Bible
Study: Philippians 2, 1 to 4 and Luke 14,
12 to 14.
Have you noticed that food tastes differently when eaten alone? Do you
sometimes ask yourself why the same amount of food when shared with others
fills your stomach faster than when you eat alone? Are you surprised at this
saying that: “When you want to walk FAST, then walk ALONE, but if you want to
walk FAR, then walk with SOMEBODY.”
However, the great economist Adam Smith once said: “self-interest is the
first law of nature.” As much as we know the importance of looking out for the
interests of others over that of ours, in practice, we only think of others
when we stand to gain something in return from them.
Jesus went to the house of a leading Pharisee to eat but upon noticing
the caliber of people who had been invited, he said to his host: “When you give
a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your
relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you
would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay
you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
How difficult it is for us invite poor people to our celebrations? Or
those who do not have what it takes to invite us in return. How difficult it is
for us to stretch out a helping hand to people who may never help us in the future?
Christianity is not about living a normal life, it is actually about being a
super-human; it is about going beyond what everybody will do; it is about
helping people you stand to gain nothing from.
The challenge is set before us today to go out and be GOOD. The world is
a small village. We can make the world a better place to live if we live
according to the principle of helping one another.
As St. Paul says to the Philippians, chapter 2, 1 to 4: “If then there is any encouragement in
Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion
and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love,
being in full accord and of one mind. DO NOTHING FROM SELFISH AMBITION OR
CONCEIT, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of
you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
Let us pray: Lord, cleanse my heart from all forms of selfishness
knowingly and unknowingly. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. Happy new
week.
Fr. Abu
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