Category: Twentieth Week

⏰Thursday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 1 (19 August 2021) 📖Judg 11:29-39a; Ps 40:5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10 (R.v.8a, 9a); Matt 22:1-14 🎤”I HAVE OPENED MY MOUTH TO THE LORD, AND I CANNOT TAKE BACK MY VOW” (Judg 11:35) Reading through Judg 11:29-39, something keeps me from being blinded by the fact that the actions of Jephthah in sacrificing his only daughter were borne of a pagan custom that was already condemned by God (cf. Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut 12:31). Instead, the FAITHFULNESS OF JEPHTHAH TO FULFIL HIS VOWS TO THE LORD struck me. How often do we keep...

⏰Tuesday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time (20 August 2019) 📖Judges 6:11-24; Ps 85:9, 11-12, 13-14 (R.v.9b); Matt 19:23-30 🎤”I WILL BE WITH YOU… DO NOT FEAR, YOU SHALL NOT DIE” (Judges 6:16, 23) God would not give you a task that you cannot handle nor allow you to go through a situation that would leave you helpless. This is because he is bigger than all our situations, and embracing him would usher in the needed solution for all our seeming difficulties. Moreover, God does not commission us for an assignment without equipping us. Consider the example of Gideon...

⏰Saturday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time 1 (26 August 2023) 📖Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11, 4:13-17; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4, 5 (R.v.4); Matt 23:1-12 Yesterday, I had a beautiful discussion with a brother priest. Our discussion centered on the kind of life we live as priests. He reminded me that priesthood is a state of life which we must use to live out our baptismal identity. By that he means that every priest must first remember that he is a Christian who must be judged by Christian principles. That means, a priest is not exempt from the call to righteousness....

⏰Friday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time (23 August 2019) 📖Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22; Ps 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9b, 9bc-10 (R.v.1b); Matt 22:34-40 We can never say it enough, neither can we put it better than the love evangelist himself who said, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ while he hates his brother, he is a liar. How can he love God whom he does not see if he hates his brother whom he can see?” (1 John 4:20). There is a necessary correlation between the love of God and the love of neighbour. That could be why Jesus...

⏰Wednesday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time (23 August 2017) ????Judges 9:6-15; Ps 21:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 (R.v.2a); Matt 20:1-16a In Ps 23, the Lord the Good Shepherd leads his flock along the right path to green pastures, where all things good are available. Why not give him a chance to also lead you into that pasture? Surely, you won’t regret doing that. The citizens of Shechem made a grave mistake in choosing Abimelech to be their king when the Lord was supposed to reign over them. His brother, Jotham, warned them of the disastrous consequences of such an action,...

⏰Monday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time (21 August 2023 – Memorial of St. Pius X) 📖Judges 2:11-19; Ps 106:34-37, 39-40, 43-44 (R.v.4ab); Matt 19:16-22 My dear, sin is an abomination before God. In fact, we can say that it is sin that cannot withstand the presence of God. Hence, whenever we sin, we move away from the presence of God, and so, exposed to the dangers which the wicked one tries to unleash in the world. This was exactly what was happening with the relationship which God had with the Israelites. Whenever they committed sin, they made themselves...