3rd Week in Ordinary Time
27th January 2023 (Friday) Readings and Reflection
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Reading of the Day
First Reading: HEBREWS 10. 32-39
Brethren: Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Psalm 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24, 39-40 (R. 39a)
Response: From the Lord comes the salvation of the just.
Gospel : MARK 4.26-34
At that time: Jesus said to the crowds, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Daily Gospel Reflection
The Reflection by Fr. Thumma Mariadas Reddy MSFS{alertWarning}
Main Theme: Enlightened and Enduring!
Indicative: God’s grace is always productive and growth-promoting. He gives life and nurtures growth from little to big, from insignificance to beneficiality. Therefore, realise the presence of the kingdom of God and make it grow{alertSuccess}
1. The gospel focuses on the nature of the kingdom of God. It is compared to seed in general and mustard seed in particular. There is a certain hiddenness, mysteriosity, and giftedness in the growth of a seed. It grows and no one knows how, and where lies the life that makes the seed grow. If not for God’s concealed, mysterious, gratuitous, and life-giving power of God, nothing can account for the life and growth of a seed.
2. There are also other features like dynamism, steady progression, and a beneficial other-orientedness as the mustard seed grows into a huge plant, and shelters the birds.
3. Now the greatest gift of the kingdom is faith. God in His generosity has gifted us faith. He has enlightened us. Once enlightened, we must not draw back. We must not throw away our confidence.
4. The spread of the kingdom and the growth of faith calls for endurance. It is a great contest of doing the will of God and as such involves a great struggle and suffering. But our endurance must be joyful.
5. However, this joyful endurance is possible only when there is the confidence that all disloyalty leads to perishing and endurance leads to life. Therefore we must sustain our faith with a firm hope that all our joyful suffering will ultimately bring us a great recompense.
Imperative: Often faith is shaken because confidence is not strong. Endurance will be lacking because hope is not bright and lasting. Therefore, with faith and hope let us assist in the growth of the kingdom{alertSuccess}