✝️ REFLECTION CAPSULE FOR THE DAY – June 22, 2021: Tuesday
“Making a choice for the Divine, Who alone can sustain our lives!”
(Based on Gen 13:2, 5-18 and Mt 7:6-14 – Tuesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time)
A man once came to a crossroad, which had a church on one side, and a golf-park on the other.
>> At the crossroad was an interesting sign board.
It read…
Make a choice!
Would you – like Lot – look at the greenery and be attracted to spend time there?
… or would you, like Abraham, be ready to walk in, to have an encounter with the Divine?
>> The greens may attract you…allure you… and entertain you
… but remember, its only the Divine that can sustain you!
Life indeed attracts us with many things that can allure and entertain us
>> But Christian Life demands that we make a choice – for God and His Virtues
… a choice to enter by the “narrow gate”
Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate… for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7: 13-14)
The Sermon on the Mount continues with Jesus presenting the wonderful message of the Kingdom of God and its radical requirements.
One of the key aspects in the Sermon on the Mount is the demand made on the part of the disciple to “make a choice”
• One has to radically “make a choice” for the Kingdom of God.
• One has to stay committed to this “choice” that is taken and live it to the fullness.
It is this “choice” that will determine whether our entry to eternity…
… eternal condemnation – is through the “wide gate” or
… eternal life – is through the “narrow gate”.
Jesus says that it is easy to pass through the wide gate…
• All those who choose not to live in accordance to the Gospel values
• All those who are content to make life “merry” and just “live life to the max”
• All those who fail to respond to God’s Grace and deny having a life in Him
>> But this will lead to doom and condemnation!
To pass through the narrow gate is hard…
• All those who make a choice to live according to the teachings of the Lord
• All those who boldly seek to proclaim the Kingdom by their faithful and holy lives
• All those who constantly hold on to the Lord despite hardships and difficulties in life
>> But this will lead to joy and eternal life!
The book of Genesis tells us about how two people looked at life differently…
>> Lot – who looked with “human eyes” and was enticed by the external attractions and allurements
>> Abraham – who chose to look with a “Divine vision;” though he had to “see rivers in the wilderness with the eyes of faith”
“Human eyes” can often deceive and land in folly… just as Lot would experience!
>> But “Divine vision” always upholds and guides to blessings… just as Abraham would experience!
As we stand at the crossroads of our life, let’s make a choice, remembering…
… The “greens of worldly pleasures” may attract us …allure us… and entertain us
>> But, it’s only the Divine that can sustain us!
MAKE A CHOICE!
God Bless! Live Jesus!
– Fr Jijo Jose Manjackal MSFS
Bengaluru, India
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📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism:
MARY’S VIRGINAL MOTHERHOOD IN GOD’S PLAN
The eyes of faith can discover in the context of the whole of Revelation the mysterious reasons why God in his saving plan wanted his Son to be born of a virgin.
>> These reasons touch both on the person of Christ and his redemptive mission, and on the welcome Mary gave that mission on behalf of all men.
>> Mary’s virginity manifests God’s absolute initiative in the Incarnation. Jesus has only God as Father. “He was never estranged from the Father because of the human nature which he assumed.
>> He is naturally Son of the Father as to his divinity and naturally son of his mother as to his humanity, but properly Son of the Father in both natures.”
>> Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb because he is the New Adam, who inaugurates the new creation: “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.”
>> From His conception, Christ’s humanity is filled with the Holy Spirit, for God “gives Him the Spirit without measure.”
>> From “His fullness” as the head of redeemed humanity “we have all received, grace upon grace (Cf. CCC # 502-504)
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Nelson MCBS 