✝️ REFLECTION CAPSULE FOR THE DAY – July 21, 2021: Wednesday
“Ready to harvest manifold blessings with the Seed of the Word of God!”
(Based on Exo 16:1-5,9-15 and Mt 13:1-9 – Wednesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time)
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step….
>> The construction of a magnificent building is initiated by the laying of a single brick or a stone…
>> The art of composing a lovely song starts with gathering of the first strains of melody & lyrics…
>> The discipline of writing a spectacular novel commences with penning down the first few words…
There is power in the first step!
>> There is magic in the first act!
There is much potential in the Sowing of a Little Seed…
We are encountering the familiar Parable of the Sower in today’s Gospel Reading
… The Master Sower is back in the Field, broadcasting the Seeds…
The Seed is the Word of God
… It is little.
… It is tiny.
… It is small.
>> But it can become big.
>> It can become powerful.
>> It can become very influential.
The Word of God is powerful… but it is in the form of a Seed
>> It however, contains within it, all the potentials of a new life and fruitfulness!
The Seed has a tremendous potential….
>> This Seed has the potential to be a Living Bread (Jn 6:51)
… to sustain life, and to strengthen the weak and fragile.
>> This Seed has the potential to be a Bubbling Fountain (Prov 13:14)
… issuing forth pure water that refreshes, cleanses and purifies the dirt of sinfulness.
>> This Seed has the potential to be a Powerful Hammer (Jer 23:29) – building and reconstructing broken and shattered lives.
This Seed has the potential to be a Thick Golden Honey (Ps 19:11)…
… sweet to the taste and satisfying the spirit in moments of distress and pain.
This Seed has the potential to be a Bright, Shining Lamp (Ps 119:105)
… exposing the darkness and releasing the light of His purity, holiness and righteousness upon humanity.
The Seed has the potential to be a Sharp Two-edged Sword (Heb 4:12)
… helping to discern between the good & bad, the holy & the profane and the pure & polluted!
The Seed has the potential to be a Mirror (Jam 1:23)
… challenging us to look into our interior and also reflecting the attributes of the Most High God in whose image we are created!
Yes, the Seed has a tremendous potential…
The Divine Sower invites us…
… to share in His Divine Work of broadcasting the Seed
… and helping it realize its full potentials.
The Prophet Jeremiah was called to this purpose… “to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10)
Let all experience the Seed – God’s word – as
… the Living Bread and the Bubbling Fountain
… the Powerful Hammer and the Thick Golden Honey
… the Bright, Shining Lamp Sharp and Two-edged Sword
… or as the Mirror!
Be not afraid to Sow the Seed…
… though little & tiny, in our own situations & circumstances.
A harvest of manifold blessings, begins with a single Seed…
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:
JESUS AND ISRAEL’S FAITH IN THE ONE GOD AND SAVIOUR
>> Only the Divine identity of Jesus’ person can justify so absolute a claim as “He who is not with me is against me”; and His saying that there was in Him “something greater than Jonah… greater than Solomon”, something “greater than the Temple”; His reminder that David had called the Messiah His Lord, and His affirmations, “Before Abraham was, I AM”, and even “I and the Father are one.”
>> Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in Him because of the Father’s works which He accomplished.
>> But such an act of faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new “birth from above” under the influence of divine grace.
>> Such a demand for conversion in the face of so surprising a fulfilment of the promises allows one to understand the Sanhedrin’s tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged that He deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer.
>> The members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of “ignorance” and the “hardness” of their “unbelief (Cf. CCC # 590-591)
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Nelson MCBS 