Sunday, February 25, 2018

Real Offering

The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/022518.cfm) reminds me how an offering to God should be like. 
 
In one way or another, we offer things to God. During Sunday mass, we give our love offering. When we pray and when we serve him, we offer our time. However, we do not always give God the best, the first fruits as we offer him. Sometimes, we just offer our surplus – extra money on Sunday, extra time in service, or we pray just when we are about to sleep and tired from the day’s work. This is not how we should offer to God. 

God deserves the best we can offer Him.

Abraham had a lot of properties and resources, but the most important for him is his son Isaac. Is was probably the greatest gift God gave him. However, his love for God is greater than anything he has in this world. when God asked him to offer his own son, he did not bargain or think twice. He just followed – until the angel told him to stop, and he offered an animal instead.

IF we love God so much, we would offer him the best that we can. We will not be contented with offering him from our surplus – extra money, extra time, extra resources. We only want what’s best for the one we love, and we should always strive to give God our very best in everything we offer him – actions, time, talent and treasure.
 
May we be inspired by Abraham, and remember that when we offer God the best, God will give us back more than what we offer him.

Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another Sunday. thank you for another reminder. Thank you for your love. Sorry for the times I just give you my surplus. Sorry for not giving you the first fruits, the best I can. sorry for the times I get contented with just offering you what I have. Lord, help me build my faith. Help me increase my love for you. May I always feel and remember your love. May I love you more and more, so that I would always strive to give you the very best I can. Amen.
 
Blessed Sunday!
 
In Christ,
-g-
 
Ps
See related reflection:
 
 
February 25, 2018
Second Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 26
 
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."

When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing—
all this because you obeyed my command."

Responsorial Psalm PS 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. (116:9) I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

Reading 2 ROM 8:31B-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised—
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.

Verse Before The Gospel CF. MT 17:5
From the shining cloud the Father's voice is heard:
This is my beloved Son, listen to him.

Gospel MK 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

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