Thursday, February 27, 2014

You Can Not Serve God And Wealth







Gospel Readings for March 2 2014 can be found here. 


http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030214.cfm

We are pleased to present you the sharing from Wednesday Feb 26 of Luna:  


                  As the word of God is a two-edged sword, the struggle against the lure of money and of all the world can offer us pierces our soul. It is the definitive element of who we truly are, of who we will end up to be. Will be sheep or goat? Will we be good shepherd or wolf?  Will we be the victorious servant with ten talents or the one with none left? Will we be for God or against God?
     •                  To the Lord, to 'expand time'  is just a very little thing.
                  Because God is righteous and holy. His individual encouragement towards each one of us has its greater purpose -which is love for mankind and the advancement of His Kingdom which is perfect and good..
                  An honest reading of the Gospel leads to the conclusion that 'wealth' refers to every thing that is in excess of what we need to live a decent life.
                  God commands us to hate wealth. Since God loves us greatly, deep enough to give to us His Kingdom, then it means that wealth is not good for us. It can be concluded that wealth can harm us and take us away from Him It cannot be merged with the Kingdom that he wants to give us.
                  We can become 'salt and light of the earth'  only and only when we are under the attitude of both loving God and hating wealth. There is no compromise.
                  (Nevertheless.) because we love God, we ought to blossom into our full potential as the servant given the ten talents which he doubled for His master. The talent may very well (or should in fact) include the ability to earn or grow money.
                   Read Psalm 69. A Christian who is able to enter into its lamentations will end up saying, "Oh yes, everything is rubbish compared to the person of Christ who has given Himself to me".
                   The question of how much are your legitimate needs is between you and God. "He will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's heart."
      •                  The slave-steward is each one of us who at the present moment has more than enough for his or her daily needs.
    •          The ration' comes from the Lord, as yielded by all that He has created, including our talents. The 'proper time' refers to the stage of the other person's life, when he is in need in the meantime that he or she has not yet been strengthened. And it may very well be that even in his or her strengthening we are also to take part so that in the end everybody works and bears fruit.





Conclusion 1 : Materialism is intrinsic in us, Christians including. 
Conclusion 2 : Take heart, God will help us overcome. 
Conclusion 3 : We have legitimate needs and God knows it. 
Conclusion 4 : God is brilliant!!! God is awesome!!! What more can we say?
Conclusion 5 : Ask and we shall receive. Ask Him why and He will explain. 
Conclusion 6 : Anything in excess inhibits the Kingdom of God. 
Conclusion 7 : It is a process. Fight, rest, fight. 
Conclusion 8 : Jesus is worth it. Everyhing else is rubbish. 
Conclusion 9 : Let's change our mindset. The whole world is God's one big household where
we are each called to task. 
Conclusion 10: Halleluiah Lord! Yahoo!


REFLECTIONS
1.     How does God's Word help you address your daily and long-term worries?
2.     How can you and the Church help our country's poor?
3.     What is God's Word to you today? Where are you in the journey of faith of choosing to love God instead of the world?

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Your Heart Is Free Have The Courage To Follow It






To either liven things up or out of sheer desperation the community turned to me to preach this week. I really did put some time and thought into it so it does read a bit like my normal blogs. I appreciate the brave souls that came out and listened and even stayed.I included my Powerpoint from that night.  Plus Happy Birthday Sister Malou!  




Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time


Reading 1 Sirach 15:15-20

If you choose to keep the commandments they will save you. 
The Ten Commandments are a gift. 
They are not shackles they are a gift meant to free you. 
The eyes of God see all he has made. That includes you and me.
Psalm ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

follow the way of God and you will have no worries. 
being good to your servant which I take to mean be good to those who some may see as less than yourself. 
pray that you have the discipline and the care and the grace to follow the Law. 

Second Reading 1 Cor 2:6-10

God has revealed wisdom to us through the Spirit. 
The Law of God does not really have it's origin from man but from God. 
To achieve what is Divine or what is beyond human capability we have to act what is beyond normal human experience and human expectation. 

Gospel Matthew  5:17-37

Messiah does not erase , preclude or disregard the Law of Moses. 
Key here is to understand the law and through the example of Jesus is to do follow the law and go even beyond that . He is not there to contradict but to enhance.
When we read the phrase " not the smallest letter or the smallest part
Jesus  life and teaching are definitive revaluation of the will of God.


YOU SAY:                         JESUS SAYS:
No Murder                         Not even anger
No Adultery                       Not even an adulterous thought
Divorce for Indecency         No divorce
No false oaths                   No oaths at all
An eye for an eye              No retaliation
Love your neighbor             Love your enemies

Possible springboard Questions:
1. What has been my approach to the buffet of God's Law? Is it the way God would want us to approach the buffet?

2. What have my been my "battles"? What do I have around me now that I have easy access to that I can use as a resource as additional weapons in my future battles ?

3. In what areas am I just satisfied with man's law as opposed to going and making the effort to go beyond man's law and get much closer to what Jesus said is his law , by his example?



If the questions do not make sense, you should listen to the podcast of the entire talk. 




Ed


This week's Gospel readings are here.

Powerpoint for this week's readings is here. 

https://www.mediafire.com/?b5fxbk2kn9k5ddf




Mediafire of the podcast for this week is here


http://www.mediafire.com/listen/lqv00y5i2j1bogc/Ed_SOW_Feb_16_2014_Gospel__Full.mp3  (podcast) 


All Verbum Dei Audio in Dropbox here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bhkkb3qsi4o8n33/wJUOiVP68V


page 52 in Sharper Than A Sword  by Father James McTavish

Mediafire for all the School of the Word audio is here:

 http://www.mediafire.com/?2ydbw8552x5fe