Bible
Study: Galatians 2, 1 to 14 and Luke 11, 1 to 4.
It is
surprising to note that Jesus Christ gave the apostles a mandate in Matthew 28,
19 to 20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything that I have commanded you….” Yet, it needed a person like
Paul to seriously challenge the apostles before the mandate would be fully
obeyed.
Paul was
such fearless and straightforward person. He was not afraid to challenge the
Pope about his hypocrisy and not just that he had to do it in Public before the
very presence of the people. Of course, Pope Peter was being a hypocrite,
associating with the Gentiles in secret and then giving them distance in public.
And Paul had to speak up.
The
behaviour of Peter is very much like that of many Christians today who maintain
a public persona of holiness but become something else when nobody is watching.
For Paul, such an attitude does not help in converting anybody to the faith.
We must be
real. Pretence is a virus that we need to delete out of our lives.
And we
must be bold enough to correct our leaders. This is itself a ministry of its
own which can only be handled by certain persons called for this purpose. They
say it is only your friend who would tell you that your mouth is smelling.
I can only
imagine how difficult it would be correcting those in high authority, how much
more the Pope himself. Kudos to the divine grace that worked in St. Paul. We
need to pray for more people like Paul in the Church today; people who are not
afraid to say the truth. If not for Paul, who knows if the Gospel would have
ever crossed the Mediterranean.
On the
request of his apostles, Jesus taught us how to pray the “Our Father”. Jesus
did not just teach them to pray this particular prayer, he taught them how to
structure all their prayers. The basic structure of the “Our father” contains
four parts and these four parts are necessary in any prayer we say. They are:
1.
Adoration.
2.
Contrition.
3.
Thanksgiving.
4.
Supplication/Petition.
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, give me courage to be real and say the truth at all times. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.
Fr. Abu
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