“EVEN THE HAIRS OF YOUR HEAD ARE ALL NUMBERED” (Matt 10:30)

⏰Saturday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time 1 (15 July 2017 – Memorial of St. Bonaventure)

????Gen 49:29-33, 50:15-26a; Ps 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7 (R. Ps 69:33); Matt 10:24-33

As a child, St. Bonaventure was struck with a serious ailment which made his mother to beg St. Francis to pray for him. At that time, his name was John but when St. Francis was praying for the young boy, his eyes were opened to the boy’s future and he cried out, “O buona ventura” – O good fortune! That was how he got his name Bonaventure. And indeed, he was later a good fortune to the Church and the society in his time.

You are not an accident, my dear! Not minding whatever might be the circumstances surrounding your birth, God knows you before you were born and approved of your birth and made out plans for what he shall achieve with you (cf. Jer 1:5). You are a child of destiny and no one can do anything to you without God’s approval (see John 19:11).

Therefore, never you fall prey to the ploys of the evil one to pull you into sin because you want to safeguard your life. Your life can never be under threat if it is sealed with the blood of Christ. What should preoccupy your mind is how to see God in all things so as to remain bound in the blood of Christ.

To be bound in him is to live in love, for God and for our neighbours. Jesus even extends it to the love of our enemies (cf. Luke 6:27-36). That was exactly the example that Joseph gives us in Gen 50:19-21. He forgave his brothers who had earlier planned evil for him.

We are called to do the same and even desire more just like Jacob and Joseph, who desired to be carried home to the Promised Land after their death (cf. Gen 49:29ff and 50:25). We need to desire to be taken to Paradise when we have died. That is why we should fear only God and not man, who has no power over us.

May God grant us the grace of fortitude to stand against all powers that threaten our union with him. Amen.

I wish you a restful weekend. Peace be with you.