30th Week in the Ordinary Time - Saturday (Year II)
29th October 2022 (Saturday) Readings and Reflection
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we are on the Saturday of 30th week in the ordinary time. Today's gospel reflection is on the theme Honours or honour?
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For more certainty the Readings are posted from the Latest Catholic Lectionary{alertInfo}
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Philippians 1. 18b-26
Brethren: Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Psalm 42:2, 3, 5cdefg (R. 3ab)
Response: My soul is thirsting for God, the living God.
Like the deer that yearns for running streams,
so my soul is yearning for you, my God. Response
My soul is thirsting for God,
the living God;
when can I enter and appear
before the face of God? Response
For I would go to the place of your wondrous tent,
all the way to the house of God,
amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving,
the throng keeping joyful festival. Response
Gospel : Luke 14. 1,7-11
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Main Theme: Honours or honour?
Indicative: It is a wrong idea that honours and positions are considered marks of honour and dignity. Real honour does not come from honours but from an honourable character{alertSuccess}
1. God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. But what a contrast it is that people of the world choose to be unholy and blameworthy! God chose us for heaven but people choose the world. God chose us for eternal life but many seek temporal life and its fulfillment. This is certainly a spirit of low and lowered choices.
2. This contrasting and lowered choice can be indicated by the invitees to a pharisee’s house in the gospel. They were crazily seeking places of honour. This is because of the common misconception that a person’s greatness and honour are seen by the place or position he occupies.
3. In such a context, Jesus makes it clear that positing and seeking honour in places or ranks or titles or posts is wrong. Real honour must come not from the place but character. What is important is not the place of the person but the person who occupies that place.
4. A person should not be adjudged or rated high or low on the basis of honours. The only criterion must be his honourability. We become honourable when we try to live honourable lives. We will be honoured by God himself when we seek to honour him. And we can bring honour to God only when we humble ourselves in humility and exalt God in surrender and loyalty.
5. This positive honouring is seen in St Paul. He always chose not to do honour to him but to God. He accepted all his suffering and persecution as a way of honouring God in his body. He never chose what was self-oriented but always God-oriented. He had no preferences except the preferences of God.
Imperative: Whether he lives or dies, his only choice and effort is to do God’s will, to please Him, and bring glory to Him through bringing many to God{alertSuccess}
Video Reflection
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