Sunday, January 22, 2017

3rd Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, 23-01-17

Hebrews 9:15, 24-25 / Mark 3:22-30

It is said that the things that we don't like about others could well be the very things that we don't like about ourselves.

And when we make a reflection about that, we could probably see that it could be true.

Or when we dislike what we see in others, could it be possible that it is also what others don't like about us?

Whatever it may be, we know that we are not perfect and the faults that we point out at others could well be our faults, whether we realize it or not.

In the gospel, the scribes made a very vicious comment. They said that it was through the prince of devils that Jesus was casting out devils.

Certainly that was a very disparaging statement. Yet Jesus did not retaliate. He even spoke to them in parables to help them see what was wrong with what they said. Whether the scribes got the point is another matter.

As for us, we know that Jesus came to save us from our sins. As the 1st reading puts it: Christ brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised.

Yes, we are called to an eternal inheritance, but that also means that we have to acknowledge that we are sinners in need of Jesus who can save us from our sins.

May we not let the devil trick us into losing our eternal inheritance. The devil had already tricked Adam and Eve and he is still trying to trick us into sin.

Let us call upon Jesus to save us from our sins and to save us from the lures of the devil, so that we can see ourselves as children of God and others as children of the same Father.