Trending Compassion

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time 05 June 2016

First reading
1 Kings 17:17-24

The son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he had no breath left in him. And the woman said to Elijah, ‘What quarrel have you with me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and to kill my son?’ ‘Give me your son’ he said, and taking him from her lap, carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, do you mean to bring grief to the widow who is looking after me by killing her son?’ He stretched himself on the child three times and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!’ The Lord heard the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned to him again and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. ‘Look,’ Elijah said ‘your son is alive.’ And the woman replied, ‘Now I know you are a man of God and the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth itself.’

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 29:2,4-6,11-13

Second reading

Galatians 1:11-19

The Good News I preached is not a human message that I was given by men, it is something I learnt only through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You must have heard of my career as a practising Jew, how merciless I was in persecuting the Church of God, how much damage I did to it, how I stood out among other Jews of my generation, and how enthusiastic I was for the traditions of my ancestors.   Then God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans. I did not stop to discuss this with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me, but I went off to Arabia at once and later went straight back from there to Damascus. Even when after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days, I did not see any of the other apostles; I only saw James, the brother of the Lord.

 

Gospel	Luke  7:11-17

Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the town it happened that a dead man was being carried out for burial, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the townspeople were with her. When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her. ‘Do not cry’ he said. Then he went up and put his hand on the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you to get up.’ And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Everyone was filled with awe and praised God saying, ‘A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.’ And this opinion of him spread throughout Judaea and all over the countryside.

  Reflection
By Bernard M. Borja  

A man browsing the internet, stumbled upon a post in social media, curiously clicked on the link to see the posted content. It was a video of a group of men giving food to a homeless person without the latter knowing. As he was teary eyed, he posted a comment on the same video post saying, "God bless the homeless people and God bless more those who help them." The same video post was seen by a woman which was shared to her by a friend. Before even the video was over, she posted a comment saying, "These people should not tolerate beggars. And these beggars should be doing something for themselves not waiting for others to do something for them."

A friend of mine shared a post which has gone viral in just two days. It was an argument in a social media post that says, "You should be doing something yourself!" where the one who posted it replied, "Why? You're a beggar too or just homeless? I'm lucky I don't get to know some people like you! I despise the likes of you who makes the streets and public places filthy!"

And then another friend shared the post saying, "Pasikatin natin si Ate matapobre!"

Ever since the rise of social media, there have been more questions raised than answers. But when we really try to look at it, the questions are already there even before social media invented. Social media only revealed these to find the best, or the worst, answers in our life. And in these issues and the chaos and all the differences that have been created by people because of social media, people may say that we have gone too far to reverse whatever damage it has created. But in spite of these, we can still look at it in a different way.

"Highlighting the good"

Let me ask you this time, when was the last time that you were moved by watching something from the internet? Were you moved to be inspired? Or were you moved to look at the bad side of everything?

Let's take a look back at the Gospel today. As Jesus entered the city, a man who died was being carried out. Then Jesus came near to the weeping mother, consoled her, then touched the coffin to raise the man. Then the story spread through the town and in all the surrounding area. In our term today, the story went viral.

The people who has witnessed those moments rejoiced and glorified God. The news went viral and it was because of a great deed. In our times today, why can't we look at the good and make it spread rather than create negativity and issues that we want to talk about for a long time? In the story of the posted video, how can we relate how we spend our time in social media? Both the man and the woman who commented first are obviously active in social media. But we can ask ourselves, can we relate more to the woman who looks at the negative side of things? Or are we more of the man who looks at the goodness?

But more importantly, like the group of people in the video who helped the homeless person, how often are we moved with pity to help someone in need without them asking?

Prayer

Lord, help us to see You more in spite of all the chaos and negativity in our world. Teach us to be more compassionate to each other and to do everything we can to let a glimpse of Your Kingdom be felt here among us. We pray for more understanding in every issues that we encounter and we seek Your help in every situation where Your people raise their own opinions against each other. But most of all, look not at how we look at the negative things but at how we spread Your goodness and love. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.