"STAY WITH US, LORD" (Luke 24:29)

1st Reading          Isaiah 49:1-6 Psalm           Ps. 139: 1-3.13-14.15 (R. 14a)  2nd Reading         Acts 13: 22-26 Gospel                    Luke 1: 57-66.80 Dear friends, today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. John the Baptist. This celebration, with the personality of John the Baptist, is so important in the recounting of the Salvation History of Man. In this case, we take turn to reflect and be grateful to God for his saving work so as to sanctify our future for the reason that our glorification is itself a means for our sanctification.  With John the Baptist we notice an entrance into the second half of the Salvation history of man for which with his birth, the redeemer will be announced. This celebration, therefore includes the soon birth of Christ. In fact, this kind of relation is further stressed by the very fact that John the Baptist and Jesus ar...

1st Reading           2 Kings 19:9-11,14-21,31-36 Psalm                       Ps. 48: 2-3ab.3cd-4.10-11 (R. 9cd) Gospel       Matthew 7:6.12-14 Hope is a virtue which spurs us on in times of pain and tragedy. This virtue helps us wait patiently for an intervention from where lasting help may come from. The first reading of today focuses still on the political life of Israel with its mutuality with religion. In the Gospel we read one of Jesus' teachings in which he uses dogs and swine to relate the issue of the reception of the Good News. Assyrians are in the siege of Judah, the southern Kingdom and under their King Sennacherib, they seek to conquer Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Hezekiah, King of Judah receives a threat from Sennacherib which should naturally instill a certain fear in him, lead to a loss of hope in Jerusalem and finally surrendering to the Assyrians. Jerusalem, a city ...

1st Reading       2 Kings 17:5-8,13-15,18 Psalm                 Ps. 60:3.4-5.12-14 (R. 7a)  Gospel                Matthew 7: 1-5 Beloved, today we quickly turn to reflect on two passages in the Old and New Testaments with the idea of a mutuality between politics and religion unravelled.  The first reading takes us into the explicit political life of Israel particularly on the end of Israel, the northern kingdom. With quest to posses and rule, Assyrians, under Shalmanezer V (726-722BC; cf. 2 Kings 17: 5) sought to fulfill this political task and send Israel into exile in Assyria. The reason for this foreseen exile is God's anger in which case Israel had sinned against the Lord, their God (v. 7). Specifically, their sin was a rejection of God's statutes, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and  the warnings he had given them (v. 15). In fact, they threw themse...

There is supposed to be a kind of ecological interaction in nature which relates man's contact not only with fellow men but also with other created things. With this interaction, dependence on other constitutive elements is built. When not allowed to be, “the human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together” (Laudato Si', no. 48). Deterioration in the ecological interaction is so apparent in man's sporadic care for nature. While human life and happiness is often appraised care should be given to the plant and animal species for the reason that they suffer the consequences of the inordinate elation of the self of beings.  With technology and its attendant advancement, we have contrived new 'environments' which we are accustomed to. From birth to death we are denied the maximum physical contact with nature wherefore cement, asphalt, glass, metal, inter alia are deluging elements of man's new environment. We have to limit our contact with these a...

Air pollution- smoke from an industry   The earth is our common home. It is what her creator has given as an asset to all. We cannot be adamant to the duty of care. It is a shed responsibility. Laxity and deceit do not constitute care for our common home. We have to face the issues squarely and work in order to find viable solutions to them. The earth is a mother to all. We owe the earth nothing but care. Against this special duty of care for our common home is pollution. Pollution has become a daily activity such that everyone is caught by its web. We witness to this all destructive activity and our responses to this perennial problem has, for a long time, been so weak.  This problem of pollution, the Pope notes, can be attributed to 'a throwaway culture.' This consists in the disposal of waste without considering possibilities of recycling them. It also engulfs the improper disposal of waste. The problem we have in our day and age lies in the term 'waste'.  Waste, as ...

1st Reading                   Acts 11: 21b-26; 13:1-3 Psalm                             98:1.2-3ab. 3cd-4.5-6 (R. 2b)  Gospel                            Matthew 10:7-13    The Missions of Finding and Mercy Dear friends, today we reflect on the man, St. Barnabas as per his memorial which we celebrate today. As a native of Cyprus, an island on the Mediterranean Sea, he is known to have converted to Christianity shortly after Pentecost (ca. A.D. 29 or 30) and immediately sold his property and devoted the proceeds to the Church (cf. Acts 4: 36-37).  He is styled as an Apostle in Holy Scripture, and, like St. Paul, ranked by the Church with the Twelve, though not one of them. Barnabas means “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation”. The first reading of today takes the settin...

First Reading          1 Kings 18: 20-39 Psalm                       Ps. 16: 1-2a. 4.5 and 8. 11 (R. 1) Gospel                      Matthew 5: 17-19 We are presented with two readings which, I believe, we are familiar with. While Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal may aim at proving the might of God, Jesus teaches about the Law and the Prophets.  In the first reading, Elijah engages in a battle with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, a sacred arena. This battle is over the price of the true God. While the author presents an elaborate narrative, I would want us to focus on a differing element which drew the disparity between Baal and God. That element is fire.  The mention of fire is not new to the Israelites. Its function in divine election. This election is either an appointment and acceptance (cf. Num. 11:1-3; Lev. 9:24; Jgs. 6...