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La Porta | Renungan Harian Katolik - Daily Meditation according to Catholic Church liturgy
Delivered by Joanna from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Genesis 32: 22-32; Rs psalm 17: 1.2-3.6-7.8b.15; Matius 9: 32-38.RISK OF LOVE The title for our meditation today is:Risk of Love. Someone who is famous is not spared from various kinds ofcontroversy. A good fame, for example as a generous person, does notnecessarily satisfy everyone. A good and sincere intention to love is notalways pleasing to everyone. Even a devout and strong believer can be acontroversy between people who like him and those who are jealous or dislikehim. In other words, the love we do toanyone, even to ourselves, always has risks. The light or heavy risks arevaries. For example, I am very tired and want to stay away from the crowd torest and reflect on myself about everything that has happened to me. That is aconcern and love for myself. But this is not well understood and accepted tothe people around me. Some might misunderstand and assume that I am selfish andavoid the opportunity to be together or work together. The risks of love are many. WithJesus' act of healing miracles, the general response of those around him waspraise or admiration for God's great work, and ridicule or rejection ofunbelievers. They alleged that Jesus performed a miracle with the power of theleader of the Satan. From this incident we can describe the various risks oflove we mean here. Our first and easiest risk of love isto obey God's command by avoiding evil deeds and to do good. For example, wesuppress evil intention to insult a friend, then replace it by greeting him asa friend as usual. The next level is that we do good and are not cared forappreciation from others. When you take care of a job properly and thoroughly,but there is no word of thanks given to you, or there isn't even a statementfrom someone: "Who did this work?" The third risk requires a great spiritof love, that we do good in secret, meaning that we don't need to tell anyone,which means we do not need to be appreciated by others. The fourth, evenharder, is that we do good and right, not only intending to be recognized byothers, but also preparing to accept their rejection because of the good we do.And the highest risk, is that we really want to do good and love those who hateor dislike us. This is Jesus' own action and He wants us to be able to do itnow and here. Let's pray. In the name of theFather ... O Lord, bless us that can we love as You always love us. Our Fatherwho art in heaven ... In the name of the Father ...
La Porta | Renungan Harian Katolik - Daily Meditation according to Catholic Church liturgy
Delivered by Gladys from the Parish of Saint Gabriel from the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Genesis 21: 5.8-20; Rs psalm 34: 7-8.10-11.12-13; Matthew 8: 28-34.JUSTICEFLOWS LIKE A RIVER Ourmeditation today is entitled: Justice Flows Like a River. In a particularkingdom, the king, staff and officials, and all its peoplelived in fairness and prosperity. This kingdom was prosperous because it had abundant wealth to sustain every family. The king made justice as the principle rule to be observed by every one. Justice aimed to maintain the prosperity and happinessof everyone in the entire kingdom. Themost important dutyto maintain justice is the law andregulation to be alwaysenforced as best as the power holder can do. This is the same to what the king ofthat kingdom had practiced which was to make justiceflowing its way like a river. The way of the river must not beblocked so that the water will not stopflowing. Justice must continue to go its way inorder to keep protecting sense of security, comfort, prosperity,and unity as the one citizenship of a nation from which every one lives in happiness and peace. If the good king and his kingdom were able to make such a life in the world so peaceful and prosperous, how much more a kind of justice that the Almighty God provides for us. God's justice must be far more powerful and cannot be competed by anyone's justice or whatever justice exists in the world. The Lord our God had had established justice and taught it to Abraham on how to treat his offspring, that according to God would be abundant.Abraham believedin that teaching and he indeed guidedhis family based on thewill of God. Nowthere is a simple question to raise here is this: What is the most suitable, most effective and easiest way to create justice in our lives? The answer should be in a negative way,namely by eliminating all forms of injustice and opression. Abraham and Sarah saw the potentialfor injustice to happen iftheir ownson Isaac and the child from Abraham's slave wife would live and share their lives together. Then a solution was taken by Abraham and his wife Sarah that eventually givingthose two sons of Abraham each ownplace and opportunityto be followed. Each person mustbe able to respond tohis own life that isaccording to his calling. TheLord Jesus had madeit very clear to uphold justice from God, by silencing and expelling the evil power who tortured and destroyed human life. It is so unfair if our life possessed and oppressed by the devil. If the evil spirit and all his influences remain in power and leading our life, there will be no way for us to have a true relationship with God. The evil spiritsin our world today manifest themselves in materialism and all kinds of world allurement. This destructivespirit must be first removed from our midst so that we can create a just and peaceful evironment. Through this way, the Holy Spirit will fill us with anew life-giving spirit. Peace is obtained by the creation and perseverance in justice. Everyone of us iscalled to create justice. Let's pray. In the name of the Father... O God Almighty, cleanse our lives from all evilinfluences from this world, so that we can fully lead our hearts to you. Our Father who art in heaven ... inthe name of the Father ...
La Porta | Renungan Harian Katolik - Daily Meditation according to Catholic Church liturgy
Delivered by Joanna from the Parish of Saint Gabriel in the Diocese of Bandung, Indonesia. Isaiah 61: 9-11; Rs psalm 1 Sam 2: 1.4-5.6-7.8abcd; Luke 2: 41-51.ANANXIOUS HEART Thetitle for our meditation today is: An Anxious Heart. There was a girl of 5thgrade student of elementary school named Maria, playing Q and A (question andanswer) with her mother. She said: "Mom, answer this question. What is thedifference between Papa's heart and Mama's heart?" His mother tried tothink for a moment. Then she replied: "Papa's heart is a man's heart.Mama's heart is a woman's heart." Maria replied: "No. It's not theanswer." Her mother then continued: "Then what is the answer?""The answer is," said Maria, "Mama's heart is anxious, whilePapa's heart is indifferent." This child, of course, spoke according toher own experience with her parents. Therelationship of the heart between a mother and her child is the strongestrelationship between two human persons, more than any other kind ofrelationship that has ever existed in the world. Therefore, if a mother feelsanxious about her loved ones, surely this anxiety is an expression of a verydeep emotion in her heart. A mother's anxiety is not just a feeling ofdifficulty, uneasy or discomfort. More than that, mother becomes very sick,lost and paralyzed because half of her heart was broken into pieces. Thestory in the Gospel of Luke about the teenager Jesus who disappeared from thecare of his parents makes us understand that the worried heart came from themouth of the Virgin Mary. Like all mothers, Our Lady shows how much it hurtswhen part of her heart, or half of her life, which is her own Son missing. Amother's anxiety is like all major disasters, so the sky can open and heavenalso responds. Jesus had to answer the mother's anxiety so that she could calmdown, that He was really in His Father's house. Todaywe celebrate the most sacred Heart of Our Lady which helps us to understandthat the purity of her heart has the same role as the heart of the Lord JesusChrist. Both hearts give us solutions or answers to our problems in this world.Our Lady's anxious heart keeps her eyes open to see and point out any problemsor difficulties that each of us faces. Her anxious heart moves her to walk asfar as the ends of the earth and to reach all nations so as to bring thechildren of men to believe in God. Ifwe ourselves or the people we know and care about at this time have alreadydrifted away from the way of the Lord Jesus Christ; if the relationship betweenfriends or relatives has not improved; if there is still anger, hatred,resentment and envy towards our neighbours, let us realize that Our Lady is soworried about all this. She is working to fix all of this. Let'spray. In the name of the Father... O Father in heaven, may Your Spirit and theVirgin Mary always guide us and strengthen our commitment to walk in the pathof the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the HolySpirit ... In the name of the Father...