Let your light shine

Reflection  of Thursday 28th January 2021

Memorial of St Thomas Aquinas. Gospel Mk 4:21-25
Theme: Let your light shine.

The gospel today invites us to reflect on, Jesus, by alerting a crowd, about the importance of living and witnessing his word, makes it clear that we, cannot just stay in the enchantment of the word, we need to give life to the word that we hear with our life testimony. Let  your light shine.

Bearing testimony of Jesus in this world, surrounded by darkness, can imply great risks, since many people want to distance us from God, but the greatest risk we face is that of not accepting the challenge of witness who can condemn us the worst of all darkness: being alone, far from Jesus.

"Who brings a lamp to put it under the table" The Christian's life must be as bright as a lighted lamp! Our belonging to God must be integral at all times, from nowhere being a Christian who burns down on Sunday celebrations and spending the whole week in passivity, like a lighted out lamp!
"Everything that is hidden must become manifest, and everything that is in secret must be discovered."
When we omit ourselves in the face of injustice, when we try to hide our wrongdoing, we can even deceive people for some time, but one day, the mask falls and the truth comes out, falsehoods, lies, do not remain hidden forever or before the clarity of the Light of Christ.

Questions: Are you walking into the Light of Christ? Does your way shows you are not in darkness and don’t cover up anything?. In the actions of those who live in this Light, the love of Christ is shown.

Prayer: Lord Jesus help us to be the light to the world, may nothing be hidden in us so as to be true witnesses of your word. Amen.
GOD BLESS YOU AND HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Pax- peace🙏🏾 Fr Ralph Jnr.

Bear fruit in rich soil

 Reflection of Wednesday 27th January 2021. Gospel Mk 4:1-20

Theme: Bear fruit in rich soil.

 The various types of soils are all those and to whom we turn to announce  the word of God. These can be of several types: Indifferent, disbelieving, pretending, and considerate, for believing in what they hear.

Although everyone is thirsty for God, everyone needs something comforting, security, a strength that sustains us, that protects us, that guides us, that comforts us in difficult moments, despite all that, not all are earthly conducive to receiving the word of God.

We are different. In the world there is no one just like you. Yes, we are human, we are the children of one Father, but there are individual differences that differ us. Two twin children. Are they even? No! The mother knows who one is and who the other is.

Jesus, using his famous method of teaching in parables, compared us to various types of soil. The sower at that time was throwing the seed at random throughout the field. The seed fell into different soils, which would react according to their characteristics.

In the same way, we, who are equal but different beings, will react in a personal way when we hear the word of God.

The sad thing about all this is that unfortunately only a minority can be compared with good soil, with fertile soil that absorbs the seed and successfully germinates it!

Are we that kind of soil? Will it be me? will it be you?

Are we really the kind of good, fruitful soil? We need to do our part. We need to sow the seed of God's word everywhere.

Let God do his part. He takes care of the germination of the seed. He will take care of the conversion of those who heard our speech. 

Prayer: God make us truly the ideal type of soil to fertilize, germinate the word of God, and bear many fruits.

The seed was sown in many places. However, only in part did it germinate correctly, and may we belong to the proper type of soil that Jesus referred to in today's Gospel.

Have a blessed day!

Pax- Peace 🙏🏾 Fr Ralph Jnr.

 

HOMILY FOR THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL

 JANUARY 25, 2021 MONDAY-CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL APOSTLE

Theme- “surrendered to the Light

Ist-Reading - Acts 22, 3-16, Gospel Mk 16,15-18

Saul was zealous for the cause of God, yet he fought against God himself and in the name of the Law he persecuted the followers of His Son. Even so, he was chosen to have a “personal encounter” with Jesus when, full of reasons, he went to Damascus in order to arrest all Christian he met. On the way to Damascus, however, his story changed and he, helpless, surrendered to the Light realizing the greatness of Jesus's call. This also happens when we are “watching out” for the cause of God based on law and “obligations”. In fact, we are fighting against God and do not understand what He wants to show us. Just as He did with Saul, the Lord also provides an occasion for us to surrender before His Light and, humbled, we finally realize our inconsistency. The Light of Jesus takes away any doubt and, before it, we are obliged to stoop, for we are blinded by His power. God only knows the right way for us. Our personal encounter with Jesus has the consequence of putting down all our ideas and conceptions coming from our humanity and from our exaggerated “zeal” and without reason for the things of God to surrender to His Love and thus be able to love and understand even our neighbor. Even in the face of the rebelliousness and arrogance that prevent us from seeing the truth, the Lord sends us “Ananias” to take the blindfold off our eyes and make us be His witnesses before all men. After he had an encounter with the Risen Jesus, Paul was no longer the same, received Baptism and began to preach in His Name. - we are obliged to stoop, for we are blinded by His power. God only knows the right way for us. 

After he had an encounter with the Risen Jesus, Paul was no longer the same, received Baptism and began to preach in His Name. That is exactly what the disciples in the Gospel were sent for. My brothers, my sisters. We need to do something in the face of absurd sizes! That is why we need to go all over the world and announce the Gospel, announce the true values ​​that matter to our earthly life, with the aim of reaching an eternal life.

Questions: Have you ever had an encounter with Jesus? What happened after that?  Are your ideas and purposes today compatible with the Gospel? Have you ever surrendered to Jesus Christ and stopped persecuting His followers?  Through which lens have you seen the people around you: with the lens of the world or with the lens of God?

Prayer: May God help us to be transformed inwardly and assist us to bring his name before all his people.

Pax-Peace🙏🏾 Fr. Ralph Jnr.