God of All

The WORD Today reminds me that God's forgiveness, mercy and love are not just for a select few, but for all. 

They say that the church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners. I believe this is true. this should be true. This is what we should be. Jesus said that he did not call the righteous, but the sinners. This reminds us that in church and in church groups, people are not perfect. People will never be perfect. There will always be annoying people. There will be sinners. However, we should accept that God wants them there, not because he tolerates it but because he will use the church to transform these people. They need to be there.

God’s love and forgiveness are for all – especially sinners.

In the first reading, people initially did not want to be associated with the Gentiles. Jews were the chosen people. Gentiles were the non jews. They were the unclean people at that time. We see in the reading that even in his dream, Peter did not want to be associated with them. However, God reminded him that his love is for all, and that he wants the gentiles to be saved too. When people understood and realized it, they became welcoming and accepted them as well. 

We should too. We should accept and welcome people that are different from us. 

There are annoying people in church. There are annoying people in our church groups. There are annoying people in our lives. Some more than others.  However, God wants us to love them nonetheless. We should not see them as hypocrites, attending church despite their shortcomings. Instead, God wants us to love them, the way he loves them. God wants to use us to make them realize and feel how special they are in God’s eyes, that God’s love and forgiveness are greater than their sins and shortcomings. 

God’s love can melt away all the evil in the heart.

We should not be concerned how they will change. We should not think if they can change. We just need to love them. We should just make God's love more real and more alive in this world, in their lives. How God will change and transform them is up to Him. We just need to do our part. 

Who are the annoying people in my life? Why do they annoy me? What am I doing about it and about them? What is God telling me today? 

May we be extra patient, extra welcoming and extra accommodating to those who need our love, patience and understanding the most. Let us ask God to use us to love and transform others.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another week. thank you for the reminder. Thank you for not giving up on me. thank you for loving me despite all my sins, my shortcomings, my temper, my bad habits. Thank you for being patient with me. Lord, I am sorry for not being like this as I relate to others. Lord, I know I am not perfect, and I am sorry for the times I judge others on where they are right now. Sorry for being impatient with them, when I myself have experienced your patience and love. Help me love like you do. Use me to love them. Give me a heart like yours, that I may love others like you do. Help me love others the way they should be loved, the way you love them. Help me be extra patient with them the way you are extra patient with me. Especially with the current situation, Use me to make your love more alive and more real. Amen. 

Blessed Week!

In Christ,

-g-

 May 04, 2020

4th Week of Easter - Monday; Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla

FIRST READING

Acts 11:1-18

The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, ‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying, “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky. I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’ But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’ This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky. Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3, 4

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.

or:

R. Alleluia. 

As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? 

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.

or:

R. Alleluia. 

Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on And bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling-place. 

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.

or:

R. Alleluia. 

Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy; Then will I give you thanks upon the harp, O God, my God! 

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.

or:

R. Alleluia.

ALLELUIA

John 10:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL

John 10:1-10

Jesus said:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. 

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” 

or:

John 10:11-18

Jesus said:

“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”