Jesus the Gospel of Love is the Answer to all our miseries . By: Ivan Rodrigues -Bangalore-India

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 27, 2021

Today’s Readings:

Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Ps 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5:21-43
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062721.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-06-27

Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.

Lord Jesus Christ is the Center of today’s Gospel. Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to every hopeless situation in this World. The hopelessness and misery is not a plan of God but a human Weakness by not trusting and following Jesus and the Gospel. The entire chaos in the World today is due to, not following Gospel Values. To live as per the Gospel values is the ultimate plan of God in this Earth. Jesus came in to this Earth to teach us how to live , he himself is the resurrection and life . When we believe in him and the Gospel of love , the darkness of this World disappears and a bright light of hope shines on the Whole World.

Living a life of the Gospel is a thrill and an adventure in this World because the ways of Jesus is not in line with the ways of this World. We enter in to a different World of life and this life is according to the life of Jesus and his Word in the Gospel Truth. The Manna in the desert satisfied the needs of everyone , some people gathered too much Manna but some gathered little but the providence of Manna satisfied every one as per his or her needs. The first rays of Sun melted the Manna in the desert but whatever collected for their needs did not melt or spoil till the next day until they collected the new batch of Manna. Whoever had much did not have more,and whoever had little did not have less.

The beauty of the Gospel is love and Sharing , there is no activity in the Gospel called hoarding and gathering but sharing and giving or not following Jesus to seek Worldly Prosperity . The people who do this and preach others do not understand Gospel of love and Lord Jesus himself. The miracles to gather and hoard can be done by the Evil and World. I scratch your back and you scratch my back is the practice of this World to gather and become famous in the Eyes of this World. But Gospel says share with the poor when you have in abundance so that you may receive from Vice Versa, when they are in abundance and you are poor. This is the thumb rule of the Gospel.

I remember Families used have 10 to 12 Children in the last Century and these families lived in love and sharing but in our modern World families have one or two children but still can not see any happiness in the Family. The rules of the World to bring selfishness and greed of gathering and Worldly riches in the name of better living , but the Gospel of love bring true happiness in sharing and giving each other. We miss a point when we gather for our needs , if we pass on the things that we gather ,we can gather more due to the limited capacity to hold and manage the resources, but if we decentralize or distribute the resources ,we can gather more and these very things which we distributed will come back to us either while we live or to our next generation. So sharing does not mean losing or becoming poor but in the Gospel ways it is multiplying or dying for someone else so that he or she may live and pass on to our life to some one else who needs the most. Jesus did this in his life and lived for ever and taught us through the light of the Gospel how to live a life of love and sharing.

World needs the Gospel values of giving and sharing today and during Pandemic we are tested on our values. Each wave is an awakening call to repent for our attachment to this World and give and share every poor and sick person. This is a beautiful chance for the reparation for our Sins on this Earth. We have not seen Purgatory,Heaven or Hell but the life we live takes us in these states of life while we live on this Earth. There is no test without the Answers so the answers are there with us on this earth in the light of the Gospel to rectify , repent , minister and live for ever which is the original plan of God for every human Being.

There is an urgent need to believe in Jesus and his ways and teach others the true Gospel of Faith . Love and hope. People ask why God permit Pandemic and Calamities on his children , the answer is Pandemics and Calamities are not the original plan of God but the reactions to Weakness of Man by clinging on the World and Evil ways. When we sow bad seeds only thistle and thorns and Weeds come out of the same, the Land Lord of the Field waits till the Weeds can be recognizable and people may understand the God’s Ways by looking at the good and bad and change their ways of this materialistic World .

Jesus is calling us to have a trusting relationship with him today and live forever. Jesus died but resurrected on the third day and he is telling us to die for our Neighbor as many lay people are dying today to save other’s life. The parents are dying to save their Children, Children are dying to save their Siblings, Doctors and nurses are dying to save their Patients, Volunteers, Civil Servants risk their life to save life. If the whole chooses one act of mercy in this Pandemic , the Pandemic can be defeated like any other illness in this World and this act of love which Gospel of love teaches in today’s Readings.

Prayer : Lord enlighten our minds in the light of the Gospel of love.Amen.

Faith and Love are the two sides of the same Coin. By: Ivan Rodrigues – Bangalore -India

Wednesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
June 23 2021

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062321.cfm

Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord;
whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.

Today’s Readings teach us what is faith in action. In the modern World the faith has understood in various ways and most of them in wrong ways . The definition of Faith is “Trusting relationship“, a trusted relationship developed in Prayer and righteousness leads a person to have a fellowship with the Person. When a person spends time with another person , a relationship builds up which we call trust and when we put our trust in to action , we call this as faith and this faith exercised towards other person we call it love. When a young Boy or Girl meet with each other for the first time , they do not trust or have faith or love with each other but as they spend time with each other , a trust develops this trust leads to faith with each other and this faith finally commits to love with each other in Marriage a covenant of love.

Faith and Love are two sides of the same coin , today’s first reading tells us how Abraham was spending his time with the Lord in Prayer and God reminds him his Covenant of love in a Vision but Abraham has a personal doubt on the Lord and asks for a sign and God of love renews his Covenant with Abraham with a sign of of Holy Fire of God’s Love. Abraham trusts God’s Covenant of love for rest of his life and obeys God’s Words of love. This obedience to God’s Covenant made him righteous and Father of Faith. Abraham spent time with the Lord in Prayer , had an encounter with Lord in a Vision and exercised his trust in the Lord for clarification of his doubt and finally saw a miracle of tongues of fire which empowered him with Faith and obeyed the Lord’s Promises by going through a time of test and thus became Righteous.

God calls the Whole World to love him and trust him and put their faith in him. Faith or love are not two activities but one and the same. When we trust God immediately God trusts us and takes us to himself and teaches us his way of life and equips us with gifts and Fruits of his power so that we may use them in to his Kingdom and for his glory. When a person receives these Gifts and do not use them for the Kingdom of God or glory of God but use them for his selfishness and Evil Kingdom then this person becomes a spoiled Child of God or a False Prophet or a Hypocrite or a fallen angel. All Evil angels were once upon a time were children of God but they disobeyed God by using their power for their own selfishness and Pride. In God’s Kingdom Faith and love are the ultimate States of life , if a person loses these states in his life then his gifts are not useful for the Kingdom of God. If a person has a relationship with God then he or she must produce the offspring’s of God’s love otherwise there is something wrong in their relationship .

All Christians are Prophets in their own calling , we must ask a personal Question to ourselves , are we bearing Fruits of love and forgiveness or keep hatred and unforgiveness in our heart. If we have hatred and Unforgiveness then we are called the False Prophets in today’s Gospel. If we love and forgive then the Lord is calling us Children of God. There are many False Prophets or spoiled Children of God who act like good Prophets and disturb the Kingdom of God. There is forgiveness to the Prodigal Son but there is no forgiveness to the Evil Spirits . God’s anger comes on these wolves and they are thrown in the eternal fire. The trees those who do not bear good Fruit’s are thrown in the fire. We must tremble with holy fear with these words because life is not just living a Worldly selfish life but to live for love of the Family , Friends and the Whole World. Let us tremble with Holy fear of our Salvation in every activity we do on this Earth.

Prayer : Lord make me an Instrument of Love and forgiveness. Amen