Tuesday, June 27, 2017 12th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Gen 13:2,5-18 Gospel: Matthew 7:6,12-14
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or throw your pearls to the pigs: they might trample on them and even turn on you and tear you to pieces.
“So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there you have the Law and the Prophets.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many go that way. How narrow is the gate that leads to life and how rough the road; few there are who find it.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
A joke is told of a man who was grumbling about the young generation when he got to the house after attending Mass. That was because he saw a teenage girl reaching into her pocket during the homily and lighted a cigarette. He told his wife: “I was so shocked seeing the manners of the girl that I almost dropped my bottle of beer!”
The appeal of Jesus in today’s Gospel not to give what is holy to dogs is our chance to reexamine our attitude towards the Sacraments. We have lost the sense of the sacred. Take communion time as example. Now that we can receive the Lord by our hands, we should receive the Lord, at least with clean hands. Instead, many of us receive the Lord with numbers scribbled on their palms, and with untrimmed fingernails pregnant with dirt.
The signs that we are touched by the presence of Christ are disappearing. The priests are guilty too. Becoming a commodity, Holy Masses are celebrated anywhere, even inside shopping malls. And look at the reaction of people as such Masses are celebrated at the mall corridors. They do not even make the sign of the cross as a show of respect.
Today’s Gospel invites us to have a second look at how blessed we are with the Sacraments available to us. No matter how lovable dogs are, and no matter how we have come to this age of treating dogs like humans, dogs will never deserve the sacraments. “Do not give what is holy to dogs”. But as the saying goes, we won’t really appreciate the water until the well runs dry. We take for granted what is readily available and panic when these become scarce. Just as we will never appreciate health until we are bed ridden, we will never really appreciate the Sacraments until we are deprived of the freedom to practice religion.
While we still have the freedom to practice our faith, and while the sacraments are still available for us, let us show deep reverence for them and avail of them as children longing to be united with the Father who is in heaven. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/ name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.