mission.
Our commitment for Christ is to be the top priority over all the material attachments. Let us not quell the flames of love by our sins while listening to Jesus. The fire that Jesus offers warms our hearts, homes, and relationships. May you have a day full of peace basked in the flames of love offered by Jesus. May God bless you.