Reflections of Caritas

Dear friends,

We live in the world with moments of conflicts, injury and pain. In this context , Peter's question and Jesus' response speaks to us.

In this gospel text, Jesus takes the teaching of forgiveness to a practical level. Peter asked a theoretical question;  How many times must I forgive my brother?" Jesus answered him in the most practical way, " Seventy seven times". Christ' s response simply reminds us that forgiveness does not have limits. We must forgive all, always and forever. If we are still counting how many times we have forgiven someone, we are not really forgiving them at all, but simply postponing revenge.

So Jesus is telling Peter and us today that there is to be no end to forgiveness.

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Dear friends,

In this week’s Gospel Matthew offers a very contrary picture to the one we had last week. Last week Jesus gave Peter the “keys of the kingdom”. This week Jesus says to Peter “Get behind me Satan!” The same Peter, who recognized and confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, had a popular Jewish belief that the expected Messiah would bring instant glory to Israel in terms of military success, wealth and prosperity. Peter had not yet grasped God’s ways and Christ rebuked him for being an obstacle to his mission. This shows that even though Peter professed that Christ is the Messiah (as God revealed it to him) he had not fully understood the nature of Christ’s mission.

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THE 19 TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A

Dear friends,

In this Gospel passage, Jesus is once again alone and taking time to pray and he essentially tells
the disciples that He will meet them on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  So the disciples are in the boat, they are on their own and they are maybe half way across, a few miles out. In this dark part of the night, they are facing opposition, not from human enemies, but from nature. The wind picks up and it is against the boat. It is looking very dangerous!

In that dark part of the night, when nature is in her full fury, they see Jesus. He is not performing a trick on the water but He is coming towards them while walking on the water. This is Jesus coming to them with His presence on these waters. And remember that the waters are not calm, the storm is whipping up a chaos and it is in this chaos that Our Lord and Saviour makes Himself manifest. And the disciples are of course, as each of us would be, terrified and they cry out in fear. Immediately, Jesus does not let them to remain in anxiety. He quickly says, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”. Jesus reassures them and their faith strengthens.

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THE 18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A.

Dear friends,

In our gospel today, Jesus feeds an enormous hungry crowd of people with just five loaves and two fish. Jesus freely provides more than enough food for the whole multitude through the miracle of the Multiplication of the loaves and fish. This was seemingly impossible to men. But nothing is impossible for God, and nothing is impossible when people are touched by the spark of divine compassion and generosity.

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