 | Daily Bible Reflections
for March 12, 2012 |
|  Dear Lordie,
Don't be discouraged! God will be with you through this week.
Praying for you,
Bo Sanchez
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| | TWISTED FAITH When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy?” – 2 Kings 5:7 My friend’s sister was dying. Her so-called brothers and sister in faith took her away from her family and confined her in a cramped room in their kingdom hall where they prayed over her. The religious cult made her believe that the Father would come down to their kingdom hall and perform a miracle to cure her. One day, they called for my friend and told him that his sister was going to die on a specific day at a specific hour. Naturally, my friend got angry with them for playing God. He took his sister to a hospital where she was given proper care. She was apparently dying of dehydration because they didn’t give her water to drink! My friend’s sister eventually died. I admire the king of Israel for his angry reaction upon reading the letter about Naaman. He was king yet he knew that his powers would never equal God’s. Neither he nor any of us have power over life and death. That is why whenever I recall that sister’s story, I get dismayed. One life wasted because of some twisted faith. Let us not forget that God reigns supreme over all creation. Nova Arias (nova.svp@gmail.com) 12 REFLECTION: There are circumstances in life beyond our control. Do you let go of the reins? Almighty God, You are the Master Architect of life. Teach us to surrender our lives to You. Blessed Angela Salawa, pray for us. | |
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| | COMPANION | 1st READING Some people come to faith in God through a relatively easy path; others by the torturous path of the road less traveled. It does not really matter which path we take; what matters is that we have traveled a path and reached our destination of becoming a disciple of Jesus. It is not for us to judge the faith journey of another. We need to learn to respect the personal responses of each and every person. This is part and parcel of our human dignity — to have freedom of religion and thought. 2 Kings 5:1-15 1 Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the Lord had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. 2 Now the Arameans had captured from the land of Israel in a raid a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife. 3 “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 Naaman went and told his Lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 “Go,” said the king of Aram. “I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. 6 To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a God with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” 8 When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 The prophet sent him the message: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” 11 But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. 12 Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?” With this, he turned about in anger and left. 13 But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” 14 So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15 He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” P S A L M Psalm 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4 R: Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? 1 [2] As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. (R) 2 [3] Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? (R) 3 Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling-place. (R) 4 Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy; then will I give you thanks upon the harp, O God, my God! (R) GOSPEL Some of the things that Jesus said in His mission were quite inflammatory. Did Jesus want to be provocative? Quite unlikely, but one thing is sure. He was not willing to compromise the truth so He always spoke it as He saw it. The Church knows what doing this means and how the intellectuals of society will take it. However, this is a small price to pay for the truth. This is easy to say, yet far more difficult to be faithful to it. GOSPEL ACCLAMATION I hope in the Lord, I trust in his word; with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption. Luke 4:24-30 24 Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25 Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. 26 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29 They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went away. READING 2nd READING think: It does not really matter which path we take; what matters is that we have traveled a path and reached our destination of becoming a disciple of Jesus. T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ God’s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________ READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Revelations 19-22 BLESSING LIST John 19-21 LIST | |
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| | SABBATH | thE PEOPLE WHO MOST NEED OUR LOVE A beggar was walking past a posh restaurant, then she stopped at the big window, looking longingly at the rich people wining and dining at tables too small for all the food they had ordered. One lady, with an indignant look, called a waiter and whispered something to him. He then went to the window and, with an angry gesture, drove away the beggar. Many people tend to think of themselves better and look down on others. This has caused a lot of suffering and misery throughout history. Think of the Christians who, for centuries, called the Jews “Christ-killers” and persecuted, even killed them. Think of the black people in the United States who, for centuries, were considered second-class people and abused as slaves. Today, in many parts of the world, Muslims, gays, slum dwellers and people from so-called Third World countries are looked down upon by others. That happened in Nazareth, too, when Jesus praised a pagan widow and a pagan army commander. Jesus had come back home from a triumphant tour of healing and preaching. No wonder His town mates expected that He would do even more for them. After all, they had grown up with Him and He was one of them. They expected even more spectacular miracles here than He had worked in Capernaum. But He refused to satisfy their curiosity and lust for sensation. Not only that, He praised pagans! At that, they got nasty. In Luke’s Gospel, we will realize that it was a pattern in Jesus’ life to turn to those who were marginalized and looked down upon by the rich and the educated, even by the middle class. Jesus reached out to the poor, the widows, the lepers, the sinners, the women and tax collectors. We are in this world to make Christ visible — to continue what He began. This truth wakes us up from peaceful dreams, for people like those whom Jesus reached out to are still around us. And not a few at that. What’s our attitude towards them? Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How do you react to people whom you think are of lower status than you are? Do you discriminate or do you act like Jesus? Lord, teach me to act with love especially to those who most need love in our society. | |
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