Author: admin

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Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18

The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

    “Fear not, Abram!
        I am your shield;
        I will make your reward very great.”

But Abram said,
“O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,
if I keep on being childless
and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?”
Abram continued,
“See, you have given me no offspring,
and so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him:
“No, that one shall not be your heir;
your own issue shall be your heir.”
He took him outside and said:
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

He then said to him,
“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as a possession.”
“O Lord GOD,” he asked,
“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
He answered him,
“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,
a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut up.
Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,
but Abram stayed with them.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,
and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates.”

The Word of the Lord.

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All week our first reading has come from the Book of Genesis, as we witness the faith journey of Abraham. He’s an old man now and his wife, Sarah, has borne no children.

So, Abraham grumbles before God, saying, “What good will your gifts be, if I keep on being childless?”

It seems Abraham’s on the brink of despair. God has made an impossible promise: to bless his descendants, something that cannot happen if Abraham has no children.

“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can,” the Lord says to him today. “Just so, shall your descendants be.”

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Strangely, God tells Abraham to look up and count the stars in the middle of the day. 

It seems cruel. Although Abraham knows the stars exist, he cannot see them now. God is inviting him to trust. If the Lord has worked wonders before, then why would he not work wonders again?

Before he dies, Abraham has eight sons. Today more than half of the world’s population – over 4 billion people – call Abraham their father in faith. 

His descendants as numberless as the stars, as God foretold.

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Like Abraham, do I feel insecure about my future, as if I cannot see the stars? 

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In those moments, the same God who blessed Abraham is inviting us to trust. Pray until “dusk.”

Then, God’s plans will be revealed.

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Image credits: (1) iStock (2) Adobe Stock (3) BBC Sky at Night Magazine

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Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?”
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born… and the day you know why.”

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In today’s Gospel, we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. From the moment of his birth, people were wondering, “Why was this child born? What will he become?”

They intuit John will do something great for God, simply because of the circumstances that surround his birth.

First, Zechariah was struck mute by the angel Gabriel in the Temple; then Elizabeth miraculously conceives this child in her old age; finally, the boy is not named after his father. 

Instead, his name is John.

In Hebrew, Jehohanan – or “John” – means, “God has been gracious.” After praying for their entire adult lives to have a child, God gives Elizabeth and Zechariah a son, whose mission will be to prepare the way of the Lord. 

Certainly, God has been gracious.

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John reminds us that we all have a “why,” a reason for our lives given to us by God. My mother used to say, her “why” was simply becoming a mom, much like Elizabeth and Mary.

My “why” has been serving God and his people as a priest. 

What is your “why”?

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Perhaps the answer changes, even simplifies, over time. 

But we can all be sure of this: the same Lord who breathed air into our lungs at birth also gives us a purpose – not only in the grand scheme of things – but also in the little tasks we are called to do each day.

May we discover his will – and do it joyfully today. 

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

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Image credits: (1) Your Daily Cup of Inspiration (2) Adobe Stock (3) Daily Word, Terry Gillespie

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Gospel: Matthew 7: 1-5

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Sight is a curious thing. 

Eyes allow us to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation – the glow of sunrise, the twinkle of the stars at night, the blue of water, the face of our beloved. 

But it can also be misused to judge and criticize the imperfections of other people without noticing our own.

This is the irony of the eye. 

It cannot see itself. Nor can it look inward. Eyes can only look outward, allowing us to see one of two possibilities: beauty or imperfection. 

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Which of the two do I tend to focus on? 

In particular, what do I see when I look upon other people, either beauty or imperfection?

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No one is perfect.

“All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God,” Saint Paul says. 

Sometimes it is right and necessary to correct a friend, a neighbor, or a colleague who has done wrong.

But before criticizing someone else, the Lord commands us to take a hard look within, making sure that we are not guilty of the same offense – or a greater one – lest we be hypocrites.

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Perhaps today we can set our tendency to notice imperfections aside and focus on what always surrounds us: the glow of sunrise, the twinkle of the stars at night, the blue of water, the face of our beloved.

The beauty of the earth.

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Image credits: (1) Auckland Eye (2) Fountains of Life (3) Pinterest