Saturday, June 16, 2018
TODAY'S REFLECTION - SATURDAY- 10TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
St. John Francis Regis, Confessor
1 Kings 19:19-21/ Psalm 102:1-4,8-9,11-12/ Matthew 5:33-37
MAKE AND KEEP/MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
Beloved, at the end of the earthly prophetic ministry of Elijah, he was asked to appoint Hazael and Jehu as kings and appoint Elisha as a prophet to succeed him (1 Kings 29:16). In our today's first reading, Elisha was seriously ploughing when Elijah passed near and threw his cloak over him. It was a sign of handing over of power. Elisha was initially reluctant. However, he finally killed his twelve yoke of oxen, cooked the meet, gave to people and became Elijah's servant. What a personal, costly, radical and total decision and commitment! No turning back. At our Baptism, we were clothed with a white garment, to symbolise our complete dedication to Christ, which we should keep pure forever. But sad to say, some of us have broken our Baptismal, Wedding, Ordination, Profession, Swearing- in promises.
Friends, it is an undeniable fact that God is our just judge. No matter what we say or do, God knows the whole truth. Some of us swear anyhow and also break our oaths anyhow. Jesus tells us not to swear at all, either by heaven or by earth or by our own head. Our 'Yes' should simply be 'Yes' and our 'No' should simply be 'No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one. There are some of us, whether out of pride or fear or wickedness or doubt, who say yes/no when we don't really mean it. We are either pushed to the corner or we intentionally say yes/no when we actually mean the opposite. I don't think we need a lot of explanations all the time to convince people. He/she who has faith or who believes, needs no explanation. He/she who has no faith or doesn't believe will not still believe no matter the amount of explanations.
Let us pray for the grace to make a personal and total decision to follow the Lord. We should not also deceive God and one another by swearing falsely. BE BLESSED.
Fr. Gaa (0206854323/0240308878)