18 Mar
Sun
|
3rd Sunday of Lent (C)
|
Ex. 3:1-8a, 13-15 Ps. 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7,
8, 11 1 Cor. 10:1-6, 10-12
Lk. 13:1-9
|
|
|
|
|
|
How many times have we wondered why in some great disaster like
an earthquake, a typhoon, or a plane crash some people get killed
while others walk away without a scratch? Why do we find some
bachelors living into their 90s while the mother of young
children is taken away by cancer in her 30s? We cannot really
give easy answers to such questions. Nor in today's Gospel does
Jesus try to do so. What he does do is to deny that the deaths
mentioned in the Gospel were punishment for sin. In such tragic
situations both good and bad are victims. Instead, Jesus asks
people to focus on their own lives and see in these sudden
tragedies timely warning for themselves. If we were to be
overtaken by a similar happening, how prepared are we to face our
God? If we have been given more time, we should perhaps see
ourselves like the barren fig tree, not bearing the expected
fruit. Like the gardener in the parable God is giving us a little
more time and more of His grace (fertiliser) to see if we will
improve. And, given the uncertainty of our future, let us begin
today, let us begin right now. The surest way to be ready for the
future is to live totally in the present, because that is where
God is to be found.
Remove from our hearts, Lord, all fear. Fill us with confidence
in Your love and help us to love You in every happening that we
experience this day.
|
DAILY OFFERING
|
Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings.
Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage
discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen.
|
PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH
|
INTENTION
That, with the committed help of all believers, the
scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the
intolerable social and economic inequality in the world
Elaboration
|
|
|
- END -
P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
INTENTION : |
That, with the committed help of all believers, the
scourge of poverty may come to an end, eliminating the
intolerable social and economic inequality in the world
|
One might also say that poverty is the negation of economic and
social rights and that the poor who suffer from absolute poverty
are denied the most fundamental right which is the right to life.
The international community too is becoming progressively more
aware of the gravity of the problem and has declared solemnly to
fight and reduce extreme poverty by 2015. Besides, how can we not
realise the situation growing worse in spite of the increase in
available resources.
The problem of unequal distribution of resources in its correct
setting is an ethical one, since it is a problem of justice: the
poor are in the first place victims of injustice. In the era of
globalisation we can no longer tolerate a world in which the very
rich live side by side with the poor, the property less who lack
even the essentials with people who shamelessly waste what others
desterately need. One of the more evident worrying consequences
of this phenomenon is in fact the progressive increase instead of
the decrease of inequalities, in both poor countries and rich
countries, and between the North and South.
Let us pray that the scourge of poverty may come to an end
|
- END -
|
|