7 March 2024 - Only By Grace Reflections
#OnlyByGraceReflections #CFC #CouplesforChrist #FeastoftheChairofStPeter
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TOPIC: AM I BEARING FRUIT OR AM I SIMPLY WASTING THE SOIL LIKE THE BARREN FIG TREE?
First Reading: Jeremiah 7: 23-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Verse Before the Gospel: Joel 2: 12-13
Gospel: Luke 11: 14-23
The readings for today depict the history of God’s desire to form a people who will follow him. And two things stand out: God’s faithful love and man’s ungrateful response. Jeremiah’s prophecy captures man’s ungratefulness when he said, “They obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” (Jeremiah 7:24) Jesus also encounters this hardness of heart in the Gospel when he drove out a demon from a mute man. Some of the onlookers blinded by pride and jealousy even accused him as an agent of the devil.
Hardness of heart is not just the problem of the Israelites of old nor the Pharisees in Jesus’s time but ours as well today. We are not an easy flock to shepherd. That is why we need the grace of Lent, for our hearts are in need of continual softening and transformation.
Therefore, we need to face the challenge that the Lord gives to us today, “Whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Luke 11:23) And the lives of Sts. Louis and Zelie is a good example of a couple who had their hearts fixed on Jesus and were ever faithful in following him.
My dear brothers and sisters, let us reflect deeply on these questions: “Am I with the Lord or against him? Am I bearing fruit or am I simply wasting the soil like the barren fig tree?”
This is the 1410th installment of our CFC contemplation series focusing on the daily liturgical readings.
[NOTE: As we continue to pray for Bro
