“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Saturday, 24th October 2020.
Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Saturday Memorial of Blessed Virgin Mary
Eph 4:7-16
Ps 121:1-5
Lk 13:1-9
THE VALUE OF THE PRESENT MOMENT!
Disasters or accidents which take people’s lives constantly force people to ask, ‘why?’ or ‘why them?’ In today’s Gospel, Jesus addresses a recent violent event involving the deaths of some Galileans who were slaughtered by Roman troops under Pilate’s command. What’s more, it appears that the slaughter took place while those Galilean Jews were offering sacrifices to God. Equally tragic was the collapse of a tower that killed eighteen people. The pool of Siloam was in Jerusalem, and was surrounded by towers. The victims of this collapse were, presumably Jews.
It seems that some people at the time were saying that this was a punishment of God on these people for moral wrongs they had done. Jesus disagrees. “Do you think they were guiltier than anyone else who lived in Jerusalem?” Jesus asks “Certainly not!” he asserts.
In fact, he says, his hearers will all meet a similar fate unless they change their ways. The sins of the victims were not the cause of their death but they are certainly warnings to the rest of us to see if we are ready for such an eventuality.
Jesus then goes on to illustrate this meaning with a parable of a fig tree. In a sense the people he has been talking to are like fig trees that have not borne fruit. The three years mentioned in the story may refer to the length of Jesus’ own ministry. However, they still have a chance to turn their lives around, a chance which was not given to those who had died in those two incidents.
We too are being given a chance – a day? A month? Several years? We have no idea. What is clear is that there is no time to waste; we have to start today. For God, the past is not what counts or the future but only the present. As long as I am with him now I have nothing to worry about.
Prayer: Lord help me to make good use of an opportunity while I have the chance to renew my life. Amen.
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©2013-2020 ©FurKat, FurahayaKikatoliki: see www.fur-kat.blogspot.com.
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