{"id":3555,"date":"2016-01-10T10:05:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T15:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3555"},"modified":"2016-01-09T12:43:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T17:43:02","slug":"reflections-on-the-scriptural-readings-for-this-weekend-20160110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3555","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for This Weekend — 20160110"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Theophany\"<\/a>On this weekend after the glorious and great feast of, our scripture readings are taken from Paul\u2019s Letter to the Ephesians and the Gospel of Matthew. I think that one has to truly pause and reflect upon these two readings in order to receive a unified message.<\/p>\n

In Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians, he suggests that the goal of the Church is to provide the support needed to \u201cbuild up the body of Christ\u201d in such a way that all members may become \u201cone in faith and in the knowledge of God\u2019s Son\u201d. He then continues by saying: \u201clet us profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head\u201d since it is only through the support of Christ that members can be firmly joined together.<\/p>\n

In Matthew\u2019s Gospel there is a recounting of the beginning of Jesus\u2019 ministry. Jesus continues the theme that John the Baptizer proclaimed: \u201cReform your lives! The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coupled with this statement of the theme of Jesus\u2019 ministry, Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah suggesting that Jesus proclaimed the message that brought \u201clight\u201d or understanding to a \u201cpeople living in darkness.\u201d He\u00a0\u00a0 further quotes the words of Isaiah by saying that \u201con those who inhabit a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.\u201d Jesus brought to mankind a way of understanding and thinking about life that shredded the darkness of ignorance. His message shone the \u201clight of knowledge\u201d on the mystery of the meaning and purpose of life. It is this knowledge – this way of looking\u00a0\u00a0 at life – that has brought salvation to all those who embrace the Jesus way of thinking. This doesn\u2019t mean, however, that God has chosen only one way for mankind to come to the truth about human life. It is the way, however, that life has chosen to reveal to us the truth about life.<\/p>\n

Again it is important that we realize that God has chosen to work in many different ways. For me personally, the gift of faith and belief in Jesus Christ is a precious gift. It makes much more sense, to me, than other ways. Therefore I am deeply thankful to God for having shared this approach with me.<\/p>\n

I believe that this is the approach we must adopt. Belief in Jesus Christ IS a gift. Just as in the time of Jesus, some were able to believe and others were not. Belief in a God Who came into the world to provide us with an\u00a0\u00a0 insight into the meaning and purpose of life is a GIFT. The only response is to be thankful for the gift. This gift really doesn\u2019t say that He loves us more but confirms that He does love us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this weekend after the glorious and great feast of, our scripture readings are taken from Paul\u2019s Letter to the Ephesians and the Gospel of Matthew. I think that one has to truly pause and reflect upon these two readings … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-liturgy-of-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3560,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions\/3560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}