Living Fully, Not Just Existing

    

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

18 August 2024

 

First Reading: Prv 9:1-6

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Second Reading: Eph 5:15-20

Gospel: Jn 6:51-58

 

Reflection

By: Theresa B. Manio

The past weeks were a roller coaster ride for me. All emotions were up and shifted momentarily in just a flicker. I was surprised, excited, and extremely scared, but I could not stop the thrill of the ride. I had to endure until it stopped, and I literally felt the rise of acid inside my gut. Just like any other circumstance in life, it stopped and passed. In God’s grace, I thrived again. 

Last weekend, my husband and I attended the Life in the Spirit Seminar of Bukas Loob sa Diyos Community, and in that seminar, I realized a thought that deeply hurt me, nobody stopped and intentionally  asked me, how I was? Nobody asked me, “kumusta ka?”, someone who would take the time to really listen. I know everyone is busy. I also know that because I was still in the situation, if someone asks, I couldn’t also elaborate my thoughts so I would simply say, “Okay lang”. I was fighting the meltdown upon having this thought. In silence and darkness, all they asked us was to surrender to the Holy Spirit, to talk to Jesus, to be with His presence.

Most often the conversations we have been having  were about the circumstances of life. We might be thriving and busy, competently making our work done, meeting deadlines and expectations, fulfilling obligations, loving and caring for the people around us, to simply say we have been doing life and not necessarily having a life within us. Last weekend made me realize that I have been doing life lately and not having a life, and Jesus was concerned about this, is there a life within me? Is there a life within you? This question pushes us to discover the hunger within us and the life Jesus wants to feed us. All the Gospels these past few weeks, have been all about this. 

Two weeks ago Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat. Is it a perishable one or does it sustain us? Last week, Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life. Today, he says, “Eat me. Drink me.” This is the only way to have life within us. Any other diet leaves us empty and hollow, hungry for life. When we depend on people, even on our loved ones to fill in the hunger we have, most of the time we will just be disappointed and later we might be toxic to them too. 

Jesus is talking about the life that is beyond words and yet we know it when we taste it or when we experience it. We get a taste of it when we love so deeply and profoundly that everything about us passes away and somehow we are more alive than ever before.  In this moment we are in the flow, the wonder, and the unity of life, and it tastes good.

Jesus is our healer and our health. He is our life and the means to the life for which we most deeply hunger. We don’t work for the life we want. We eat the life we want. Wherever human hunger and the flesh and blood of Christ meet, there is life. We consume his life that he might consume and change ours. We eat and digest his life, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his way of being and seeing, his compassion, his presence, and his relationship with the Father. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me and I in him. Let us work on having a life and not just living it.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the gift of Your Son, Jesus, who offers Himself as the Bread of Life. May we embrace this sacred gift with reverence and faith, finding in Him the sustenance for our souls and the strength for our journey. Help us to live in unity with Christ, ever mindful of His presence and love within us. Guide us to cherish this holy communion and to share its grace with others, so that through our lives, Your love and truth may be made known. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

Render What is Due

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Oct 19
First reading                                        Isaiah 45:1,4-6
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings, to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more: ‘It is for the sake of my servant Jacob, of Israel my chosen one, that I have called you by your name, conferring a title though you do not know me. I am the Lord, unrivalled; there is no other God besides me. Though you do not know me, I arm you that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that, apart from me, all is nothing.’
Psalm                                                Psalm 95:1,3-5,7-10

Second reading                               1 Thessalonians 1:1-5

From Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church in Thessalonika which is in God the Father 
and the Lord Jesus Christ; wishing you grace and peace.
  
We always mention you in our prayers and thank God for you all, and constantly 
remember before God our Father how you have shown your faith in action, worked for love 
and persevered through hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
We know, brothers, that God loves you and that you have been chosen, because when 
we brought the Good News to you, it came to you not only as words, but as power and as 
the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction.

Gospel                                          Matthew 22:15-21

The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you. Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius, and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’

Reflection

By Beth Eguia

Pedro received two ten peso coins from his mother, one for himself and one to place in the offering at church. As they were walking down the sidewalk to church, he accidentally dropped one, and it rolled into a nearby drain. He peered down through the grates of the drain at the shiny coin on the bottom. When he realized he couldn't retrieve it, he said, “Well, God, there goes your ten pesos.”

Too often, we neglect to give what is due to God. Just like Pedro, we think of ourselves first before God. We only give our spare time, talent and treasures to Him. During offerings at church or donations to charitable institutions and typhoon victims, we only give little. Most of our wealth we spend on unnecessary things like buying cigarettes, liquors, expensive shoes, clothes, toys or even use to bet in casinos or lotto. We spend our time more on work, that we even neglect going to church on Sundays or even spend quality time with our loved ones. We use our talents just to make money, retire and die. We never think it was given by God for us to use wisely, to benefit others and not ourselves. And God gave other people talents to benefit us too.

The main reflection of the Gospel for today is to render what is rightfully due, first to God, to others, to our family, to our society. Give to Caesar what is due to him means, we also need to pay our tax obligations rightfully. We could argue with the fact that there are corrupt government officials who are using and spending people’s money for their personal use and pleasures. The main point is, as citizens of this country we have the obligation to do what is right, to share and assist for our country’s prosperity.

Spend quality time with your family. Have dinner together, share jokes, fun and laughter, discuss important family matters, motivate one another to be at their best, support each other through good and bad times. These are priceless moments we can enjoy only if we decide to put our time and heart on them.

God is an awesome God. To render what is due to Him does not only commensurate with the time spend on going to Mass every Sundays, or saying our prayers. To render what is due to Him is to dedicate our whole self, our time, talents and treasures for His greater glory. Every moment we spend time with our family, every moment we share our time with the elders and less fortunate, every time we pay taxes rightfully, we are rendering what is due to God.

Prayer

Holy and precious God, we thank You for reminding us to render what is due to You and to others. Most of the times we are at fault. We forget that this life You gave us is not only for our own selves nor for our own use. But rather to use every moment of our time, talent and treasure for others and for Your great glory. Through the intercession of Mama Mary, may we always do and follow Your will and render what is rightfully Yours. Amen.